Administrator Guide

Dell Networking W-ClearPass Deployment Guide Using the W-ClearPass Configuration API | 199
Appendix B
Using the W-ClearPass Configuration API
This chapter includes the following information:
l W-ClearPass Configuration API Overview
l W-ClearPass Configuration API Methods
l W-ClearPass Configuration API Examples
l API Error Handling
l About the API Explorer
W-ClearPass Configuration API Overview
This section contains the following information:
l Introduction
l Admin Accounts for API Access
l XML Data Structure
l Filter Elements
l Advanced Match Operations
l Setting Up Bulk Access for Endpoints and Guest Accounts
Introduction
The W-ClearPass Configuration Application Programming Interface (API) is used to read and write a number of
configuration elements (known as Entities), either programmatically or by using a script.
The W-ClearPass Configuration API allows you to configure or modify the entities in W-ClearPass without
logging into the Admin user interface. For example, when you create a new user in the database, you may want
to create a guest user automatically. You can use the W-ClearPass Configuration API to automate this task.
The API is made available through an HTTP POST-based mechanism. The API request is in the form of an XML
snippet that is posted to a URL hosted by an administration server on the W-ClearPass Policy Manager server.
The API response received is also in the form of an XML snippet. Both the XML request and the XML response
are structurally defined in an XSD-format file.
Read, Write, and Delete operations are supported in the W-ClearPass Configuration API. These operations are
referred to as "methods." You can use these methods to perform the following name-list based operations:
l NameList. Returns the list of names for all objects created for an Entity type.
l Reorder. Receives a list of names of Entity type objects and applies the new order to the list of objects.
l Status Change. Retrieves the name-list of disabled and enabled entities of a specific type and changes the
status of the entities appropriately.
Every XML request must conform to the W-ClearPass Configuration API XML schema.
Admin Accounts for API Access
Only the configured Admin users can use API access. Rather than using the default admin user account, it is
recommended that you create a separate user for API access.