Partition drive automatically/set OS-DCF:diskConfig to auto with nova

Question

Rackspace Linux cloud servers now set OS-DCF:diskConfig to MANUAL when using nova. This means that the full drive isn't partitioned.

19:29:48 ~$ nova boot server01 --image 62df001e-87ee-407c-b042-6f4e13f5d7e1 --flavor performance2-60 --poll --key-name kylepub
+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| Property               | Value                                       |
+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| status                 | BUILD                                       |
| updated                | 2013-11-16T01:29:58Z                        |
| OS-EXT-STS:task_state  | scheduling                                  |
| key_name               | kylepub                                     |
| image                  | Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) (PVHVM beta) |
| hostId                 |                                             |
| OS-EXT-STS:vm_state    | building                                    |
| flavor                 | 60 GB Performance                           |
| id                     | 9bd6aaac-bbdd-4644-821d-fb697fd48091        |
| user_id                | aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa            |
| name                   | server01                                    |
| adminPass              | XXXXXXXXXXXX                                |
| tenant_id              | 864477                                      |
| created                | 2013-11-16T01:29:58Z                        |
| OS-DCF:diskConfig      | MANUAL                                      |
| accessIPv4             |                                             |
| accessIPv6             |                                             |
| progress               | 0                                           |
| OS-EXT-STS:power_state | 0                                           |
| config_drive           |                                             |
| metadata               | {}                                          |
+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+

How do I set OS-DCF:diskConfig to auto so the full disk is partitioned automatically?

Answer 1

Make sure you have os-diskconfig-python-novaclient-ext installed. If it's not, pip install it! It should come as part of installing rackspace-novaclient.

$ pip install os-diskconfig-python-novaclient-ext

Next up, use the --disk-config=AUTO option:

$ nova boot server01 --disk-config=AUTO --image 62df001e-87ee-407c-b042-6f4e13f5d7e1 --flavor performance2-60

Note that this is an extension by Rackspace, so if this is for a separate OpenStack deployment your provider needs the server side extension as well.

Big note: If you do the partitioning yourself, you are able to have non-EXT3 file systems, multiple partitions, and it lets you manage the disk configuration.