REST API - delete

The session service allows API clients to manage session tokens including creating, deleting and obtaining information about sessions.

The create operation creates session token in exchange for another authentication token.
The delete operation invalidates a session token.
The get retrieves information about a session token.

The call to the create operation is part of the overall authentication process for API clients. For example, the sequence of steps for establishing a session with SAML token is:

Connect to lookup service.
Discover the secure token service (STS) endpoint URL.
Connect to the secure token service to obtain a SAML token.
Authenticate to the lookup service using the obtained SAML token.
Discover the API endpoint URL from lookup service.
Call the create operation. The create call must include the SAML token.

See the programming guide and samples for additional information about establishing API sessions.

Execution Context and Security Context

To use session based authentication a client should supply the session token obtained through the create operation. The client should add the session token in the security context when using SDK classes. Clients using the REST API should supply the session token as a HTTP header.

Session Lifetime

A session begins with call to the create operation to exchange a SAML token for a API session token. A session ends under the following circumstances:

Call to the delete operation.
The session expires. Session expiration may be caused by one of the following situations:
- Client inactivity - For a particular session identified by client requests that specify the associated session ID, the lapsed time since the last request exceeds the maximum interval between requests.
- Unconditional or absolute session expiration time: At the beginning of the session, the session logic uses the SAML token and the system configuration to calculate absolute expiration time.

When a session ends, the authentication logic will reject any subsequent client requests that specify that session. Any operations in progress will continue to completion.

Error Handling

The com.vmware.cis.session returns the following errors:

com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.unauthenticated error for any errors related to the request.
com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.service_unavailable error for all errors caused by internal service failure.

delete

DELETE /com/vmware/cis/session

POST /com/vmware/cis/session?~action=delete

Terminates the validity of a session token. This is the equivalent of log out.

A session identifier is expected as part of the request.

Request:

Representations:

Parameters:

Response:

Representations:

Parameters:

Errors:

Name	Type	Required	Description
result	VOID	Yes

Type	Description	HTTP Status Code
unauthenticated	if the session id is missing from the request or the corresponding session object cannot be found.	401
service_unavailable	if session deletion fails due to server specific issues, for example connection to a back end component is failing. Due to the security nature of this API further details will not be disclosed in the error. Please refer to component health information, administrative logs and product specific documentation for possible causes.	503