The reason for this is that "json" isn't a valid value for "protocol", currently it must be "xml", "stomp" or "amqp".
However this is incorrectly implemented, as the RESTAPI is using directly constants from the backend, which is prone to unexpected backwards compatibility breakages due to changes in the backend. This needs to be fixed, adding to the RESTAPI a new enum type and the associated validations.
ok, ovirt-engine-backend-3.6.0-0.0.master.20150412172306.git55ba764.el6.noarch
- added a host as xmlrpc, then maintenance, then change to 'json' (failed as expected: "The reason for this is that "json" isn't a valid value for "protocol", currently it must be "xml", "stomp" or "amqp".), then 'stomp' and it worked. host was activated successfully.