A user performs a request on any part of the API model to control the virtualization environment. For example, access to all resources in a collection requires only a request to the collection itself. Access to a specific resource requires a request to the resource within the context of its collection. An API user targets these requests to a specific location called a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

The REST API combines our virtualization model with the use of HTTP to construct a series of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) for collections and resources. This means an API user accesses collections and resources in a manner similar to loading a webpage on the internet. For example, an API user accesses a collection group called collection from a REST API installed at www.example.com with the following URI:

http://www.example.com/collection

Access to a resource called resource within collection requires the following URI:

http://www.example.com/collection/resource

In the context of a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization environment, the API provides access to a virtual machine resource with an identication code of 6efc0cfa-8495-4a96-93e5-ee490328cf48 within the vms collection installed at http://www.example.com/rhevm-api/ with the following URI:

http://www.example.com/rhevm-api/vms/6efc0cfa-8495-4a96-93e5-ee490328cf48