Getting Started With Rackspace

Rackspace is a major public cloud platform and is one of the core platforms that Salt Cloud has been built to support.

  • Using the old format, set up the cloud configuration at /etc/salt/cloud:
# Set the location of the salt-master
#
minion:
  master: saltmaster.example.com

# Configure Rackspace using the OpenStack plugin
#
OPENSTACK.identity_url: 'https://identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2.0/tokens'
OPENSTACK.compute_name: cloudServersOpenStack
OPENSTACK.protocol: ipv4

# Set the compute region:
#
OPENSTACK.compute_region: DFW

# Configure Rackspace authentication credentials
#
OPENSTACK.user: myname
OPENSTACK.tenant: 123456
OPENSTACK.apikey: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Using the new format, set up the cloud configuration at /etc/salt/cloud.providers or /etc/salt/cloud.providers.d/rackspace.conf:
my-rackspace-config:
  # Set the location of the salt-master
  #
  minion:
    master: saltmaster.example.com

  # Configure Rackspace using the OpenStack plugin
  #
  identity_url: 'https://identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2.0/tokens'
  compute_name: cloudServersOpenStack
  protocol: ipv4

  # Set the compute region:
  #
  compute_region: DFW

  # Configure Rackspace authentication credentials
  #
  user: myname
  tenant: 123456
  apikey: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  provider: openstack

Compute Region

Rackspace currently has three compute regions which may be used:

DFW -> Dallas/Forth Worth
ORD -> Chicago
LON -> London

Note: if you are using LON with a UK account, using the old cloud providers syntax, you must use the following identity_url and compute_region:

OPENSTACK.identity_url: 'https://lon.identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2.0/tokens'
OPENSTACK.compute_region: LON

And using the new cloud providers syntax:

my-openstack-config:
  identity_url: 'https://lon.identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2.0/tokens'
  compute_region: LON

Authentication

The user is the same user as is used to log into the Rackspace Control Panel. The tenant and apikey can be found in the API Keys area of the Control Panel. The apikey will be labeled as API Key (and may need to be generated), and tenant will be labeled as Cloud Account Number.

An initial profile can be configured in /etc/salt/cloud.profiles or /etc/salt/cloud.profiles.d/openstack.conf:

  • Using the old cloud configuration format:
openstack_512:
    provider: openstack
    size: 512MB Standard Instance
    image: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)
  • Using the new cloud configuration format and the example configuration from above:
openstack_512:
    provider: my-openstack-config
    size: 512MB Standard Instance
    image: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

To instantiate a machine based on this profile:

# salt-cloud -p openstack_512 myinstance

This will create a virtual machine at Rackspace with the name myinstance. This operation may take several minutes to complete, depending on the current load at the Rackspace data center.

Once the instance has been created with salt-minion installed, connectivity to it can be verified with Salt:

# salt myinstance test.ping

First and Next Generation Images

Rackspace provides two sets of virtual machine images, first and next generation. As of 0.8.9 salt-cloud will default to using the next generation images. To force the use of first generation images, on the profile configuration please add:

FreeBSD-9.0-512:
  provider: my-openstack-config
  size: 512MB Standard Instance
  image: FreeBSD 9.0
  force_first_gen: True

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