Overview
Cisco Business Dashboard provides network and lifecycle management for networks built from Cisco 100 to 500 Series routers, switches, and wireless access points. A comprehensive REST API included in this product enables you to:
- collect inventory information
- pre-provision devices and networks
- receive notifications of network events
- perform network and device actions and more
With this REST API, you can extract valuable information about your network and make changes while Cisco Business Dashboard performs the device by device interaction.
API Characteristics
The Cisco Business Dashboard API has been developed in accordance with the design principles of Representational State Transfer (REST). The API is accessed using HTTP/S with JSON as a data format, and the success or failure of a request is indicated with the HTTP response code. In general, methods to retrieve data require a GET request, while methods that add, change, or remove data require a POST, PUT, or DELETE. Errors will be returned if a request is made with an incorrect request type.
The REST nature of the API makes it easy-to-use. Documentation is built right into the product, so understanding how to use the API or the specifics of any given resource is always available. URL endpoints can be discovered programmatically or through the documentation. Most of the API resources support a common interface for sorting and paging, and many provide extensive filtering capabilities, so you get the data you need faster.
The API is protected by requiring that only authorized applications can access resources by authenticating with a unique credential associated with a specific user. In addition, the user who created the credential must have the necessary role and organization association in order to be authorized to access any given resource. Lastly, all connections to the API are through HTTPS to ensure the security of data in-transit.
The API is also protected by rate-limiting requests. This ensures that the Manager is able to continue to service interactive users and manage networks.
The API is versioned with the version forming part of the method URL. In the event that non-backwards compatible changes to the API are introduced in a future release, the API version will be updated. When a new version of the API is introduced, the previous version will coexist for a time to allow a controlled migration for applications using the API.
API Scope
The API is introduced with version 2.2.0 of Cisco Business Dashboard and allows access to a subset of resources and features. The scope of the API is expected to increase with subsequent releases of Cisco Business Dashboard. The table below provides details of the current API scope.
| Resources | Description | Added in Dashboard Version |
|---|---|---|
| Networks | Site list and details | 2.2.0 |
| Nodes | Device inventory and details, including hosts | 2.2.0 |
| Node State | Device notifications | 2.2.0 |
| Events | Event history logs | 2.2.0 |
| Actions | Perform device actions (e.g firmware upgrade, reboot, config backup/restore) | 2.2.0 |
| PnP Devices+Configs | Manage Network Plug and Play Enabled Devices and configuration files | 2.2.0 |
Licensing
Cisco Business Dashboard API is licensed under the terms of the Cisco API License, version 1.1. A copy of this license may be found here.
At this time, no additional license purchase is required to use the API beyond the basic Cisco Business Dashboard device licenses required for managing network devices. Certain applications provided by Cisco may require additional licenses on the Dashboard, but this is not currently required for third-party applications.