Command-line Interface
The SoftLayer command line interface is available via the slcli command available in your PATH. The slcli command is a reference implementation of SoftLayer API bindings for python and how to efficiently make API calls. See the Usage Examples section to see how to discover all of the functionality not fully documented here.
Configuration Setup
To update the configuration, you can use slcli setup.
$ slcli setup
Username []: username
API Key or Password []:
Endpoint (public|private|custom): public
:..............:..................................................................:
: Name : Value :
:..............:..................................................................:
: Username : username :
: API Key : oyVmeipYQCNrjVS4rF9bHWV7D75S6pa1fghFl384v7mwRCbHTfuJ8qRORIqoVnha :
: Endpoint URL : https://api.softlayer.com/xmlrpc/v3.1/ :
:..............:..................................................................:
Are you sure you want to write settings to "/home/me/.softlayer"? [y/N]: y
To check the configuration, you can use slcli config show.
$ slcli config show
:..............:..................................................................:
: Name : Value :
:..............:..................................................................:
: Username : username :
: API Key : oyVmeipYQCNrjVS4rF9bHWV7D75S6pa1fghFl384v7mwRCbHTfuJ8qRORIqoVnha :
: Endpoint URL : https://api.softlayer.com/xmlrpc/v3.1/ :
:..............:..................................................................:
If you are using an account created from the https://cloud.ibm.com portal, your username will be literally apikey, and use the key provided. How to create an IBM apikey
To see more about the config file format, see Configuration File.
Usage Examples
To discover the available commands, simply type slcli.
$ slcli
Usage: slcli [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
SoftLayer Command-line Client
Options:
--format [table|raw|json|jsonraw] Output format [default: raw]
-C, --config PATH Config file location [default: ~\.softlayer]
-v, --verbose Sets the debug noise level, specify multiple times for more verbosity.
--proxy TEXT HTTP[S] proxy to be use to make API calls
-y, --really / --not-really Confirm all prompt actions
--demo / --no-demo Use demo data instead of actually making API calls
--version Show the version and exit.
-h, --help Show this message and exit.
Commands:
block Block Storage.
call-api Call arbitrary API endpoints.
cdn Content Delivery Network.
config CLI configuration.
dedicatedhost Dedicated Host.
dns Domain Name System.
email Email Deliviry Network
event-log Event Logs.
file File Storage.
firewall Firewalls.
globalip Global IP addresses.
hardware Hardware servers.
image Compute images.
ipsec IPSEC VPN
loadbal Load balancers.
metadata Find details about this machine.
nas Network Attached Storage.
object-storage Object Storage.
order View and order from the catalog.
report Reports.
securitygroup Network security groups.
setup Edit configuration.
shell Enters a shell for slcli.
sshkey SSH Keys.
ssl SSL Certificates.
subnet Network subnets.
summary Account summary.
ticket Support tickets.
user Manage Users.
virtual Virtual Servers.
vlan Network VLANs.
To use most commands your SoftLayer username and api_key need to be
configured. The easiest way to do that is to use: 'slcli setup'
As you can see, there are a number of commands/sections. To look at the list of subcommands for virtual servers type slcli vs. For example:
$ slcli vs
Usage: slcli vs [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
Virtual Servers.
Options:
--help Show this message and exit.
Commands:
cancel Cancel virtual servers.
capture Capture SoftLayer image.
create Order/create virtual servers.
create-options Virtual server order options.
credentials List virtual server credentials.
detail Get details for a virtual server.
dns-sync Sync DNS records.
edit Edit a virtual server's details.
list List virtual servers.
network Manage network settings.
pause Pauses an active virtual server.
power_off Power off an active virtual server.
power_on Power on a virtual server.
ready Check if a virtual server is ready.
reboot Reboot an active virtual server.
reload Reload operating system on a virtual server.
rescue Reboot into a rescue image.
resume Resumes a paused virtual server.
upgrade Upgrade a virtual server.
Finally, we can make an actual call. Let’s list out the virtual servers on our account by using slcli vs list.
Example:
$ slcli vs list
:.........:............:....................:.......:........:................:..............:....................:
: id : datacenter : host : cores : memory : primary_ip : backend_ip : active_transaction :
:.........:............:....................:.......:........:................:..............:....................:
: 1234567 : sjc01 : test.example.com : 4 : 4G : 12.34.56 : 65.43.21 : - :
:.........:............:....................:.......:........:................:..............:....................:
Most commands will take in additional options/arguments. To see all available actions, use –help.
$ slcli vs list --help
Usage: slcli vs list [OPTIONS]
List virtual servers.
Options:
--sortby [guid|hostname|primary_ip|backend_ip|datacenter]
Column to sort by
-c, --cpu INTEGER Number of CPU cores
-D, --domain TEXT Domain portion of the FQDN
-d, --datacenter TEXT Datacenter shortname
-H, --hostname TEXT Host portion of the FQDN
-m, --memory INTEGER Memory in mebibytes
-n, --network TEXT Network port speed in Mbps
--hourly Show only hourly instances
--monthly Show only monthly instances
--tags TEXT Show instances that have one of these comma-
separated tags
--help Show this message and exit.
Debugging
To see exactly what API call is being made by the SLCLI, you can use the verbose option.
A single -v will show a simple version of the API call, along with some statistics
slcli -v vs detail 74397127
Calling: SoftLayer_Virtual_Guest::getObject(id=74397127, mask='id,globalIdentifier,fullyQualifiedDomainName,hostname,domain', filter='None', args=(), limit=None, offset=None))
Calling: SoftLayer_Virtual_Guest::getReverseDomainRecords(id=77460683, mask='', filter='None', args=(), limit=None, offset=None))
:..................:..............................................................:
: name : value :
:..................:..............................................................:
: execution_time : 2.020334s :
: api_calls : SoftLayer_Virtual_Guest::getObject (1.515583s) :
: : SoftLayer_Virtual_Guest::getReverseDomainRecords (0.494480s) :
: version : softlayer-python/v5.7.2 :
: python_version : 3.7.3 (default, Mar 27 2019, 09:23:15) :
: : [Clang 10.0.1 (clang-1001.0.46.3)] :
: library_location : /Users/chris/Code/py3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/SoftLayer :
:..................:..............................................................:
Using -vv will print out some API call details in the summary as well.
slcli -vv account summary
Calling: SoftLayer_Account::getObject(id=None, mask='mask[ nextInvoiceTotalAmount, pendingInvoice[invoiceTotalAmount], blockDeviceTemplateGroupCount, dedicatedHostCount, domainCount, hardwareCount, networkStorageCount, openTicketCount, networkVlanCount, subnetCount, userCount, virtualGuestCount ]', filter='None', args=(), limit=None, offset=None))
:..................:.............................................................:
: name : value :
:..................:.............................................................:
: execution_time : 0.921271s :
: api_calls : SoftLayer_Account::getObject (0.911208s) :
: version : softlayer-python/v5.7.2 :
: python_version : 3.7.3 (default, Mar 27 2019, 09:23:15) :
: : [Clang 10.0.1 (clang-1001.0.46.3)] :
: library_location : /Users/chris/Code/py3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/SoftLayer :
:..................:.............................................................:
:........:.................................................:
: : SoftLayer_Account::getObject :
:........:.................................................:
: id : None :
: mask : mask[ :
: : nextInvoiceTotalAmount, :
: : pendingInvoice[invoiceTotalAmount], :
: : blockDeviceTemplateGroupCount, :
: : dedicatedHostCount, :
: : domainCount, :
: : hardwareCount, :
: : networkStorageCount, :
: : openTicketCount, :
: : networkVlanCount, :
: : subnetCount, :
: : userCount, :
: : virtualGuestCount :
: : ] :
: filter : None :
: limit : None :
: offset : None :
:........:.................................................:
Using -vvv will print out the exact API that can be used without the softlayer-python framework, A simple python code snippet for XML-RPC, a curl call for REST API calls. This is dependant on the endpoint you are using in the config file.
slcli -vvv account summary
curl -u $SL_USER:$SL_APIKEY -X GET -H "Accept: */*" -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, compress" 'https://api.softlayer.com/rest/v3.1/SoftLayer_Account/getObject.json?objectMask=mask%5B%0A++++++++++++nextInvoiceTotalAmount%2C%0A++++++++++++pendingInvoice%5BinvoiceTotalAmount%5D%2C%0A++++++++++++blockDeviceTemplateGroupCount%2C%0A++++++++++++dedicatedHostCount%2C%0A++++++++++++domainCount%2C%0A++++++++++++hardwareCount%2C%0A++++++++++++networkStorageCount%2C%0A++++++++++++openTicketCount%2C%0A++++++++++++networkVlanCount%2C%0A++++++++++++subnetCount%2C%0A++++++++++++userCount%2C%0A++++++++++++virtualGuestCount%0A++++++++++++%5D'