The nova.conf configuration file is an INI file format file that specifies options as key=value pairs, which are grouped into sections. The DEFAULT section contains most of the configuration options. For example: [DEFAULT] debug=true verbose=true [trusted_computing] server=10.3.4.2 You can use a particular configuration option file by using the option (nova.conf) parameter when you run one of the nova-* services. This parameter inserts configuration option definitions from the specified configuration file name, which might be useful for debugging or performance tuning. To place comments in the nova.conf file, start a new line that begins with the pound (#) character. For a list of configuration options, see the tables in this guide. To learn more about the nova.conf configuration file, review these general purpose configuration options. Each configuration option has an associated data type. The supported data types for configuration options are: BoolOpt Boolean option. Value must be either true or false . Example:debug=false StrOpt String option. Value is an arbitrary string. Example:my_ip=10.0.0.1 IntOption Integer option. Value must be an integer. Example: glance_port=9292 MultiStrOpt String option. Same as StrOpt, except that it can be declared multiple times to indicate multiple values. Example: ldap_dns_servers=dns1.example.org ldap_dns_servers=dns2.example.org ListOpt List option. Value is a list of arbitrary strings separated by commas. Example: enabled_apis=ec2,osapi_compute,metadata FloatOpt Floating-point option. Value must be a floating-point number. Example: ram_allocation_ratio=1.5 Do not specify quotes around Nova options. Configuration options are grouped by section. The Compute configuration file supports the following sections: [DEFAULT] Contains most configuration options. If the documentation for a configuration option does not specify its section, assume that it appears in this section. [cells] Configures cells functionality. For details, see the Cells section (). [baremetal] Configures the baremetal hypervisor driver. [conductor] Configures the nova-conductor service. [trusted_computing] Configures the trusted computing pools functionality and how to connect to a remote attestation service. The configuration file supports variable substitution. After you set a configuration option, it can be referenced in later configuration values when you precede it with $. This example defines my_ip and then uses $my_ip as a variable:my_ip=10.2.3.4 glance_host=$my_ip metadata_host=$my_ip If a value must contain the $ character, escape it with $$. For example, if your LDAP DNS password is $xkj432, specify it, as follows:ldap_dns_password=$$xkj432 The Compute code uses the Python string.Template.safe_substitute() method to implement variable substitution. For more details on how variable substitution is resolved, see http://docs.python.org/2/library/string.html#template-strings and http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0292/. To include whitespace in a configuration value, use a quoted string. For example: ldap_dns_passsword='a password with spaces' All nova-* services and the nova-manage command-line client load the configuration file. To define an alternate location for the configuration file, pass the --config-file /path/to/nova.conf parameter when you start a nova-* service or call a nova-manage command.