OpenStack CLI

Installation

The easiest way to install the OpenStack CLI is to utilize your OS packages. But if you want to install it manually you will need to already have Python on your system.

Ubuntu or DebianmacOSpip

apt install python3-openstackclient

brew install openstackclient

# create Python virtualenv at $HOME/.openstack
python -m venv $HOME/.openstack
# install the tools
$HOME/.openstack/bin/pip install python-openstackclient 'python-ironicclient[cli]'

# create a binary wrapper to the virtualenv
mkdir -p $HOME/.bin
cat <<- "EOF" > $HOME/.bin/openstack
#!/bin/sh
source $HOME/.openstack/bin/activate
exec $HOME/.openstack/bin/openstack "$@"
EOF
chmod +x $HOME/.bin/openstack

# add it to our PATH
export PATH="$HOME/.bin:$PATH"

# make sure we always have it
cat <<- "EOF" >> $HOME/.bashrc
export PATH="$HOME/.bin:$PATH"
EOF

Configuration

The easiest way to configure your client is via clouds.yaml.

$HOME/.config/openstack/clouds.yaml

clouds:
  understack:
    auth:
      auth_url: https://your.endpoint.url/v3
      user_domain_name: mydomain
      username: myuser
      password: mypass
      project_domain_name: mydomain
      project_name: myproject
    region_name:
      - MyRegion
    interface: public
    identity_api_version: 3

With the above configuration in $HOME/.config/openstack/clouds.yaml you will be able to run the OpenStack CLI as follows:

openstack --os-cloud understack <sub-command-here>

Or you can set the OS_CLOUD environment variable once and shorten the command as follows:

export OS_CLOUD=understack
openstack <sub-command-here>