Cloud Managed Networks

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  • 1.  API Versioning

    Posted Nov 03, 2022 05:35 AM
    Hello,
    I was going through the below docs and came to know that Aruba is versioning the API by putting the version number in the URL.

    AOS-CX 10.07 REST v10.04 API Guide (arubanetworks.com)

    The risk associated with this very much depends on the rate of deprecation of methods and how many methods we are using. This will impact client's in-life product maintenance cost to update their end for any method that change multiplied by customers impacted.

    How is Aruba is addressing the above risk and the mitigation to minimise the in-life maintenance cost of product due to API versioning??



  • 2.  RE: API Versioning

    Posted Nov 03, 2022 11:10 AM

    I'm not a commercial developer but IMO isn't that better?  As long as they maintain the historical APIs they can rapidly update their current API without torpedoing existing API consumers.  It may cause a little more work on the developer side, but has the benefit of reliability by not breaking production integrations dependent on the specific behavior of an older API with each API upgrade.

     

    Besides if the API developers have to change a URL version string variable with each significant update they should also review the release notes to see if there are any significant behavior changes that may break their code before going into production anyway, IMO.

     

     

     






  • 3.  RE: API Versioning

    Posted Nov 03, 2022 03:31 PM
    The API version is changed when a change is done to the API that would break previous implementations. This ensures that API calls created for an older firmware version still work as expected after the firmware upgrade. 
    New implementations need to be called using the new API endpoint. This ensures that devs have a chance to read the release notes before calling them by accident.

    Newer firmwares support older API endpoints to some point.
    So when you are calling v10.08 endpoints, you don't need to change anything after upgrading the switch to 10.10, because there is no change done in the v10.08 API.

    And this is your question, if I understood correctly.
    How fast are older API versions deprecated and no longer callable. 

    You can see in the 10.09 and 10.10 release notes that v1 is considered deprecated and can no longer be called.
    https://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/AOS-CX/10.10/PDF/rest_v10-0x.pdf 
    You can also see that in the table included. 
    So you should consult the Release before any big upgrade and may need to change your software.

    So far only v1 is deprecated, which is a good track record imho.
    And new switches, that only released in newer firmware are also still callable on the old API version.

    ------------------------------
    Thanks,
    Bjarne
    ------------------------------



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