You probably know that CLI stands for Command Line Interface. And you are aware that
IBM Bluemix and Cloud Foundry offer a CLIs.
Did you know that you can manage service keys from the command line?
Adding new credentials, obtaining keys, and deleting service entries is
really simple and fast. In the following, I will show you the commands
and use my chatbot project and the
IBM Watson Conversation
service on Bluemix as example. And I will be using Bluemix in
Frankfurt, Germany. So brace yourself for a quick tour through managing
service keys from the command line.
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| Sample Session Managing Keys |
Overview
With IBM Bluemix Cloud Foundry you have the choice of using either
the Cloud Foundry CLI (“cf”) or the Bluemix CLI (“bluemix” or “bx”). The
“bx” command has an option for the “cf” commands.
Both CLIs can be downloaded from the same page in the Bluemix documentation. The CLIs have many options to manage apps, services, organizations, spaces, and much more. Both can also be
extended through plugins. You can even
write and integrate your own plugins.
I would recommend using the Bluemix CLI because it offers more
features, including a handy option to update itself. For the example I
am going to use the Cloud Foundry CLI to demonstrate the general case.
Bluemix offers many services, big and small, in its
catalog.
Most of those service can be used by more than just a single user, a
single app, and not just from within Bluemix. Therefore, creating
several credentials for a service, so-called service keys, is essential
to consuming a service. The keys can be managed from the browser-based
Bluemix console or on the command line via CLI.
Manage Service Keys
Using the Cloud Foundry or Bluemix CLI, the first step is to login. As shown in my example, I am using the
API endpoint for Bluemix Public in Frankfurt, Germany:
>> cf login -a api.eu-de.bluemix.net
I am prompted for my email address as username and the password.
Depending on my account usage I might also need to select the
organization and space I want to work with. As next step, I am looking
for the instance of my IBM Watson Conversation service. This is used for
my chatbots and I would like to create new credentials for some tests.
The “services” command returns all services, on Unix systems “grep”
helps to filter the result:
>> cf services | grep -i conversation
Conversation-er conversation free hlred create succeeded
The name “Conversation-er” is the name of my Conversation service
instance. Now I want to list the existing service keys. It can be done
with the “service-keys” or “sk” command:
>> cf service-keys Conversation-er
Getting keys for service instance Conversation-er as hloeser@de.ibm.com…
name
Credentials-1
Only one service key labeled “Credentials-l” is present. To add new
credentials I can use the “create-service-key” or “csk” parameter:
>> cf csk Conversation-er Conv-DE-user2
Creating service key Conv-DE-user2 for service instance Conversation-er as hloeser@de.ibm.com…
OK
I chose the name “Conv-DE-user2” for the service key. Let’s see if it was added.
>> cf service-keys Conversation-er
Getting keys for service instance Conversation-er as hloeser@de.ibm.com…
name
Credentials-1
Conv-DE-user2
To take a look at the actual credentials, the “service-key” is the
right option. It fetches the username, password and everything else
making up the credentials. For IBM Watson services the gateway URL is
part of it:
>> cf service-key Conversation-er Conv-DE-user2
Getting key Conv-DE-user2 for service instance Conversation-er as hloeser@de.ibm.com…
{ “password”: “BFyyHxxxGnO”, “url”: “https://gateway-fra.watsonplatform.net/conversation/api”, “username”: “ffffffff-458f-4111-9dd4-03xx610xxbxx”
}
Existing service keys can be deleted with the “delete-service-key” or
“dsk” command. Recreating keys is one way of implementing rotating
passwords (credentials).
>> cf dsk Conversation-er Conv-DE-user2
Really delete the service key Conv-DE-user2?> yes
Deleting key Conv-DE-user2 for service instance Conversation-er as hloeser@de.ibm.com…
OK
Summary
As shown above, it is pretty simple to manage service keys from the
command line.Both the Bluemix and Cloud Foundry CLIs can be used. But
not only the credentials can be administrated from the command line.
Create services, bind them to apps,
request billing and usage information, and more. And, as mentioned above, you can even
extend the functionality through plugins and create your own.
Note that this blog entry was first published at
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/bluemix/2017/06/manage-bluemix-service-keys-via-cli/
