Starting with Nova API
Find out how to use Nova with the OpenStack API
Last updated 18th June 2020
Objective
In order to automate your operations on the Public Cloud, it is possible to use OpenStack APIs to generate different scripts. The OpenStack Nova client will allow you to interact and manage your instances and their disks.
For example, you can start creating an additional instance when your monitoring tools detect a peak load in order to avoid saturation on your infrastructure. It is also possible to schedule snapshot creation on a regular basis at the same time.
This guide will help you take the OpenStack APIs into your hands to manage your instances using the Python Nova client.
Requirements
Please refer to the following guides:
Nova Documentation
You can obtain the list of possible commands by reading the embedded documentation:
admin@server-1~$: nova help
It is also possible to get information about a command by adding "help" in front of it:
``bash admin@serverr-1:~$ nova help flavor-list
usage: nova flavor-list [--extra-specs] [--all]
Print a list of available 'flavors' (sizes of servers).
Optional arguments: --extra-specs Get extra-specs of each flavor. --all Display all flavors (Admin only).
> [!success]
>
> It is also possible to obttain the Nova Client documentation from the Openstack Website.>
>
## Basic Operations
### Adding an SSH Public Key
As a first step, it is necessary to a Public SSH key to connect to the instances.
- List commands associated with SSH keys
```sh
admin@server-1:~$ nova help | grep keypair
keypair-add Create a new key pair for use with servers.
keypair-delete Delete keypair given by its name.
keypair-list Print a list of keypairs for a user
keypair-show Show details about the given keypair.
- Add a Public SSH key
admin@server-1:~$ nova keypair-add --pub-key .ssh.id_rsa.pub SSHKEY
- List available SSH Keys:
```sh
admin@server-1:~$ nova keypair-list
+--------+-------------------------------------------------+
| Name | Fingerprint |
+--------+-------------------------------------------------+
| SSHKEY | 0e:93:fb:90:82:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:6e:22:42:c3:ea |
+--------+-------------------------------------------------+
List the instance models
Next, you will need to obtain the ID of the model that we would like to use:
admin@server-1"~$ nova flavor-list
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+------+-----------+------+-------+-------------+-----------+
| ID | Name | Memory_MB | Disk | Ephemeral | Swap | VCPUs | RXTX_Factor | Is_Public |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+------+-----------+------+-------+-------------+-----------+
| 0032b17b-75a1-4120-9b44-755331729979 | win-r2-15-flex | 15000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| 003d504f-289d-48d1-ac83-1796e44927b7 | c2-15 | 15000 | 100 | 0 | | 4 | 1.0 | True |
| 021296e6-0004-4ee5-bb73-52ac2d16bd79 | b2-120-flex | 120000 | 50 | 0 | | 32 | 1.0 | True |
| 30614907-f5dd-4c83-8c08-986ce20fe282 | b2-60 | 60000 | 400 | 0 | | 16 | 1.0 | True |
| 307f3bd0-bcaf-4415-9479-29f0dda9381e | win-c2-30 | 30000 | 200 | 0 | | 8 | 1.0 | True |
| 36efce42-d885-4a09-b4dc-a321a1a0c92e | r2-15 | 15000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| 3ff106e4-92d9-4f6f-95b2-be88b70dbd05 | c2-7 | 7000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| 52e13ee4-8bc3-4e65-9464-6dccdc3d861d | win-b2-15 | 15000 | 100 | 0 | | 4 | 1.0 | True |
| 539c1407-46a4-43c4-96c3-32e645dd815d | win-r2-240 | 240000 | 400 | 0 | | 16 | 1.0 | True |
| 58fef987-cf20-4d19-956d-c44451cff1c7 | win-c2-7 | 7000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| 59f4794c-f909-4b8f-8b07-26720ba5d521 | r2-120-flex | 120000 | 50 | 0 | | 8 | 1.0 | True |
| 5b3b14a7-8cad-4821-8d7c-ba1b0525728c | c2-7-flex | 7000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| 5bbf9a5a-041a-451f-84a3-105c37e385dd | win-c2-60 | 60000 | 400 | 0 | | 16 | 1.0 | True |
| 778aba94-608e-438d-a1b8-2c9a04ef6f75 | r2-30-flex | 30000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| 7d0b03ec-ed60-4d74-a224-e3494c1d39f0 | c2-120-flex | 120000 | 50 | 0 | | 32 | 1.0 | True |
| 88503fd4-a913-4801-8fb3-a1a37a97496c | win-r2-15 | 15000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| a762797b-fcd3-4d69-86f7-a1fcbd313c4a | b2-7 | 7000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| b6c0e144-51cf-4aa6-ab7f-99b4c3a1e958 | b2-7-flex | 7000 | 50 | 0 | | 2 | 1.0 | True |
| b76066de-fb05-4832-b188-c958a534380a | r2-120 | 120000 | 200 | 0 | | 8 | 1.0 | True |
| b77011ce-d7a0-47f0-bf63-38770fcb0998 | r2-60-flex | 60000 | 50 | 0 | | 4 | 1.0 | True |
| ... | ... | ... | .. | ... | | ... | ... | ... |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+-----------+------+-----------+------+-------+-------------+-----------+
List the available images
Finally, we will need to obtain the ID of the image we want to use on the instance:
admin@server-1:~$ glance image-list
+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------+--------+
| ID | Name | Status | Server |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------+--------+
| c17f13b5-587f-4304-b550-eb939737289a | Centos 7 | ACTIVE | |
| 73958794-ecf6-4e68-ab7f-1506eadac05b | Debian 7 | ACTIVE | |
| bdcb5042-3548-40d0-b06f-79551d3b4377 | Debian 8 | ACTIVE | |
| 7250cc02-ccc1-4a46-8361-a3d6d9113177 | Fedora 19 | ACTIVE | |
| 57b9722a-e6e8-4a55-8146-3e36a477eb78 | Fedora 20 | ACTIVE | |
| 3bda2a66-5c24-4b1d-b850-83333b580674 | Ubuntu 12.04 | ACTIVE | |
| 9bfac38c-688f-4b63-bf3b-69155463c0e7 | Ubuntu 14.04 | ACTIVE | |
| 6a123897-a5bb-46cd-8f5d-ecf9ab9877f2 | Windows-Server-2012-r2 | ACTIVE | |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------+--------+
Creating an instance
With the information that we previousl obtained, it is now possible to create an instance:
admin@server-1:~$ nova boot --key-name SSHKEY --flavor 98c1e679-5f2c-4069-b4da-4a4f7179b758 --image bdcb5042-3548-40d0-b06f-79551d3b4377 Instance1
After a few moments we can verify the list of instanes to find the created instance:
admin@server-1:~$ nova list
+--------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------+
| ID | Name | Status | Task State | Power State | Networks |
+--------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------+
| 81d01a19-b2d5-454d-98d9-bd8992ec2037 | Instance1 | ACTIVE | - | Running | Ext-Net=149.xxx.xxx.192 |
+--------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------+
Deleting an instance
It is possible to delete an instance with the following command:
admin@server-1:~$ nove delete Instance1
Request to delete server Instance1 has been accepted.
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