NOTE: This article is written for our first generation Cloud Control Panel.  A version of this article is also available for our Next-Generation Cloud Control Panel.

After reading the previous article on the Control Panel Overview, you should be able to successfully log in to the Rackspace Cloud Control Panel and navigate to your available services.  Our Control Panel is a useful GUI tool for accessing all of our services, but there may be times when you want to manage your assets through a scripting interface like the API, or Application Programming Interface.  

Before you can start using our APIs, you will need to generate your API Key.  Your API Key is a unique alphanumeric identifier associated with your account and is used for universal authentication commands for all of your services.  

Note: One thing we'd like to mention before we get started, when you regenerate your API key, any 3rd party applications such as iDevices or Android applications will be disconnected until you set the new API key in your application.  If you're using your API as a part of a server code with site or application, this too will also break and could potentially affect your day to day operations.  We recommend updating your API key for any application you had connected with the previous API. 

• To generate your API Key for the first time, you will need to look under the Left Navigation menu > Hosting > Cloud Files.  You may ask, why is your API Key located under Cloud Files?  This is because, until recently, the API functionality was primarily used together with Cloud Files so it was convenient to have the interface for generating the API Key live under the Cloud Files section.  Now you can use your API key to activate the Mobile applications, create new Cloud Servers and Cloud Load Balancers, or to configure DNS as a service through a scripting interface.

• Generate your API Key by clicking on the Activate Now button.  The blank fields for API Key and Username will then be populated with your account information.

• Once you have activated your Cloud Files account by generating your API key, you will now see the File Manager interface for Cloud Files.

• To retrieve the Key at a later time, navigate to Your Account -> API Access.

• To generate a new Key at a later time navigate to Your Account -> API Access and click on the Generate New Key button in the Generate A New API Access Key section.

Now that you have generated your API Key, let's continue with the rest of our tour of the Control Panel with an Overview of the Billing Services available to you.