VMware VCLOUD API 1.0 - API - Administrator Credentials and Privileges; Administrative Objects and Urls; Get an Administrative View of a Cloud

VMware, Inc. 93
Chapter 6 Administrative Operations
Administrator Credentials and Privileges
ThevCloudAPIdefinestwolevelsofadministrativeprivilege:
 Organizationadministrators,whohaveadministrativeprivilegesinaspecificorganization.
 Systemadministrators,whohavesuperuserprivilegesthroughoutthesystem.Systemadministratorscan
create,read,update,anddeleteallobjectsinavCloud,andhaveorganizationadministratorrightsinall
organizationsinavCloud,andcanoperatedirectlyonvSphereresourcestocreateandmodifyprovider
vDCs.
Someadministrativeoperations(andall
vSphereplatformoperations)arerestrictedtothesystem
administrator.Beforeattemptinganyoftheseoperations,logintotheSystemorganizationwiththeusername
andpasswordofthesystemadministratoraccountthatwascreatedwhenvCloudServiceDirectorwas
installed.Forexample,ifthesystemadministrator’snameandpasswordhad
beendefinedasadministrator
andPa55w0rd,thesystemadministratorlogincredentialswouldbetheMIMEBase64encodingofthestring
administrator@System:Pa55w0rd.
TheSystemorganizationiscreatedautomaticallywhenvCloudServiceDirectorisinstalled,andalwayshasa
URLoftheform
API‐URL/org/1.ItisnotlistedinanOrgList,butcanberetrievedwithanexplicitGET
request,asshowninExample 6‐1.
Example 6-1. The System Organization
Request:
GET http://vcloud.example.com/api/v1.0/org/1
Response:
200 OK
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.org+xml
...
<Org xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1" name="System" ...>
...
</Org>
Administrative Objects and URLs
ThevCloudAPIdefinesseveralobjectsthatareusedonlyinadministrativeoperations.Theseobjectsarelisted
inChapter 11,“AdministrativeAPIReference,”onpage 179.Some,likeUser,Group,andRoleareuniqueto
administrativeoperations.OthersextendcommonvCloudAPIobjectstoaddelementsandattributesthat
enableadministrativecontrol.
AnAdminOrg,forexample,supportstheadministrativeviewofanOrg,andan
AdminVdcdoesthesamethingforaVdc.
Get an Administrative View of a Cloud
Anadministratorcanaccessacloud‐widenamespaceofadministrativeobjectsatAPI‐URL/admin,where
API‐URLisaURLoftheformhttp://vcloud.example.com/api/v1.0.Theprimaryadministrativeobjectsina
vCloudincludeorganizations,providervDCs,rights,roles,andexternalnetworks.Eachobjecttypeis
representedinaVCloudelementby
zeroormorereferences,asillustratedinExample 6‐2.Asystem
administratorcanobtainmoreinformationaboutanyoftheseobjectsbymakingaGETrequesttotheobject
reference(thevalueofitshrefattribute).
ThevCloudresponsedocumentincludeslinksthatenableasystemadministratortoaddrolesand

organizations.Subordinateobjectssuchasusers,catalogs,andvDCs,arecontainedbyindividual
organizationsandarenotlistedatthislevel.Otherobjects,suchasrights,canbelistedbutcannotbemodified
usingthevCloudAPI.