[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/www/.novaclient'

[Kevin Jackson]

I've just installed dashboard on a Ubuntu 12.04 B1 server:
openstack-dashboard 2012.1~rc1~20120315.1545-0ubuntu1

# apt-get install openstack-dashboard

and just pointed my browser to the installation.
On logging on I get a stack trace.

Environment:

Request Method: GET
Request URL: http://172.15.0.1/syspanel/

Django Version: 1.3.1
Python Version: 2.7.3
Installed Applications:
['openstack_dashboard',
 'django.contrib.sessions',
 'django.contrib.messages',
 'django.contrib.staticfiles',
 'django_nose',
 'horizon',
 'horizon.dashboards.nova',
 'horizon.dashboards.syspanel',
 'horizon.dashboards.settings']
Installed Middleware:
('django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
 'openstack_dashboard.middleware.DashboardLogUnhandledExceptionsMiddleware',
 'horizon.middleware.HorizonMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.doc.XViewMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.locale.LocaleMiddleware')

Traceback:
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py" in get_response
  111. response = callback(request, *callback_args, **callback_kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/decorators.py" in dec
  40. return view_func(request, *args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/decorators.py" in dec
  91. return view_func(request, *args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/decorators.py" in dec
  57. return view_func(request, *args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/decorators.py" in dec
  40. return view_func(request, *args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/decorators.py" in dec
  91. return view_func(request, *args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/views/generic/base.py" in view
  47. return self.dispatch(request, *args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/views/generic/base.py" in dispatch
  68. return handler(request, *args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/tables/views.py" in get
  100. handled = self.construct_tables()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/tables/views.py" in construct_tables
  87. data = self._get_data_dict()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/tables/views.py" in _get_data_dict
  127. self._data = {self.table_class._meta.name: self.get_data()}
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/usage/views.py" in get_data
  33. self.usage.summarize(*self.usage.get_date_range())
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/usage/base.py" in summarize
  94. _('Unable to retrieve usage information.'))
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/usage/base.py" in summarize
  91. self.usage_list = self.get_usage_list(start, end)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/usage/base.py" in get_usage_list
  114. return api.usage_list(self.request, start, end)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/horizon/api/nova.py" in usage_list
  394. return [Usage(u) for u in novaclient(request).usage.list(start, end, True)]
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/novaclient/v1_1/usage.py" in list
  35. "tenant_usages")
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/novaclient/base.py" in _list
  85. with self.completion_cache('human_id', obj_class, mode="w"):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/contextlib.py" in __enter__
  17. return self.gen.next()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/novaclient/base.py" in completion_cache
  115. os.makedirs(cache_dir, 0755)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/os.py" in makedirs
  150. makedirs(head, mode)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/os.py" in makedirs
  157. mkdir(name, mode)

Exception Type: OSError at /syspanel/
Exception Value: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/www/.novaclient'

/var/www is quite rightly owned by root:root on an out of the box install of Apache.

[Kiall Mac Innes (kiall)]

This sounds a lot like bug #897885 - In fact, the is nearly identical.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bug/897885

https://review.openstack.org/1952

[Kiall Mac Innes (kiall)]

This should fix the issue https://review.openstack.org/5608

[Adam Gandelman (gandelman-a)]

The linked commit does enable gracefully handling permission errors when writing a cache file in the caching directory, but this bug apparers to be an issue when novaclient attempts to create the directory (prior to writing the file), perhaps the try/except block of the original fix be expanded to also catch errors during creation of cache_dir

[Adam Gandelman (gandelman-a)]

Oops, apologies. Looks like https://review.openstack.org/#change,5608 is the correct fix for this

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

From dupe bug:

I see this bug on fedora bug tracker. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=801202

There is patch from Pádraig Brady https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=568451&action=diff

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

Committed as:
https://github.com/openstack/python-novaclient/commit/39e252ad056ff65c7c326095938deb1eb50c4b40

[Adam Gandelman (gandelman-a)]

Thanks Thierry. Is this something we should expect to trickle into milestone-proposed, or should we prepare to carry a patch?

[OpenStack Infra (hudson-openstack)]

Fix proposed to branch: milestone-proposed
Review: https://review.openstack.org/5875

[OpenStack Infra (hudson-openstack)]

Reviewed: https://review.openstack.org/5875
Committed: http://github.com/openstack/python-novaclient/commit/10d226f06fae9957f59784c8fa29ca059bf378a5
Submitter: Jenkins
Branch: milestone-proposed

commit 10d226f06fae9957f59784c8fa29ca059bf378a5
Author: Kiall Mac Innes <email address hidden>
Date: Wed Mar 21 12:19:30 2012 +0000

    Fixes bug #959262 - Prevent a failure to create the cache directory from causing an exception.

    Change-Id: Ia80b50b32f5e3d0e76f4a1b251e23bbd3c70666e

[Adam Gandelman (gandelman-a)]

Fixed in Ubuntu as of python-novaclient 2012.1~rc2-0ubuntu1