Service Broker API v2.1

Page last updated: June 29, 2015

Document Changelog

v2 API Change Log

Versions

Two major versions of the Service Broker API are currently supported by Cloud Foundry, v1 and v2. As v1 is deprecated and support will be removed at the end of 2015, it is recommended that all new brokers implement v2 and that current brokers are upgraded.

Changes

Change Policy

• Existing endpoints and fields will not be removed or renamed.
• New optional endpoints, or new HTTP methods for existing endpoints, may be added to enable support for new features.
• New fields may be added to existing request/response messages. These fields must be optional, and should be ignored by clients and servers that do not understand them.

Changes Since v2.0

The key change from v2.0 to v2.1 of the Services API is:

• Addition of app_guid as a required field to the bind endpoint.

Dependencies

v2.1 of the services API has been supported since final build 152 of cf-release.

API Overview

The Cloud Foundry services API defines the contract between the Cloud Controller and the service broker. The broker is expected to implement several HTTP (or HTTPS) endpoints underneath a URI prefix. One or more services can be provided by a single broker and load balancing enables horizontal scalability of redundant brokers. Multiple Cloud Foundry instances can be supported by a single broker using different URL prefixes and credentials.

API Version Header

Requests from the Cloud Controller to the broker contain a header that defines the version number of the Broker API that Cloud Controller will use. This header will be useful in future minor revisions of the API, to allow brokers to reject requests from Cloud Controllers that they do not understand. While minor API revisions will always be additive, it is possible that brokers will come to depend on a feature that was added after 2.0, so they may use this header to reject the request. Error messages from the broker in this situation should inform the operator of what the required and actual version numbers are, so that an operator can go upgrade Cloud Controller and resolve the issue. A broker should respond with a 412 Precondition Failed message when rejecting a request.

The version numbers are in the format MAJOR.MINOR, using semantic versioning such that 2.9 comes before 2.10. An example of this header, as of publication time is:

X-Broker-Api-Version: 2.1

Authentication

Cloud Controller (final release v145+) authenticates with the Broker using HTTP basic authentication (the Authorization: header) on every request, and will reject any broker registrations that do not contain a username and password. The broker is responsible for checking the username and password and returning a 401 Unauthorized message if they are invalid. Cloud Controller supports connecting to a broker using SSL if additional security is desired.

Catalog Management

The first endpoint that a broker must implement is the service catalog. Cloud Controller will initially fetch this endpoint from all brokers and make adjustments to the user-facing service catalog stored in the Cloud Controller database. If the catalog fails to initially load or validate, Cloud Controller will not allow the operator to add the new broker, and should give a meaningful error message. Cloud Controller will also update the catalog whenever a broker is updated, so you can use update-service-broker with no changes to force a catalog refresh.

When Cloud Controller fetches a catalog from a broker, it will compare the broker’s id for services and plans with the unique_id values for services and plan in the Cloud Controller database. If a service or plan in the broker catalog has an id which is not present amongst the unique_id values in the database, a new record will be added to the database. If services or plans in the database are found with unique_ids that match the broker catalog’s id, Cloud Controller will update update the records to match the broker’s catalog.

If the database has plans which are not found in the broker catalog, and there are no associated service instances, Cloud Controller will remove these plans from the database. If there are provisioned instances, the plan will be marked “inactive” and will no longer be visible in the marketplace catalog or be provisionable. Cloud Controller will then delete services that do not have associated plans from the database.

Request

Route

GET /v2/catalog

cURL

 $ curl -H "X-Broker-API-Version: 2.1" http://username:password@broker-url/v2/catalog

Response

Body

CLI and web clients have different needs with regard to service and plan names. A CLI-friendly string is all lowercase, with no spaces. Keep it short – imagine a user having to type it as an argument for a longer command. A web friendly display name is camelcase with spaces and punctuation supported.

* Fields with an asterisk are required.

{
  "services": [{
    "id": "service-guid-here",
    "name": "mysql",
    "description": "A MySQL-compatible relational database",
    "bindable": true,
    "plans": [{
      "id": "plan1-guid-here",
      "name": "small",
      "description": "A small shared database with 100mb storage quota and 10 connections"
    },{
      "id": "plan2-guid-here",
      "name": "large",
      "description": "A large dedicated database with 10GB storage quota, 512MB of RAM, and 100 connections"
    }]
  }]
}

Adding a Broker to Cloud Foundry

Once you’ve implemented the first endpoint GET /v2/catalog above, you’ll want to register the broker with CF to make your services and plans available to end users.

Provisioning

When the broker receives a provision request from Cloud Controller, it should synchronously take whatever action is necessary to create a new service resource for the developer. The result of provisioning varies by service type, although there are a few common actions that work for many services. For a MySQL service, provisioning could result in:

• An empty dedicated mysqld process running on its own VM.
• An empty dedicated mysqld process running in a lightweight container on a shared VM.
• An empty dedicated mysqld process running on a shared VM.
• An empty dedicated database, on an existing shared running mysqld.
• A database with business schema already there.
• A copy of a full database, for example a QA database that is a copy of the production database.

For non-data services, provisioning could just mean getting an account on an existing system.

Request

Route

PUT /v2/service_instances/:instance_id

Note: The :instance_id of a service instance is provided by the Cloud Controller. This ID will be used for future requests (bind and deprovision), so the broker must use it to correlate the resource it creates.

Body

{
  "service_id":        "service-guid-here",
  "plan_id":           "plan-guid-here",
  "organization_guid": "org-guid-here",
  "space_guid":        "space-guid-here"
}

cURL

$ curl http://username:password@broker-url/v2/service_instances/:instance_id -d '{
  "service_id":        "service-guid-here",
  "plan_id":           "plan-guid-here",
  "organization_guid": "org-guid-here",
  "space_guid":        "space-guid-here"
}' -X PUT  -H "X-Broker-API-Version: 2.1" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

In this case, instance_id refers to the service instance id generated by Cloud Controller

Response

Responses with any other status code will be interpreted as a failure. Brokers can include a user-facing message in the description field; for details see Broker Errors.

Body

All response bodies must be a valid JSON Object ({}). This is for future compatibility; it will be easier to add fields in the future if JSON is expected rather than to support the cases when a JSON body may or may not be returned.

For success responses, the following fields are valid.

{
 "dashboard_url": "http://mongomgmthost/databases/9189kdfsk0vfnku"
}

Binding

Note: Not all services must be bindable — some deliver value just from being provisioned. Brokers that offer services that are not bindable should declare them as such using `bindable: false` in the [Catalog](#catalog-mgmt). Brokers that do not offer any bindable services do not need to implement the endpoint for bind requests.

When the broker receives a bind request from the Cloud Controller, it should return information which helps an application to utilize the provisioned resource. This information is generically referred to as credentials. Applications should be issued unique credentials whenever possible, so one application’s access can be revoked without affecting other bound applications. For more information on credentials, see Binding Credentials.

In addition, the bind operation can enable streaming of application logs from Cloud Foundry to a consuming service instance. For details, see Application Log Streaming.

Request

Route

PUT /v2/service_instances/:instance_id/service_bindings/:binding_id

Note: The :binding_id of a service binding is provided by the Cloud Controller. :instance_id is the ID of a previously-provisioned service instance; :binding_id will be used for future unbind requests, so the broker must use it to correlate the resource it creates.

Body

{
  "plan_id": "plan-guid-here",
  "service_id": "service-guid-here"
}

cURL

$ curl http://username:password@broker-url/v2/service_instances/:instance_id/
  service_bindings/:binding_id -d '{
  "plan_id": "plan-guid-here",
  "service_id": "service-guid-here"
}' -X PUT  -H "X-Broker-API-Version: 2.1" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

In this case, instance_id refers to the id of an existing service instance in a previous provisioning, while binding_id is service binding id generated by Cloud Controller.

Response

Responses with any other status code will be interpreted as a failure and an unbind request will be sent to the broker to prevent an orphan being created on the broker. Brokers can include a user-facing message in the description field; for details see Broker Errors.

Body

All response bodies must be a valid JSON Object ({}). This is for future compatibility; it will be easier to add fields in the future if JSON is expected rather than to support the cases when a JSON body may or may not be returned.

For success responses, the following fields are valid.

    {
      "credentials": {
        "uri": "mysql://mysqluser:pass@mysqlhost:3306/dbname",
        "username": "mysqluser",
        "password": "pass",
        "host": "mysqlhost",
        "port": 3306,
        "database": "dbname"
      }
    }

Unbinding

Note: Brokers that do not provide any bindable services do not need to implement the endpoint for unbind requests.

When a broker receives an unbind request from Cloud Controller, it should delete any resources it created in bind. Usually this means that an application immediately cannot access the resource.

Request

Route

DELETE /v2/service_instances/:instance_id/service_bindings/:binding_id

The :binding_id in the URL is the identifier of a previously created binding (the same :binding_id passed in the bind request). The request has no body, because DELETE requests generally do not have bodies.

Parameters

The request provides these query string parameters as useful hints for brokers.

cURL

$ curl 'http://username:password@broker-url/v2/service_instances/:instance_id/
  service_bindings/:binding_id?service_id=service-id-here&plan_id=plan-id-here' -X DELETE  -H "X-Broker-API-Version: 2.1"

Response

Responses with any other status code will be interpreted as a failure and the binding will remain in the Cloud Controller database. Brokers can include a user-facing message in the description field; for details see Broker Errors.

Body

All response bodies must be a valid JSON Object ({}). This is for future compatibility; it will be easier to add fields in the future if JSON is expected rather than to support the cases when a JSON body may or may not be returned.

For a success response, the expected response body is "{}".

Deprovisioning

When a broker receives a deprovision request from Cloud Controller, it should delete any resources it created during the provision. Usually this means that all resources are immediately reclaimed for future provisions.

Request

Route

DELETE /v2/service_instances/:instance_id

The :instance_id in the URL is the identifier of a previously provisioned instance (the same :instance_id passed in the provision request). The request has no body, because DELETE requests generally do not have bodies.

Parameters

The request provides these query string parameters as useful hints for brokers.

cURL

$ curl 'http://username:password@broker-url/v2/service_instances/:instance_id?service_id=
  service-id-here&plan_id=plan-id-here' -X DELETE  -H "X-Broker-API-Version: 2.1"

Response

Responses with any other status code will be interpreted as a failure and the service instance will remain in the Cloud Controller database. Brokers can include a user-facing message in the description field; for details see Broker Errors.

Body

All response bodies must be a valid JSON Object ({}). This is for future compatibility; it will be easier to add fields in the future if JSON is expected rather than to support the cases when a JSON body may or may not be returned.

For a success response, the expected response body is "{}".

Broker Errors

Response

When a broker fails to perform any requested operation, unless it fails with a well-defined HTTP response code listed above (like 410 on delete), it should return an appropriate HTTP response code (chosen to accurately reflect the nature of the failure) and a body containing a valid JSON Object (not an array).

Body

All response bodies must be a valid JSON Object ({}). This is for future compatibility; it will be easier to add fields in the future if JSON is expected rather than to support the cases when a JSON body may or may not be returned.

For error responses, the following fields are valid. If empty JSON is returned in the body "{}", a generic message containing the HTTP response code returned by the broker will be displayed to the requestor.

{
  "description": "Something went wrong. Please contact support at http://support.example.com."
}

Orphans

The Cloud Controller and Broker are expected to store identical copies of existing instances and bindings. These two lists can potentially become inconsistent if the broker doesn’t return a response before the request times out (typically 60 seconds). For example, if a broker doesn’t return a response to a provision request before Cloud Controller times out, the broker may eventually succeed where Cloud Controller considered this a failure. This results in an orphan instance on the service side.