For Windows installations please see Using the OpenStack CLI (Windows).
The OpenStack Command Line Interface (CLI) is a powerful tool for managing OpenStack resources. This guide will show you how to install the OpenStack CLI, log in to the OpenStack CLI, and use the OpenStack CLI to manage OpenStack resources.
This guide makes use of the clouds.yaml file to store OpenStack credentials.
You can also use environment variables to store your credentials using the
openrc file. The clouds.yaml file is the recommended way to store your
OpenStack credentials, as it is easier to manage and add multiple clouds
(projects, regions etc.).
The installation of the OpenStack CLI is different for each Operating System and distrubution. Below you will find the installation instructions for the most common Linux distributions.
For Windows installations please see Using the OpenStack CLI (Windows).
Instruction for Debian
Instruction for Ubuntu
Instruction for CentOS Stream
To install the OpenStack CLI, run the following commands:
Step 1
Update your package list to make sure we install the latest version of the
OpenStack CLI.
sudo apt update
Step 2
We will now install the OpenStack CLI
Note: Installing the OpenStack CLI using the package manager will install the OpenStack CLI and all the required dependencies. The downside of this method is that you might not have the latest version of the OpenStack CLI. If you want to install the latest version of the OpenStack CLI, you can use pip3 to install the OpenStack CLI, more information can be found on the python-openstackclient PyPi page.
sudo apt install python3-openstackclient
After the installation has finished proceed to Preparing your OpenStack Credentials.
To install the OpenStack CLI, run the following commands:
Step 1
Update your package list to make sure we install the latest version of the
OpenStack CLI.
sudo apt update
Step 2
Install python3 and pip3 which are required to install the OpenStack CLI
sudo apt install python3 python3-pip
Step 3
We will now update pip3 to make sure we use the latest version of pip3
sudo pip3 install --upgrade pip
Step 4
Now we can install the OpenStack CLI
sudo pip3 install python-openstackclient
After the installation has finished proceed to Preparing your OpenStack Credentials.
To install the OpenStack CLI, run the following commands:
Step 1
Install python3 and pip3
sudo dnf install python3 python3-pip
Step 2
We will now update pip3 to make sure we use the latest version of pip3
sudo pip3 install --upgrade pip
Step 3
Now we can install the OpenStack CLI
sudo pip3 install python-openstackclient
After the installation has finished proceed to Preparing your OpenStack Credentials.
After installing the OpenStack CLI, we need to prepare our credentials to make sure we are able to login using the OpenStack CLI.
Step 1
First we will create a file to store our OpenStack credentials. In this
tutorial we will use the clouds.yaml file to store our credentials. You
can also use environment variables to store your credentials using the
openrc file.
Create the directory in which the clouds.yaml file will be stored.
mkdir -p ~/.config/openstack
Step 2
We will now create the clouds.yaml file, the next step will describe how to
populate the file with the necessary information.
nano ~/.config/openstack/clouds.yaml
Step 3
In the clouds.yaml file add the following content to it. Replace: region,
<cloud_name>, <auth_url>, <username>, <password>, <project_name>, <project_id>,
<user_domain_name>, and <project_domain_name> with your OpenStack
credentials.
clouds:
<cloud_name>:
auth:
auth_url: <auth_url>
username: "<username>"
project_id: <project_id>
project_name: "<project_name>"
user_domain_name: "<user_domain_name>"
password: "<password>"
region_name: "<region>"
interface: "public"
identity_api_version: 3
Note: The cloud_name can be any name you want to give to your cloud. We recommend using the region name as the cloud name.
Note: If you do not know all information, you can download the clouds.yaml file from the OpenStack dashboard. Go to the OpenStack dashboard, click on
Projectand thenAPI Access. Click onDOWNLOAD OPENSTACK RC FILEand click onOPENSTACK CLOUDS.YAML FILE. This will download the clouds.yaml file with all the necessary information.
Note: For security reasons you may want to remove the
passwordline from the clouds.yaml file, when you enter a command in the OpenStack CLI your password will be asked for.
Step 4
Now save the file and exit the text editor. by pressing CTRL + X and then Y
and Enter.
After you have configured your credentials you can procceed to Using the OpenStack CLI to test if the OpenStack CLI works.
Now that we have installed the OpenStack CLI, we can use the OpenStack CLI to manage our OpenStack resources.
First we we need to specify the cloud (project/region) we want to use. make
sure to replace <cloud_name> with the name you used in the clouds.yaml
file.
export OS_CLOUD=<cloud_name>
Now we can use the OpenStack CLI to manage our OpenStack resources. For example, to list all the available images, run the following command:
openstack image list
To list all openstack instances (servers), run the following command:
openstack flavor list
Your are now ready to use the OpenStack CLI to manage your OpenStack resources. The OpenStack CLI has many more commands and options, so be sure to check the OpenStack CLI documentation
Note: Instead of setting the
OS_CLOUDenvironment variable you can also specify the cloud using the--os-cloudoption in the OpenStack CLI commands.