Finding configuration values
This thread consists of 6 emails, all from me:
http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-discuss/2019-December/011465....
This illustrates a problem I've seen in Openstack. Many of the configuration settings are undocumented, or the documentation is obscure. The only way for an openstack operator to know the correct setting is to be told by an openstack developer.
Sometimes I get lucky and someone tells me the answer on IRC, or here on the list. Sometimes nobody does, and then it seems that I am stuck. I have to keep bugging the developers until they tell me the answer. In this case, after searching for a week, I opened a Neutron bug, and then one of the Neutron developers told me how to fix my config.
What am I doing wrong? Is there a document I should be reading, that tells how to configure openstack? Why are there no answers in #openstack? Does everyone else have this same issue, or is it only me? How can Openstack operators find out how to configure Openstack, besides begging the developers for the answer?
On 12/12/2019 3:34 PM, Albert Braden wrote:
This illustrates a problem I’ve seen in Openstack. Many of the configuration settings are undocumented, or the documentation is obscure. The only way for an openstack operator to know the correct setting is to be told by an openstack developer.
Since Pike the docs in each project should be standardized and the configuration options should be generated from code. So for example:
https://docs.openstack.org/nova/latest/configuration/
https://docs.openstack.org/glance/latest/configuration/
https://docs.openstack.org/cinder/latest/configuration/
https://docs.openstack.org/neutron/latest/configuration/
So that answers your question about where to go for config docs.
Now if the docs themselves are no good, which would not be a surprise to me - developers tend to care more about getting code in than making it consumable by others - then you could open a bug against the project. Each docs page should have a little bug icon in the top right for reporting a docs bug against the project for that page. However, reporting the bug doesn't mean it's going to get fixed, so if you have a solution or something to write up by all means contribute it to help the next person that runs into the same issue.
Also, as for not getting a lot of help in #openstack, it entirely depends on who is around, how specific the question is and who is actually able to answer it. Sometimes that means going to the per-project channels and asking but again, the more specific you can be the better. Remember that open source doesn't necessarily mean open support so if you go to #openstack-nova and are like, "hey can someone help me debug my scheduler configuration?" you're likely not going to get much help because the channel is full of ( mostly :) ) busy developers working on things for their employer and paying customers.
OpenStack is great but let's be honest and remember that its development is primarily driven by huge corporations, not hobbyists.
This is the Rocky doc I was using:
https://docs.openstack.org/neutron/rocky/configuration/neutron.html
This is what it says about the rpc_workers setting:
rpc_workers
Type: integer Default: 1 Number of RPC worker processes for service.
Is this the correct place to add something like 'If your neutron-metadata-agent.log is full of "error: [Errno 32] Broken pipe" then increase this setting' ?
I'd be happy to help update the docs but I'm not sure how to get started. Opening document bugs doesn't seem to result in any change; if I could figure out how to submit changes myself that might be more helpful. How can I register as a document change submitter?
-----Original Message----- From: Matt Riedemann mriedemos@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 2:38 PM To: openstack-discuss@lists.openstack.org Subject: Re: Finding configuration values
On 12/12/2019 3:34 PM, Albert Braden wrote:
This illustrates a problem I've seen in Openstack. Many of the configuration settings are undocumented, or the documentation is obscure. The only way for an openstack operator to know the correct setting is to be told by an openstack developer.
Since Pike the docs in each project should be standardized and the configuration options should be generated from code. So for example:
On 12/12/2019 5:09 PM, Albert Braden wrote:
Is this the correct place to add something like 'If your neutron-metadata-agent.log is full of "error: [Errno 32] Broken pipe" then increase this setting' ?
I'd be happy to help update the docs but I'm not sure how to get started. Opening document bugs doesn't seem to result in any change; if I could figure out how to submit changes myself that might be more helpful. How can I register as a document change submitter?
I'm not sure if that troubleshooting type information should go into the config option help itself, likely a better place is a troubleshooting doc, like what nova has here [1]. I'm not sure if neutron has something similar in their docs.
The actual config options in neutron are under neutron/conf/ so in this case [2].
As for how to get started with contributing, this is where you would get started with contributing to OpenStack in general [3]. That has the ICLA and foundation account stuff you'd need for Gerrit.
This doc is about contributing to neutron specifically [4] (again each project should have a standard docs url like <project>/latest/contributor/).
[1] https://docs.openstack.org/nova/latest/admin/support-compute.html [2] https://github.com/openstack/neutron/blob/7fbba811edec6093df07f615358e90c8ac... [3] https://docs.openstack.org/infra/manual/developers.html [4] https://docs.openstack.org/neutron/latest/contributor/
As for how to get started with contributing, this is where you would get started with contributing to OpenStack in general [3]. That has the ICLA and foundation account stuff you'd need for Gerrit.
<snip>
Yes, please contribute. If your style is more "interactive", find me in #openstack-mentoring and I'd be delighted to help you get started.
efried .
On 12/12/19 6:09 PM, Albert Braden wrote:
This is the Rocky doc I was using:
https://docs.openstack.org/neutron/rocky/configuration/neutron.html
This is what it says about the rpc_workers setting:
rpc_workers
Type: integer Default: 1 Number of RPC worker processes for service.
Just an FYI that the default value for rpc_workers has changed, if you look at the Stein or later config it's now:
api_workers Type integer Default <None> Number of separate API worker processes for service. If not specified, the default is equal to the number of CPUs available for best performance, capped by potential RAM usage.
rpc_workers Type integer Default <None> Number of RPC worker processes for service. If not specified, the default is equal to half the number of API workers.
Is this the correct place to add something like 'If your neutron-metadata-agent.log is full of "error: [Errno 32] Broken pipe" then increase this setting' ?
I'd be happy to help update the docs but I'm not sure how to get started. Opening document bugs doesn't seem to result in any change; if I could figure out how to submit changes myself that might be more helpful. How can I register as a document change submitter?
There is a doc in the neutron repo available via docs.o.o:
https://docs.openstack.org/neutron/train/admin/config-wsgi.html
The last section of that covers "Neutron Worker Processes", and might be helpful. If you think it would be useful to add a little more info on this failure please either create a patch (file is at doc/source/admin/config-wsgi.rst in the repo), or open a bug - sometimes these low-hanging fruit things are great for someone new to the project.
-Brian
-----Original Message----- From: Matt Riedemann mriedemos@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 2:38 PM To: openstack-discuss@lists.openstack.org Subject: Re: Finding configuration values
On 12/12/2019 3:34 PM, Albert Braden wrote:
This illustrates a problem I've seen in Openstack. Many of the configuration settings are undocumented, or the documentation is obscure. The only way for an openstack operator to know the correct setting is to be told by an openstack developer.
Since Pike the docs in each project should be standardized and the configuration options should be generated from code. So for example:
participants (4)
-
Albert Braden
-
Brian Haley
-
Eric Fried
-
Matt Riedemann