topic Re: API usage vs. load on FW in Automation/API Discussions

API usage vs. load on FW

dberber1 — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 16:55:52 GMT

So, in general, are API calls considered a threat to the FW performance?

Specifically, with this API call:

?type\=op\&cmd\=\<show\>\<session\>\<info\>\</info\>\</session\>\</show\>

Should I worry if I run it every second, or 5 seconds, or minute....?

Is there a way to quatify the impact of an API call in general?

Re: API usage vs. load on FW

BPry — Mon, 01 May 2017 19:40:17 GMT

It really depends on the call since you could potentially be starting a job/process that takes a bit of resources, or running a query on detailed logs that is pretty broad. As far as your specific call goes, I wouldn't be to terribly worried about running it as it's not like you are asking the firewall to do a large amount of processing.

Re: API usage vs. load on FW

btorresgil — Mon, 01 May 2017 20:39:11 GMT

This is a "Your milage may vary" situation since the answer can depend on many factors including current management load, model of firewall, specific API call, etc. Here are a couple guidelines to help you:

1. API calls are made to the management plane which is completely separate from the data plane, so load from API calls and load from traffic are processed seperately and generally won't affect each other.

2. If you can run the CLI version of the API call every second without issue, then you can run the related API call every second without issue.

Hope that helps,

-Brian