A few of the cluster APIs (namely, POST/OPTIONS on /api/cluster, GET/HEAD/OPTIONS on /api/cluster/nodes, and calls on /api/cluster/jobs) are allowed before the cluster is created. These APIs support creation of the cluster and monitoring of its progress. Any other cluster API used before the cluster is created will fail.

The cluster APIs cover basic management of the cluster, including viewing and modifying settings such as the name, UUID, version, NTP servers, DNS domains, and the nodes in the cluster. POST /api/cluster allows creation of the cluster, including adding all of the nodes to the cluster available during setup, initial configuration of cluster and node management interfaces, NTP servers, name servers, licenses, and node names.

The node APIs allow you to gather information about the nodes in a cluster, including model number, serial number, HA Group information, names, management interfaces, and UUIDs. By setting a query parameter, the administrator can also discover nodes on the cluster network that have not been added to the cluster and use that information in the POST operation to add them. Nodes can be added to the cluster through the POST API.

The job APIs are used to monitor the progress of running and recent jobs using GET. Some jobs are capable of being paused and cancelled using the PATCH operation.