Skip to content

Part 1: Account and API Key Setup

To run this workshop you will need access to an Equinix Metal Account or create a new one following step 1 below.

Note: You are responsible for the cost of resources created in your Equinix Metal account while running this workshop.

Pre-requisites

The following tools will be needed on your local development environment where you will be running most of the commands in this guide:

Steps

1. Create an Equinix Metal account

If you have never used Equinix Metal before, don't worry, you just need 2 minutes to sign-up and create your first organization. If you have any doubt you can watch our Getting Started with Equinix Metal video.

2. Create an API key

API keys in Metal can be tied to your user or to a single project. For this workshop we will need a user-level API key.

Note: Project API keys do not have access to the entirety of the API; some endpoints can only be used by personal API keys.

To create a new user API key, access your user Profile in the Equinix Metal console, click on the User Icon, and click My Profile.

Equinix Console profile section screenshot

  • Select the API Keys tab.
  • Click on + Add New Key.
  • Create a new key with Read/Write permissions.

Equinix Console API keys section screenshot

Copy the API key and save it in a safe place. You will need it later.

3. Get your Project ID

To get your project ID, click on the Projects tab in the Equinix Metal console. You will see a list of projects you have access to. Click on the project you want to use for this workshop. Click on the Project Settings tab and you will see the project ID.

Equinix Console projects section screenshot

Copy the project ID and save it in a safe place. You will need it later.

4. Create an SSH key

Follow the documentation for creating and adding an SSH key to your account here.

We'll use this key to access the machines we create in the workshop and Cluster API will need it as part of its configuration.

Copy the public SSH key and save it in a safe place. You will need it later.

Discussion

Before proceeding to the next part let's take a few minutes to discuss what we did. Here are some questions to start the discussion.

  • What is the purpose of an API key?
  • What is the difference between a user and project API key?
  • Why do we need to install these tools?
  • What is the purpose of each tool?