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href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/org/5" />
<Org ... />
<Org ... />
</OrgList>
Retrieve an Administrative View of a Cloud
A successful login by an organization or system administrator returns a Session element that contains a link
that you can use to retrieve a VCloud element. The VCloud element provides access to a cloud-wide namespace
of objects that an organization administrator can view and, in most cases, modify.
The primary administrative objects in a cloud include organizations, provider vDCs, rights, roles, and external
networks. Each object type is represented in a VCloud element by zero or more references. The vCloud API
defines several objects that are used only in administrative operations. Some, like User, Group, and Role, are
unique to administrative operations. Others extend common vCloud API objects to add elements and attributes
that only administrators can view or modify. An AdminOrg, for example, provides an administrative view of
an Org, and an AdminVdc does the same thing for a Vdc.
A system administrator can obtain more information about any of these objects by making a GET request to
its URL, which is the value of its href attribute.
The vCloud element includes links that enable a system administrator to add organizations and roles.
Subordinate objects such as users, catalogs, and vDCs are contained by individual organizations and not listed
at this level.
Prerequisites
Use the credentials of an organization administrator or system administrator to create a login session. See
“Create a Login Session,” on page 44.
Procedure
1 Retrieve the XML representation of your Session object.
Use a request like this one:
GET https://vcloud.example.com/api/session
2 Examine the contents of the Session element to locate the link to the VCloud object.
This link has the following form:
<Link
rel="down"
type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.vcloud+xml"
href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin"/>
3 Retrieve the VCloud element by making a GET request to the href value of the Link described in Step 2.
See “Example: Retrieve an Administrative View of a Cloud,” on page 47
Example: Retrieve an Administrative View of a Cloud
Request:
GET https://vcloud.example.com/api/admin
Response:
200 OK
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.admin.vcloud+xml
...
<VCloud
Chapter 3 Exploring a Cloud
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