Fault detection mechanisms are of major importance for network managers because it enables them to respond to systems failures, resolving or mitigating their effects. Given its importance, network and system management technologies included fault detection mechanisms. NETCONF is a new technology that includes monitoring facilities and defines a fault-detection mechanism by sending notifications. This paper documents the development of a NETCONF agent for link-state monitoring and analyses/evaluates the most important features and capabilities of this management protocol. Additionally it analyzes monitoring messages encoding performed by NETCONF technology and assess the overhead caused by gSOAP API