getting-started-compute.md

Getting started with pkgcloud & Rackspace

The Rackspace node.js SDK is available as part of pkgcloud, a multi-provider cloud provisioning package. In addition to the Rackspace provider, pkgcloud also has an OpenStack compute provider.

Pkgcloud currently supports Rackspace Next Generation Cloud Servers, Cloud Files, and Cloud Databases.

To install pkgcloud from the command line:

npm install pkgcloud

Don't have npm or node yet? Get it now.

Using pkgcloud

In this example, we're going to create a Rackspace compute client, create two servers, and then output their details to the command line.

Note: We're going to use lodash.js for some convenience functions.

var pkgcloud = require('pkgcloud'),
    _ = require('lodash');

// create our client with your rackspace credentials
var client = pkgcloud.providers.rackspace.compute.createClient({
  username: 'your-username',
  apiKey:   'your-api-key',
  region: 'your-region' // see http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/about-regions
});

// first we're going to get our flavors
client.getFlavors(function (err, flavors) {
    if (err) {
        console.dir(err);
        return;
    }

    // then get our base images
    client.getImages(function (err, images) {
        if (err) {
            console.dir(err);
            return;
        }

        // Pick a 512MB instance flavor
        var flavor = _.findWhere(flavors, { name: '512MB Standard Instance' });

        // Pick an image based on Ubuntu 12.04
        var image = _.findWhere(images, { name: 'Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)' });

        // Create our first server
        client.createServer({
            name: 'server1',
            image: image,
            flavor: flavor
        }, handleServerResponse);

        // Create our second server
        client.createServer({
            name: 'server2',
            image: image,
            flavor: flavor
        }, handleServerResponse);
    });
});

// This function will handle our server creation,
// as well as waiting for the server to come online after we've
// created it.
function handleServerResponse(err, server) {
    if (err) {
        console.dir(err);
        return;
    }

    console.log('SERVER CREATED: ' + server.name + ', waiting for active status');

    // Wait for status: ACTIVE on our server, and then callback
    server.setWait({ status: 'ACTIVE' }, 5000, function (err) {
        if (err) {
            console.dir(err);
            return;
        }

        console.log('SERVER INFO');
        console.log(server.name);
        console.log(server.status);
        console.log(server.id);

        console.log('Make sure you DELETE server: ' + server.id +
            ' in order to not accrue billing charges');
    });
}