Managing Provider Accounts

Currently, Nimbul supports Amazon EC2 accounts only.

PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
To edit or delete a provider account, you must be a provider account administrator. All users can add provider accounts to the system. For more information, see the Overview.

Topics covered on this page:

    Add, Edit or Delete Basic Account Information
    Configure or Update Account Details

Add, Edit or Delete Basic Account Information

Adding an Account

To add a provider account to Nimbul, complete these steps. Note: The account must already exist outside of Nimbul.

  1. In the main Nimbul menu, click Provider Accounts. The provider accounts dashboard appears.
  2. Click the green plus sign near the search box.
  3. Enter the requested information, then click Create Provider Account.

    Note: The Master Private Key in the basic account information must correspond to the Default Main Key on the Security tab on the provider account details page (see below).

When you add a provider account to the system, you automatically become an administrator of that provider account.

Editing an Account

To edit basic provider account information, complete these steps.

  1. In the main Nimbul menu, click Provider Accounts.
  2. In the Name column, click the name of the account you want to edit.
  3. At the top of the provider account page (under the name of the account), click the edit link.



  4. Edit the fields as necessary.

    Tip: To edit a masked field, click it to make a text box appear. Edit the value, then click the Save button immediately to the right of the text box.
  5. To save your changes, click the Update button.

Deleting an Account

WARNING: In most cases, you will not need to delete a provider account. An account can remain dormant in Nimbul indefinitely. Delete the account only if you are certain you will never need access to it again.

To delete a provider account, complete these steps.

  1. In the main Nimbul menu, click Provider Accounts.
  2. Select the checkbox to the left of the account you want to delete.
  3. Click the trash can icon next to the green plus sign. A warning message will appear; click OK to confirm. A second warning appears. Type yes, then click OK.

When you delete a provider account, you delete it only from Nimbul — the external account still exists with the cloud provider.

Configure or Update Account Details

Viewing Account Details

To configure or update an account, first view the account details by completing these steps:

  1. In the main Nimbul menu, click Provider Accounts.
  2. In the Name column, click the name of the account you want to configure or update. The provider account details page appears.



The provider account details page contains the following tabs:

Tab Available Actions
Instances
  • View summary information about currently running instances.
  • Reboot and terminate instances. (To launch instances, go to the clusters area.)
  • Click links (such as server names and security group names) to get more details or make changes.
    Addresses
    • View summary information about existing elastic IP addresses, including the instance currently attached to each address.
    • Add and delete elastic IP addresses.
    • Click an instance ID to view instance details and change elastic IP address allocation.
    • Add and revoke cluster access to an existing elastic IP address.
    Storage
    • View summary information about existing storage (EBS) volumes, including attached instances.
    • Create and delete volumes and snapshots.
    • Restore existing snapshots in specific zones.
    Auto-Scaling
    • Create, activate and monitor auto-scaling groups (containers for auto-scaling triggers and configurations).
    • Create and activate launch configurations for auto-scaling groups.
    Note: You can also define default launch configurations at the server level. See Managing Servers.
    Images
    • View summary information about existing server images (AMIs).
    • Add/register new server images.
    • Enable or disable existing server images.
    Groups
    • View summary information about existing security groups, including the number of instances and servers currently using each group.
    • Add and delete security groups.
    • Click links (such as security group names and number of instances/servers) to get more details or make changes.
    Firewall
    • View summary information about existing firewall rules, including the number of security groups currently using each rule.
    • Add, delete, enable and disable firewall rules.
    • Click the number of groups to get group details or make changes.
    Variables
    • View existing account variables and edit their parameters.
    • Add and remove environment variables for all instances started under an account.
    • View and edit account startup scripts.
    Note: To reorder variables, use the first column of the table to click and drag the appropriate rows to new positions.
    Communication
    • View and edit the URI for sending event messages to running instances in this account (see the text on the tab for the URI structure and parameters).
    • Add, edit and run publishers for the account.
    DNS
    • View and edit service-related DNS records.
    • View and edit static DNS records (/etc/hosts file format).
    • View existing hostnames, including servers currently assigned to those hostnames, plus accrued and in-use leases.
    • Add and remove account hostnames.
    • Click a server name to view the server profile and make changes.
    Security
    • Set the default security group and main key for the account. (See the important note about keys below.)
    • Enable or disable auto-locking for instances launched under the account.
    • Add and remove account administrators.
    Stats
    • View various statistics for the account, including zones, types and number of instances by cluster.

     

    Configuring and Updating Account Details

    UI Elements

    Use the tabs described above to configure and update provider account details as you use Nimbul. Note the following UI elements on each tab:

    For more information, see User Interface Elements.

    Minimum Configuration

    Configurations vary depending on cloud providers and local environments. At a minimum, you will want to set up the following aspects of each provider account:

    1. Images: On the Images tab, register your existing server images.
    2. Security: When you add an existing cloud provider account to Nimbul, your existing security groups will be imported. To fine-tune these groups, use the Firewall and Groups tabs. On the Security tab, you can set a default security group (set of firewall rules) and a main key. For more information, see Managing Security Groups.

      Note: The main key on the Security tab must correspond to the Master Private Key entered in the basic account information so that Nimbul can access instances.
    3. Local Configuration: Review the other provider account tabs to ensure that you have set up any additional elements for your local configuration, such as environment variables.

    After you have configured your provider accounts, you (or a cluster administrator) will still need to configure clusters, especially server profiles. For more information, proceed to the Clusters and Servers section.

    Related Topics

    Next: Publishing Account Information »