Description

• Installs the python-pip package in Debian and RedHat based systems, and then uses pip to install the Rackspace Cloud Monitoring client, raxmon-cli, via pip

• The full raxmon-cli source can be viewed at https://github.com/racker/rackspace-monitoring-cli

• For more info on Rackspace Cloud Monitoring please visit http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/cloud_hosting_products/monitoring/

• The Getting Started Guide for Rackspace Cloud Monitoring is avaialble at http://docs.rackspace.com/cm/api/cm-getting-started-latest/index.html
  ** This guide includes examples for using the raxmon-cli to view/create entities/checks/alarms

• The full API Developer Guide is available at http://docs.rackspace.com/cm/api/v1.0/cm-devguide/content/overview.html

Requirements

• python and python-pip (installed by this cookbook)

• A Rackspace cloud server username and api key to use the raxmon-cli

• If you want automatic credentials added to the raxmon-cli commands for the root user, an encrypted data_bag named rackspace must be created with an item called cloud.

  • If you do not want to use the /root/.raxrc file to manage the credentials for root, skip the following section

Setting up the .raxrc file for automatic cloud login credentials for root

If you already have an encrypted_data_bag_secret file created and pushed out to your chef nodes

• Create the new encrypted data_bag
  knife data bag create --secret-file <LOCATION/NAME OF SECRET FILE> rackspace cloud

• Make the json file opened look like the following, then save and exit your editor:
  {
  "id": "cloud",
  "raxusername": "<YOUR CLOUD SERVER USERNAME",
  "raxapikey": "<YOUR CLOUD SERVER API KEY"
  }

If you are not currently using an encrypted_data_bag_secret file

• Create a new secret file
  openssl rand -base64 512 | tr -d '\r\n' > /tmp/my_data_bag_key

• The /tmp/my_data_bag_key (or whatever you called it in the above step) needs to be pushed out to your chef nodes to /etc/chef/encrypted_data_bag_secret

• Create the new encrypted data_bag
  knife data bag create --secret-file /tmp/my_data_bag_key rackspace cloud

• Make the json file opened look like the following, then save and exit your editor:
  {
  "id": "cloud",
  "raxusername": "<YOUR CLOUD SERVER USERNAME",
  "raxapikey": "<YOUR CLOUD SERVER API KEY"
  }

Attributes

From encrypted data bag rackspace with item cloud:
* ['raxusername']
* ['raxapikey']

Usage

Using the .raxrc file

*Follow the steps under the Requirements section above to create the encrypted data bag for the .raxrc file
* As root user you can manage your Rackspace Cloud Monitoring settings via the raxmon-cli tools, see the description above for links to the documentation
* If you do not set the .raxrc credentials, or you want to use raxmon-cli from a non-root user, you can still access the Rackspace Cloud Monitoring API by using the --username and --api-key options on your raxmon commands

Not using the .raxrc file

• Do not create the rackspace cloud encrypted databag item
• Access the Rackspace Cloud Monitoring API by using the --username and --api-key options on your raxmon commands