Configuration

OpenStackClient is primarily configured using command line options and environment variables. Most of those settings can also be placed into a configuration file to simplify managing multiple cloud configurations.

There is a relationship between the global options, environment variables and keywords used in the configuration files that should make translation between these three areas simple.

Most global options have a corresponding environment variable that may also be used to set the value. If both are present, the command-line option takes priority. The environment variable names are derived from the option name by dropping the leading dashes (–), converting each embedded dash (-) to an underscore (_), and converting to upper case.

The keyword names in the configurations files are derived from the global option names by dropping the --os- prefix if present.

Global Options

The openstack manpage lists all of the global options recognized by OpenStackClient and the default authentication plugins.

Environment Variables

The openstack manpage also lists all of the environment variables recognized by OpenStackClient and the default authentication plugins.

Configuration Files

clouds.yaml

clouds.yaml is a configuration file that contains everything needed to connect to one or more clouds. It may contain private information and is generally considered private to a user.

OpenStackClient looks for a file called clouds.yaml in the following locations:

  • current directory
  • ~/.config/openstack
  • /etc/openstack

The first file found wins.

The keys match the openstack global options but without the --os- prefix.

clouds:
  devstack:
    auth:
      auth_url: http://192.168.122.10:35357/
      project_name: demo
      username: demo
      password: 0penstack
    region_name: RegionOne
  ds-admin:
    auth:
      auth_url: http://192.168.122.10:35357/
      project_name: admin
      username: admin
      password: 0penstack
    region_name: RegionOne
  infra:
    cloud: rackspace
    auth:
      project_id: 275610
      username: openstack
      password: xyzpdq!lazydog
    region_name: DFW,ORD,IAD
    interface: internal

In the above example, the auth_url for the rackspace cloud is taken from clouds-public.yaml (see below).

The first two entries are for two of the default users of the same DevStack cloud.

The third entry is for a Rackspace Cloud Servers account. It is equivalent to the following options if the rackspace entry in clouds-public.yaml (below) is present:

--os-auth-url https://identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2.0/
--os-project-id 275610
--os-username openstack
--os-password xyzpdq!lazydog
--os-region-name DFW
--os-interface internal

and can be selected on the command line:

openstack --os-cloud infra server list

Note that multiple regions are listed in the rackspace entry. An otherwise identical configuration is created for each region. If -os-region-name is not specified on the command line, the first region in the list is used by default.

The selection of interface (as seen above in the rackspace entry) is optional. For this configuration to work, every service for this cloud instance must already be configured to support this type of interface.

clouds-public.yaml

clouds-public.yaml is a configuration file that is intended to contain public information about clouds that are common across a large number of users. The idea is that clouds-public.yaml could easily be shared among users to simplify public cloud configuration.

Similar to clouds.yaml, OpenStackClient looks for clouds-public.yaml in the following locations:

  • current directory
  • ~/.config/openstack
  • /etc/openstack

The first file found wins.

The keys here are referenced in clouds.yaml cloud keys. Anything that appears in clouds.yaml

public-clouds:
  rackspace:
    auth:
      auth_url: 'https://identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v2.0/'

Debugging

You may find the config show helpful to debug configuration issues. It will display your current configuration.

Logging Settings

By setting log_level or log_file in the configuration clouds.yaml, a user may enable additional logging:

clouds:
  devstack:
    auth:
      auth_url: http://192.168.122.10:35357/
      project_name: demo
      username: demo
      password: 0penstack
    region_name: RegionOne
    operation_log:
      logging: TRUE
      file: /tmp/openstackclient_demo.log
      level: info
  ds-admin:
    auth:
      auth_url: http://192.168.122.10:35357/
      project_name: admin
      username: admin
      password: 0penstack
    region_name: RegionOne
    log_file: /tmp/openstackclient_admin.log
    log_level: debug
log_file: </path/file-name>
Full path to logging file.
log_level: error | info | debug
If log level is not set, warning will be used.

If log level is info, the following information is recorded:

  • cloud name
  • user name
  • project name
  • CLI start time (logging start time)
  • CLI end time
  • CLI arguments
  • CLI return value
  • and any info messages.

If log level is debug, the following information is recorded:

  • cloud name
  • user name
  • project name
  • CLI start time (logging start time)
  • CLI end time
  • CLI arguments
  • CLI return value
  • API request header/body
  • API response header/body
  • and any debug messages.

When a command is executed, these logs are saved every time. Recording the user operations can help to identify resource changes and provide useful information for troubleshooting.

If saving the output of a single command use the –log-file option instead.

  • –log-file <LOG_FILE>

The logging level for –log-file can be set by using following options.

  • -v, –verbose
  • -q, –quiet
  • –debug