Introduction

The API requires a token sent on each request via the Authorization header to authenticate. This token can be obtained by making a POST request to the URI /auth/request-token where you'll include your VSKEY credentials using the Authorization Header.

Panel

On this page:

Table of Contents

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Request Access Token

This section shows how to request an access token using HTTPie and CURL.

Note
Authentication tokens are valid for 24 hours (86,400 sec). After this period, a new token must be requested.

HTTPie

Code Block
http POST https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/auth/request-token -a <username> http: password for <username>@vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001:

Code Block

language	py
title	Response Headers
collapse	true

 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Allow: POST, OPTIONS
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Length: 179
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 11:52:47 GMT
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-RateLimit-Limit: 5
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 4
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1461930780

Code Block

language	py
title	Response Body
collapse	true

{
    "duration": 86400, 
    "token": "<token_here>", 
    "user": "<username>"
}

CURL

Code Block
curl -X POST https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/auth/request-token -u <username>Enter host password for user '<username>':

Code Block

language	py
title	Response Headers
collapse	true

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 12:00:20 GMT
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 179
Connection: keep-alive
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 4
X-RateLimit-Limit: 5
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1461931230
Allow: POST, OPTIONS
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff

Code Block

language	py
title	Response Body
collapse	true

{
  "duration": 86400, 
  "token": "<token_here>", 
  "user": "<username>"
}⏎

Unauthorized

Getting a 401 Unauthorized error as shown below when requesting a new access token, could be due to the following reasons:

Code Block

title	Response
collapse	true

HTTP/1.1 401 UNAUTHORIZED

Username and password combination is not valid

Re-initializing your VSKEY credentials is strongly advised. To do so, please follow this KB Article.

Code Block

title	Response
collapse	true

HTTP/1.0 401 UNAUTHORIZED
Allow: POST, OPTIONS
Content-Length: 115
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 13:55:25 GMT

{
    "error": "authentication error", 
    "message": "Invalid username and password combination.", 
    "status": 401
}

User is not permitted to access the API

Contacting the VSS Team to request access is advised by email or our contact form.

Code Block

title	Response
collapse	true

HTTP/1.0 401 UNAUTHORIZED
Allow: POST, OPTIONS
Content-Length: 106
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 13:55:51 GMT

{
    "error": "authentication error", 
    "message": "User is not authorized to access.", 
    "status": 401
}

Using Access Token

At this point you have already generated an access token to use the API valid for a certain period of time. Now, this token can be used for every request sent to any API endpoint via GET, POST, PUT, PATCH. The OPTIONS method does not require the Authorization Header.

Using your access token is quite simple and you have a few options depending the tool you use. In this section we will demonstrate how to use the access token with HTTPie and CURL:

HTTPie

Assuming there's been set the access token value in the environment variable TK, you can make a simple get request to the /v2 resource:

Code Block
http GET https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2 -a $TK

Code Block

language	py
title	Response Headers
collapse	true

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Allow: HEAD, OPTIONS, GET
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Encoding: gzip
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 14:11:09 GMT
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Vary: Accept-Encoding
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-RateLimit-Limit: 7200
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 7199
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1461942000

Code Block

language	py
title	Response Body
collapse	true

{
    "_links": {
        "domain": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/domain/", 
        "folder:": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/folder/", 
        "image": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/image/", 
        "inventory": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/inventory/", 
        "iso": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/iso/", 
        "network": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/network/", 
        "os": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/os/", 
        "request": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/request/", 
        "session": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/session/", 
        "status": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/status/", 
        "template": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/template/", 
        "version": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/version/", 
        "vm": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/vm/"
    }, 
    "meta": {
        "time": "0.00341s", 
        "user": "jm"
    }
}

CURL

Code Block
curl -X GET https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2 -u $TK

Code Block

language	py
title	Response Headers
collapse	true

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Allow: HEAD, OPTIONS, GET
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Encoding: gzip
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 14:11:09 GMT
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Vary: Accept-Encoding
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-RateLimit-Limit: 7200
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 7199
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1461942000

Code Block

language	py
title	Response Body
collapse	true

{
  "meta": {
    "user": "jm", 
    "time": "0.00341s"
  }, 
  "_links": {
    "status": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/status/", 
    "domain": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/domain/", 
    "network": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/network/", 
    "folder:": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/folder/", 
    "image": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/image/", 
    "request": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/request/", 
    "vm": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/vm/", 
    "session": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/session/", 
    "iso": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/iso/", 
    "inventory": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/inventory/", 
    "version": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/version/", 
    "os": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/os/", 
    "template": "https://vss-ws.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/v2/template/"
  }
}⏎

Unauthorized

Getting a 401 Unauthorized error as shown below when using an access token, could be due to the following reasons:

Expired Token

Generate a new token as previously described /auth/request-token

Code Block

title	Response
collapse	true

HTTP/1.0 401 UNAUTHORIZED
Allow: HEAD, OPTIONS, GET
Content-Length: 103
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 14:19:39 GMT
Location: https://vss-api.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/auth/request-token

{
    "error": "authentication error", 
    "message": "Valid token, but has expired. ", 
    "status": 401
}

Invalid Token

Either a typo or something at our end went wrong. Just generate a new access token at /auth/request-token

Code Block

title	Response
collapse	true

HTTP/1.0 401 UNAUTHORIZED
Allow: HEAD, OPTIONS, GET
Content-Length: 103
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 14:19:39 GMT
Location: https://vss-api.eis.utoronto.ca:8001/auth/request-token

{
    "error": "authentication error", 
    "message": "Invalid token.", 
    "status": 401
}

User is no longer authorized to access the API

Contacting the VSS Team to request or restore access is advised by email or our contact form.

Code Block

title	Response
collapse	true

HTTP/1.0 401 UNAUTHORIZED
Allow: POST, OPTIONS
Content-Length: 106
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 13:55:51 GMT

{
    "error": "authentication error", 
    "message": "User is not authorized to access.", 
    "status": 401
}

Versions Compared

Old Version 7

New Version 8

Key

Introduction

Request Access Token

HTTPie

CURL

Unauthorized

Username and password combination is not valid

User is not permitted to access the API

Using Access Token

HTTPie

CURL

Unauthorized

Expired Token

Invalid Token

User is no longer authorized to access the API

Page Comparison

Versions Compared

Old Version 7

New Version 8

Key

Introduction

Request Access Token

HTTPie

CURL

Unauthorized

Username and password combination is not valid

User is not permitted to access the API

Using Access Token

HTTPie

CURL

Unauthorized

Expired Token

Invalid Token

User is no longer authorized to access the API