Command-line client overview

Command-line client overview

OpenStackClient project provides a unified command-line client, which enables you to access the project API through easy-to-use commands. Also, most OpenStack project provides a command-line client for each service. For example, the Compute service provides a nova command-line client.

You can run the commands from the command line, or include the commands within scripts to automate tasks. If you provide OpenStack credentials, such as your user name and password, you can run these commands on any computer.

Internally, each command uses cURL command-line tools, which embed API requests. OpenStack APIs are RESTful APIs, and use the HTTP protocol. They include methods, URIs, media types, and response codes.

OpenStack APIs are open-source Python clients, and can run on Linux or Mac OS X systems. On some client commands, you can specify a debug parameter to show the underlying API request for the command. This is a good way to become familiar with the OpenStack API calls.

As a cloud end user, you can use the OpenStack dashboard to provision your own resources within the limits set by administrators. You can modify the examples provided in this section to create other types and sizes of server instances.

Unified command-line client

You can use the unified openstack command (python-openstackclient) for the most of OpenStack services. For more information, see OpenStackClient document.

Individual command-line clients

Unless the unified OpenStack Client (python-openstackclient) is used, the following table lists the command-line client for each OpenStack service with its package name and description.

OpenStack services and clients
Service Client Package Description
Application Catalog service murano python-muranoclient Creates and manages applications.
Bare Metal service ironic python-ironicclient manages and provisions physical machines.
Block Storage service cinder python-cinderclient Creates and manages volumes.
Clustering service senlin python-senlinclient Creates and manages clustering services.
Compute service nova python-novaclient Creates and manages images, instances, and flavors.
Container Infrastructure Management service magnum python-magnumclient Creates and manages containers.
Data Processing service sahara python-saharaclient Creates and manages Hadoop clusters on OpenStack.
Database service trove python-troveclient Creates and manages databases.
Deployment service fuel python-fuelclient Plans deployments.
DNS service designate python-designateclient Creates and manages self service authoritative DNS.
Image service glance python-glanceclient Creates and manages images.
Key Manager service barbican python-barbicanclient Creates and manages keys.
Monitoring monasca python-monascaclient Monitoring solution.
Networking service neutron python-neutronclient Configures networks for guest servers.
Object Storage service swift python-swiftclient Gathers statistics, lists items, updates metadata, and uploads, downloads, and deletes files stored by the Object Storage service. Gains access to an Object Storage installation for ad hoc processing.
Orchestration service heat python-heatclient Launches stacks from templates, views details of running stacks including events and resources, and updates and deletes stacks.
Rating service cloudkitty python-cloudkittyclient Rating service.
Shared File Systems service manila python-manilaclient Creates and manages shared file systems.
Telemetry service ceilometer python-ceilometerclient Creates and collects measurements across OpenStack.
Telemetry v3 gnocchi python-gnocchiclient Creates and collects measurements across OpenStack.
Workflow service mistral python-mistralclient Workflow service for OpenStack cloud.
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