The Heat command line client

In true OpenStack fashion there is a Heat command line client. To our biased eye, the command line tool seems more fully featured and gives more detailed feedback than the dashboard, so we prefer to use it when developing templates.

Instructions on installing the command line tools can be found here.

We will step through some the actions the command line tool can perform, using one of the NeCTAR Heat sample templates.

To list all the stacks you have created do (don't forget to source your RC file before you start!):

heat stack-list

Repeat the above command liberally as you step through the following commands!

To validate the template (all one line):

heat template-validate --template-url https://raw.github.com/NeCTAR-RC/heat-templates/master/yaml/Fedora/WordPress_Single_Instance.yaml

Then to use the template to create a stack named "teststack" (again, all one line):

heat create teststack --template-url=https://raw.github.com/NeCTAR-RC/heat-templates/master/yaml/Fedora/WordPress_Single_Instance.yaml --parameters="InstanceType=m1.small;DBUsername=dbuser;DBPassword=verybadpassword;DBRootPassword=anotherverybadpassword;KeyName=nectar_dev"

PS: Don't forget to customise the command: e.g.: replace the passwords with far better ones, and also to change the key name to match one of your keys.

Shell commands for exploring stacks: