VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 APIs: Obtaining Authentication Tokens

calendar Apr 1, 2026 · 3 min read · VCF 9.1 VCF Installer VCF Operations SDDC Manager APIs  ·
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Last Updated: 24-Jun-2026

Interacting with the public APIs of a VMware Cloud Foundation platform enables organizations to build custom end-to-end automation for their needs. The first step in the process involves obtaining an authentication token. A VMware Cloud Foundation platform consists of a number of core end points, each requiring slightly different parameters to carry out the interaction.

Whilst public API documentation is available across the VMware Cloud Foundation platform (see developer.broadcom.com ), concrete examples of how to consume the various APIs is either not consistent or lacking, for this reason I decided to pull together this post to help with the specifics, this post covers the following end-points:

VCF Installer

VCF Installer APIs Used

  • POST /v1/tokens

Procedure

  1. Connect to a system that has access to your infrastructure and is capable of running CURL.

  2. Replace the values in the sample code with values for your VCF Installer instance and run the commands in the console.

1export vcfInstallerFqdn='sfo-ins01.sfo.rainpole.io'
2export vcfInstallerUser='admin@local'
3export vcfInstallerPass='VMw@re1!VMw@re1!'
  1. Authenticate to VCF Installer and obtain a token by running the following command:
1vcfInstallerToken=$(curl -k -X POST "https://$vcfInstallerFqdn/v1/tokens" \
2    --header 'Content-Type:application/json' \
3    -d "{\"username\":\"$vcfInstallerUser\", \"password\":\"$vcfInstallerPass\"}" \
4    | jq -r '.accessToken')
  1. Verify you were able to successfully obtain an authentication token by running the following command:
1echo $vcfInstallerToken

VCF Operations

VCF Operations APIs Used

  • POST /suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire

Procedure

  1. Connect to a system that has access to your infrastructure and is capable of running CURL.

  2. Replace the values in the sample code with values for your VCF Operations instance and run the commands in the console.

1export vcfOperationsFqdn='flt-ops01a.rainpole.io'
2export vcfOperationsUser='admin'
3export vcfOperationsPass='VMw@re1!VMw@re1!'
  1. Authenticate to VCF Operations and obtain a token by running the following command:
1vcfOperationsToken=$(curl -k -X POST https://$vcfOperationsFqdn/suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire \
2    --header 'Content-Type:application/json' \
3    -d "{\"username\":\"$vcfOperationsUser\", \"password\":\"$vcfOperationsPass\", \"authSource\":\"LOCAL\"}" \
4    | jq -r '.token')
  1. Verify you were able to successfully obtain an authentication token by running the following command:
1echo $vcfOperationsToken

SDDC Manager

SDDC Manager APIs Used

  • POST /v1/tokens

Procedure

  1. Connect to a system that has access to your infrastructure and is capable of running CURL.

  2. Replace the values in the sample code with values for your SDDC Manager instance and run the commands in the console.

1export sddcManagerFqdn='sfo-vcf01.sfo.rainpole.io'
2export sddcManagerUser='[email protected]'
3export sddcManagerPass='VMw@re1!VMw@re1!'
  1. Authenticate to SDDC Manager and obtain a token by running the following command:
1sddcManagerToken=$(curl -k -X POST https://$sddcManagerFqdn/v1/tokens \
2    --header 'Content-Type:application/json' \
3    -d "{\"username\":\"$sddcManagerUser\", \"password\":\"$sddcManagerPass\"}" \
4    | jq -r '.accessToken')
  1. Verify you were able to successfully obtain an authentication token by running the following command:
1echo $sddcManagerToken

VCF Services Runtime

VCF Services Runtim APIs Used

  • POST /v1/identity/token

Procedure

  1. Connect to a system that has access to your infrastructure and is capable of running CURL.

  2. Replace the values in the sample code with values for your VCF Services Runtime instance and run the commands in the console.

1export vcfServiceRuntimeFqdn='sfo-sr01.sfo.rainpole.io'
2export vcfServiceRuntimeUser='[email protected]'
3export vcfServiceRuntimePass='VMw@re1!VMw@re1!'
  1. Authenticate to VCF Services Runtime and obtain a token by running the following command:
1vcfServiceRuntimeToken=$(curl -k -X POST https://"$vcfServiceRuntimeFqdn"/api/v1/identity/token \
2    -H 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
3    --data "grant_type=password" \
4    --data "username=$vcfServiceRuntimeUser" \
5    --data "password=$vcfServiceRuntimePass" \
6    | jq -r '.access_token')
  1. Verify you were able to successfully obtain an authentication token by running the following command:
1echo $vcfServiceRuntimeToken

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