To connect to the SoftLayer® cloud
system, map the SoftLayer account
information to a functional ID. Then, assign that functional ID to
a team.
Before you begin
- Configure the images for use with the blueprint designer. See Configuring SoftLayer images.
- Obtain an OpenStack Keystone server. The blueprint design server requires a Keystone server to
connect to any cloud. You can reuse a Keystone server that is connected to a different cloud, or you
can install a Keystone server for use with SoftLayer.
See the OpenStack documentation.
- Obtain an engine. The engine version must match the version of the OpenStack cloud.
You can use any of the following options for the engine:
- Create a functional user account on the
Keystone server. This user account must be a member of the administrative
tenant on the Keystone server. Later, you associate the SoftLayer account information
with this functional ID. With this account, users authenticate to SoftLayer.
- Install the blueprint design server. See Installing the blueprint design server.
- Connect the blueprint design server to the server. See Connecting the blueprint design server to the server.
- Set up a SoftLayer account. This account must have permission to provision and access
virtual environments and to access other necessary resources such as SSH keys. In general,
give this account the following permissions:
- Support
-
- View Tickets
- Search Tickets
- View Tickets by Hardware Access
- View Tickets by Virtual Server Access
- Add Tickets
- Edit Tickets
- View All Tickets
- Devices
- View Hardware Details
- View Virtual Server Details
- Manage Device Monitoring
- Reboot server and view IPMI system information
- Upgrade Server
- Edit Hostname/Domain
- Issue OS Reloads and Initiate Rescue Kernel
- Manage Port Control
- Network
- View Bandwidth Statistics
- Add IP Addresses
- Services
- Manage SSH Keys
- Manage Provisioning Scripts
- Manage Public Images
- Account
- View Account Summary
- Add/Upgrade Cloud Instances
- Cancel Server
- Cancel Services
- Reset Password
- Add Storage
- Add/Upgrade Services
- Add Server
Also, in the SoftLayer account settings, specify that this account has access to
new images. In the setting When new devices are added, specify
Always add them to this account automatically.
- Install the blueprint design server. See Installing the blueprint design server.
- Ensure that the blueprint design server can connect to SoftLayer. For example, make sure
that no firewall, proxy, or security settings prevent communication between the blueprint
design server and the cloud. You can verify the connection path with the
curl command, as in the following
example:
curl --user user_name:API_key https://api.softlayer.com/rest/v3/SoftLayer_Account/SshKeys
Use
your SoftLayer user name for user_name and your API
key for API_key.
About this task
The following diagram shows a typical topology for this scenario. The
blueprint design server and engine connect to SoftLayer. For authentication information, the blueprint design server connects to
the Keystone identity service and optionally to an LDAP server.
Procedure
- Log in to the blueprint designer as a user with the following permissions:
- Configure Security
- Manage Users & Groups
- Create a connection to the cloud:
- Click .
- Click Add New Cloud.
- Specify a name for the cloud connection.
- In the Type list, select SoftLayer.
- In the Endpoint Type list, select the type of URL that you use to
connect to this cloud.
- If you connect through a private URL, select Internal.
- If you connect through a public URL, select Public.
- In the Identity URL field, specify the location of the identity
service, such as https://example.com:5000/v2.0 or
https://example.com:5000/v3. Do not include a trailing slash.
- In the Timeout in Mins field, specify the amount of time in minutes to
wait for a provision request to be completed.
- Specify the Heat orchestration engine to use:
- Optional: Select the cost center to use to estimate the cost of environments on this cloud.
- Click Save.
- Create one or more cloud projects that tie the functional ID on the Keystone server with the
SoftLayer account information. See Creating cloud projects for the blueprint designer.
- Add the cloud project to a team. See Configuring blueprint design server teams.
- Add users to the team and to one or more
roles on the team. These users can come from any authentication
realm, including LDAP servers, Keystone identity services, or from
the internal authentication realm.
- Make sure that the roles include the appropriate
permissions for those users, such as creating and editing blueprints.
Results
Users can log in to the blueprint designer and use the cloud connection. At the top of the
page, users can select the SoftLayer cloud
connection, cloud project, and region. When they edit blueprints, the palette shows resources
that are available to the SoftLayer account, and
they can provision blueprints to the selected SoftLayer region. The palette shows all custom images that you upload to SoftLayer. To use a public image or a SoftLayer default image, provision a VM from the
image, and configure it for use with the blueprint designer. See
Configuring SoftLayer images.
What to do next
Configure flavors for the cloud. See
Configuring SoftLayer image flavors.