MF Broadcom Ca7 Rest API Wp101
MF Broadcom Ca7 Rest API Wp101
White Paper
Broadcom CA7-REST-API-WP101
October 18, 2024
CA 7 REST APIs White Paper A Comprehensive Guide to Streamlining Workload Automation
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CA 7 REST APIs White Paper A Comprehensive Guide to Streamlining Workload Automation
Table of Contents
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CA 7 REST APIs White Paper A Comprehensive Guide to Streamlining Workload Automation
Chapter 1: Introduction
In today's dynamic IT environment, efficient workload management is crucial. CA 7™ Workload Automation Intelligence
offers a powerful REST API capability that allows you to seamlessly integrate and manage workloads through custom
applications or popular workflow and ticketing systems.
Integrating the CA 7 REST API with your applications provides a powerful toolset to efficiently automate and manage
workloads. Optimize workflow automation and achieve seamless operations by understanding and implementing the various
API categories, ensuring robust security measures, and handling technical nuances like terminal resource management and
transaction key usage. The ability to manage jobs, datasets, resources, and Agents, coupled with secure and reliable API
interactions, empowers you to create more resilient and efficient automation solutions. Embrace these capabilities to
enhance your workload automation strategy and drive better business outcomes.
CA 7 REST APIs are versatile like Lego blocks—you can combine and configure them in different ways to automate a wide
range of CA 7-related use cases. Popular use cases include the following:
Incident Management
– GUI-based approach: Use ServiceNow forms and workflows, or other no-coding/low-coding tools, to build a
lightweight GUI powered by CA 7 REST APIs for your teams, enabling them to schedule existing jobs or define new
jobs.
– Jobs-as-Code approach: This approach fully automates the scheduling process. Jobs are defined in a YAML or
JSON configuration file that can be versioned and rolled back if needed. The configuration file moves in the CICD
pipeline like any other piece of code, and finally, the jobs are created or scheduled using CA 7 REST APIs.
Monitoring
– Monitor job execution events using either the CA 7 REST APIs or OpenTelemetry-based integration on the platform
of your choice.
This document explores the CA 7 REST API from several different perspectives:
Key features, getting started, and exploring with Swagger
Technical nuances of using the APIs to optimize operations and resource efficiency
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The CA 7 REST API Server can be installed on Windows, zLinux/Linux, and UNIX System Services (USS). A CA 7 REST
API Server may be installed for each CA 7 instance, or a single CA 7 REST API Server may be configured to communicate
with multiple CA 7 instances.
With Swagger, APIs are organized into categories that allow you to quickly find the APIs you are looking for. Each category
can be expanded to show the APIs related to that category, and each API can be expanded to show detailed information
and usage instructions.
One of Swagger's most powerful features is Try it Out, which allows you to invoke an API to understand how it works. This
interactive feature is invaluable for developers looking to test and understand API functionality in a real-world context.
Moreover, Swagger documentation is available offline, so you can see which API functions are available even before you
install the REST API.
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Swagger also displays sample responses that the application can expect to receive:
A code 200 with a response body is returned if the request is successful.
A code 400 with a response body containing an error message is returned if the request fails.
In this example, the request body has been specified to include only the required demand property: job name.
When you click the Execute button, Swagger sends the request to the CA 7 REST API.
In the responses section, a sample Curl command contains all the information needed to invoke the API. This helps you
understand how the application should construct the request.
Then you see the actual response from the REST API. The request was successful in this example, as shown by the 200
return code.
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3.1 CA 7 Instances
The REST API CA 7 Instances category contains APIs that allow you to maintain definition properties for the default CA 7
instance and any additional CA 7 instances you want to access. Security calls restrict these APIs to administrative users.
The CA 7 REST API can interact with one or more instances of CA 7. The following properties for the default instance are
specified when the REST API is installed:
Connection information for the CA 7 instance
Connection information for the Datacom server
Security settings
Timeout values
During installation, you can only configure one instance, the DEFAULT_INSTANCE. Additional CA 7 instances may be
configured after installation using the ca7-instance endpoints category of REST APIs.
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3.3 Datasets
This category contains APIs that allow you to maintain CA 7 datasets, including the following:
The dataset definition itself
Trigger definitions
Figure 6: Datasets
3.4 Resources
This category contains APIs that allow you to maintain resource count resources.
Figure 7: Resources
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3.5 Commands
The Commands category contains APIs that issue some common commands to CA 7 to manage the workload, and includes
the following:
Demand: Bring a job into the workload.
These APIs provide flexibility to manage a workload dynamically by issuing essential commands directly through the CA 7
REST API.
In addition to commands, the Job Instances and Job History categories round out the management of jobs in the active
workload.
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Retrieve detailed information about the Agent, the Agent’s parameters, and log files from the Agent.
Take control of Agents to update the parameters and stop-start the Agent.
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Integrating the CA 7 REST APIs involves implementing business logic that aligns with specific requirements. This could
include the following:
Automating job scheduling and execution
By embedding this business logic within your applications, you can create seamless workflows that reduce manual
intervention and increase reliability.
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There is a one-for-one relationship between the functionality in Agent Manager and the Agent Management APIs made
available by the CA 7 REST API. Here’s how Agent Manager utilizes these APIs:
Retrieve the List of Agents: When Agent Manager produces the list of Agents, it uses the Agent list API to retrieve the
list. This allows users to see all the Agents defined to a CA 7 instance, along with their versions and statuses.
Display Detailed Information about an Agent: When displaying detailed information about an Agent, the Agent
Manager uses the Agent details API to retrieve the necessary details. This includes information about the Agent’s
parameters, log files, and other specifics.
Update Agent Parameters: If users need to update an Agent’s parameters, Agent Manager interacts with the relevant
API to make those changes seamlessly.
Manage Agent Operations: The Agent Manager uses corresponding API calls to control actions such as stopping and
starting an Agent, ensuring that the Agents are managed efficiently and effectively.
By leveraging the CA 7 REST API, Agent Manager can provide comprehensive monitoring and management capabilities
that align directly with the API functionalities.
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For detailed instructions and additional security measures, refer to the following documentation topics:
Secure the CA 7 REST API
Implementing Endpoint Authorization
Ensuring these security measures are in place will help protect data and maintain the reliability of CA 7 REST API
integrations.
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Implementing this strategy helps maximize CA 7 terminal resources, ensuring workload automation processes run smoothly
and efficiently:
Bundle a Set of API Requests: By bundling a set of API requests, you can perform multiple operations within a single
transaction, reducing the system's load
Use a Single CA 7 REST Terminal: When you bundle API requests, they use a single CA 7 REST terminal. This
approach minimizes the number of terminals needed for operations, conserving resources.
API Requests Made One by One: Although the requests are bundled, they are executed one by one within the batch.
This ensures that each operation is processed sequentially, maintaining the integrity and order of the tasks.
Useful for Bulk Operations: Bundling is particularly useful for bulk operations, where multiple tasks need to be
performed in a single execution cycle. This approach can significantly reduce overhead and improve efficiency.
IMPORTANT: Do NOT include the following in the payload of the BATCH service. Including services such as these in the
payload of a BATCH invocation may lead to unintended results:
Services invoked with GET
Retrieve a Unique Transaction Key: The Transaction Key API allows you to retrieve a unique transaction key. This
key serves as a unique identifier for the command, ensuring that it is recognized and processed correctly by CA 7.
Valid for 60 Minutes: The transaction key is valid for 60 minutes, providing a sufficient window to complete operations
without frequently requesting a new key.
Allows Command Idempotence: Using the transaction key ensures command idempotence. This means that even if
the same command is issued multiple times, it will be processed only once, preventing duplicate operations and
maintaining data integrity.
Useful for One-Time Commands: This API is handy when a command must be issued only once. For instance, a
DEMAND command can leverage this key to ensure they are not executed more than once.
By incorporating the Transaction Key API into the workflow, you can enhance the reliability and control of CA 7 REST API
interactions, ensuring that critical commands are executed accurately and efficiently.
The following sections detail scenarios with and without the Transaction API end point.
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The diagram illustrates issuing a DEMAND command without a transaction key. The application sends a POST request to
the CA 7 REST API to demand job A. The CA 7 REST API forwards this command to CA 7, which then performs the demand
operation. The CA 7 REST API receives the response and relays it back to the application, resulting in an HTTP 200 success
code.
Figure 17 demonstrates a scenario where a DEMAND command without a transaction key fails.
The application sends a POST request to the CA 7 REST API to demand job A. The CA 7 REST API forwards this command
to CA 7, which attempts to perform the demand operation. Despite the API responding with an HTTP 200 success code, the
actual demand operation fails.
In such cases, simply reissuing the API request might not be feasible due to the risk of duplicating commands or other
underlying issues that caused the initial failure. Using transaction keys for critical commands ensures that the operation is
processed correctly and prevents duplicate actions, maintaining the integrity of your workload management.
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CA 7 REST APIs White Paper A Comprehensive Guide to Streamlining Workload Automation
Using a transaction key ensures that critical commands are executed only once, preventing duplicates and maintaining the
operation's integrity.
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Figure 19 illustrates a scenario where a DEMAND command using a transaction key fails.
This scenario highlights the importance of handling and verifying responses correctly within your application. Even if the CA
7 REST API successfully processes the command, application-level errors can still occur. The use of transaction keys
ensures that critical commands are not duplicated and maintains the integrity of operations.
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This retry mechanism ensures that the demand command is not duplicated, maintaining the integrity of operations. Using
transaction keys allows the application to handle retries gracefully, providing reliability and preventing unnecessary actions.
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