4. Postman & RESTful API

Objective

Get the Postman tool ready to be used with the R81 Management API. Import the R81 Management API postman collection.

Instructions

Step

Instructions

1

Open the Postman Application that is installed on the Windows Jump Server in your lab environment.

Look for the Orange RocketMan:

2

Disregard any notice to upgrade or add a new collection.

3

First, we must disable SSL certification verification since our server is using a self-signed SSL certificate.

Find the gear icon in the top right and click it:

4

Select Settings and disable the SSL Certificate Verification.

Close the window after it is disabled.

5

Next click the eye on the top right and click add:

6

Click Add and use the following to create an environment – Click Add after the values are filled in :

  1. Environment Name: API Lab - Mgmt

Key

Value

server

https://203.0.113.80/web_api

session

 

7

Next click Save and exit out of the Manage Environments window.

8

Select the new Environment :

9

Import R81 Management Collection from the desktop:

  1. Click the import button on the top left of the screen.

  2. Click Upload Files.

  3. Use the file C:\Users\admin\Desktop\Automation\postman_collection_v2.1\R81-Web API (version 1.7).postman_collection

10

Click on the Collections tab on the left side of the screen to see the R81 Web API calls :

Objective

Use Postman to do a simple task with the R81 Management API.

Instructions

Step

Instructions

1

Use the filter at the top of the Postman application and type login into the filter area.

Alternately, open the first folder in the collection “01 Session Management”.

2

The selections should have changed to only items with login as part of their name.

3

Select login, a new tab is opened on the right for this function call. Click the Body

4

Change the credentials in the body to the following:

a. "user" : "api_user",

b. "password" : "vpn123",

c. "session-timeout" :3600

Make sure you keep the formatting JSON compliant.

5

Before we click Send,

review the {{server}} in the Post Path.

This matches our environment and is how Postman knows how to connect to the R81 management server at https://203.0.113.80/web_api

6

Now click the blue Send button.

7

At the bottom of the page, we have the results that were returned from the API server.

There are a number of items to look at:

  1. The session ID (sid)

  2. The status of the request (200)

8

Postman will automatically add the contents of the “sid” to the session environment variable we setup earlier.

Doing so allows us to run another command and reuse the same session.

9

Use the filter to find the add-host option in the Postman Collection.

10

Review the body of the message that is in the collection.

Change the name and IP address to something different if you prefer :

11

Hit the blue Send button and review the status and output from the API server.

12

Use the filter to find the publish option and publish your changes:

13

Use the filter to find the logout function and logout your session.