What does the cloud API returns when a server build failed

Cloud is a very flexible solution that can be used to build resilient, highly available and self healing architectures. But it is important to understand that it is not unbreakable and the solution has to be able to deal with it.

As an example, once in a while you are going to see that the cloud API to created a server succeded but the server itself never came online because the build failed. On Rackspace cloud infrastructure this can be visible like this.

• In the original Cloud Control Panel (CP / CCP)

https://lon.manage.rackspacecloud.com/CloudServers/ServerList.do 

• In the new Cloud Control Panel (CP / CCP)

https://mycloud.rackspace.com/a/accoutname/# 

• Cloud API

$ curl -v  -H 'x-auth-token: token' https://lon.servers.api.rackspacecloud.com/v1.0/10001641/servers/10204743?fresh | json_xs 
 GET /v1.0/10001641/servers/10204743?fresh HTTP/1.1
 User-Agent: curl/7.21.3 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.21.3 OpenSSL/0.9.8o zlib/1.2.3.4 libidn/1.18
 Host: lon.servers.api.rackspacecloud.com
 Accept: */*
 x-auth-token: token
 
 HTTP/1.1 203 OK
 Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1
 vary:  Accept, Accept-Encoding, X-Auth-Token
 Last-Modified: Sun, 05 Aug 2012 01:58:58 GMT
 X-PURGE-KEY: /10001641/servers/10204743
 Cache-Control: s-maxage=1800
 Content-Type: application/json
 Content-Length: 238
 Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:19:24 GMT
 X-Varnish: 1664599762 1664599608
 Age: 50
 Via: 1.1 varnish
 Connection: keep-alive
{
   "server" : {
      "status" : "ERROR",
      "progress" : 0,
      "name" : "csperform1344130906",
      "imageId" : 112,
      "flavorId" : 1,
      "addresses" : {
         "private" : [
            "10.176.4.188"
         ],
         "public" : [
            "46.38.185.119"
         ]
      },
      "hostId" : "cb728dfc3549dc7c92fb4abcba89dd0a",
      "metadata" : {},
      "id" : 10204743
   }
}