Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about web services

This section answers some frequently asked questions about Infrastructure Management.

Can I run a web service request without using an authentication token?

Yes, you can run a web service request without using an authentication token, but you must provide the user name and password in the header of each request.

For more information, see Base64-encoded format.

How can two different users on two child servers get their web service requests run without any authentication problems?

You can follow either one of the following options:

• Send the web service request directly to the child server to which you have access
• If you want to send the web service request to the Central Server, ensure that you have access to Central Server. Alternatively, you can also set the routerAuthenticationScheme property to 1 in the pw\pronto\conf\bppmws.properties file. After you set the property, the authentication request would be successful even if the user credentials are valid only in one child server. See Central Server Router's response to a web service request based on the value of the routerAuthenticationScheme property for more information.

What are the guidelines for the query parameters of a web service request?

The guidelines for the query parameters are as follows:

• Every parameter has two parts, the parameter name and its value.
• Parameter names are case sensitive, so ensure that you match the format of the parameters mentioned in this documentation.
• Ensure that you have provided the mandatory parameters. If the optional parameters are not provided, the default values are used by the web service request.

What does the HTTP error code 203 mean?

HTTP Error code 203 means that the web service request has generated partial response due to the following reasons:

• One or more child servers are not accessible due to network issues.
• One or more child servers are down.
• The user name does not exist in one or more of the child servers.

How can I understand the response of a web service request?

You can use any JSON formatter (online or offline) tool that formats the response to a more understandable format.

How can I format the input parameters in the JSON format for search API (POST method)?

You can use the JSON creator utility that is a part of the Infrastructure Management installation. For more information about the JSON creator utility, see JSON creator for CI search API (POST method).

How to identify the log entries of a specific web service request in a log file?

For every web service request, a transaction ID is generated by Central Server Router in a multiple server environment or by BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server in a single server environment. In the log files, every log entry for a web service request contains the transaction ID of that particular web service request. Using the transaction ID, you can identify the log entries of a specific web service request.

In a multiple server environment, the child servers use the same transaction ID generated by the Central Server Router. A sample log entry is as follows:

DEBUG 03/29 15:43:33 [pool-60-thread-19::pngp4750:1333004662131::] CiProvider getRelatedCIPost started

In the example above, the transaction ID is 1333004662131, and pngp4750 is the name of the BMC TrueSight Infrastructure Management Server.