Checking if a device exists through a rest call can be done by a simple web get. In this example we will use wget to check of the existence of a device. If you use wget don't for get to escape the "&" or wrap the URL in single quotes.

[zenos@zenoss $] wget 'http://admin:zenoss@MYHOST:8080/zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/MYDEVICE'

If this command results with an exit code of 1 and a server response code of 404, then MYDEVICE does not exist in Zenoss. If this command results with an exit code of 0 and a server response code of 200, the MYDEVICE does exist in Zenoss.

This is an example of how to check if a device exists using python. Because XML-RPC can be used from any language feel free to use your favorite. What is important here is the base URL in ServerProxy.

>>> from xmlrpclib import ServerProxy
>>> serv = ServerProxy('http://admin:zenoss@MYHOST:8080/zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/MYDEVICE')
>>> try:
>>> serv.getId()
>>> exists = True
>>> except:
>>> exists = False