A little script I am using to time ephemeral boots in DreamCompute (currently trending between 42-60 seconds!).

time-ephemeral.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os
import sys
import time
import socket

from paramiko import SSHClient, AutoAddPolicy
from novaclient.v1_1 import client as compute_client

# create our credentials
credentials = dict(
    username = os.environ['OS_USERNAME'],
    api_key = os.environ['OS_PASSWORD'],
    auth_url = os.environ['OS_AUTH_URL'],
    project_id = os.environ['OS_TENANT_NAME']
)

# create a compute client
compute = compute_client.Client(**credentials)

# lookup details for flavor and image
flavor = compute.flavors.find(name='subsonic')
image = compute.images.find(name='Trusty')

# create the instance
instance = compute.servers.create(name='emphemeral-test',
                                  image=image,
                                  flavor=flavor,
                                  key_name='cleverair')

# poll it until its ready
t_start = time.time()
status = instance.status
print 'BOOTING',
sys.stdout.flush()
while status != u'ACTIVE':
    time.sleep(0.5)
    instance = compute.servers.get(instance.id)
    status = instance.status
    print '.',
    sys.stdout.flush()

t_active = time.time()

print
print 'ACTIVE'
sys.stdout.flush()

# poll for SSH
ipv6_address = [address['addr']
                for address in instance.addresses['private-network']
                if address['version'] == 6][0]

waiting = True
print 'WAITING FOR SSH',
sys.stdout.flush()
while waiting:
    try:
        client = SSHClient()
        client.load_system_host_keys()
        client.set_missing_host_key_policy(AutoAddPolicy())
        client.connect(ipv6_address, 22, 'dhc-user')
        client.exec_command('ls')
        client.close()
        waiting = False
    except socket.error:
        print '.',
        sys.stdout.flush()

print

t_ssh = time.time()

# summarize
print 'Active:', t_active - t_start
print '   SSH:', t_ssh - t_start

# clean up
instance.delete()