You can configure OpenStack Compute to use any SQLAlchemy-compatible database. The database name is nova. The nova-conductor service is the only service that writes to the database. The other Compute services access the database through the nova-conductor service. To ensure that the database schema is current, run the following command: $ nova-manage db sync If nova-conductor is not used, entries to the database are mostly written by the nova-scheduler service, although all services must be able to update entries in the database. In either case, use these settings to configure the connection string for the nova database.