Using the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM) API for vRSLCM Day 2 Operations - Managing Global DNS

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager vRSLCM API

Published on 1 December 2021 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 791. Reading Time: 4 mins.

In this post, we will look at how we can use the VMware vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM) API to complete Day 2 Operations for managing Global DNS servers in vRSLCM.

Within vRSLCM, we can optionally configure DNS Servers that can be shared across environments and product deployments. We are going to be using cURL to run API calls to complete the following operational tasks for managing global DNS servers:

View existing Global DNS Server(s)
Adding a Global DNS Server
Deleting a Global DNS Server

Note:
The REST API call for deleting DNS servers is a deprecated function.

This post is a part of a series that covers how we can install, configure and manage the vRealize Suite using the vRSLCM API.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites are required for this blog post:

vRSLCM 8.6.x (or above) has been deployed successfully within the environment.
vRSLCM local administrator (admin@local) credentials.
vCenter Administratior Account credentials have been added to vRSLCM Locker (see post Using the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM) API to manage Locker Credentials on how to do this with the API)

Walkthrough

View existing Global DNS Servers

Overview

Using the vRSLCM REST API, we can view the vRSLCM configuration to see if there are any existing DNS Servers configured for use with the Product deployments.

API Request

The following REST API request is required:

Request Type: GET
Request URL: https://{vrslcm.fqdn}/lcm/lcops/api/v2/settings/dns
Request Header(s):
- Accept: application/json
- Content-Type: application/json
- Authorization: Basic {admin@local credential hash}
Request Body Values:
- None

API Example

An example cURL command for this REST API is:

curl --location --request GET 'https://{vrslcm.fqdn}/lcm/lcops/api/v2/settings/dns' \
--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Basic {admin@local credential hash}'

Note:
The –insecure flag is also required if you are using self-signed SSL certificates.

API Response

The response returned from the REST API looks like this (when formatted in JSON):

[
    {
        "name": "cx-dc-01.thecloudxpert.local",
        "hostName": "172.16.10.51"
    }
]

As we can see, we currently have one existing Global DNS server configured and If we logged into vRSLCM using the UI (and navigate to Lifecycle Operations > Settings > DNS Servers), we would now see:

Let us go ahead and add another one!

Adding a Global DNS Server

Overview

In this section we are going to use the vRSLCM API to add another Global DNS Server.

API Request

The following REST API request is required:

Request Type: POST
Request URL: https://{vrslcm.fqdn}/lcm/lcops/api/v2/settings/dns
Request Header(s):
- Accept: application/json
- Content-Type: application/json
- Authorization: Basic {insert credential hash}
Request Body Values:
- hostName - the IP address of the DNS Server.
- name - the user friendly name of the DNS Server for the UI.

API Example

An example cURL command for this REST API is:

curl --location --request POST 'https://{vrslcm.fqdn}/lcm/lcops/api/v2/settings/dns' \
--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Basic {admin@local credential hash}' \
--data-raw '{
    "hostName": "172.16.10.51",
    "name": "cx-dc-02.thecloudxpert.local"
}'

Note:
The –insecure flag is also required if you are using self-signed SSL certificates.

API Response

The expected response returned from a successful request (Status Code=200) will be something like:

{
    "name": "cx-dc-02.thecloudxpert.local",
    "hostName": "172.16.10.52"
}

If we logged into vRSLCM using the UI (and navigate to Lifecycle Operations > Settings > DNS Servers), we would now see the following DNS servers configured:

Delete a Global DNS Server

Overview

Over time, there maybe cause to replace DNS Servers (or maybe someone just configured the wrong ones to start with). In this section we will look at the API call required to delete an existing Global DNS Server.

Note:
The v2 API to delete DNS Servers is deprecated. Hence we will be using the new v3 API!

API Request

The following REST API request is required:

Request Type: DELETE
Request URL: https://{vrslcm.fqdn}/lcm/lcops/api/v3/settings/dns?dnsHostname={dns.server}
- ntpHostname - hostname/ip address of the configured DNS server (represented by the hostName value in the GET request).
Request Header(s):
- Accept: application/json
- Content-Type: application/json
- Authorization: Basic {insert credential hash}
Request Body Values:
- None.

API Example

An example cURL command for this REST API is:

curl --location --request DELETE 'https://{vrslcm.fqdn}/lcm/lcops/api/v3/settings/dns?dnsHostname={dns.server}' \
--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Basic {admin@local credential hash}'

API Response

The expected response returned from a successful request (Status Code=200) will be something like:

{
    "name": "cx-dc-01.thecloudxpert.local",
    "hostName": "172.16.10.51"
}

If we logged into vRSLCM using the UI (and navigate to Lifecycle Operations > Settings > DNS Servers), we would now see a single DNS Server configured:

Once the request has completed successfully, we can then use another API call to view the vCenter Servers that belong to a vRSLCM datacenter object.

Wrapping It All Up!

In this short post we have explored the way we can manage Global DNS Servers in vRSLCM using the API.

If this API this snippet has been helpful, make sure you checkout the rest of the series !

Published on 1 December 2021 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 791. Reading Time: 4 mins.

Blog Categories: VMware vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager