OpenStack & Automation
Estimated time to read: 2 minutes
Cyso Cloud is built on OpenStack, the open-source cloud infrastructure platform. Everything you can do in the Cyso Cloud dashboard can also be done programmatically — through the OpenStack API, CLI tools, or infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.
What is OpenStack?
OpenStack is a collection of open-source services that together provide a complete cloud computing platform. Each service covers a specific area of infrastructure:
| Service | Purpose | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nova | Compute | Creating and managing instances |
| Neutron | Networking | Networks, routers, floating IPs, security groups |
| Cinder | Block storage | Volumes attached to instances |
| Glance | Image service | OS images and instance snapshots |
| Keystone | Identity | Authentication and project/user management |
| Octavia | Load balancing | Distributing traffic across instances |
| Designate | DNS | Domain and record management |
Because Cyso Cloud exposes the standard OpenStack API, any tool that supports OpenStack will work with Cyso Cloud out of the box.
Ways to automate
OpenStack API
The OpenStack REST API gives you direct, low-level access to all cloud resources. You authenticate using your credentials from an OpenRC file and make HTTP requests against the API endpoints for each service.
See How to start with the Cyso Cloud API for a walkthrough of the API endpoints and authentication.
OpenStack CLI
The openstack CLI is a unified command-line client for all OpenStack services. After sourcing your OpenRC file it lets you manage instances, networks, volumes, images and more from your terminal.
Install guides for the CLI tools are available in the More section.
Terraform
Terraform uses the OpenStack provider to manage Cyso Cloud resources as code. You define your infrastructure in .tf files, and Terraform handles creating, updating, and destroying resources. This is the recommended approach for repeatable, version-controlled infrastructure.
See Deploy an instance using Terraform for a practical example.
Ansible
Ansible's OpenStack collection (openstack.cloud) can provision and configure cloud resources alongside your server configuration. This is useful when you want to create instances and immediately configure what runs on them in a single playbook.
Examples are available in the More section.
Getting started
The first step for any automation approach is downloading your OpenRC file — it contains the environment variables needed to authenticate against the OpenStack API.
See Credential Formats to get started.