Pure Storage: Purity 5.3 and REST 2.0 are united.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog on Purity 5.3 and the new QoS features that were implemented. In the spirit of that post I decided today’s post would showcase Purity 5.3 and REST API 2.0. I know there are a lot of customers who utilize REST API for day to day operations with the FlashArray, so felt this was worth the effort to write about.

Unlike my other posts this isn’t going to be a long in-depth explanation since our engineering team did such a great job documenting this change.

This post is simply to bring awareness to this change and point you to some easy references.

What’s New?

If you review the Purity//FA REST API 2.x Release Notes you will note the following:

FlashArray REST API 2.0 (FA REST 2.0) provides the following benefits:

 OAuth 2.0 Authentication
 FA REST 2.0 uses the OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange authorization grant and JSON 
 Web Tokens (JWTs) to authenticate to the FA REST 2.0.

 Unified REST
 FA REST 2.0 provides a REST interface and object model that is consistent 
 across the FlashArray, FlashBlade (upcoming release), and Pure1 products. 
 All products share a common feature set, and similar syntax, structure, 
 authentication model, and documentation.

 Batch Operations
 FA REST 2.0 supports batch (also known as bulk) operations, allowing 
 users to create and modify multiple resources through a single request. 
 For example, the single request POST/volumes?names=vol01,vol02,vol03,vol04,
 vol05&provisioned=100G creates five volumes that are each 100 gigabytes in size. 

 Interactive Documentation
 FA REST 2.0 introduces the FlashArray REST API reference, a static, responsive 
 HTML document. The documentation is generated from the OpenAPI/Swagger 
 spec and contains a list of all available resources and parameters.
 To access the FlashArray REST API 2.0 reference documentation, log in to 
 the Purity//FA GUI, select Help > REST API Guide, and follow the "What's New" link.

Normally I would go through these one by one and explain the benefits. Since we have such nice descriptions above for us there is really no need to do that this time. I will just highlight a couple of points to ensure things are better understood.

Authenticating with REST API 2.0

One of the key takeaways here should be that REST 2.0 now uses OAuth 2.0 Authentication. So the old way of authentication with REST 1.x is no longer valid.

In order to use REST 2.0 with the FlashArray you can follow the REST API 2.0 Authentication Guide. It outlines the exact steps you need to take in order to get things up and running in your environment. The process is a little more involved but still relatively quick and easy.

As a side note, the authentication process for REST API 2.x is pretty much the same as what is used with the Pure1 REST API now. This is a good thing as now things are becoming more unified across the board (as outlined in the release note above).

Is REST API 1.x still on Purity 5.3?

Yes! Not only is it still present, but it has been updated to version 1.17. There is no requirement at this time to use REST 2.0. Though this will likely change in the future as 2.0 matures and becomes more feature rich.

Directly from the Purity 5.3 release notes:

The REST API 1.x will continue to be supported and enhanced at least until 
REST 2.0 reaches parity in functionality..

So REST API 1.x is still alive and well. 🙂 So continue to utilize this if you are not quite ready to make the switch.

Where can I get additional information?

Great question. Below are additional resources that will provide more in-depth information and examples:

FlashArray REST API Reference Guides
Purity//FA 5.3 FlashArray User Guide
Purity//FA 5.3 Release notes

Additionally, if you are attending Pure//Accelerate 2019 in Austin this week, I would highly recommend you attend Miranda Steele’s “Engineering Meetup” at the following times:

Tuesday,  September 17, 2019 11:30 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
Wednesday,  September 18, 2019 11:30 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.

Miranda was deeply involved in the creation of this product and is a great resource for any questions or concerns you may have.

Hopefully this helps get you going in the right direction and provides the information you need to make an educated decision on whether or not REST 2.0 is right for you.

-jhop