Manage the cloud¶

System administrators can use nova client and euca2ools commands to manage their clouds.

nova client and euca2ools can be used by all users, though specific commands might be restricted by Role Based Access Control in the Identity Service.

Managing the cloud with nova client

1. The python-novaclient package provides a nova shell that enables Compute API interactions from the command line. Install the client, and provide your user name and password (which can be set as environment variables for convenience), for the ability to administer the cloud from the command line.

   To install python-novaclient, download the tarball from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-novaclient/#downloads and then install it in your favorite Python environment:

   $ curl -O http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/python-novaclient/python-novaclient-2.6.3.tar.gz
   $ tar -zxvf python-novaclient-2.6.3.tar.gz
   $ cd python-novaclient-2.6.3
   

   As root, run:

   # python setup.py install
   

2. Confirm the installation was successful:

   $ nova help
   usage: nova [--version] [--debug] [--os-cache] [--timings]
               [--timeout SECONDS] [--os-username AUTH_USER_NAME]
               [--os-password AUTH_PASSWORD]
               [--os-tenant-name AUTH_TENANT_NAME]
               [--os-tenant-id AUTH_TENANT_ID] [--os-auth-url AUTH_URL]
               [--os-region-name REGION_NAME] [--os-auth-system AUTH_SYSTEM]
               [--service-type SERVICE_TYPE] [--service-name SERVICE_NAME]
               [--volume-service-name VOLUME_SERVICE_NAME]
               [--endpoint-type ENDPOINT_TYPE]
               [--os-compute-api-version COMPUTE_API_VERSION]
               [--os-cacert CA_CERTIFICATE] [--insecure]
               [--bypass-url BYPASS_URL]
               SUBCOMMAND ...
   

   Running nova help returns a list of nova commands and parameters. To get help for a subcommand, run:

   $ nova help SUBCOMMAND
   

   For a complete list of nova commands and parameters, see the OpenStack Command-Line Reference.

3. Set the required parameters as environment variables to make running commands easier. For example, you can add --os-username as a nova option, or set it as an environment variable. To set the user name, password, and tenant as environment variables, use:

   $ export OS_USERNAME=joecool
   $ export OS_PASSWORD=coolword
   $ export OS_TENANT_NAME=coolu
   

4. The Identity service will give you an authentication endpoint, which Compute recognizes as OS_AUTH_URL:

   $ export OS_AUTH_URL=http://hostname:5000/v2.0
   $ export NOVA_VERSION=1.1