python-swiftclient

Once your newly configured cluster is ready, it is advisable to run through a few exercises to become familiar with your cluster and test it.

Installing the Swift Command Line Client

A great way to access the cluster is with the Swift command line client. The Swift client can be installed on OS X, Windows, or Linux.

OS X

sudo easy_install pip
sudo pip install --upgrade setuptools
sudo pip install python-swiftclient

Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install python-pip
sudo pip install python-swiftclient

RHEL or CentOS 7.x; Fedora

sudo yum install python-setuptools
sudo easy_install pip
sudo pip install --upgrade setuptools
sudo pip install python-swiftclient

RHEL/CentOS 6.x

sudo yum install python-setuptools
sudo easy_install pip
sudo pip install --upgrade setuptools
sudo pip install python-swiftclient==2.7.0

Note

python-swiftclient version 2.7.0 was the last release to support Python 2.6.

Windows

If necessary, see the pip documentation for instructions on installing pip. Then:

pip install python-swiftclient

Note

If pip gives you an error related to "wheel", add --no-use-wheel after install on the pip install command-line. This should only be necessary for pip >= 1.5 and setuptools < 0.8, but this is unfortunately an easy state to get into.

Note

SwiftStack does not recommend running the Swift command client from an enabled SwiftStack node. Please use a separate system to access the authorization URL.

Accessing Your Cluster from the Command Line

Once the swift client is installed you can access your cluster using a variety of commands. The basic syntax is: swift command [options] [args]

Three main values will be used with the commands.

Finding the Auth URL

You can locate the Auth URL on the cluster's page. While signed into the SwiftStack Controller (https://platform.swiftstack.com/) click on the Clusters tab. Click on the desired cluster. That cluster's page will open. In the upper, right corner of the page will be the Auth URL.

../_images/urls.png

Using the stat Command for Account Information

The stat command will display information about an account or object.

User Accounts

Using stat to find information on a user's account requires passing in the Auth URL, the account username and the account password. The example below uses:

swift [-A *Auth URL*] [-U *username*] [-K *password*] stat

swift -A http://production01.acme.com/auth/v1.0 -U user01 -K password stat

Note

If you did not set a cluster hostname on the configuration page then you can also use the API IP address (in the example we used 10.0.0.48):

swift -A http://10.0.0.48/auth/v1.0 -U user01 -K password stat

The stat command will then return basic information about the user01's account:

      Account: AUTH_user01
   Containers: 0
      Objects: 0
        Bytes: 0
Accept-Ranges: bytes
  X-Timestamp: 1364147836.58268
   X-Trans-Id: tx8d61d538ded94c7caebbb2d947a29435
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Set Environment Variables

Set the "Auth URL", username and password for the cluster as environment variables to reduce human errors and make the tool even faster and easier to use.

For example in a bash profile:

export ST_AUTH=http://production01.acme.com/auth/v1.0
export ST_USER=user01
export ST_KEY=password

Using the stat Command for Containers

The stat command can also be used to display information about containers using:

swift stat <container name>

Using the upload Command

Using upload requires passing in the name of the container name to upload to and the name of file being uploaded:

swift upload <container_name> <file_to_upload>

When uploading large files use the built-in, multi-part uploading function, Static Large Object (SLO).

swift upload --use-slo --segment-size 10000000 <container_name> <file_to_upload>

For example to simultaneously create a container called Pictures and upload a file called HolidayPhoto.JPG type:

swift upload Pictures HolidayPhoto.JPG

To upload a large file with multiple simultanious threads.

swift upload --use-slo --segment-size 10000000 Pictures  HolidayMovie.MOV

Note

Verfy the upload using the stat command:

swift stat Pictures

Which returns something similar to:

      Account: AUTH_user01
    Container: Pictures
      Objects: 1
        Bytes: 7251299
     Read ACL:
    Write ACL:
      Sync To:
     Sync Key:
Accept-Ranges: bytes
  X-Timestamp: 1364148979.10367
   X-Trans-Id: tx51a61829992d42169561a5062830d2ca
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Using the download Command

Using download requires passing in the name of the container name to download to and the name of file being downloaded:

swift download <container_name> <file_to_download>

For example to simultaneously download an object in Finances a file called plan.pdf type:

swift download Finances plan.pdf

Using the list Command to View Contents

The list command will display the contents of containers and accounts that are passed to it.

swift list <container_name>

List Contents in a Container

To list files in the container:

swift list <container_name>

In this example, the contents of the Pictures container is listed by using:

swift list Pictures

HolidayPhoto.JPG

List All Containers

To list all the containers for an account, use "swift list" with no options or args.

swift list

Using the copy Command to update Metadata

To update the metadata on an object use "swift copy". The -m option can be used multiple times in a single command.

swift copy -m key:value -m key:value <container_name> <object>

To remove an existing metadata value from an object leave the key value blank

swift copy -m "key:" <container_name> <object>