Understanding NAS Bridge resources and objects

The NAS Bridge management API allows multiple instances of each REST resource type to exist concurrently. Each instance can be viewed as an object. Therefore, for a given resource type, you can consider the resource instances to be in an array of one or more objects. This design gives you better flexibility and control when accessing the resource instances through the API.

Object identifiers

Each resource instance or object is assigned a unique identifier. These object identifiers (IDs) are integer values assigned to the new resource instances. The IDs are unique within a specific resource type, but not within the system as a whole. For example, if you create a DNS server, it might be assigned ID=1. Subsequently, you might create an NTP server and it might also be assigned ID=1. This is acceptable because they are different types of resources.

The IDs are generally returned in the HTTP response after a successful add request. An ID must be provided in the following situations:

• When getting the current status of a resource instance
• When linking resource instances where one object refers to another
• When deleting a resource instance

Summary of resource statuses

Each resource instance has an associated status. In general, a resource’s status can be accessed and displayed through the management API.

The following status values are used for NAS Bridge resources:

• NOTIFYING

  The underlying services are being notified of a change.

• COMMITTING

  The underlying services are coordinating the commitment of a change.

• ABORTING

  A change has been rejected. Check the error log messages for more information.

• FAILED

  A change failed and all services have completed a rollback. You should check the system event log for more information.

• READY

  A change has been successfully completed, and the corresponding resource is ready for use.

In most cases, the original request or action type is added to the beginning to create the complete state description. For example, after issuing an add request, the new resource's status might temporarily be ADDING / NOTIFYING. A similar construction applies when removing resources.