{"id":2920,"date":"2022-12-03T07:45:17","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T13:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/?p=2920"},"modified":"2022-12-03T08:59:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T14:59:04","slug":"qnap-container-station-api-with-postman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/qnap-container-station-api-with-postman\/","title":{"rendered":"QNAP Container Station API with Postman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read on for an example on how to use the QNAP Container Station API to manage the Container Station configuration. In this example you’ll learn how to get an Authentication cookie from the QNAP Container Station API and then use that to make subsequent requests to get a list of containers and modify the configuration on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tutorial uses Postman to store, manage, and request the API calls to the QNAP Container Station API. Postman is a software application for making API requests. Other methods of making API requests can be used of course – curl<\/code> being the most common method by many programmers. I’ve fallen in love with Postman however mainly on the basis of the ability to easily configure and store all of my API requests for any platform into one tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postman also offers Environments to store configuration variables for various servers, services, etc. That is out of scope for this post – something I may have to cover at a later time… But documentation on how to use that exists on the internet elsewhere already. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Featured<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Why Use the Container Station API<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Getting back on track to this tutorial on how to use the Container Station API – I want to talk a bit about why<\/em> one would want to use this. For me, it was sparked by the limitations of how the QNAP Container Station software works. As you may (or may not) know, QNAPs Container Station is really just a graphical interface for managing containers – I personally use docker<\/code> all the time, but there are also lxc<\/code> and lxd<\/code> containers that can be used in Container Station. While I like their GUI, it’s not very good… (sorry QNAP – just speaking the truth here…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a container is up and running, you can’t reconfigure it in the GUI. It’s configuration can be changed via the command line, but by default QNAP doesn’t allow Docker to be easily accessed via the command line. (see my post Access Docker Command via SSH on QNAP TS-251<\/a> for some tricks on this) But even if I have access to the Docker command, I’ll be honest – I’m a bit rusty on the docker commands as I don’t run them often enough… But I created a new container with a newer version and simply needed to turn off the Auto Start property of the old container (didn’t want to delete in case I needed to fall back to it some day). But for whatever reason the GUI would never let the Save<\/strong> button be activated and thus I couldn’t complete what I needed in the QNAP admin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, I’ve found the QNAP web admin to be painfully slow. I am running a TS-251 which has a Celeron processor and isn’t one of their powerhouse<\/em> models – I get that. But at one point I waited 15 minutes for Container Station to load a page and it still never returned… this isn’t manageable and I’m still not sure why it’s this painfully slow. The irony of this is that the API calls respond in a fraction of a second and I can move on with my day. In fact I think I spent less time researching how to use the API, not liking the documentation and thus wrote this post in hopes to help myself and others out in the future, AND changed the setting in less time than I spent trying to get the Container Station to load and save via the QNAP web admin… Sad but true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download Postman on your Computer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you don’t have Postman already installed, download it from their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: They may ask you to create an account with Postman. That’s your personal choice, but this tutorial works (at least at the time of writing) without needing an account. I don’t have one personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download Postman<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Configure Postman<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Postman:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Click the Import<\/strong> button<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Select Raw text<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Paste the configuration below into the text area and click the Continue<\/strong> button.\n