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PAN-OS® and Panorama™API Usage Guide

About the PAN-OS API

Table of Contents

About the PAN-OS API

The PAN-OS® and Panorama™ API allows you to manage firewalls and Panorama through a third-party service, application, or script. The firewalls and Panorama support two types of API—XML API and REST API.

The XML API uses a tree of XML nodes to map firewall or Panorama functionality. To make an API request, you must specify the XPath (XML Path Language) to the XML node that corresponds to a specific setting or action. XPath allows you to navigate through the hierarchical XML tree structure for firewalls and Panorama. To get started, see:

You can use the REST API to Create, Update, Read, Delete (CRUD) Objects and Policies on the firewalls; you can access the REST API directly on the firewall or use Panorama to perform these operation on policies and objects from a central location and push them to the managed firewalls. To get started, see Access the PAN-OS REST API.

Because PAN-OS API functionality mirrors that of both the web interface and the CLI, you should familiarize yourself with both. Reading relevant portions of the PAN-OS Administrator’s Guide will help you get a better understanding of firewall functionalities that you can access using the API. You should also be knowledgeable about web service APIs, HTTP, XML, and XPath.

PAN-OS XML API Components