incorrect nova.conf file example in Ubuntu Cloud page

[Larry Matter]

On the Ubuntu Cloud page, under the section, "Install OpenStack Compute (Nova)" -> "Edit /etc/nova/nova.conf and add the following:" the options are all prepended with "--". If you do this, the "nova-manage db sync" command will emit an error(*) and no tables will be created in the mysql database. Removing the hyphens from the options and restarting the servers (which might not be necessary) allowed the db sync to succeed.

If you go here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QuantalQuetzal/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuServer
And look at the "Known Issues" -> "OpenStack" section, you will see the first entry is about the switch in option format which I believe is relevant here.

(*) The db sync error was, "DEBUG nova.utils [-] backend <module 'nova.db.sqlalchemy.migration' from '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/db/sqlalchemy/migration.pyc'> from (pid=388) __get_backend /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/utils.py:494"

[Jean-Baptiste RANSY (jean-baptiste-ransy)]

Not a bug

In the Essex release, the nova.conf file format changed from flags (--name=value) to INI file format (name=value). The Compute service will function properly with either format.

The default nova.conf format for Essex packages varies by distribution. Fedora packages use the new INI style format, and Ubuntu 12.04 packages use the old flag format.

So : Use the lastest openstack documentation that you can find at openstack.org. Do not use the Ubuntu Guide

[Jean-Baptiste RANSY (jean-baptiste-ransy)]

BTW, You can automatically convert a nova.conf file from flag format to INI format using nova-manage:

$ nova-manage config convert --help
Usage: nova-manage config convert <args> [options]

Options:
  -h, --help show this help message and exit
  --infile=<path> old-style flagfile to convert to config
  --outfile=<path> path for output file. Writes configto stdout if not
                    specified

I don't know if this function exists again in grizzly.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Reference to upstream docs in latest version.