Unable to start instances, empty /etc/machine-id file.

[James Page]

This file is present but empty on a vivid cloud image.

Log:

2015-01-21 16:29:16.841 27359 INFO nova.scheduler.client.report [-] Compute_service record updated for ('juju-jp-machine-14', 'juju-jp-machine-14.openstacklocal')
2015-01-21 16:29:17.153 27359 INFO nova.virt.libvirt.driver [-] [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] Creating image
2015-01-21 16:29:17.316 27359 INFO nova.virt.disk.vfs.api [-] Unable to import guestfs, falling back to VFSLocalFS
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 ERROR nova.compute.manager [-] [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] Instance failed to spawn
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] Traceback (most recent call last):
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 2297, in _build_resources
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] yield resources
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 2167, in _build_and_run_instance
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] flavor=flavor)
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py", line 2385, in spawn
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] flavor=flavor)
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py", line 4013, in _get_guest_xml
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] context, flavor=flavor)
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py", line 3834, in _get_guest_config
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] guest.sysinfo = self._get_guest_config_sysinfo(instance)
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py", line 3316, in _get_guest_config_sysinfo
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] sysinfo.system_serial = self._sysinfo_serial_func()
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py", line 3305, in _get_host_sysinfo_serial_auto
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] return self._get_host_sysinfo_serial_os()
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py", line 3301, in _get_host_sysinfo_serial_os
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] return str(uuid.UUID(f.read().split()[0]))
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] IndexError: list index out of range
2015-01-21 16:29:17.553 27359 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701]
2015-01-21 16:29:17.555 27359 AUDIT nova.compute.manager [req-40a2a66d-6ef0-4896-80ec-2bf621ab198a None] [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] Terminating instance
2015-01-21 16:29:17.566 27359 WARNING nova.virt.libvirt.driver [-] [instance: 829fbae9-1152-41d2-80e7-d72dc4588701] During wait destroy, instance disappeared.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: nova-compute 1:2015.1~b1-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: User Name 3.18.0-9.10-generic 3.18.2
Uname: Linux 3.18.0-9-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.15.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Jan 21 16:31:17 2015
Ec2AMI: ami-000000a4
Ec2AMIManifest: FIXME
Ec2AvailabilityZone: nova
Ec2InstanceType: m1.medium
Ec2Kernel: aki-00000002
Ec2Ramdisk: ari-00000002
NovaConf: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/etc/nova/nova.conf'
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: nova
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
modified.conffile..etc.nova.rootwrap.d.compute.filters: [deleted]

[James Page (james-page)]

Nova will use this file if present; however its empty on a stock vivid cloud-image.

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

This problem (should) disappear with systemd; it takes care of populating /etc/machine-id on first boot, though it does need the file to exist and be empty[0].

So we should do one (or more) of:
 - teach nova that an empty /etc/machine-id is equivalent to a missing one,
 - introduce an Upstart job which will populate /etc/machine-id on boot, or
 - wait.

[0] systemd needs /etc/machine-id to exist if /etc is read-only, so it can mount (a temporary) /run/machine-id over it. Once /etc becomes writable, the temporary file is made persistent.

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

I'm unassigning myself; this isn't really a cloud image problem so much as it is either a nova problem or a general Ubuntu problem; I'm not best placed to solve either of these.

[Andrea Rosa (andrea-rosa-m)]

I submitted a patch to nova to fix this issue: https://review.openstack.org/202640

[Andrea Rosa (andrea-rosa-m)]

The patch has been merged in the nova code. Please note that the patch implements the logic suggested in the comment #3:
if the file is present but empty nova will consider it as a missing file, then it raises an exception.

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

This has been fixed in newton.