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PAN-OS® and Panorama™ API Guide

PAN-OS REST API Request and Response Structure

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PAN-OS REST API Request and Response Structure

The PAN-OS REST API enables you to perform CRUD operations with objects and use them in policy rules. A resource in the PAN-OS REST API is an endpoint that you can configure with parameters. When you make requests with the endpoints, you get responses that contain information. The request and response formats support JSON (default) and XML.

In PAN-OS 9.1, after you configure the firewalls and Panorama using the REST API, you must use the XML API or the other management interfaces to commit your changes to the running configuration.

Request Format

The API request format is constructed as shown in the example below:

https://<IP address or FQDN of the firewall or Panorama>/restapi/<PAN-OS version>/<resource URI>?<query parameters>request body

Base path and the resource URI for the endpoint. See Access the PAN-OS REST API for details.

Query parameters. Every request includes query parameters that are passed to the API endpoint using query strings. The query parameters are appended to the URL with a ? that indicates the start of the query string. The query parameters appear after the ?, the parameter are concatenated with other parameters using the ampersand & symbol.

Query Parameters on the firewall

name (name) of the resource.
location (vsys, predefined, shared, panorama-pushed) of the resource on which you want to perform the operation. A predefined object or rule is built-in to the firewall and you cannot edit, rename or delete predefined objects or policy rules.
virtual system (vsys) name for the resource, if location is vsys or panorama-pushed.
input format (input-format). JSON is default, or XML. You can specify an input format for HTTP methods that have a request body, such as PUT to update and POST to create a resource.
output format (output-format) JSON default, or XML

Query Parameters on Panorama

name (name) of the resource.
location (predefined, shared, device-group, panorama-pushed) of the resource on which you want to perform the operation. A predefined object or rule is built-in to Panorama and you cannot edit, rename or delete predefined objects or policy rules.
device group (device-group) name of the Panorama device group to which you have assigned the firewalls, if location is device-group.
input format (input-format). JSON is default, or XML. You can specify an input format for HTTP methods that have a request body, such as PUT to update and POST to create a resource.
output format (output-format) JSON default, or XML

Request body. When you create a resource with a POST request or edit a resource with a PUT request, you include a JSON or XML formatted request body in which you specify the properties for the resource you want to create or modify on the endpoint.

When you make an API request to the firewall or Panorama, the API key is required to authenticate the user who is making the request. You can enter the key with the custom HTTP header X-PAN-KEY: <key>. Learn about API Authentication and Security and how to Get Your API Key.

Success Response Format

The HTTP response for a successful call has three elements: status, code, and result. The code is a numeric value. Refer to the PAN-OS XML API Error Codes for details on the code included in the HTTP response message.


					{
    "@code": "19",
    "@status": "success",
    "result": {
        "@count": "3",
        "@total-count": "3",
        "entry": [
            {
                "@location": "vsys",
                "@name": "fqdn1",
                "@vsys": "vsys1",
                "fqdn": "www.test.com"
            },
            {
                "@location": "vsys",
                "@name": "Peer1",
                "@vsys": "vsys1",
                "ip-netmask": "172.0.0.1/24"
            },
            {
                "@location": "vsys",
                "@name": "Peer2renamed",
                "@oldname": "Peer2",
                "@vsys": "vsys1",
                "ip-netmask": "200.0.0.1/24"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Error Response Format

In addition to the HTTP status code, the error response includes a JSON object or XML with error information. The following is an example of an error response body from a REST API call to get an address. In this example, the request is missing a query parameter:


					{
    "code": 3,
    "details": [
        {
            "@type": "CauseInfo",
            "causes": [
                {
                    "code": 7,
                    "description": "Missing Query Parameter: name",
                    "module": "panui_restapi"
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "message": "Missing Query Parameter: name"
}

The following table describes the error response fields.

Field	Description
code	Feature-specific error code. The codes are listed in PAN-OS REST API Error Codes
message	Human-readable message that corresponds to the code
details	Array of objects containing detailed data about the error
details.@type	Type of data in details. Currently, the only type available is CauseInfo The details under CauseInfo are for readability and debugging purposes. The value can change between software releases. To avoid your scripts breaking between releases, don’t parse the values in details.causes.
details.causes	Array of objects that convey module-level error data
details.causes.module	Feature-specific module that reported the error
details.causes.code	Module-level error code. If details.causes.module is panui_mgmt, then you can find this module-level code in PAN-OS REST API Error Codes
details.causes.description	Details about the error, from the feature-specific module.

Resource Methods and Query Parameters (REST API)

PAN-OS REST API Error Codes