How to Deploy ONTAP Select Clusters Using REST Web Services
-
If only filing my taxes were this easy and transparent…
ONTAP Select is a software-only version of ONTAP implemented as a virtual machine running on the VMware ESXi and KVM hypervisors. With the flexibility provided by the virtualization technology, ONTAP Select offers several different implementation models and usage scenarios.
ONTAP Select Deploy is the companion administration utility to ONTAP Select. Select Deploy is packaged as a separate virtual machine and includes a RESTful web services API. You use the REST API, either directly or indirectly, to access the Deploy utility to create ONTAP Select clusters and perform related administrative tasks.
A RESTful Foundation
Representational State Transfer (REST) is a style for creating distributed web applications based on Roy Fielding’s PhD dissertation at UC Irvine in 2000. When applied to the design of a web services API, it establishes a set of technologies and best practices for exposing server-based resources and managing their states. REST has become the de facto standard for creating web services applications, eclipsing alternatives such as SOAP and the WS-* protocol stack.
While REST defines an architectural style, the details for each implementation can vary. The Deploy API uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the default for modern web applications. The resources maintained by each instance of Deploy are identified through a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which includes the location of the Deploy virtual machine in the network (domain name or IP address) along with an additional path string.
More details about the design characteristics of the Deploy REST API are described in the following table.
Single Uniform Interface to the Deploy Administration Utility
You can connect to the Deploy utility in several different ways based on your environment and deployment plans. All the access paths use the same RESTful web services API. The REST API provides a consistent interface to Deploy when creating ONTAP Select clusters.
The following figure illustrates how you can connect to the Deploy utility through the REST API. The Deploy native user interface is normally accessed through a web browser, although a text-based command line interface is also available. When using the CLI, the commands result in local API calls within the Deploy virtual machine. You can also access the API directly using a programming language or client utility. Any language able to act as a REST client can be used.
A Typical Request-Response API Transaction
Each API transaction consists of a single HTTP request from the client resulting in a response generated by the server. The following figure illustrates the request-response flow over the network when creating an initial cluster configuration.
When a cluster create request is received, the Deploy utility automatically generates a unique identifier for the cluster and nodes. The successful response, indicated by the 201 code, includes a location header with the identifier assigned to the new cluster.
ONTAP Select Deploy Online API Documentation
The ONTAP Select Deploy API documentation page provides a visual and easily accessible option when using the Deploy REST API. The page includes the details of each API call, such as input parameters, return codes, and output. You can also use the page to test and execute API calls.
Note: All API operations you perform using the Deploy documentation page are live operations. You should be careful not to mistakenly create, update, or delete configuration or other data.
Using a web browser, navigate to the Deploy documentation page with the following URL, substituting the domain name or IP address of your Deploy virtual machine:
https://<deploy_domain_name>/api/ui
After signing in using the administrator account, you can scroll to the bottom of the page to see the high-level categories of API calls. If you click Cluster and then GET /clusters/{cluster_id}, the call used to return information about an existing cluster is displayed.
How to get started now!
To get started with ONTAP Select and the Deploy REST API, you should review the NetApp ONTAP Select Resources page for guides, technical reports, videos, and other resources. There is a Deploy API guide containing more information about the Deploy API along with helpful coding samples. You can also download the Deploy administration utility from the NetApp Support Site to explore the Deploy API and create ONTAP Select clusters with an evaluation license. Please give us feedback and join the ONTAP community discussion
The post How to Deploy ONTAP Select Clusters Using REST Web Services appeared first on NetApp Blog.
https://blog.netapp.com/how-to-deploy-ontap-select-clusters-using-rest-web-services/
© Lightnetics 2024