5.1

Table Of Contents
<Link
rel="entityResolver"
type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.entity+xml"
href="https://vcloud.example.com/api/entity/" />
</Session>
This response includes the following link types:
orgList
A link to the list of organizations that you can access. See “Retrieve a List of
Organizations Accessible to You,” on page 48.
vcloud
A link to administrative objects and operations. See Chapter 6, “Creating and
Managing Organizations,” on page 129
vmwExtension
A link to the vCloud API extensions, accessible to a system administrator. See
Chapter 7, “Managing and Monitoring a Cloud,” on page 193.
queryList
A link to the set of typed queries you can run. See Chapter 9, “Using the Query
Service,” on page 247.
entity
A link to the entity resolver. See “Retrieve an Object as an Entity,” on
page 312.
Create a Login Session Using a SAML Identity Provider
The vCloud API login mechanism authenticates a user and creates a Session object that contains the URLs
from which that user can begin browsing. Users who authenticate to a SAML identity provider must acquire
and process a security assertion from that identity provider, then submit the processed assertion to the vCloud
API login URL.
Prerequisites
NOTE This procedure assumes that you are logging in with credentials managed by a SAML identity provider.
Users whose credentials are managed by the vCloud Director integrated identity provider must follow a
different login workflow.
n
Verify that you know the login URL. See “Retrieve the Login URL and List of Supported API Versions,”
on page 43
n
Verify that you are logging in as a user whose identity is managed by the SAML identity provider defined
by your organization.
Procedure
1 Acquire the SAML assertion from your identity provider.
The system administrator must use the vSphere SSO Service as the identity provider.
2 Compress the assertion using GZIP.
3 Encode the compressed assertion a MIME Base64 encoding, as specified in RFC 1421.
4 Use the login URL to authenticate to the cloud.
POST a request to this URL. The request must include an Authorization header that specifies SIGN as the
authorization method and has the following attributes:
vCloud API Programming Guide
46 VMware, Inc.