Implementing and Operating Cisco Security Core Technologies

Southbound APIs in an SDN architecture are used to enable communication between the SDN controller and the network elements, such as switches and routers. These APIs allow the SDN controller to manage and control the network elements by sending configuration instructions and receiving status updates, thus facilitating centralized control of the network infrastructure.

The Cisco ASA platform supports several request methods as part of its REST API, including GET and PUT. The GET method is used to retrieve data from the specified object, while PUT is used to add or update information on the specified object. Both these methods are valid request methods for the Cisco ASA REST API, which is designed to allow programmatic access for creating, reading, updating, and deleting operations on ASA resources through an HTTPS protocol.

Northbound APIs in the SDN architecture are meant to enable communication between the SDN controller and the management solution. The management solution typically includes applications and services that need to interface with the SDN controller to request network resources, perform orchestration, and achieve automation. These APIs allow the management solution to leverage the capabilities of the SDN controller to meet the network requirements of various applications.

A feature of the open platform capabilities of Cisco DNA Center is intent-based APIs. These APIs allow for policy-based abstraction of business intent, enabling users to focus on desired outcomes rather than the underlying implementation mechanisms. The APIs follow the REST architectural style and support standard REST methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE operations.

The API script shown in the exhibit sends a GET request to a Cisco security appliance to retrieve JSON data about the computers. It specifically accesses the 'data' key of the response JSON, which contains information about network interfaces for each computer. The script then iterates through the network addresses of each computer to gather the MAC address, IPv4 address, and IPv6 address of each network interface. This indicates that the API gathers network interface information about the computers AMP sees.