An idempotent and asynchronous application programming interface (API) that can not rely on a reliable network is used by a cloud manager to receive and process requests. The cloud manager system is a central coordination service that receives requests using the API to perform update operations and get operations relating to the online service. For example, the API includes methods for deploying machines, updating machines, removing machines, performing configuration changes on servers, Virtual Machines (VMs), as well as performing other tasks relating to the management of the online service. Receiving and processing a same API call multiple times results in a same result.