Create and manage stacks

Create and manage stacks

The Orchestration service enables you to orchestrate multiple composite cloud applications. This service supports use of both the Amazon Web Services (AWS) CloudFormation template format through both a Query API that is compatible with CloudFormation and the native OpenStack Heat Orchestration Template (HOT) format through a REST API.

These flexible template languages enable application developers to describe and automate the deployment of infrastructure, services, and applications. The templates enable creation of most OpenStack resource types, such as instances, floating IP addresses, volumes, security groups, and users. The resources, once created, are referred to as stacks.

The template languages are described in the Template Guide in the Heat developer documentation.

Create a stack from an example template file

  • To create a stack, or template, from an example template file, run the following command:

    $ openstack stack create --template server_console.yaml \
      --parameter "image=cirros" MYSTACK
    

    The --parameter values that you specify depend on the parameters that are defined in the template. If a website hosts the template file, you can also specify the URL with the --template parameter.

    The command returns the following output:

    +---------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
    | Field               | Value                                                          |
    +---------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
    | id                  | 70b9feca-8f99-418e-b2f1-cc38d61b3ffb                           |
    | stack_name          | MYSTACK                                                        |
    | description         | The heat template is used to demo the 'console_urls' attribute |
    |                     | of OS::Nova::Server.                                           |
    |                     |                                                                |
    | creation_time       | 2016-06-08T09:54:15                                            |
    | updated_time        | None                                                           |
    | stack_status        | CREATE_IN_PROGRESS                                             |
    | stack_status_reason |                                                                |
    +---------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
    
  • You can also use the --dry-run option with the openstack stack create command to validate a template file without creating a stack from it.

    If validation fails, the response returns an error message.

Get information about stacks

To explore the state and history of a particular stack, you can run a number of commands.

  • To see which stacks are visible to the current user, run the following command:

    $ openstack stack list
    +--------------------------------------+------------+-----------------+---------------------+--------------+
    | ID                                   | Stack Name | Stack Status    | Creation Time       | Updated Time |
    +--------------------------------------+------------+-----------------+---------------------+--------------+
    | 70b9feca-8f99-418e-b2f1-cc38d61b3ffb | MYSTACK    | CREATE_COMPLETE | 2016-06-08T09:54:15 | None         |
    +--------------------------------------+------------+-----------------+---------------------+--------------+
    
  • To show the details of a stack, run the following command:

    $ openstack stack show MYSTACK
    
  • A stack consists of a collection of resources. To list the resources and their status, run the following command:

    $ openstack stack resource list MYSTACK
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------+
    | resource_name | physical_resource_id                 | resource_type    | resource_status | updated_time        |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------+
    | server        | 1b3a7c13-42be-4999-a2a1-8fbefd00062b | OS::Nova::Server | CREATE_COMPLETE | 2016-06-08T09:54:15 |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------+
    
  • To show the details for a specific resource in a stack, run the following command:

    $ openstack stack resource show MYSTACK server
    
  • Some resources have associated metadata which can change throughout the lifecycle of a resource. Show the metadata by running the following command:

    $ openstack stack resource metadata MYSTACK server
    
  • A series of events is generated during the lifecycle of a stack. To display lifecycle events, run the following command:

    $ openstack stack event list MYSTACK
    2016-06-08 09:54:15 [MYSTACK]: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS  Stack CREATE started
    2016-06-08 09:54:15 [server]: CREATE_IN_PROGRESS  state changed
    2016-06-08 09:54:41 [server]: CREATE_COMPLETE  state changed
    2016-06-08 09:54:41 [MYSTACK]: CREATE_COMPLETE  Stack CREATE completed successfully
    
  • To show the details for a particular event, run the following command:

    $ openstack stack event show MYSTACK server EVENT
    

Update a stack

To update an existing stack from a modified template file, run a command like the following command:

$ openstack stack update --template server_console.yaml \
  --parameter "image=ubuntu" MYSTACK
+---------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Field               | Value                                                          |
+---------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| id                  | 267a459a-a8cd-4d3e-b5a1-8c08e945764f                           |
| stack_name          | mystack                                                        |
| description         | The heat template is used to demo the 'console_urls' attribute |
|                     | of OS::Nova::Server.                                           |
|                     |                                                                |
| creation_time       | 2016-06-08T09:54:15                                            |
| updated_time        | 2016-06-08T10:41:18                                            |
| stack_status        | UPDATE_IN_PROGRESS                                             |
| stack_status_reason | Stack UPDATE started                                           |
+---------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+

Some resources are updated in-place, while others are replaced with new resources.

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