Optionally, if you choose not to use MySQL, you can install and configure PostgreSQL for all your databases. Here's a walkthrough for the Nova database: $ sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-client $ sudo yum install postgresql postgresql-server $ zypper install postgresql postgresql-server Start the PostgreSQL command line client by running: sudo su - postgres Enter the postgresql root user's password if prompted. To configure the database, create the nova database. postgres> psql postgres=# CREATE USER novadbadmin; postgres=# ALTER USER novadbadmin WITH PASSWORD '[YOUR_NOVADB_PASSWORD]'; postgres=# CREATE DATABASE nova; postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE nova TO novadbadmin; postgres=# \q postgres> exit The database is created and we have a privileged user that controls the database. Now we have to install the packages that will help Nova access the database. $ sudo apt-get install python-sqlalchemy python-psycopg2 $ sudo yum install python-sqlalchemy python-psycopg2 $ sudo zypper install python-SQLAlchemy python-psycopg2 Configure the /etc/nova/nova.conf file, to ensure it knows to use the PostgreSQL database: [database] connection = postgres://novadbadmin:[[YOUR_NOVADB_PASSWORD]]@127.0.0.1/nova The command to populate the database is described later in the documentation, in the section entitled Configuring the Database for Compute.