SPF and RDFE URIs

Applies To: System Center 2016 - Service Provider Foundation, System Center Technical Preview

RDFE is the service endpoint that Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server and API installs and uses. This endpoint forwards and validates calls to Service Provider Foundation. When an HTTP request is made to the RDFE service, part of the URI includes the current subscription identifier. The subscription is validated, which is based on the current authenticated user for the HTTP request, such as a tenant or self-service user. After the subscription is validated, the HTTP request is channeled through RDFE to the Service Provider Foundation endpoint, and the HTTP response is channeled back through RDFE to the client. Because RDFE validates the connection credentials and subscription information, but forwards the requests to Service Provider Foundation, the URI for any resource Service Provider Foundation provides is almost identical to a standard Service Provider Foundation URI.

RDFE compared to Service Provider Foundation

https://server:port/subscription-id/services/systemcenter/service/...
RDFE Service URI Example

https://server:port/SC2012/service/subscription-id/Microsoft.Management.Odata.svc/...
Service Provider Foundation Service URI Example

The server and port placeholders can be different for each service endpoint depending on where the services were installed and how they were configured. The … placeholder is specified on both URIs to illustrate that whatever else you do with the OData service would be the same for both service URIs. For example, to get a specific virtual machine, the request URI for each service is:

https://contoso:30006/851b212e-404b-4450-baa7-1d902e701cd9/services/systemcenter/vmm/VirtualMachines(ID=guid'{4F65F29C-F749-4377-A1BB-C44386A182B1}',StampId=guid'{5FABC67B-79CE-41A1-88F8-EED8EADD6C9B}')
RDFE service URI to get a specific virtual machine.

https://contoso:8090/SC2012/vmm/851b212e-404b-4450-baa7-1d902e701cd9/Microsoft.Management.Odata.svc/VirtualMachines(ID=guid'{4F65F29C-F749-4377-A1BB-C44386A182B1}',StampId=guid'{5FABC67B-79CE-41A1-88F8-EED8EADD6C9B}')
Service Provider Foundation service URI to get a specific virtual machine.

With a URI for either service, you can easily convert to and from RDFE and Service Provider Foundation. When you convert from Service Provider Foundation to RDFE, you must be able to specify a subscription identifier that has access to the resource that you use. This restriction does not apply to the Service Provider Foundation endpoint because it does not validate any subscription information.

Service Provider Foundation URI with SP1 and R2

Topics apply to either Service Provider Foundation SP1, Service Provider Foundation R2, or both. Topics that use the Service Provider Foundation SP1 URI convention apply to SP1, but can also apply to R2. However, topics that use the Service Provider Foundation R2 URI convention only apply to R2.

There is a small difference in the Service Provider Foundation URI between the SP1 and R2 releases. In SP1, the URI contains the path of SC2012. This URI has been changed for the Service Provider Foundation R2 release to SC2012R2. Generally, if the URIs between versions of the service are compatible, you only have to change the SC2012 value. For example, the virtual machines collection URI for both versions of the service is as follows:

https://contoso:8090/SC2012/vmm/851b212e-404b-4450-baa7-1d902e701cd9/Microsoft.Management.Odata.svc/VirtualMachines
SP1 Service URI

https://contoso:8090/SC2012R2/vmm/851b212e-404b-4450-baa7-1d902e701cd9/Microsoft.Management.Odata.svc/VirtualMachines
R2 Service URI

Of course, the service URI might not be interchangeable when the entity object that is used by the service URI is different based on the HTTP verb that is used.

See Also

Architecture Overview
Administration Database
OData Protocol
Service Provider Foundation Services
Service Gaps
Virtual Machine Manager Service