IT organizations are increasingly expected to deliver more with less, and one of the keys to doing that is greater automation. NetBackup customers have long depended on the extensive command line interface (CLI) available in NetBackup since its inception, providing the basic tools to automate NetBackup beyond what is available through built-in policies.
The new NetBackup API, now available in NetBackup 8.1.1, will allow customers to go beyond what the CLI can provide. The NetBackup API is built on the Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture, which is the most widely used style for building APIs. The NetBackup API uses the HTTP protocol to communicate with NetBackup. The NetBackup API is therefore easy to use in cloud-based applications, as well as across multiple platforms and programming languages.
What can you do with the new NetBackup RestAPI? Ultimately almost anything you might imagine within the world of backup and recovery, but initially NetBackup 8.1.1 releases a subset of the APIs we plan to deliver over the coming year. Some examples of what you might be able to do with the API set delivered in NetBackup 8.1.1 include:
- Design a custom dashboard showing available recovery points to facilitate quick recovery by minimally-trained staff
- Automate the creation of NetBackup policies and backup schedules based on a variety of inputs
- Build a VMware recovery portal that allows VM Admins to independently bring back any VM they choose
- Generate real time notifications to monitor activity and surface important information to 3rd party operations consoles
The API will be of particular interest to large organizations seeking to further automate their processes, as well as service providers and anybody else wishing to customize the user experience for their customers.
For more information, please read our free online API Reference Documentation and check out some sample scripts and examples of API usage on the NetBackup Open Source repository on GitHub.
If you are more of an auditory learner, listen to my podcast interview with Abrar Hussain, release product manager for NetBackup, for his take on the highlights of the new NetBackup API and what it will mean for our customers, partners, and service providers.
