Thank you, poj. That introduces some namespace pieces I wasn't sure how to work with. However, replacing proxy with the API endpoint, I get this in response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http:
+//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/20
+01/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"><
+soap:Body><soap:Fault><faultcode>soap:Client</faultcode><faultstring>
+Server did not recognize the value of HTTP Header SOAPAction: http://
+tempuri.org/AWEService/API/WASAPI#RunLocator.</faultstring><detail />
+</soap:Fault></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>
[download]

That is using the soap:address location from the wsdl file, as the proxy. Running it with loopback of course just spits the envelope back out. On the bright side, the envelope looks better now:

<soapenv:Envelope
    soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
    xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
    xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
    xmlns:was="http://tempuri.org/AWEService/API/WASAPI"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <soapenv:Body>
    <was:RunLocator>
      <was:userIdentification>
        <WAS_userName>WS_Decom</WAS_userName>

        <WAS_password>PASSWORD</WAS_password>
      </was:userIdentification>

      <was:locatorSearchFieldsIdentification>
        <DEVICE_NAME>SERVER</DEVICE_NAME>
      </was:locatorSearchFieldsIdentification>
    </was:RunLocator>
  </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>
[download]

Only issue I'm seeing with the envelope anymore is no prefix assigned to the lowest children, which will cause problems. I've corrected that issue manually, and I'm still left with the HTTP header faultstring.

Ok, try this, it adds the prefixes and an empty header.

#!perl
use strict;
use SOAP::Lite;

# soap
my $client = SOAP::Lite->uri('')
                       ->proxy("loopback://");     
$client->autotype(0)->readable(1);
$client->outputxml(1);
$client->ns("http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/","soapenv");
$client->ns("http://tempuri.org/AWEService/API/WASAPI","was");

my %auth = (
  WAS_userName => 'WS_Decom',
  WAS_password => 'PASSWORD',
);

my %search = (
  DEVICE_NAME => 'prodh20',
  RACK_NAME => '',
  # etc
);

my @auth_data;
for (keys %auth){
  my $data = SOAP::Data->name(
  $_ => $auth{$_} )->prefix('was'); 
  push @auth_data, SOAP::Data->type('data' => $data),
}

my @search_data;
for (keys %search){
  my $data = SOAP::Data->name(
  $_ => $search{$_} )->prefix('was'); 
  push @search_data, SOAP::Data->type('data' => $data),
}
 
my $auth  = SOAP::Data->name(
  "userIdentification" => \@auth_data
)->prefix('was');  

my $search  = SOAP::Data->name(
  "locatorSearchFieldsIdentification" => \@search_data
)->prefix('was');

my $header = SOAP::Data->type('xml' => '');   
       
my $response = $client->call("RunLocator",
  SOAP::Header->type('data'=>$header),
  SOAP::Data->type('data' => $auth),
  SOAP::Data->type('data' => $search) );
   
#open OUT,'>','output.xml' or die "$!";
print $response;
#close OUT;
[download]

poj

Awesome! It's working now after a slight modification from this version. I figured out that the faultstring is because I needed an on_action sub to replace the # with a slash.

my $client = SOAP::Lite
    ->proxy('https://www.example.com/WAS/API/AWEService.asmx?ENDPOINT'
+)
    ->on_action(sub { join '/', @_ })
    ->outputxml(1)
    ->ns('http://tempuri.org/AWEService/API/WASAPI','was');
[download]

Now to continue my Perl studies so that I can better understand what else is going on in the SOAP::Lite doc, should I have the misfortune of working with SOAP again.

Thank you, enlightened monk!