nova-common installation triggers nova-manage db sync on compute node

[Alvaro Lopez]

I've installed nova-compute-xen on a compute node, and nova-common tries to make a nova-manage db sync when the package is configured. This results on a "/var/lib/nova/nova.sqlite" file.

    $ sudo aptitude install python-software-properties
    $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nova-core/milestone
    $ sudo aptitude update
    $ sudo aptitude install nova-compute-xen
    (...)
    Configuring nova-common (2012.1~e3-0ubuntu0~ppa1~oneiric1) ...
    Adding system user `nova' (UID 107) ...
    Adding new user `nova' (UID 107) with group `nogroup' ...
    Not creating home directory `/var/lib/nova'.
    2012-02-08 15:40:59,488 DEBUG nova.utils [-] backend <module 'nova.db.sqlalchemy.migration' from '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/db/sqlalchemy/migration.pyc'> from (pid=17310) debug /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/log.py:175
    2012-02-08 15:40:59,489 DEBUG migrate.versioning.util [-] Constructing engine from (pid=17310) debug /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/log.py:175
    (...)

    $ dpkg -l|grep nova
    ii nova-common 2012.1~e3-0ubuntu0~ppa1~oneiric1 OpenStack Compute - common files
    ii nova-compute 2012.1~e3-0ubuntu0~ppa1~oneiric1 OpenStack Compute - compute node
    ii nova-compute-xen 2012.1~e3-0ubuntu0~ppa1~oneiric1 OpenStack Compute - compute node (Xen)
    ii python-nova 2012.1~e3-0ubuntu0~ppa1~oneiric1 OpenStack Compute Python libraries
    ii python-novaclient 2012.1~e3-0ubuntu0~ppa1~oneiric1 client library for OpenStack Compute API

[Adam Gandelman (gandelman-a)]

Hi Alvaro-

This is run in the post-installation step of the nova-common package, which is installed with nova-compute-xen. It is the expected behavior and happens to help users who want to install all nova components on a single node and have something ready to use out-of-the-box. Note that this command is only called when nova.conf's sql_connection points to a local sqlite database (which it does with the default config). If you've installed a compute package on an isolated node, you've probably also updated your config to point to a remote, shared database. If that is the case, and you've elected to keep your custom config file during the next package installation/upgrade, the call to nova db sync is skipped.

[Alvaro Lopez (aloga)]

Good to know that this is was the expected bahaviour. For me it is OK, since I'm in the situation that you point.

Regards,
Alvaro.