For the benefit of anyone who comes across this discussion later, here's the way I did this in Python, possibly useful as an example:
def invoke_cli(self, *cli_args):
"""
Call the unsupported/undocumented system-cli API.
cli_args, joined with spaces, would represent the command line
if executing in the CLI.
Return the NaElement result of executing the command.
"""
args = NaElement('args')
for arg in cli_args:
args.child_add(NaElement('arg', arg))
cli = NaElement('system-cli')
cli.child_add(args)
out = self.api.invoke_elem(cli)
if out.results_status() == 'failed':
raise OntapApiException(out.results_errno(), out.results_reason())
return out
"self.api" is simply an NaServer instance; OntapApiException is an exception I use to handle errors that would be shown in out.results_status().
-Andy
