The RackConnect API provides a way for you to access certain read-only information about your Cloud Servers and their RackConnect configuration. The RackConnect API is available to all customers who can manage their RackConnect configurations through the MyRackspace Portal interface.

Using the Cloud Servers API to check automation status

In addition to the RackConnect API detailed in this article, there is now another method of querying the RackConnect Automation Status of your Next-Gen Cloud Servers. You may now also use the Cloud Servers API to query the RackConnect Automation Status of your Cloud Servers.

The benefits of using this method are that you do not need to query the status from within the same Cloud Server you would like the status of. The limitations of using this method are that only the RackConnect Automation Status is available, and this method is only compatible with Next-Gen Cloud Servers. If you are interested in utilizing the metadata option, please view the following article: How to programmatically determine the RackConnect Automation Status of your Cloud Servers

The RackConnect API

1. When you are scripting or automating any post-server build configuration tasks, you can query the API to learn when RackConnect automation is completed configuring your server so that any tasks you wish to perform, don't conflict with the automation being performed by RackConnect.

2. When you are setting up the network configuration manually on your Cloud Server (when the "Configure Network Stack" automation feature is disabled on your Cloud Account) the API will return the gateway IP address to be used as the default gateway on your Cloud Server, which you can then use to correctly configure the Cloud Server network stack.

3. When you wish to determine the specific actions the automation will take against one of your Cloud Servers you can view the status of each automation feature for a specific Cloud Server.

API Basics

The RackConnect API is exposed via regional endpoints. The endpoint that you select should match the region that your Cloud Server resides in.

• https://dfw.api.rackconnect.rackspace.com

• https://ord.api.rackconnect.rackspace.com

• https://lon.api.rackconnect.rackspace.com

The URLs for each API operation include a version number. We will update this documentation as future versions of the calls are made available. It is important to note that this version number does not relate to the version of RackConnect that you are leveraging.

Authentication

The RackConnect API authenticates all requests based on the source IP address initiating the request. The API endpoints are exposed ONLY on the Private (ServiceNet) network, so the Private (ServiceNet) network IP address of your cloud server will be used to determine the source of the request and respond with the appropriate information. API responses will be limited to information about the specific Cloud Server you are querying from only. It is important to note that there are hypervisor-level protections in place which prevent these IP addresses from being spoonfed, ensuring that the instance making the request to our API endpoint is, in fact, your Cloud Server.

Note: There is no way to query the RackConnect API from outside of your Cloud Server.

Rate Limiting

There is a limit of 30 requests per minute from each of your Cloud Servers. When you have exceeded the number of allowed requests per minute you will receive an HTTP 403 (Forbidden) response code. The counter resets each minute.

Operations

The following operations are supported by the API. The format query string parameter is optional on each request. If it is not supplied, the default response format will be used.

GET /v1/automation_status?format={format}

• Response Formats: text, JSON, XML

• Default Response Format: text

• Expected HTTP Response Code: 200

• Description: Returns the automation status of the Cloud Server (DEPLOYING, DEPLOYED, or FAILED)

GET /v1/automation_status/details?format={format}

• Response Formats: JSON, XML

• Default Response Format: JSON

• Expected HTTP Response Code: 200

• Description: Returns the automation status of the Cloud Server (DEPLOYING, DEPLOYED, or FAILED) and an array of Cloud Server tasks with their associated statuses

GET /v1/gateway_ip?format={format}

• Response Formats: text, JSON, XML

• Default Response Format: text

• Expected HTTP Response Code: 200

• Description: Returns the gateway IP address for the Cloud Server; if the gateway IP address has not yet been assigned, an HTTP 404 response code will be returned

GET /v1/automation_features?format={format}

• Response Formats: JSON, XML

• Default Response Format: JSON

• Expected HTTP Response Code: 200

• Description: Returns a collection of automation features and their associated statuses for the Cloud Server

API Example

The following example uses curl to retrieve the automation status.  Alternatively, you can use a Web Broswer to query the RackConnect API.

$ curl https://dfw.api.rackconnect.rackspace.com/v1/automation_status?format=text

Response:

DEPLOYED

Previous Article: RackConnect Compatibility with Next-Gen Cloud Server Images