This page provides a comprehensive guide to essential BOSH commands for managing cloud deployments efficiently. BOSH (Billion Objects in the Cloud) is an open-source tool for release engineering, deployment, and lifecycle management of large, distributed systems.

List BOSH Deployments

To view all your BOSH deployments by name, use the following command:

bosh deps --column=name

Manage BOSH Deployment VMs

Inspect the virtual machines within a specific BOSH deployment, including vital resource usage metrics:

bosh -d <deployment> vms --vitals

SSH into BOSH Deployment VMs

Connect to a specific VM within a BOSH deployment via SSH. You can target an instance group by its GUID or index:

bosh -d <deployment> ssh <instance-group>/(<instance-guid>|<instance-index>)

Execute Commands on BOSH Deployment VMs

Run shell commands on all VMs belonging to a particular instance group within a BOSH deployment:

bosh -d <deployment> ssh <instance-group> -c '<shell-command>'

Manage BOSH Deployment Errands

List the available errands for a BOSH deployment and learn how to execute them:

# To list a BOSH deployment's errands:
bosh -d <deployment> errands

# To run a BOSH deployment errand
# .. on all VMs that have colocated errand:
bosh -d <deployment> run-errand <errand-name>
# .. on a specific VM:
bosh -d <deployment> run-errand <errand-name> --instance <instance-group>/(<instance-guid> | <instance-index>)

Monitor BOSH Deployment Tasks

Track the progress and status of tasks executed by BOSH:

# To list a BOSH deployment's tasks:
bosh -d <deployment> tasks
bosh -d <deployment> tasks --recent

# To show a BOSH deployment's task status and start tracking its output:
bosh -d <deployment> task <task-id>

Recreate BOSH Deployment VMs

Safely recreate VMs within a BOSH deployment to revert to a previous state or apply updates:

# .. safely drained and to last successful deployment state:
bosh -d <deployment> recreate <instance-group>/(<instance-guid>|<instance-index>)
# .. aggressively removed, ignoring bad agents and to current deployment state:
bosh -d <deployment> recreate --skip-drain --fix --no-converge <instance-group>/(<instance-guid> | <instance-index>)

For more advanced BOSH operations and detailed documentation, refer to the official BOSH documentation.