What Veritas XML-RPC Actually Does and When to Use It

Your build job just froze because a backup job grabbed an exclusive lock. Everyone’s staring at the CI logs, wondering why storage tasks talk like they’re in 2001. The culprit: Veritas XML-RPC, still speaking an old but reliable protocol that runs a surprising amount of enterprise automation behind the scenes.

Veritas XML-RPC is the remote procedure call interface that lets Veritas products communicate with external systems. It’s simple, stateless, and works over HTTP using structured XML. That vintage design makes it predictable, which is exactly why it survives in high‑compliance shops where predictability beats flash every time.

When it’s configured correctly, the XML-RPC interface becomes a bridge between infrastructure automation and classic backup orchestration. It lets scripts trigger backups, query job states, or fetch storage metrics without touching the Veritas GUI. In practice, that means fewer manual tickets and faster turnarounds for SRE and DevOps teams trying to codify data protection in Terraform or Ansible pipelines.

Integration starts with authentication. Most setups map Veritas credentials to an external identity system like Okta or AWS IAM using basic tokens or proxy-based session delegation. Once identity is aligned, you can use XML‑RPC methods to start, stop, and audit operations. The key workflow principle: your orchestrator should treat Veritas XML‑RPC as a transactional endpoint, not a permanent connection. Open, call, verify, close. Always validate responses since the XML layer can mask simple error codes behind generic “fault” responses.

A few quick best practices help keep things clean:

• Rotate RPC credentials frequently or tie them to ephemeral service accounts.
• Wrap requests with retry logic, but only for idempotent actions like status checks.
• Log RPC payloads centrally for auditability and SOC 2 compliance.
• Prefer TLS termination at a reverse proxy for simpler certificate management.

Those guardrails translate into better sleep for whoever maintains the storage automation code. Integrating through a consistent identity layer also means you can audit who triggered what, across both Veritas and your orchestration engine, with near‑real‑time clarity.

Platforms like hoop.dev turn those access rules into guardrails that enforce policy automatically. Instead of wiring manual tokens into every XML‑RPC client, you define intent once and let the proxy handle identity proof and least‑privilege access end to end. It’s a tidy way to modernize an old protocol without rewriting it.

How do I connect Veritas XML‑RPC to my existing automation?
Point your automation tool at the Veritas XML‑RPC endpoint, authenticate through your identity proxy, then issue XML‑formatted requests for the desired operations. Treat each call as atomic and monitor HTTP response codes, not just XML payloads, for reliability.

Is Veritas XML‑RPC still secure to use?
Yes, with proper TLS and identity enforcement. The protocol itself is plain XML, so wrap it in a hardened proxy and enforce short‑lived credentials. Most security issues come from static tokens or unlogged service calls, not from the RPC mechanism.

In short, Veritas XML‑RPC gives legacy systems an accessible interface for automation. With the right identity layer and audit pipeline, it’s not just tolerable, it’s useful.

See an Environment Agnostic Identity-Aware Proxy in action with hoop.dev. Deploy it, connect your identity provider, and watch it protect your endpoints everywhere—live in minutes.