Cisco ACE-4710-K9 Administration Guide - Page 368

XML Overview Chapter 9 Configuring the XML Interface REVIEW DRAFT - CISCO CONFIDENTIAL HTTP and HTTPS Support with the ACE The ACE and an NMS can easily send and receive an XML document containing configuration commands or output results by using standard Internet protocols, such as HTTP or secure HTTP (HTTPS), as the transfer protocol. HTTPS uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to provide encrypted communication between the management client and the ACE. The administrator of the system designates a website as the entry point to the API, and all requests and queries are made through those URLs. This website also provides the DTDs that define the XML for requests, queries, and responses. The XML input is submitted through the data portion of an HTTP POST request. A field named "xml" contains the XML string that defines the request or query. The response to this HTTP POST represents a pure XML response with either a success or failure indicator for a request or the response to a query. When you use XML to transfer configuration data and results, the NMS connects to the ACE and sends a new configuration in an XML document to the ACE over HTTP or HTTPS. The ACE then applies the new configuration. The following example shows the HTTP conversation between the client and the server, as related to the XML implementation on the ACE: ******** Client POST /bin/xml_agent HTTP/1.1 Authorization: Basic VTpQ Content-Length: 95 xml_cmd= ******** Server HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Length: 21 interface vlan 80 ip address 60.0.0.145 255.255.255.0 access-group input acl1 no shutdown Cisco 4700 Series Application Control Engine Appliance Administration Guide 9-4 OL-11157-01