Working with Cloud Compute InstancesΒΆ

Using the SoftLayer portal for ordering Cloud Compute Instances is fine but for a number of reasons it’s sometimes to use the command-line. For this, you can use the SoftLayer command-line client to make administrative tasks quicker and easier. This page gives an intro to working with SoftLayer Cloud Compute Instances using the SoftLayer command-line client.

Note

The following assumes that the client is already configured with valid SoftLayer credentials.

First, let’s list the current Cloud Compute Instances with sl cci list.

$ sl cci list
:....:............:......:.......:........:............:............:....................:
: id : datacenter : host : cores : memory : primary_ip : backend_ip : active_transaction :
:....:............:......:.......:........:............:............:....................:
:....:............:......:.......:........:............:............:....................:

We don’t have any Cloud Compute Instances! Let’s fix that. Before we can create a CCI, we need to know what options are available to me: RAM, CPU, operating systems, disk sizes, disk types, datacenters. Luckily, there’s a simple command to do that, sl cci create-options.

$ sl cci create-options
:.................:..............................................................................................:
:            Name : Value                                                                                        :
:.................:..............................................................................................:
:      datacenter : ams01,dal01,dal05,sea01,sjc01,sng01,wdc01                                                    :
:  cpus (private) : 1,2,4,8                                                                                      :
: cpus (standard) : 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16                                                       :
:          memory : 1024,2048,3072,4096,5120,6144,7168,8192,9216,10240,11264,12288,13312,14336,15360,16384,32768 :
:     os (CENTOS) : CENTOS_5_32                                                                                  :
:                 : CENTOS_5_64                                                                                  :
:                 : CENTOS_6_32                                                                                  :
:                 : CENTOS_6_64                                                                                  :
: os (CLOUDLINUX) : CLOUDLINUX_5_32                                                                              :
:                 : CLOUDLINUX_5_64                                                                              :
:                 : CLOUDLINUX_6_32                                                                              :
:                 : CLOUDLINUX_6_64                                                                              :
:     os (DEBIAN) : DEBIAN_5_32                                                                                  :
:                 : DEBIAN_5_64                                                                                  :
:                 : DEBIAN_6_32                                                                                  :
:                 : DEBIAN_6_64                                                                                  :
:                 : DEBIAN_7_32                                                                                  :
:                 : DEBIAN_7_64                                                                                  :
:     os (REDHAT) : REDHAT_5_64                                                                                  :
:                 : REDHAT_6_32                                                                                  :
:                 : REDHAT_6_64                                                                                  :
:     os (UBUNTU) : UBUNTU_10_32                                                                                 :
:                 : UBUNTU_10_64                                                                                 :
:                 : UBUNTU_12_32                                                                                 :
:                 : UBUNTU_12_64                                                                                 :
:                 : UBUNTU_8_32                                                                                  :
:                 : UBUNTU_8_64                                                                                  :
:   os (VYATTACE) : VYATTACE_6.5_64                                                                              :
:        os (WIN) : WIN_2003-DC-SP2-1_32                                                                         :
:                 : WIN_2003-DC-SP2-1_64                                                                         :
:                 : WIN_2003-ENT-SP2-5_32                                                                        :
:                 : WIN_2003-ENT-SP2-5_64                                                                        :
:                 : WIN_2003-STD-SP2-5_32                                                                        :
:                 : WIN_2003-STD-SP2-5_64                                                                        :
:                 : WIN_2008-DC-R2_64                                                                            :
:                 : WIN_2008-DC-SP2_32                                                                           :
:                 : WIN_2008-DC-SP2_64                                                                           :
:                 : WIN_2008-ENT-R2_64                                                                           :
:                 : WIN_2008-ENT-SP2_32                                                                          :
:                 : WIN_2008-ENT-SP2_64                                                                          :
:                 : WIN_2008-STD-R2-SP1_64                                                                       :
:                 : WIN_2008-STD-R2_64                                                                           :
:                 : WIN_2008-STD-SP2_32                                                                          :
:                 : WIN_2008-STD-SP2_64                                                                          :
:                 : WIN_2012-DC_64                                                                               :
:                 : WIN_2012-STD_64                                                                              :
:                 : WIN_7-ENT_32                                                                                 :
:                 : WIN_7-PRO_32                                                                                 :
:                 : WIN_8-ENT_64                                                                                 :
:   local disk(0) : 25,100                                                                                       :
:   local disk(2) : 25,100,150,200,300                                                                           :
:     san disk(0) : 25,100                                                                                       :
:     san disk(2) : 10,20,25,30,40,50,75,100,125,150,175,200,250,300,350,400,500,750,1000,1500,2000              :
:     san disk(3) : 10,20,25,30,40,50,75,100,125,150,175,200,250,300,350,400,500,750,1000,1500,2000              :
:     san disk(4) : 10,20,25,30,40,50,75,100,125,150,175,200,250,300,350,400,500,750,1000,1500,2000              :
:     san disk(5) : 10,20,25,30,40,50,75,100,125,150,175,200,250,300,350,400,500,750,1000,1500,2000              :
:             nic : 10,100,1000                                                                                  :
:.................:..............................................................................................:

Here’s the command to create a 2-core, 1G memory, Ubuntu 12.04 hourly instance in the San Jose datacenter using the command sl cci create.

$ sl cci create --host=example --domain=softlayer.com -c 2 -m 1024 -o UBUNTU_12_64 --hourly --datacenter sjc01
This action will incur charges on your account. Continue? [y/N]: y
:.........:......................................:
:    name : value                                :
:.........:......................................:
:      id : 1234567                              :
: created : 2013-06-13T08:29:44-06:00            :
:    guid : 6e013cde-a863-46ee-8s9a-f806dba97c89 :
:.........:......................................:

With the last command, the Cloud Compute Instance has begun being created. It should instantly appear in your listing now.

$ sl cci list
:.........:............:.......................:.......:........:................:..............:....................:
:    id   : datacenter :          host         : cores : memory :   primary_ip   :  backend_ip  : active_transaction :
:.........:............:.......................:.......:........:................:..............:....................:
: 1234567 :   sjc01    : example.softlayer.com :   2   :   1G   : 108.168.200.11 : 10.54.80.200 :    Assign Host     :
:.........:............:.......................:.......:........:................:..............:....................:

Cool. You may ask “It’s creating... but how do I know when it’s done?”. Well, here’s how:

$ sl cci ready 'example' --wait=600
READY

When the previous command returns, I know that the Cloud Compute Instance has finished the provisioning process and is ready to use. This is very useful for chaining commands together. Now that you have your Cloud Compute Instance, let’s get access to it. To do that, use the sl cci detail command. From the example below, you can see that the username is ‘root’ and password is ‘ABCDEFGH’.

Warning

Be careful when using the –passwords flag. This will print the password to the Cloud Compute Instance onto the screen. Make sure no one is looking over your shoulder. It’s also advisable to change your root password soon after creating your Cloud Compute Instance.

$ sl cci detail example --passwords
:..............:...........................:
:         Name : Value                     :
:..............:...........................:
:           id : 1234567                   :
:     hostname : example.softlayer.com     :
:       status : Active                    :
:        state : Running                   :
:   datacenter : sjc01                     :
:        cores : 2                         :
:       memory : 1G                        :
:    public_ip : 108.168.200.11            :
:   private_ip : 10.54.80.200              :
:           os : Ubuntu                    :
: private_only : False                     :
:  private_cpu : False                     :
:      created : 2013-06-13T08:29:44-06:00 :
:     modified : 2013-06-13T08:31:57-06:00 :
:        users : root ABCDEFGH             :
:..............:...........................:

There are many other commands to help manage Cloud Compute Instances. To see them all, use sl help cci.

$ sl help cci
usage: sl cci [<command>] [<args>...] [options]

Manage, delete, order compute instances

The available commands are:
  network         Manage network settings
  create          Order and create a CCI
                    (see `sl cci create-options` for choices)
  manage          Manage active CCI
  list            List CCI's on the account
  detail          Output details about a CCI
  dns             DNS related actions to a CCI
  cancel          Cancel a running CCI
  create-options  Output available available options when creating a CCI
  reload          Reload the OS on a CCI based on its current configuration
  ready           Check if a CCI has finished provisioning

For several commands, <identifier> will be asked for. This can be the id,
hostname or the ip address for a CCI.

Standard Options:
  -h --help  Show this screen

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