User-ID provides many out-of-the box methods for obtaining user mapping information. However, you might have applications or devices that capture user information but cannot natively integrate with User-ID. For example, you might have a custom, internally developed application or a device that no standard user mapping method supports. In such cases, you can use the PAN-OS XML API to create custom scripts that send the information to the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent or directly to the firewall. The PAN-OS XML API uses standard HTTP requests to send and receive data. API calls can be made directly from command line utilities such as cURL or using any scripting or application framework that supports POST and GET requests.

To enable an external system to send user mapping information to the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent, create scripts that extract user login and logout events and use the events as input to the PAN-OS XML API request. Then define the mechanisms for submitting the XML API requests to the firewall (using cURL, for example) and use the API key of the firewall for secure communication. For more details, refer to the PAN-OS XML API Usage Guide.