Infoblox offers a rich set of Web-based Application Programming Interfaces, also called WAPIs, that allow you to easily integrate NIOS into your automation environment. This blog gives you an insight on why to use these WAPIs.
To get you started quickly, we have attached a POSTMAN collection of the RESTful Infoblox APIs.
POSTMAN is a powerful HTTP client with cookie management, environment variables, and code generation that makes it easy to test, develop and document APIs. You can download the app from here or add it as an extension to Google Chrome.
Below is a screenshot of POSTMAN.
There are two files zipped into an attachment included with the blog.
The first file is a collection of a sample set of WAPI calls, and the other is a file with environment variables (see the table below) that are used within the collection.
| Variable | Description |
| grid_master | This is the IP address of your grid master. (Example:- 172.26.1.2) |
| Base64_encoding | The HTTP Authorization request header contains the credentials to authenticate a user agent with a server. Here, we use the “Basic” authentication scheme. The credentials are constructed like this:
|
| object_reference | Every WAPI Object is referenced by a unique Object Reference that is used to identify the object for all the operations. Substitute this variable with the reference of the object you want to work with.
(Example:- record:host/ZG5zLmhvc3QkLl9kZWZhdWx0LmNvbS5pbmZvLnByaW50ZXI: printer.info.com/default) |
To try out the WAPI calls, download, unzip and import the two files into your application.
- To import these files into your environment, click on Import on the menu.
- Upload the two files in the pop-up window.
- Once uploaded, you will see the following messages.
- The Collections tab now contains the list of sample WAPI calls that you can try out.
- Before getting started, select the Infoblox WAPI environment variables from the drop-down box on the right side of the window.
- Populate it with values specific to your environment.
- In order to do so, click on the Gear icon next to the environment box.
- Click into the Infoblox WAPI environment variables.
- Fill in the grid master IP address and Base64_encoding details
- The object_reference variable only needs to be updated when a WAPI call has it mentioned. For example, PUT Authoritative Zone.
- Click on the Update option and close the window.
- You can verify the values by clicking on the eye-shaped icon next to the environment.
- In order to do so, click on the Gear icon next to the environment box.
- In order to turn off the blocking of the self-signed SSL certificates,
- click on the Settings icon on the top right corner.
- turn the SSL certificate verification off
- click on the Settings icon on the top right corner.
- You are all set now. To try out any of the WAPI calls in the collection. Select a WAPI, and click on the Send. You will see a response in the Body section.
- Click on the Code option to generate a code snippet for the WAPI call in any language of your choice.
Infoblox WAPIs are simple and easy to use with any REST client. Download the attachments and leverage POSTMAN to get familiar with them. Happy testing!
P.S: You can refer to this guide, for more information on WAPIs.
