Naming Module

The APIC system configuration and state are modeled as a collection of managed objects (MOs), which are abstract representations of a physical or logical entity that contain a set of configurations and properties. For example, servers, chassis, I/O cards, and processors are physical entities that are represented as MOs; resource pools, user roles, service profiles, and policies are logical entities represented as MOs.

At runtime, all MOs are organized in a tree structure, which is called the Management Information Tree (MIT). This tree provides structured and consistent access to all MOs in the system. Each MO is identified by its relative name (RN) and distinguished name (DN). You can manage MO naming by using the naming module of the Python API.

You can use the naming module to create and parse object names, as well as access a variety of information about the object, including the relative name, parent or ancestor name, naming values, meta class, or MO class. You can also perform operations on an MO such as appending an Rn to a Dn or cloning an MO.

Relative Name (RN)

A relative name (RN) identifies an object from its siblings within the context of the parent MO. An Rn is a list of prefixes and properties that uniquely identify the object from its siblings.

For example, the Rn for an MO of type aaaUser is user-john. user- is the naming prefix and john is the name value.

You can use an RN class to convert between an MO’s RN and constituent naming values. The string form of an RN is {prefix}{val1}{prefix2}{Val2} (...) Note: The naming value is enclosed in brackets ([]) if the meta object specifies that properties be delimited.

Distinguished Name (DN)

A distinguished name (DN) uniquely identifies a managed object (MO). A DN is an ordered list of relative names, such as the following:

dn = rn1/rn2/rn3/....

In the next example, the DN provides a fully qualified path for user-john from the top of the MIT to the MO.

dn = “uni/userext/user-john”

This DN consists of these relative names:

Relative Name	Class	Description
uni	polUni	Policy universe
userext	aaaUserEp	User endpoint
user-john	aaaUser	Local user account

Note: When using the API to filter by distinguished name (DN), we recommend that you use the full DN rather than a partial DN.