OpenStack uses the INI file format for configuration files. An INI file is a simple text file that specifies options as key=value pairs, grouped into sections. The DEFAULT section contains most of the configuration options. Lines starting with a hash sign (#) are comment lines. For example: [DEFAULT] # Print debugging output (set logging level to DEBUG instead # of default WARNING level). (boolean value) debug = true # Print more verbose output (set logging level to INFO instead # of default WARNING level). (boolean value) verbose = true [database] # The SQLAlchemy connection string used to connect to the # database (string value) connection = mysql+pymysql://keystone:KEYSTONE_DBPASS@controller/keystone Options can have different types for values. The comments in the sample config files always mention these. The following types are used by OpenStack: boolean value Enables or disables an option. The allowed values are true and false. # Enable the experimental use of database reconnect on # connection lost (boolean value) use_db_reconnect = false floating point value A floating point number like 0.25 or 1000. # Sleep time in seconds for polling an ongoing async task # (floating point value) task_poll_interval = 0.5 integer value An integer number is a number without fractional components, like 0 or 42. # The port which the OpenStack Compute service listens on. # (integer value) compute_port = 8774 list value Represents values of other types, separated by commas. As an example, the following sets allowed_rpc_exception_modules to a list containing the four elements oslo.messaging.exceptions, nova.exception, cinder.exception, and exceptions: # Modules of exceptions that are permitted to be recreated # upon receiving exception data from an rpc call. (list value) allowed_rpc_exception_modules = oslo.messaging.exceptions,nova.exception,cinder.exception,exceptions multi valued A multi-valued option is a string value and can be given more than once, all values will be used. # Driver or drivers to handle sending notifications. (multi # valued) notification_driver = nova.openstack.common.notifier.rpc_notifier notification_driver = ceilometer.compute.nova_notifier string value Strings can be optionally enclosed with single or double quotes. # Enables or disables publication of error events. (boolean value) publish_errors = false # The format for an instance that is passed with the log message. # (string value) instance_format = "[instance: %(uuid)s] "

Configuration options are grouped by section. Most configuration files support at least 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. [database] Configuration options for the database that stores the state of the OpenStack 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 a $, like $OPTION. The following example uses the values of rabbit_host and rabbit_port to define the value of the rabbit_hosts option, in this case as controller:5672. # The RabbitMQ broker address where a single node is used. # (string value) rabbit_host = controller # The RabbitMQ broker port where a single node is used. # (integer value) rabbit_port = 5672 # RabbitMQ HA cluster host:port pairs. (list value) rabbit_hosts = $rabbit_host:$rabbit_port To avoid substitution, use $$, it is replaced by a single $. For example, if your LDAP DNS password is $xkj432, specify it, as follows: ldap_dns_password = $$xkj432 The 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 PEP 292.

To include whitespace in a configuration value, use a quoted string. For example: ldap_dns_passsword='a password with spaces'

Most services and the *-manage command-line clients load the configuration file. To define an alternate location for the configuration file, pass the --config-file CONFIG_FILE parameter when you start a service or call a *-manage command.