Authentication

PyCentral requires credentials for each platform your script will call. You only need to configure the platforms you're actually using — New Central, GLP, or both.

Choosing an Authentication Method

PyCentral supports two authentication methods for Central & GLP:

📘

Which method should you use ?

If you want a hassle-free setup use Client ID & Secret. The SDK will automatically generate a new token whenever required with this method. Setup is minimal and this is our recommended method.

If your script needs both GLP and New Central, prefer unified credentials. They let you authenticate once with your GLP credentials and workspace_id, then reuse the same token for both platforms. This is the most flexible option and reduces the number of credentials you need to manage.

Get Your Credentials

New Central

Gather the following:

1. Base URL or Cluster Name (Choose one): Identifies your Central Account's API gateway. Both options function identically. Use whichever is convenient:
   1. Base URL — Base of the URL for requests to your Central API Gateway. For instructions on how to locate your Base URL, see Finding Your Base URL in Central.
   2. Cluster Name — Name of the cluster where your account is provisioned. A table detailing all cluster names can be found here.
2. API Credentials (Choose one):
   • Client ID & Client Secret (Recommended)
     The SDK automatically generates new tokens when they expire, so you don't have to manage them manually. Learn how to create your credentials here .
   • Access Token
     Manually, retrieve an access token here (Tokens expire in 2 hours)

GLP

For GLP authentication:

1. No base URL required — GLP's endpoint is fixed

2. API Credentials (Choose one):

   • Client ID & Client Secret (Recommended)
     The SDK automatically generates new tokens when they expire, so you don't have to manage them manually. Create a Personal API Client on HPE GreenLake by following these steps
   • Access Token
     Manually, retrieve an access token here (Tokens expire in 15 mins)

Classic Central

For Classic Central authentication, see the Classic Central documentation

Configure Your Credentials

For new setups, prefer a single unified block. It gives you one flexible credential set instead of separate glp and new_central blocks, which means fewer credentials to manage when your script uses both GLP and New Central.

Unified credentials (recommended)

🚧

Important

Unified Credentials are supported only from PyCentral version 2.0a18 and above

Use a single unified block when you want one configuration that can support GLP only or GLP + New Central.

• Provide GLP client_id, client_secret, and workspace_id once.
• The SDK creates one GLP access token and reuses it for both GLP and New Central API calls.
• Add base_url or cluster_name only when your script will also call New Central APIs.

To use unified credentials, copy your workspace_id from your HPE GreenLake workspace details. Please see the following steps:

1. Log in to https://common.cloud.hpe.com
2. Navigate to Manage Workspace
3. Copy the Workspace ID value shown on the page

Option 1 — token.yaml file (recommended for getting started)

Create a token.yaml file in the same directory as your script.

Unified (GLP + New Central):

unified:
  client_id: <your-glp-client-id>
  client_secret: <your-glp-client-secret>
  workspace_id: <your-workspace-id>
  base_url: <your-api-base-url>
  # cluster_name: <your-cluster-name>  # alternative to base_url

Unified (GLP only):

unified:
  client_id: <your-glp-client-id>
  client_secret: <your-glp-client-secret>
  workspace_id: <your-workspace-id>

⚠️

Security warning

Never commit token.yaml with valid credentials to version control. It's recommended to add it to your .gitignore immediately:

Bash

echo "token.yaml" >> .gitignore

Once your token.yaml is ready, pass the file path to NewCentralBase using the with context manager. You can find an example for this option below

Option 2 — Python dict (recommended for CI/CD and production)

Pass credentials directly as a dict built from environment variables. No file on disk, no risk of accidentally committing secrets.

Set the environment variables in your shell or CI/CD pipeline before running your script:

export GLP_CLIENT_ID="your-glp-client-id"
export GLP_CLIENT_SECRET="your-glp-client-secret"
export GLP_WORKSPACE_ID="your-workspace-id"
export CENTRAL_BASE_URL="https://us5.api.central.arubanetworks.com"
# export CENTRAL_CLUSTER_NAME="US-WEST-5"  # alternative to CENTRAL_BASE_URL

If you only need GLP APIs, omit CENTRAL_BASE_URL / CENTRAL_CLUSTER_NAME.

Examples

See how each credential option translates into a working script.

The following examples assume you are using the unified configuration shown above.

from pycentral import NewCentralBase

with NewCentralBase(token_info="token.yaml") as conn:
    resp = conn.command(
        api_method="GET",
        api_path="network-monitoring/v1/device-inventory"
    )
    if resp["code"] == 200:
        print(resp["msg"])
    else:
        print(f"Error {resp['code']}: {resp['msg']}")

import os
from pycentral import NewCentralBase

credentials = {
    "unified": {
        "client_id": os.environ["GLP_CLIENT_ID"],
        "client_secret": os.environ["GLP_CLIENT_SECRET"],
        "workspace_id": os.environ["GLP_WORKSPACE_ID"],
        "base_url": os.environ["CENTRAL_BASE_URL"],
        # "cluster_name": os.environ["CENTRAL_CLUSTER_NAME"],  # alternative to base_url, e.g. US-WEST-5
    }
}

with NewCentralBase(token_info=credentials) as conn:
    resp = conn.command(
        api_method="GET",
        api_path="network-monitoring/v1/device-inventory"
    )
    if resp["code"] == 200:
        print(resp["msg"])
    else:
        print(f"Error {resp['code']}: {resp['msg']}")