Virtual Automation API Guide › About the Virtual Automation API › Virtual Automation API Overview

Virtual Automation API Overview

To use the virtual API, you invoke HTTP methods against resources, each of which has its own URI. The API uses the following HTTP methods:

• POST - creates a resource, supplying the resource parameters in a message body. You can use this method to deploy event collection for a virtual machine.
• GET - retrieves the current representation of a resource. You can use this method to get a list of tenants or information about a deployment.
• PUT - updates a resource, replacing the current resource representation with the one you supply in the message body. You can use this method to change existing event source credentials.
• DELETE - deletes a resource. You can use this method to halt event collection.

Provide a valid CA User Activity Reporting Module user and password, or certificate name and password, on each API call. Do this using HTTP Basic Authentication (the Authorization header).

For example, you could use the available methods to deploy and control event collection this way:

1. Deploy a connector and start event collection on a virtual machine by using POST to the fixed resource “/deploycollection”. POST creates a resource that represents your event source.

   This method returns a URI for the new resource.

2. Check the status of the event source, by using GET against the resource URI.
3. Remove the event source, if necessary, by using DELETE against the same URI.

Some resources support multiple HTTP methods, others support only one. The documentation for each identifies the supported methods.