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sidebar |
concept_overview_API_service.html |
API services, access token, refresh token, API Catalog |
Provides an overview of the API services feature. |
Digital Advisor API Services uses automation to add efficiency to your workflows. Inside API Services resides the API Catalog, which describes over 100 different API endpoints that are grouped into 20+ different service areas. These APIs are available to you as a NetApp customer and they span different areas of interest, such as system information, storage efficiency, performance, health, and upgrades.
APIs are interfaces that enable you to write simple code that can contact Digital Advisor programmatically and bring back data into your compute environment. You can write code in such a way that it contacts Digital Advisor every day and brings back the latest data in the areas that are of interest to you. You can then use this data to populate your ticketing system or to create your own dashboards, webpages, or reports. The Digital Advisor API Catalog has both code samples and a facility for you to try out the APIs in the browser.
Automation with APIs is a great way to add efficiency and accuracy to daily or weekly tasks. It frees up your resources to perform more complex activities or to automate new workflows. For example, if you have system health risks that need to be fixed, you can automate at least the pullout of those items from Digital Advisor and the push into your ticketing system.
The toggle at the top of the page allows the user to switch between the two modes to view the Catalog. The Code view focuses on the input parameters needed, the content and format of the return data, and code samples to get the user started with putting code in place. The Experiment view offers the user a chance to “try out” the API in the browser using a generated token obtained from the main API Services page.
Either view allows the user to browse through available items using the navigation pane on the left. The items are organized by service in alphabetical order. Within a given service, you can expand the heading to show the individual API Endpoints. Clicking on the service heading or an API Endpoint will take you to that section of the Catalog in the middle pane.
Once you are authorized and can generate tokens, you can leverage the tokens to make programmatic queries and retrieve data. You can also test out an API from within the API Catalog to see first-hand how the query works and the type of data that is returned. This is a great way to make sure you understand how an API will work prior to building out the code framework in your system.