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Metadata

Metadata is a service offered on every Equinix Metal™ server instance that allows it to access and share various data about itself. This kind of data includes hostname, instance ID, ssh keys, tags, assigned IPs, etc.

This information is especially useful for automation, but of course can be accessed manually only within the server instance.

Retrieving Metadata from Your Server Instance

You can view the metadata of a server instance by querying the following endpoint with a tool such as cURL:

https://metadata.platformequinix.com/metadata

The output will be a long JSON formatted text, so you might want to use so jq to make it easier to read and digest.

root@metadata:~# curl https://metadata.platformequinix.com/metadata | jq

{
  "id": "2885032e-61a8-4786-bd26-7b2e2e6ba1ea",
  "hostname": "metadata",
  "iqn": "iqn.2017-11.net.equinix:device.2885032e",
  "operating_system": {
  "slug": "ubuntu_20_04",
  "distro": "ubuntu",
  "version": "20.04",
  "license_activation": {
  "state": "unlicensed"
 }
},
  "plan": "c3.small.x86",
  "class": "c3.small.x86",
  "facility": "ewr1",
  "tags": [],
  "ssh_keys": [
  "ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nza............."
 ],
  "storage": {
  "disks": [
  .
  .]
  "raid": [
  .
  .]
  "filesystems": [
  .]
},
 "network": {
 "bonding": {
 "mode": 4
},
 "interfaces": [
 {
  "name": "p1p1",
  "mac": "0c:c4:7a:e1:3d:d0",
  "bond": "bond0"
  },
  {
  "name": "p1p2",
  "mac": "0c:c4:7a:e1:3d:d1",
  "bond": "bond0"
 }
],
"addresses": [
 {
  "id": "63f24352-0997-4f65-babd-6f8c9d048568",
  "address_family": 4,
  "netmask": "255.255.255.254",
  "created_at": "2017-11-04T17:03:20Z",
  "public": true,
  "cidr": 31,
  "management": true,
  "enabled": true,
  "network": "147.75.104.32",
  "address": "147.75.104.33",
  "gateway": "147.75.104.32",
  "parent_block": {
  "network": "147.75.104.32",
  "netmask": "255.255.255.254",
  "cidr": 31,
  "href": "/ips/6c2d45a7-df8b-451e-9d6d-2a1b5476a9d0"
 }
},
 "spot": {},
 "volumes": [],
 "api_url": "https://metadata.platformequinix.com/metal",
 "phone_home_url": "http://tinkerbell.ewr1.console.equinix.com/metal/phone-home",
 "user_state_url": "http://tinkerbell.ewr1.console.equinix.com/metal/events"
}

Additionally, if you want to grab specific information from the metadata, you can use jq to filter on specific fields, or choose any of the resources provided by the metadata service. To get a list of all the available metadata resources, you can query the following endpoint:

https://metadata.console.equinix.com/metal/2009-04-04/meta-data

Querying the endpoint will return the following available resources:

root@metadata:~# curl https://metadata.platformequinix.com/metal/2009-04-04/meta-data

instance-id
hostname
iqn
plan
facility
tags
operating-system
public-keys
public-ipv4
public-ipv6
local-ipv4

To get the specific metadata resources, you can query each of the options above as follows. This example metadata query returns the instance ID:

root@metadata:~# curl https://metadata.platformequinix.com/metal/2009-04-04/meta-data/instance-id

2885032e-61a8-4786-bd26-7b2e2e6ba1ea

Note! 2009-04-04 is a specific metadata version which we are currently using.

Metadata and Spot Instances

As you might have seen on our Spot Market article, you will be able to get some information regarding the device’s termination time.

For a spot instance, there will be an additional field in the metadata: "spot": {}

In case the server instance is up for termination, meaning your spot price falls below the current bids, then you will see termination_date appearing into that spot field. Keep in mind that the current termination time is 120 seconds.