Preparing to use APIs

If you have a Rackspace cloud account, you can use Rackspace APIs to interact with the cloud services you subscribe to.

The basic process is the same for all Rackspace APIs:

1. Collect the parts that you need for the request:

   • Obtain your account credentials (API key and account number, also called tenant ID) from the Cloud Control Panel.

   • Use your credentials to authenticate, receiving a token and a service catalog as proof of success

   • In the service catalog, find the endpoint for the API to which you want to send a request.

   • Look up the API reference section of your product found in API documentation.

2. Assemble the request from its parts. Plug in the values that you collected for your credentials, the API’s endpoint, and any details (such as the ID of a server) specific to your configuration and your API request.

3. Send a well-formed request to the service’s API endpoint.

4. Process the service’s response.

Beyond this general process, the details vary depending on which service you are working with. For product-specific introductions to the APIs relevant to specific core infrastructure products, see:

• Cloud Servers and APIs

• Cloud Networks and APIs

• Cloud Images and APIs

• Cloud Block Storage and APIs