Features¶

Substation provides a comprehensive set of features designed to simplify and enhance OpenStack cloud management through an intuitive terminal interface.

Core Features¶

Complete Resource Management¶

Substation provides full CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations for all major OpenStack resources:

Compute (Nova): Servers, flavors, keypairs, server groups
Networking (Neutron): Networks, subnets, routers, security groups, floating IPs, ports
Storage (Cinder): Volumes, snapshots, volume types, backups
Images (Glance): Operating system images, snapshots
Secrets (Barbican): Secrets, containers, certificates
Load Balancing (Octavia): Load balancers, pools, listeners, health monitors
Object Storage (Swift): Containers, objects, account management

High-Performance Architecture¶

60-80% API call reduction through intelligent caching
Sub-second response times for most operations
Actor-based concurrency ensuring thread safety
Memory-efficient handling of 10,000+ resources
Predictive prefetching for common workflows
Request coalescing to minimize network overhead

Batch Operations¶

Process 100+ resources simultaneously
Intelligent dependency resolution
Progress tracking with real-time updates
Rollback capabilities for failed operations
Configurable parallelism (1-20 threads)

Telemetry & Monitoring¶

Real-time health scoring (0-100 scale)
Performance metrics tracking
Anomaly detection and alerting
Optimization suggestions
Historical trend analysis
Custom metric definitions

Advanced Search & Discovery¶

Cross-service resource search
Full-text search across all attributes
Smart filtering with type-ahead suggestions
Saved searches and quick filters
Resource relationship mapping
Sub-second search on 10,000+ items

Templates & Automation¶

Pre-built infrastructure patterns
One-click deployment of complex topologies
Recipe system for common configurations
Template versioning and rollback
Dry-run validation before deployment
Parameter validation and type checking

User Interface Features¶

Intuitive Terminal UI¶

Keyboard-driven workflow for maximum efficiency
Context-aware help available at any time
Responsive layout adapting to terminal size
Color-coded status indicators
Progress bars for long-running operations
Modal dialogs for confirmations

Tab-based view switching
Breadcrumb navigation showing current location
Quick jumps using number keys
Search-as-you-type filtering
Bookmarks for frequently accessed resources
History of recent actions

Real-Time Updates¶

Auto-refresh with configurable intervals
Live status updates for resources
Push notifications for important events
Background operation monitoring
Change highlighting for updated values

Security Features¶

See Security Documentation for comprehensive security architecture details.

Authentication & Authorization¶

Multiple auth methods: Password, application credentials, token-based
Project/domain isolation for multi-tenant environments
Secure token management with automatic refresh
Token encryption using AES-256-GCM (cross-platform)

Data Protection¶

AES-256-GCM encryption for all credentials (macOS + Linux)
Industry-standard authenticated encryption
Memory-safe SecureString and SecureBuffer implementations
Automatic memory zeroing on cleanup
No plaintext credentials in memory dumps
Certificate validation on all platforms
Full SSL/TLS chain validation
No certificate bypass vulnerabilities
System CA bundle integration (Linux)
Security framework validation (macOS)
Input validation protecting against:
SQL injection (14 attack patterns detected)
Command injection (6 attack patterns detected)
Path traversal attacks (3 attack patterns detected)
Buffer overflow via length validation
Secure storage:
Encrypted credential storage with SecureCredentialStorage actor
Memory-only token storage (never persisted to disk)
Secure password input handling (no echoing)
Thread-safe actor-based credential management

Compliance & Governance¶

Read-only mode for safe browsing
Operation whitelisting for restricted access
Audit trail with timestamps and user attribution
Policy enforcement for resource creation
Compliance checks against organizational standards

Operational Features¶

Multi-Region Support¶

Cross-region resource management
Region-specific endpoint configuration
Failover support for high availability
Region priority configuration

Configuration Management¶

Export/Import entire environments
Configuration versioning with rollback
Environment profiles for different setups
Backup and restore capabilities
Configuration validation before apply

Performance Optimization¶

Intelligent caching with TTL management
Memory pressure handling
Connection pooling for efficiency
Request batching for bulk operations
Compression for large payloads

Integration Features¶

API Compatibility¶

OpenStack API version negotiation
Microversion support
Backwards compatibility with older releases
Service discovery through catalog
Custom endpoint configuration

Productivity Features¶

Quick Actions¶

One-key shortcuts for common operations
Command palette for all actions
Macro recording and playback
Custom shortcuts definition
Context menus for resources

Smart Assistance¶

Suggestion engine for next actions
Error recovery suggestions
Performance tips based on usage
Resource recommendations

Intelligent Flavor Recommendations¶

Because choosing server specs shouldn't feel like playing roulette with your infrastructure budget.

When creating a new server, Substation's workload-aware recommendation engine analyzes your cloud's entire flavor catalog and serves up the perfect match for your use case. No more scrolling through 47 flavors named things like m1.xlarge.v2.20231015.amd.special trying to decode what any of it means.

How It Works (The Magic Behind the Curtain):

Workload-First Selection: Press TAB to switch from boring manual mode to our recommendation engine. Choose your workload type:
Balanced: For when you need a little bit of everything (web apps, dev environments)
Compute Intensive: When your CPUs need to go brrrr (batch processing, video encoding, scientific computing)
Memory Intensive: RAM > everything else (Redis, in-memory databases, big data analytics)
Storage Intensive: Disk space for days (file servers, backup systems, media streaming)
Network Intensive: Packets galore (load balancers, API gateways, VPN endpoints)
GPU Accelerated: For your ML models and rendering needs (actually checks if GPUs exist!)
Hardware Accelerated: PCI passthrough and FPGA wizardry
Deep Spec Analysis: The engine doesn't just look at vCPUs and RAM like some primitive CLI tool from 2010. Oh no. It dives into the flavor's extra_specs like a truffle pig hunting for performance gold:
IOPS Quotas: Detects read/write IOPS limits (because 24K read IOPS > your neighbor's spinner drive)
Network Bandwidth: Finds actual Mbps limits (750 Mbps peak? Chef's kiss)
CPU Pinning: Identifies dedicated CPU cores (for when you need consistent performance, not noisy neighbors)
NVMe Detection: Spots high-performance NVMe storage (your database will thank you)
GPU Presence: Actually validates GPU hardware exists (instead of recommending unicorn flavors)
Architecture Info: x86? ARM? We got you covered
Hardware Optimization: Multi-queue networking, memory page sizes, the works
Smart Scoring Algorithm: Each flavor gets rated based on what actually matters for your workload:
Compute workloads? +30% bonus for CPU pinning, +20% for CPU-heavy ratios
Memory workloads? +20% for RAM-heavy configs, +15% for 32GB+ allocations
Storage workloads? +40% for NVMe, +20% for high IOPS limits
Network workloads? +40% for network optimization, +25% for 500+ Mbps bandwidth
GPU workloads? Either you have a GPU or you score 0 (we don't do false hope here)
Human-Readable Explanations: Instead of cryptic spec sheets, you get actual explanations like:

"This flavor provides 500GB disk storage with NVMe SSD for high IOPS, 24576 read/8192 write IOPS, 100GB ephemeral storage. Backed by 16 vCPUs and 32GB RAM. Ideal for file servers, backup systems, media streaming, and log aggregation."

Not:

"m1.large.storage.v3.20240815 - 16/32/500"

Top 3 Recommendations Per Category: We show you the best 3 options for each workload type, scored and sorted. No analysis paralysis from 47 similar-looking flavors.
Price-Aware (when your cloud provides it): If your flavors have :price in their extra_specs, we'll show hourly costs right in the selection screen. Budget optimization? Yeah, we do that.

The Technical Flex:

Analyzes CPU:RAM ratios to find optimal balance (1:8 for general-purpose, 1:16 for memory-heavy)
Checks for aggregate_instance_extra_specs to match specialized hardware requirements
Validates quota limits (quota:disk_*_iops_sec, quota:vif_outbound_*) for performance guarantees
Detects hardware capabilities (hw:cpu_policy, hw:mem_page_size, hw:vif_multiqueue_enabled)
Zero scores for impossible matches (GPU workload without GPU hardware = nope)

Why This Matters:

Remember the last time you picked a flavor, deployed a server, then realized you needed more RAM but picked a CPU-optimized instance? Or paid for a GPU flavor that didn't actually have a GPU? Or wondered why your storage-heavy workload was crawling on a compute-optimized instance?

Yeah, those days are over.

Usage:

Start creating a server
Get to flavor selection
Press TAB to enter recommendation mode
Pick your workload category
Press SPACE to drill into the top 3 recommendations
Marvel at the detailed explanations
Select your perfect flavor
Actually deploy something that makes sense

Because life's too short to pick the wrong server flavor. Again.

Workflow Optimization¶

Task queuing for sequential operations
Parallel execution where possible
Dependency detection and resolution
Operation scheduling with cron-like syntax
Batch scripting support

Monitoring & Alerting¶

Health Monitoring¶

Service availability checking
Resource utilization tracking
Quota usage monitoring
Performance baseline establishment
Trend analysis and forecasting

Alert Management¶

Configurable thresholds for metrics
Multiple notification channels
Alert suppression and deduplication
Escalation policies for critical issues
Alert history and acknowledgment

Reporting¶

Customizable dashboards for metrics
Scheduled reports generation
Export to CSV/PDF formats
Trend visualization with graphs
Comparative analysis across periods

Form Building System¶

Declarative Form Components¶

Substation includes a comprehensive form building system designed specifically for OpenStack resource management:

FormBuilder: Unified component for creating forms with validation, navigation, and state management
FormTextField: Text input with cursor control, history, and inline validation
FormSelector: Advanced multi-column selection with search and scrolling for large datasets
FormSelectorRenderer: Type-safe rendering helper that preserves OpenStack resource types
FormBuilderState: Centralized state management for complex forms

Key Features:

Single API for all form field types (text, number, toggle, select, selector, multi-select, info, custom)
Built-in keyboard navigation (TAB/Shift-TAB between fields, SPACE to activate)
Automatic validation display with field-level error messages
Search-as-you-type filtering in selector fields
Support for 10+ OpenStack resource types out of the box
Conditional field visibility based on form state
Consistent styling and behavior across all forms

Developer Benefits:

Eliminate cursor tracking, history management, and validation boilerplate
Type-safe resource selection that preserves OSClient types
Easy extension for new resource types

See Developer Documentation for implementation guides.

Developer Features¶

Debugging Tools¶

Debug mode with verbose logging
API call tracing with timing
Performance profiling capabilities
Memory usage analysis
Network traffic inspection

Testing Support¶

Dry-run mode for safe testing
Mock data generation
Load testing utilities
Validation tools for configurations
Regression testing framework

Documentation¶

Built-in help system
Command documentation with examples
API reference generation
Configuration schemas with validation
Tutorial mode for learning

Unique Differentiators¶

What Sets Substation Apart¶

Terminal-First Design: Built specifically for terminal environments, not a CLI afterthought
Real-Time Performance: Instant feedback with intelligent caching
Features: Batch operations, telemetry, and automation built-in
Minimal Dependencies: Single binary with everything included is what we're going for; however, if you need something, let's talk about it.
Swift-Powered: Modern, safe, and performant implementation
Actor-Based: True concurrent safety without locks
Operator-Focused: Designed by operators, for operators

Comparison with Alternatives¶

Feature	Substation	Horizon	OpenStack CLI
Interface	Terminal UI	Web UI	CLI
Real-time Updates	✓	✓	✗
Batch Operations	✓	Limited	✗
Performance	Excellent	Good	Fair
Learning Curve	Low	Low	Medium
Automation	✓	✗	✓
Cache-Based Offline	✓	✗	✗

Upcoming Features¶

Roadmap¶

Heat UI Views: Complete UI implementation for orchestration
Machine Learning: Predictive analytics and anomaly detection
Multi-Cloud: Support for multiple cloud providers