For Softlayer generate /etc/hosts from the list of active VMs and private IP addresses. This enables servers inside a softlayer private vlan to communicate with each other via hostname

generate_hosts_file.py

'''
Get the list of active VMs based on the creator ID and generate /etc/hosts file
'''
from __future__ import print_function
import sys
import os
import SoftLayer

def generate_hosts_file(username, api_key, creator_id=None):
    """
    Get the list of active VMs based on the creator ID and generate /etc/hosts file

    Keyword arguments:
    creator_id -- the SoftLayer ID of the VM's creator (default: None)
    """

    print ( 'Connect to Softlayer Username', str(username), 'Api key', str(api_key))
    client = SoftLayer.Client(username=username, api_key=api_key)

    # number of results that we expect at a time
    chunk = 200
    mask = "id,fullyQualifiedDomainName,hostname,primaryIpAddress,primaryBackendIpAddress,createDate,billingItem[orderItem[description, order[userRecord[username], id]]]"

    # get the data from the SoftLayer APIs
    vms = client.iter_call("Account", "getVirtualGuests", chunk=chunk, mask=mask)
    if creator_id is None:
        # if the creator wasn't provided use the
        # user provided to the API call as the creator
        creator_id = client.auth.username

    hosts_string = '127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost\n'
    for vsi in vms:
        # navigate to the creator property under the VMs billing item
        if 'billingItem' in vsi.keys():
            billing_item = vsi['billingItem']
            if 'orderItem' in billing_item.keys():
                vm_creator_userid = billing_item['orderItem']['order']['userRecord']['username']
                if creator_id == vm_creator_userid:
                    # print(str(vsi['id']), '\t',
                    hosts_string += vsi.get('primaryBackendIpAddress', '')+'\t'
                    hosts_string += vsi['fullyQualifiedDomainName']+'\t'
                    hosts_string += vsi['hostname']+'\n'

    with open('/etc/hosts', 'w') as f:
        f.write(hosts_string)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    if len(sys.argv) == 3:
        generate_hosts_file(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2])
    elif len(sys.argv) == 4:
        generate_hosts_file(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3])
    else:
         print ( 'USAGE: generate_hosts_file.py <Softlayer Username> <SoftLayer Api Key>')