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Python bindings to the Rackspace Cloud Servers API

This is a client for the OpenStack Compute API used by Rackspace Cloud and others. There's a Python API (the `openstack.compute module), and a command-line program (installed as openstack-compute). Each implements the entire OpenStack Compute API (as well as a few Rackspace-only addons).

Full documentation is available.

You'll also probably want to read Rackspace's API guide (PDF) -- the first bit, at least -- to get an idea of the concepts. Rackspace is doing the cloud hosting thing a bit differently from Amazon, and if you get the concepts this library should make more sense.

Development takes place on GitHub. Bug reports and patches may be filed there.

Installing this package gets you a shell command, openstack-compute, that you can use to interact with Rackspace.

You'll need to provide your Rackspace username and API key. You can do this with the --username and --apikey params, but it's easier to just set them as environment variables:

export OPENSTACK_COMPUTE_USERNAME=jacobian
export OPENSTACK_COMPUTE_API_KEY=yadayada

You'll find complete documentation on the shell by running cloudservers help:

usage: openstack-compute [--username USERNAME] [--apikey APIKEY] <subcommand> ...

Command-line interface to the OpenStack Compute API.

Positional arguments:
  <subcommand>
    backup-schedule     Show or edit the backup schedule for a server.
    backup-schedule-delete
                        Delete the backup schedule for a server.
    boot                Boot a new server.
    delete              Immediately shut down and delete a server.
    flavor-list         Print a list of available 'flavors' (sizes of
                        servers).
    help                Display help about this program or one of its
                        subcommands.
    image-create        Create a new image by taking a snapshot of a running
                        server.
    image-delete        Delete an image.
    image-list          Print a list of available images to boot from.
    ip-share            Share an IP address from the given IP group onto a
                        server.
    ip-unshare          Stop sharing an given address with a server.
    ipgroup-create      Create a new IP group.
    ipgroup-delete      Delete an IP group.
    ipgroup-list        Show IP groups.
    ipgroup-show        Show details about a particular IP group.
    list                List active servers.
    reboot              Reboot a server.
    rebuild             Shutdown, re-image, and re-boot a server.
    rename              Rename a server.
    resize              Resize a server.
    resize-confirm      Confirm a previous resize.
    resize-revert       Revert a previous resize (and return to the previous
                        VM).
    root-password       Change the root password for a server.
    show                Show details about the given server.

Optional arguments:
  --username USERNAME   Defaults to env[OPENSTACK_COMPUTE_USERNAME].
  --apikey APIKEY       Defaults to env[OPENSTACK_COMPUTE_API_KEY].

See "openstack-compute help COMMAND" for help on a specific command.

There's also a complete Python API.

By way of a quick-start:

>>> import openstack.compute
>>> compute = openstack.compute.Compute(USERNAME, API_KEY)
>>> compute.flavors.list()
[...]
>>> compute.servers.list()
[...]
>>> s = compute.servers.create(image=2, flavor=1, name='myserver')

... time passes ...

>>> s.reboot()

... time passes ...

>>> s.delete()

What's wrong with libcloud?

Nothing! However, as a cross-service binding it's by definition lowest common denominator; I needed access to the OpenStack-specific APIs (shared IP groups, image snapshots, resizing, etc.). I also wanted a command-line utility.

See the release notes.