Its really just a binary that activates https://github.com/openstack/nova/blob/master/nova/api/metadata/handler.py#L100 Its a way to allow for a VM to get metadata about itself and any userdata (of which users may have provided) on boot. Said feature is not just connected to ec2, but provides a generic mechanism for getting this type of data to an instance. The ec2 folks I believe are just the 'originators' of said concept and that’s how it got named initially. From: JuanFra Rodriguez Cardoso <juanfra.rodriguez.cardoso at gmail.com<mailto:juanfra.rodriguez.cardoso at gmail.com>> Date: Monday, December 10, 2012 5:10 PM To: Openstack <openstack at lists.launchpad.net<mailto:openstack at lists.launchpad.net>> Subject: [Openstack] Nova metadata service Hi guys! After looking for in the mailing list and docs, I honestly still don't understand what really is nova-api-metadata. it's a mandatory service in a multi-host deployment? it's only related to EC2? Thanks! Regards, JuanFra. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack/attachments/20121210/d6965593/attachment.html>