This is a client for the OpenStack Nova API. There's a Python API (the novatools module), and a command-line script (novatools). Each implements 100% of the OpenStack Nova API.

[PENDING] 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.

This code a fork of Jacobian's python-cloudservers If you need API support the Rackspace API soley, you should use that repository.

Installing this package gets you a shell command, novatools, that you can use to interact with any Rackspace compatible API (including OpenStack).

You'll need to provide your OpenStack 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 NOVA_USERNAME=openstack
export NOVA_API_KEY=yadayada

You will also need to define the authentication url with --url. Or set it as an environment variable as well:

export NOVA_URL=http://myserver:port/v1.0/

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

usage: novatools [--username USERNAME] [--apikey APIKEY]
                    [--url AUTH_URL] <subcommand> ...

Command-line interface to the OpenStack Nova 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.
    rescue              Rescue 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.
    unrescue            Unrescue a server.

Optional arguments:
  --username USERNAME   Defaults to env[NOVA_USERNAME].
  --apikey APIKEY       Defaults to env[NOVA_API_KEY].
  --url AUTH_URL        Defaults to env[NOVA_URL] or
                        https://auth.api.rackspacecloud.com/v1.0
                        if undefined.

See "novatools help COMMAND" for help on a specific command.

[PENDING] There's also a complete Python API.

By way of a quick-start:

>>> import novatools
>>> nt = novatools.OpenStack(USERNAME, API_KEY [, AUTH_URL])
>>> nt.flavors.list()
[...]
>>> nt.servers.list()
[...]
>>> s = nt.servers.create(image=2, flavor=1, name='myserver')

... time passes ...

>>> s.reboot()

... time passes ...

>>> s.delete()

[PENDING] See the release notes.