vRO and the OpenStack Public API

This is the second post regarding the interaction of vRealize Orchestrator and OpenStack. The first Post can be found here:

vRO and OpenStack thoughts on the Orchestrator

As I already mentioned in the first post it is possible to interact from vRO with OpenStack. Before we start with an example I would point you to the OpenStack API structure.

OpenStack knows two different APIs.

–          The Public API

–          The Admin API

The APIs are accessible over different Ports. The Standard Port for the Public API is port 5000. The Admin API is accessible over Port 35357. The Ports can be changed in the configuration files. I used the standard ports in my environment. So when you try to build the workflows for our environment take a look at the used ports. I created my OpenStack Installation on a single host. This isn’t the best configuration and most installations will have different servers for the services. This is also something which a take care when you start to create the Demos.

Now let’s come back to the admin and the public API. The public API offers some functions but not all. For example you cannot create a user on the public API. Therefore you have to use the Admin API.

For the two APIs you have to use different authentication ways but we will come to that later.

OpenStack offers a lot of documentation regarding the functions which are available on the API. Here is a links which are useful for the development of the workflows.

http://docs.openstack.org/api/openstack-identity-service/2.0/content/preface.html

Every service in OpenStack has such a documentation. In my examples I will work with the Identify services were the link above pointed to.

First thing we have to do is to add the Rest Host to vRO. Due the circumstance, that you must use different ports to access the public and admin API you have to create to REST Hosts with different ports.

Just insert the needed information’s in the workflow for the host. If you server provide the possibility to use HTTPS just change the URL to use the secure Protocol to access the API. This is recommended!

I doesn’t need a proxy server so I can go  fast over this screen.

The last page is for Authentication. We provide the user information in our workflow so we doesn’t need the Host Authentication and set it to “none”.

After we have insert the REST Host we can start with the first workflow. Before we can “access” public API functions we have to authenticate to the Identity service.

The authentication is done with JSON formatted call to the API. The API response is also in JSON. To create the Authentication Token we have to make the Call to the OpenStack Server. The call is done as a PUT command to the /v2.0/tokens extension.

Here a quote from the API documentation mentioned above.

Client authentication is provided through a ReST interface by using the POST method with v2.0/tokens supplied as the path. Include a payload of credentials in the body.

The Identity API is a ReSTful web service. It is the entry point to all service APIs. To access the Identity API, you must know its URL.

Each ReST request against the Identity Service requires the X-Auth-Token header. Clients obtain this token, along with the URL to other service APIs, by first authenticating against Identity with valid credentials.

So, let’s use this information for a first workflow or better a first action which handles the authentication. My Action is named “OpenStackCreateAuthToken”. In vRO we start with a new action element. The Action itself need some parameter.

This parameter are required to specific the REST Host with parameter, Username, Password and so on. In the Scripting Section we insert this code:

// We need a Json formatted String for Authentication. We build together the JSON String with the information we request for the Workflow.

var content = '{"auth": {"passwordCredentials": {"username": "' + authUserName + '","password": "' + authPassword + '"}}}';

// After we have built the Json String we create the Session and insert the Answer in the Response

var SessionRequest = RestHost.createRequest("POST", "/v2.0/tokens", content);

SessionRequest.contentType = "application/json";

var SessionResponse = SessionRequest.execute();

// Show the Content

System.log("Session Response: " + SessionResponse.contentAsString);

//Split the response as Json

var JsonContent = JSON.parse(SessionResponse.contentAsString);

// Here we get the ID with is used for Authentication in the following sections.

var SessionIDKey = JsonContent.access.token.id

// Just for information

System.log(" Session Key: " + SessionIDKey);

// The Session ID Key were will work with

return SessionIDKey

I provided required information in the code itself for explanation.

After we have created our action, we create a New Workflow. I put it in a OpenStack Folder with the name “OpenStackGetTenants”.

On the Schema Tab I added the Action which I created before.

Now we need to Create Inputs for the Action. You can do this via Drag and Drop on the Visual Binding.

In the Attributes, I already insert some Values for the connection.

These values are required for the connection. Now let’s start with a first run.

When everything worked fine you become an Output similar to mine.

As we can see we got a session key which we can use in another workflow or action.

Now let’s create a second Action. I named it “OpenStackGetTenantID”. Like before we need some Inputs.

A lot of them we already used before.

Know lets create the script.

//Authenticate the request with the X-Auth-Token

var SessionRequest = RestHost.createRequest("GET", "/v2.0/tenants", null);

SessionRequest.setHeader("X-Auth-Token", SessionID);

var SessionResponse = SessionRequest.execute();

// Log which answer did we get from the API Request

System.log("Session Response: " + SessionResponse.contentAsString);

//Let's split the API Response to filter for our wanted information

var JsonContent = JSON.parse(SessionResponse.contentAsString);

var Tenants = JsonContent.tenants

// Now we want search for our specified tenant (Name)

for (var idx=0; idx < Tenants.length ; idx++) {

if (Tenants[idx].name.toLowerCase() == TenantName.toLowerCase()){

var TenantID = Tenants[idx].id;

}

}

// Let's provide the Output when it is not null

if (TenantID != null) {

System.log("Tenant Name: " + TenantName + " found");

System.log(" Session Key: " + TenantID);

return TenantID;

}

else{

System.log("Tenant not found!");

}

After we finished the Action we extend our Workflow we created before.

First we create an additional attribute to output the Tenant ID which can be used in following workflows.

After that we use the “Visual Binding” Editor to bind the parameter.

Validate the workflow and let’s run it.

As you can see I have an additional input. I use this input to filter the response for a specific Tenant. As you can see we found the tenant.

So this was an example of how to use the OpenStack Public API. In the next post we interact with the Admin API.

Have fun and orchestrate the World 😉