API

The Luna Node Dynamic API enables you to write software to automate VM management. This page details how the API can be accessed. Visit the API tab to manage your API keys.

Overview

Each API token consists of an API ID and an API key. Both are needed for authentication of all API commands.

API actions consist of a category label, action label, and a set of parameters. For example, to start a VM, the category label is "vm", action label is "start", and a "vm_id" parameter must be set. See the full API action list.

API requests are made over HTTPS. Once the server completes processing of your request, it will return a JSON-encoded response.

Usage

We provide open source (under CC0 1.0) PHP and Python libraries for accessing the Luna Node Dynamic API. These libraries make interaction with the API easier, handling transaction from category, action, and parameters to the HTTPS request, and from the JSON-encoded response to a PHP associative array or Python dictionary. Download the libraries here.

If you are using another programming language, you can view the API call technical details below. You may also find it easier to implement the Legacy API.

Examples

List your virtual machines:

<?php

require_once('lndynamic.php');
$api_id = 'YOUR API ID';
$api_key = 'YOUR API KEY';
$api = new LNDynamic($api_id, $api_key);
print_r($api->request('vm', 'list'));

?>

from lndynamic import LNDynamic
api_id = 'YOUR API ID'
api_key = 'YOUR API KEY'
api = LNDynamic(api_id, api_key)
print api.request('vm', 'list')

Recreate a VM with the same IP:

<?php

require_once('lndynamic.php');
$api_id = 'YOUR API ID';
$api_key = 'YOUR API KEY';
$target_vm_name = 'myvm';
$target_image_name = 'Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit (template)';
$api = new LNDynamic($api_id, $api_key);

// find the target virtual machine ID
$vms = $api->request('vm', 'list');
$target_vm_id = false;

foreach($vms['vms'] as $vm) {
	if(strcasecmp($vm['name'], $target_vm_name) === 0) {
		$target_vm_id = $vm['vm_id'];
		break;
	}
}

//find the target image ID
$images = $api->request('image', 'list');
$target_image_id = false;

foreach($images['images'] as $image) {
	if(strcasecmp($image['name'], $target_image_name) === 0) {
		$target_image_id = $image['image_id'];
		break;
	}
}

if($target_vm_id === false) {
	die('No VM found!');
}

if($target_image_id === false) {
	die('No image found!');
}

// disassociate the IP address
$info = $api->request('vm', 'info', array('vm_id' => $target_vm_id));
if(empty($info['info']['ip'])) {
	die('VM does not have IP!');
}
$api->request('vm', 'floatingip-delete', array('vm_id' => $target_vm_id, 'keep' => 'yes'));
$api->request('vm', 'delete', array('vm_id' => $target_vm_id));
$api->request('vm', 'create', array('hostname' => $info['info']['hostname'], 'plan_id' => $info['extra']['plan_id'], 'image_id' => $target_image_id, 'ip' => $info['info']['ip']));

?>

Technical details

A request can be made given an API ID, API key, category, action, and parameters. The steps are described below. See the code of provided API libraries for more details.

• Create request array by taking parameters and adding "api_id" => API ID and "api_partialkey" => first 64 characters of API key.
• JSON-encode the request array to get a raw request message.
• The nonce is the current UTC time in seconds since epoch (in PHP, $nonce = time();).
• The handler path is "{category}/{action}/"
• The target URL is https://dynamic.lunanode.com/api/{handler path}
• Calculate the signature as SHA512-HMAC("{handler path}|{raw request message}|{nonce}"), using the API key as the HMAC key; here, we are signing the string formed from concatenating handler path, raw request message, and nonce delimited by pipe (|) characters
• Submit POST request to target URL with these form keys:
  • req: the raw request message
  • signature: the hex-digest output of the SHA512-HMAC
  • nonce: the nonce value
• The server's response will be a JSON-encoded associative array.

Legacy API

The legacy API uses simple GET and POST requests for each API action. All API actions are submitted via https://dynamic.lunanode.com/api.php

For example, to get the info for a virtual machine with hostname "hostname.example.tld", you can use the following API actions (find the ID for the hostname, then get the info from the ID):

https://dynamic.lunanode.com/api.php?api_id=YOUR_API_ID&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&category=vm&action=list
https://dynamic.lunanode.com/api.php?api_id=YOUR_API_ID&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&category=vm&action=info&vm_id=FOUND_VM_ID

The legacy API isn't necessarily less secure than the newer API, as either way all API actions are encrypted under HTTPS; however, the new API does offer greater protection against timing attacks and hides the API key even if an attacker were able to successfully forge an SSL certificate. So, we encourage usage of the new API where it is not inconvenient, but we plan to maintain the legacy API indefinitely.

Action list

Virtual machine

Category	Action	Required parameters	Optional parameters
vm	start	vm_id	None
vm	stop	vm_id	None
vm	reboot	vm_id	None
vm	info	vm_id	None
vm	delete	vm_id	None
vm	setpassword	vm_id, password	None
vm	reimage	vm_id, image_id	None
vm	resize	vm_id, plan_id	None
vm	rescue	vm_id	None
vm	vnc	vm_id	None
vm	floatingip-add	vm_id	ip (string unattached floating IP address on your account)
vm	floatingip-delete	vm_id	keep ('yes' to keep floating IP on account; default 'no')
vm	create	hostname, plan_id, image_id	prefer ('distinct' or 'same'), region (default 'toronto'), ip (a floating IP on your account)
vm	list	None	None

DNS

API calls relating to DNS are listed below. Valid DNS record types are 'A', 'AAAA', 'CNAME', 'HINFO', 'MX', 'NAPTR', 'NS', 'PTR', 'RP', 'SRV', and 'TXT'.

Category	Action	Required parameters	Optional parameters
dns	list	None	None
dns	set	vm_id, ip, hostname	None
dns	zone-list	None	None
dns	zone-add	origin (e.g., 'example.tld.')	ttl
dns	zone-remove	zone_id	None
dns	record-list	zone_id	None
dns	record-add	zone_id, name (e.g., 'www'), data (e.g., '1.2.3.4'), ttl, type	None
dns	record-remove	record_id	None
dns	dyn-list	None	None
dns	dyn-add	name, ip	None
dns	dyn-update	dyn_id, name, ip	None
dns	dyn-remove	dyn_id	None

Image

Category	Action	Required parameters	Optional parameters
image	list	None	region (default 'toronto')
image	delete	image_id
image	create	vm_id, name	None

Plan and region

Category	Action	Required parameters	Optional parameters
plan	list	None	None
region	list	None	None

Server monitoring

Category	Action	Required parameters	Optional parameters
monitor	check-list	None	None
monitor	check-types	None	None
monitor	check-add	name, type, fail_count, success_count, check_interval, (also any parameters needed from check-types)	None
monitor	check-remove	check_id	None
monitor	contact-list	None	None
monitor	contact-add	None	None
monitor	contact-remove	type ('email', 'sms_twilio', or 'http'), rel (e-mail address, phone number, or URL)	None
monitor	alert-list	check_id	None
monitor	alert-add	check_id, contact_id	None
monitor	alert-remove	alert_id	None