docs: def request(self, method, api_url, params={}, **kwargs):
          """Generate the API call to the device."""
  
          LOG.debug("axapi_http: full url = %s", self.url_base + api_url)
          LOG.debug("axapi_http: %s url = %s", method, api_url)
          LOG.debug("axapi_http: params = %s", json.dumps(logutils.clean(params), indent=4))
  
          # Set "data" variable for the request
          if params:
              extra_params = kwargs.get('axapi_args', {})
              params_copy = merge_dicts(params, extra_params)
              LOG.debug("axapi_http: params_all = %s", logutils.clean(params_copy))
  
              payload = json.dumps(params_copy)
          else:
              try:
                  payload = kwargs.pop('payload', None)
                  self.headers = dict(self.HEADERS, **kwargs.pop('headers', {}))
                  LOG.debug("axapi_http: headers_all = %s", logutils.clean(self.headers))
              except KeyError:
                  payload = None
  
          max_retries = kwargs.get('max_retries', self.max_retries)
          timeout = kwargs.get('timeout', self.timeout)
  
          # Create session to set HTTPAdapter or SSLAdapter
          session = Session()
          if self.port == 443:
              # Add adapter for any https session to force TLS1_0 connection for v21 of AXAPI
              session.mount('https://', SSLAdapter(max_retries=max_retries))
          else:
              session.mount('http://', HTTPAdapter(max_retries=max_retries))
          session_request = getattr(session, method.lower())
  
          # Make actual request and handle any errors
          try:
              device_response = session_request(
                  self.url_base + api_url, verify=False, data=payload, headers=self.HEADERS, timeout=timeout
              )
          except (Exception) as e:
              LOG.error("acos_client failing with error %s after %s retries", e.__class__.__name__, max_retries)
              raise e
          finally:
              session.close()
  
          # Log if the reponse is one of the known broken response
          if device_response in broken_replies:
              device_response = broken_replies[device_response]
              LOG.debug("axapi_http: broken reply, new response: %s", logutils.clean(device_response))
  
          # Validate json response
          try:
              json_response = device_response.json()
              LOG.debug("axapi_http: data = %s", json.dumps(logutils.clean(json_response), indent=4))
          except ValueError as e:
              # The response is not JSON but it still succeeded.
              LOG.debug("axapi_http: json = %s", e)
              return device_response
  
          # Handle "fail" responses returned by AXAPI
          if 'response' in json_response and 'status' in json_response['response']:
              if json_response['response']['status'] == 'fail':
                      acos_responses.raise_axapi_ex(json_response, action=extract_method(api_url))
  
          # Return json portion of response
          return json_response