API Gateway Connectors: Layer7, webMethods, Akana, Mashery, and OAG

Overview

This document describes the platform's connectors for a set of legacy API gateways: CA/Broadcom Layer7, Software AG/IBM webMethods, Perforce Akana, TIBCO Mashery, and Oracle API Gateway (OAG). These connectors enable traffic-driven discovery by integrating with the gateways to enumerate published APIs and ingest their transaction logs.

Each connector follows a common pattern:

1. Discovery: A read-only process that queries the gateway's management API to discover published services and their endpoints.
2. Ingestion: A process that consumes transaction logs from the gateway, which can be delivered via syslog, JSON-over-HTTP webhooks, or other log forwarding mechanisms.

The raw data from each gateway is then normalized into a canonical transaction format and stored in the platform's unified traffic log, making it available for aggregation, observability, and analysis.

This document focuses on the gateways listed above. The connector for IBM DataPower is covered separately.

At a Glance

The following table summarizes the discovery and traffic ingest methods for each supported API gateway connector.

Connector	Discovery	Traffic ingest
CA / Broadcom Layer7	Restman REST management API	Transaction log feed (syslog TXN or JSON audit)
Software AG / IBM webMethods	Mediator + API Gateway REST APIs	Transaction events (JSON over HTTP destination, or syslog)
Perforce Akana	Akana Platform API	Transaction analytics (JSON webhook, or syslog)
TIBCO Mashery	Mashery REST management API	Transaction analytics (real-time event webhook)
Oracle API Gateway (OAG)	Management REST interface	Log export (syslog/access-log text or JSON log target)

How it Works

All five connectors normalize transaction records from their respective gateways into a canonical shape before storing them in the platform's unified traffic-log table.

The normalized record contains the following fields:

• front-end URI
• back-end URI
• service name
• client IP
• gateway IP
• HTTP method and status
• latency
• optional payloads/headers (if provided by the gateway)

Each ingested record is tagged with a gateway_type to identify its source: layer7, webmethods, akana, tibco_mashery, or oracle-oag. This unified data feeds the same aggregation tables, observability dashboards, and learned-example surfaces as all other traffic sources.

The connectors are designed to process transaction events only. Other event types from the gateways, such as policy changes or system alerts that lack service, method, or status information, are recognized and skipped.

Connector Details

CA / Broadcom Layer7

• Discovery: The connector uses the Gateway Management API (Restman) to enumerate published services and their endpoints.
• Ingest: The connector handles two transaction log formats:
  • A syslog TXN transaction-log line (supported in all versions via the log sink).
  • A JSON audit record (available in v10+ via the REST log sink or audit-log forwarder).
• Fields Captured: Request ID, service name, client IP, method, URI, status, and latency.

Software AG / IBM webMethods

• Discovery: The connector uses the Mediator and API Gateway REST APIs to enumerate published APIs and their endpoints.
• Ingest: The connector consumes transaction events, which can be emitted in two ways:
  • As a JSON transaction record sent to an HTTP destination.
  • As JSON-in-syslog or key-value syslog from an alternate logging profile.
• Fields Captured: Transaction ID, API name, client IP, method, request URI, response code, and total time.

Perforce Akana

• Discovery: The connector uses the Akana Platform API to enumerate APIs and their endpoints.
• Ingest: Akana streams transaction analytics. The primary path is a JSON event sent over an HTTP webhook destination. A syslog key-value format is also supported.
• Fields Captured: Message ID, API name, operation, client IP, request verb/path, response code, and duration.

TIBCO Mashery

• Discovery: The connector uses the Mashery REST management API to enumerate services and endpoints.
• Ingest: Mashery streams transaction analytics via its real-time event webhook, which sends JSON events. This requires the "Real-Time Event Notification" feature to be enabled in Mashery.
• Fields Captured: Transaction UUID, service/endpoint names, request path, method, status code, total time, and client IP.

Oracle API Gateway (OAG)

• Discovery: The connector uses the OAG management REST interface to enumerate configured services and endpoints.
• Ingest: OAG exports traffic via its Open Traffic Event Log. The connector supports two formats:
  • A syslog or access-log text format (TXN-style lines), compatible with all OAG and Vordel versions.
  • A JSON HTTP log target, part of the "Open Traffic Event" export feature in OAG 11g+ and 12c.
• Fields Captured: Request ID, service name, client IP, HTTP method, request URI, status, and duration.

Limitations and Considerations

Body Capture

These connectors are designed primarily for capturing transaction-level metadata. This data is sufficient for API discovery, dashboards, and SLO reporting. Capturing request or response bodies depends on the capabilities of each gateway's logging interface.

Log Format Variability

For CA Layer7, Perforce Akana, and Oracle OAG, the names of fields within the transaction logs can be configured by the gateway operator. The connector's field mapping for these platforms is confirmed against the first customer environment running that specific platform.

Connector Scope

The connectors target current and recent releases of the specified API gateways, communicating over HTTP/HTTPS.

Modern, REST-native API management platforms are typically addressed by the platform's generic HTTP receiver.

See Also

• Connectors overview
• IBM DataPower Connector
• Traffic-driven discovery

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