VMware Aria Operations API REST Requests

To retrieve object representations, clients make HTTP requests to object references.

Security

The HTTP link between an API client and server is established using SSL. API clients configure token-based authentication to communicate with the server.

A block diagram showing how protected endpoints are accessed with valid credentials. — Figure 1. Scenario: Provide user credentials to obtain details about alert with ID 123

With token-based authentication, you POST a login request to the VMware Aria Operations API server, supplying valid user credentials to obtain an authentication token. The following example presents a token-based authentication scenario.

You obtain valid user credentials for your VMware Aria Operations instance. This is applicable for non-SSO authenticaton.
POST a request to the REST endpoint for authentication.
```
https://RESTendpoint.example.com/suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire
```
The request body includes the user name, password, and authentication source.
In the response body, the endpoint returns the token, expiry date, and time.
For further communication, you include the token object in the Authorization header with the format :
```
Authorization: OpsToken <vROps_token>
```
Note: The old format,
```
Authorization: vRealizeOpsToken <vROps_token>
```
continues to be supported in VMware Aria Operations.
If you acquired the token externally from an SSO source (without using /suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire API), the Authorization header is of the format:
```
Authorization: SSO2Token <SSO_SAML_TOKEN>
```
You can invalidate the token before the expiration date and time by sending a POST request to the logout endpoint.
```
POST https://RESTendpoint.example.com/suite-api/api/auth/token/release
```

Request Headers

The following HTTP headers are typically included in API requests:

Accept-Language	To specify the language desired in responses, use the `Accept-Language` request header. Message strings in ErrorType responses are localized. To request a response with message strings localized to French, use the following header: Accept-Language: fr-FR
Authorization	All requests to create an API session must include an `Authorization` header of the form prescribed by the identity provider that your organization uses
Content-Type	Requests that include a body must include an appropriate HTTP `Content-Type` header. For a request body in XML, the header must include Content-Type: application/xml For a request body in JSON, the header must include Content-Type: application/json
Accept	To specify the desired response format , include the `Accept` request header. For a response in XML, the header must include Accept: application/xml For a response in JSON, the header must include Accept: application/json

Request Bodies in XML

For a request body written in XML, VMware Aria Operations uses a validating XML parser that requires elements in a request body to agree with the schema in order and number. Request bodies are rejected as invalid unless they meet the following criteria:

XML namespace attributes must be supplied for all namespaces represented by elements in the request.
If multiple namespaces are represented in the request, XML namespace attributes must include an identifying prefix, and that prefix must be used with all elements from that namespace.
All required elements must appear in request bodies. All elements that appear in request bodies must appear in the order that the schema establishes, and with content that conforms to the type constraint that the schema specifies.