Introduction to SonicOS API

08/17/2022 90 People found this article helpful 467,288 Views

Description

SonicOS API provides an alternative to the SonicOS Command Line Interface (CLI) for configuring various functions.
SonicOS API is enabled by default in SonicOS 7.0 and SonicOSX where as disabled on SonicOS.
This KB explains how SonicOS API can be enabled, Supported Request Methods, Supported HTTP Headers, Supported HTTP MIME Types, Status and Error Representation, Client authentication, List of applicable APIs and various tools that can be used to make these API Calls.

Resolution

Resolution for SonicOS 7.X

This release includes significant user interface changes and many new features that are different from the SonicOS 6.5 and earlier firmware. The below resolution is for customers using SonicOS 7.X firmware.

SonicOS API is enabled by default in SonicOS 7.0 and SonicOSX. The required authentication method can be selected from the interface.
From the GUI,

Navigate to Device | Settings | Administration | Audit/SonicOS API
Click on the toggle switch for CHAP authentication or RFC-2617 HTTP Basic Access authentication. Other advanced authentication mechanisms can also be enabled on the same page.

NOTE: The client would need to be set appropriately to authenticate based on this setting.
Click on Accept.

Supported Request Methods:

SonicOS API utilizes four of the methods defined in the HTTP protocol (RFC 7231 and RFC 5789) to create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) resources.

Supported HTTP request methods:

HTTP method	Description
GET	Retrieves the specified resource or collection of resources. GET is a read-only operation that does not alter appliance state or configuration. A GET operation should not contain a request body.
POST	Submits data to be processed by the specified resource or collection of resources. In most cases, the POST verb is used by SonicOS APIs to create and add a resource to a collection of resources (for example, add a new MAC address object to the collection of objects).
PUT	Updates the specified resource. The data included in the PUT request body replaces the previous configuration.
DELETE	Deletes the specified resource or collection of resources.

Supported HTTP header request and response formats:

Type	Example
Text/plain	GET /api/sonicos/address-objects/mac Accept: text/plain
Application/JSON	POST /api/sonicos/address-objects/mac Content-type: application/json Accept: application/json { "address_object": { "mac": { "name": "001122334455" ,"address": "001122334455" ,"multi_homed": true ,"zone": "LAN" } } }

Supported HTTP headers:

Content type: Specifies the format (MIME type) of the request body (input).
Accept: Specifies the format of the response body (output).

Supported HTTP MIME Types:
SonicOS supports these HTTP MIME types:

Text/plain
Application/JSON

These HTTP headers define the request and response format:

Content‐type – Specifies the format (MIME type) of the request body (input)
Accept – Specifies the format of the response body (output)

Status and Error Representation:

All plain text output from the last backend CLI command executed is captured and returned back to the client. If the command executed was not a show command and the requested operation succeeded, then the response body is empty. This is consistent with the CLI when executing a command via SSH or the serial console in that status is only rendered to the console upon error.
A JSON status object is guaranteed to be returned in the response body when performing a POST, PUT, or DELETE operation or upon error(s) encountered when processing a request.

HTTP Status Codes:

Code	Status Text	Description
200	OK	The request succeeded.
400	Bad Request	Request An invalid request was submitted. Verify that the request URI is correct and that the request body is as expected.
401	Not Authorized	The user is unauthenticated or lacks the required privileges for the operation requested.
403	Forbidden	The request was understood by the server but denied. The response body notes the reason why the request was denied.
404	Not Found	The resource specified was not found.
405	Method Not Allowed	The HTTP verb specified is not allowed or supported by the resource specified.
406	Not Acceptable	The MIME type specified in the HTTP Content-type and/or Accept header is not supported.
413	Request body too large	The maximum size of the request body was exceeded.
414	Request URL too long	The requested URL exceeded the maximum size allowed or contains extra/unknown parameters (directories).
500	Internal Server Error	The request failed due to an internal server error. The response body should note the reason why the request failed.
503	No resources	The maximum number of sessions was exceeded.

Application/JSON Schema structure and Attributes:

Schema Structure:

{
"status": {
"success": {boolean}
,"cli": {
"depth": {number}
,"mode": "{string}"
,"command": "{string}"
,"configuring": {boolean}
,"pending_config": {boolean}
,"restart_required": "{string}"
}
,"info": [
{ "level": "{string}", "code": "{string}", "message": "{string}" }
...
]
}
}

Schema Attributes:

Attribute	Type	Description
status	object	Status object.
status.success	boolean (true\|false)	Boolean success flag. Refer to the status.info array for more detailed information as to what caused the error if the success flag is false.
status.cli	object	CLI status. Note: This attribute is included only when an API sent one or more commands to the CLI backend.
status.cli.depth	number (uint8)	Current mode depth of the CLI: • 0 = top‐level mode • >= 1 config mode
status.cli.mode	string	Name of the current mode.
status.cli.command	string	Command last executed. NOTE: This attribute is only included upon command error(s).
status.cli.configuring	boolean (true\|false)	Boolean configuring flag. Should always be true upon one or more consecutive POST, PUT or DELETE API calls that modify the configuration.
status.cli.pending_config	boolean (true\|false)	Boolean pending config flag. Should always be true upon one or more consecutive POST, PUT or DELETE API calls that modify the configuration. This flag should be cleared once any/all pending changes are committed (saved).
status.cli.restart_required	string	Appliance restart status. To take effect, some configuration changes require an appliance restart. These values indicate the type of restart needed: • NONE • APPLIANCE • CHASSIS • CHASSIS_SHUTDOWN • ALL_BLADES
status.info	array	Informational message(s).
status.info.level	string	Status level: info, warning, error.
status.info.code	string	Status code. If success, E_OK is returned, else E_{XXX} where XXX = error code.
status.info.message	string	Status message.

Client Authentication:

SonicOS API offers the following mechanisms for client authentication:

HTTP Basic Authentication (RFC 2617)
Challenge‐Handshake Authentication (CHAP)
Public Key authentication
Session security using RFC-7616 Digest authentication
Two-Factor and Bearer Token Authentication

Regardless of the authentication mechanism used, only:

A single administrator can manage (modify configuration) at any given time. This remains true regardless of where an admin logged in (web management UI, CLI, GMS, or SonicOS API).
Users with full admin privileges are allowed to access SonicOS API.
A single SonicOS API session is currently allowed.

List of applicable APIs:

From the GUI, navigate to Home | API and click on the link https://SonicOS-api.sonicwall.com. Swagger will prepopulate it to give you a list of applicable APIs.

Tools that can be used to make API calls:

The following can be used on Windows or MAC devices:

Postman
Insomnia
Git Bash
Swagger

For Linux platforms, Curl can be used which is available by default.

Resolution for SonicOS 6.5

This release includes significant user interface changes and many new features that are different from the SonicOS 6.2 and earlier firmware. The below resolution is for customers using SonicOS 6.5 firmware.

SonicOS API is disabled by default in SonicOS. Any attempts to access SonicOS API while it is disabled results in an HTTP 403 Forbidden error. To use the SonicOS API, you must enable it, either through the SonicOS Management Interface or from the CLI.

From the GUI,

Navigate to MANAGE | Appliance | Base Settings and scroll down to SonicOS API section.
Enable the option 'Enable SonicOS API' and 'Enable RFC-2617 HTTP Basic Access authentication' option. Other advanced authentication mechanisms can also be enabled on the same page.

NOTE: The client would need to be set appropriately to authenticate based on this setting.
Click on Accept.

From the CLI, Starting at the config# prompt:

config()# administration

(config-administration)# sonicos-api

(config-sonicos-api)# basic

(config-sonicos-api)# commit

Supported Request Methods:

SonicOS API utilizes four of the methods defined in the HTTP protocol (RFC 7231 and RFC 5789) to create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) resources.

Supported HTTP request methods:

HTTP method	Description
GET	Retrieves the specified resource or collection of resources. GET is a read-only operation that does not alter appliance state or configuration. A GET operation should not contain a request body.
POST	Submits data to be processed by the specified resource or collection of resources. In most cases, the POST verb is used by SonicOS APIs to create and add a resource to a collection of resources (for example, add a new MAC address object to the collection of objects).
PUT	Updates the specified resource. The data included in the PUT request body replaces the previous configuration.
DELETE	Deletes the specified resource or collection of resources.

Supported HTTP header request and response formats:

Type	Example
Text/plain	GET /api/sonicos/address-objects/mac Accept: text/plain
Application/JSON	POST /api/sonicos/address-objects/mac Content-type: application/json Accept: application/json { "address_object": { "mac": { "name": "001122334455" ,"address": "001122334455" ,"multi_homed": true ,"zone": "LAN" } } }

Supported HTTP headers:

Content type: Specifies the format (MIME type) of the request body (input).
Accept: Specifies the format of the response body (output).

Supported HTTP MIME Types:
SonicOS supports these HTTP MIME types:

Text/plain
Application/JSON

These HTTP headers define the request and response format:

Content‐type – Specifies the format (MIME type) of the request body (input)
Accept – Specifies the format of the response body (output)

Status and Error Representation:

All plain text output from the last backend CLI command executed is captured and returned back to the client. If the command executed was not a show command and the requested operation succeeded, then the response body is empty. This is consistent with the CLI when executing a command via SSH or the serial console in that status is only rendered to the console upon error.
A JSON status object is guaranteed to be returned in the response body when performing a POST, PUT, or DELETE operation or upon error(s) encountered when processing a request.

HTTP Status Codes:

Code	Status Text	Description
200	OK	The request succeeded.
400	Bad Request	Request An invalid request was submitted. Verify that the request URI is correct and that the request body is as expected.
401	Not Authorized	The user is unauthenticated or lacks the required privileges for the operation requested.
403	Forbidden	The request was understood by the server but denied. The response body notes the reason why the request was denied.
404	Not Found	The resource specified was not found.
405	Method Not Allowed	The HTTP verb specified is not allowed or supported by the resource specified.
406	Not Acceptable	The MIME type specified in the HTTP Content-type and/or Accept header is not supported.
413	Request body too large	The maximum size of the request body was exceeded.
414	Request URL too long	The requested URL exceeded the maximum size allowed or contains extra/unknown parameters (directories).
500	Internal Server Error	The request failed due to an internal server error. The response body should note the reason why the request failed.
503	No resources	The maximum number of sessions was exceeded.

Application/JSON Schema structure and Attributes:

Schema Structure:

{
"status": {
"success": {boolean}
,"cli": {
"depth": {number}
,"mode": "{string}"
,"command": "{string}"
,"configuring": {boolean}
,"pending_config": {boolean}
,"restart_required": "{string}"
}
,"info": [
{ "level": "{string}", "code": "{string}", "message": "{string}" }
...
]
}
}

Schema Attributes:

Attribute	Type	Description
status	object	Status object.
status.success	boolean (true\|false)	Boolean success flag. Refer to the status.info array for more detailed information as to what caused the error if the success flag is false.
status.cli	object	CLI status. Note: This attribute is included only when an API sent one or more commands to the CLI backend.
status.cli.depth	number (uint8)	Current mode depth of the CLI: • 0 = top‐level mode • >= 1 config mode
status.cli.mode	string	Name of the current mode.
status.cli.command	string	Command last executed. NOTE: This attribute is only included upon command error(s).
status.cli.configuring	boolean (true\|false)	Boolean configuring flag. Should always be true upon one or more consecutive POST, PUT or DELETE API calls that modify the configuration.
status.cli.pending_config	boolean (true\|false)	Boolean pending config flag. Should always be true upon one or more consecutive POST, PUT or DELETE API calls that modify the configuration. This flag should be cleared once any/all pending changes are committed (saved).
status.cli.restart_required	string	Appliance restart status. To take effect, some configuration changes require an appliance restart. These values indicate the type of restart needed: • NONE • APPLIANCE • CHASSIS • CHASSIS_SHUTDOWN • ALL_BLADES
status.info	array	Informational message(s).
status.info.level	string	Status level: info, warning, error.
status.info.code	string	Status code. If success, E_OK is returned, else E_{XXX} where XXX = error code.
status.info.message	string	Status message.

Client Authentication:

SonicOS API offers the following mechanisms for client authentication:

HTTP Basic Authentication (RFC 2617)
Challenge‐Handshake Authentication (CHAP)
Public Key authentication
Session security using RFC-7616 Digest authentication
Two-Factor and Bearer Token Authentication

Regardless of the authentication mechanism used, only:

A single administrator can manage (modify configuration) at any given time. This remains true regardless of where an admin logged in (web management UI, CLI, GMS, or SonicOS API).
Users with full admin privileges are allowed to access SonicOS API.
A single SonicOS API session is currently allowed.

List of applicable APIs:

From the GUI, navigate to MANAGE | API and click on the link https://SonicOS-api.sonicwall.com. Swagger will prepopulate your SonicWalls’s IP, MGMT Port, Firmware so it can give you a list of applicable APIs.

Tools that can be used to make API calls:

The following can be used on Windows or MAC devices:

Postman
Insomnia
Git Bash
Swagger

For Linux platforms, Curl can be used which is available by default.

See also:

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Introduction to SonicOS API

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Resolution

Resolution for SonicOS 7.X

Resolution for SonicOS 6.5

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