Working with resources via the CLI

Tip

Reading CLI authentication and which authentication method should I use? is highly recommended before continuing on the following sections.

The Chameleon CLI is built on the OpenStack Client, along with a few service-specific clients (Blazar, Manila, Heat, Swift) for features beyond core compute and networking. Rather than duplicate command references here, this page covers the modes you can run the CLI in, and then maps out where each task is actually documented, alongside the equivalent GUI instructions.

Command modes

You can use the CLI in either Interactive Mode or Shell Mode. In either mode, the OpenStack client has to be configured by using the OpenStack RC Script or by providing the command line switches. For more information about the usage of the OpenStack client, run openstack --help.

Interactive mode

The Interactive Mode allows you to use the openstack commands through an interactive prompt. To start the Interactive Mode, type openstack in the configured terminal. Once entering the Interactive Mode, you will see a (openstack) prompt. Type the command you would like to run at the prompt. To find out the commands, type help.

Shell mode

Each CLI command can be used in your terminal exactly the same way that it appears in the Interactive Mode, simply by preceding the command with openstack. For example, the command image list in the Interactive Mode is equivalent to the command openstack image list in the Shell Mode.

Common tasks

Discover hardware and resources: resource discovery is available via the GUI and the REST API — there is no dedicated openstack CLI command for browsing hardware, see Resource Discovery for details.
Reserve resources (leases): create and manage Blazar leases for bare metal nodes, network segments (VLANs), and floating IPs.
Launch and manage bare metal instances: create, list, and delete bare metal servers.
Work with KVM instances: KVM-specific CLI tasks, such as converting images to raw format for better launch performance.
Manage images and snapshots: upload, list, and snapshot images.
Manage the object store: upload and retrieve objects via Swift.
Manage shares: create and manage shared file systems via Manila.
Manage complex appliances: orchestrate multi-resource appliances via Heat.