Tooling for Cleura Cloud

Cleura Cloud tooling includes support for a range of tools to help you manage, automate, and integrate cloud resources.

Whether you prefer using a command line interface, APIs, graphical web UI, or Infrastructure as Code, you’ll find the right option here.

When to Use What

Tool	Best for	Interface
API	System-to-system integration and automation	OpenStack API Cleura REST API
CLI	Quick scripting, power users, terminal-based access	Command line
SDK	Application-level cloud interaction (Python, Go, etc.)	Code
CCMP	Full web interface for account and infrastructure management	Web UI
IaC (Terraform, OpenTofu, Ansible)	Declarative, reproducible infrastructure setups	Code-based automation

Choosing the Right Tool

Below is a short description of each tool to help you choose the most suitable starting point.

API

Services in Cleura Cloud are accessible via one of two Application Programming Interfaces (API).

OpenStack API

Launch server instances, create images, assign metadata to instances and images, create storage containers and objects, and complete other actions in Cleura Cloud. See our OpenStack API reference documentation.

Cleura Cloud REST API

You can unlock the full power of Cleura Cloud and the Cleura Cloud Management Panel with our REST API. It easily integrates with tools like SDK to automate tasks and streamline your workflows. See our Cleura Cloud REST API reference documentation for more information.

CLI

Cleura Cloud is built with OpenStack which is made up of a collection of individual projects, each responsible for a specific cloud computing service (compute, networking, block storage, etc.). Some of these services have their own detailed API reference documentation. The OpenStackClient (aka OSC) is a command-line client for OpenStack that brings these APIs together in a single shell with a uniform command structure.

Learn more about the OpenStackClient

SDK

While you can directly interact with the OpenStack API using HTTP or HTTPS requests, most developers prefer to use Software Development Kits (SDK) that offer language-specific interfaces to the OpenStack services. These SDKs are available for various programming languages:

• Python
• Go
• .NET
• PHP
• Ruby
• Java
• JavaScript/Node.js

See our OpenStack API reference documentation for more information.

CCMP

Cleura Cloud Management Panel (CCMP) is a self-service portal and a web application. It is available in two separate versions for Cleura Public Cloud, and Cleura Compliant Cloud and allows you to easily create and manage cloud resources from your web browser.

Virtual machine controls

CCMP allows you to control all aspects of your virtual machines such as creating, starting, stopping, pausing (hibernation), restarting and deleting virtual machines with the click of a button.

Storage

You can display, create, edit and delete storage volumes and snapshots and connect volumes to existing virtual machines.

Container orchestration

Cleura Container Orchestration Engine allows you to orchestrate container clusters with integration to OpenStack resources for compute, networking, block storage and load balancers dynamically.

Security groups

Security Groups and rules enables IP filtering for both access management and individual virtual machines.

Key pairs

Create, list, view and delete private keys and upload public tokens of OpenSSH key pairs to be used for access to virtual machines.

Network features

CCMP allows you to display your virtual network topology. You can create, edit and delete public networks as well as creating and managing subnets. You can also assign and remove IP addresses to and from virtual machines and manage VPN tunnels.

Console access

CCMP comes with a built-in console emulator for remote login to your virutal machines.

Image management

The image management service provides virtual machine images pre-configured by Cleura. You can also create and upload your own so-called ‘private images’ to the Image Management Service or create them on the basis of an existing virtual machine. These private images will only be available to the user who created them but can easily be shared with with other tenants in the cloud if you wish.

Operating system image licences

Most operating systems are open source and will follow open-source licence agreements, some are licensed. These images will not have additional charges except the cost for the allocated virtual machines.

Commercially licensed operating systems

Select commercially licensed operating systems such as Microsoft Windows Server are available in CCMP. They are charged depending on usage per virtual machine on a monthly basis. Independent licence rules will be applied depending on the provider of the selected operating system.

Infrastructure as Code

Automation plays a crucial role in efficiently managing and scaling your Cleura Cloud resources. By embracing Infrastructure as Code (IaC), users can define their infrastructure configurations through code or declarative files, enabling version control, collaboration, and repeatable deployments.

This approach not only streamlines operations but also aligns with DevOps practices, enabling seamless integration into continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

Automate using Ansible

Ansible provides a collection of modules specifically designed for OpenStack services. Cleura Cloud users can write playbooks to automate tasks such as provisioning instances, configuring networks, and managing storage. Ansible’s agentless architecture simplifies deployment and management, making it easier to maintain the desired state of the infrastructure over time.

Automate using Terraform or OpenTofu

Terraform and OpenTofu supports OpenStack through its providers, enabling Cleura Cloud users to define their infrastructure as code using declarative configuration files. This approach allows for version control, collaborative workflows, and repeatable deployments. By using Terraform or OpenTofu, you can efficiently manage the lifecycle of Cleura Cloud resources—from creation to modification and deletion.

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