Operations

So you're an operator using OpenStack. This page is an attempt to collect recommendations for how to have a good experience running OpenStack.

=Participate= There is a dedicated mailing list for operators, go to http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators to subscribe. You can also dig the archives which contain plenty of valuable information.

There is the  channel on IRC for live conversations. There is also a biweekly team meeting. (ancient meeting logs here)

Since Juno, operators gather during the Design summit for an official Operators meetup, and somewhere mid-cycle. They can discuss together as well as with OpenStack developers and contributors. Check the Operations/Meetups page for more information.

There are also a number of working groups you can participate in.

=Documentation=


 * OpenStack operations guide, a must-read
 * OpenStack architecture design guide
 * OpenStack security guide
 * OpenStack documentation site
 * The OpenStack Operators Team of Japan has some documents here

= Use Cases = Operators have a variety of things they need to do on a day to day basis. Tracking and classifying these will offer important insight for the developers. Check them on Operations/UseCases.

= Tools = A list of tools developed to help with day-to-day OpenStack Operations tasks.

= Monitoring = There have been a few discussions specifically about Monitoring at the Operations/Meetups.

= Working Groups = These working groups are specific to Operators and function.
 * Operators Tools and Monitoring

= Bug reporting =

First check the Bugs page. It is often hard for developers to help with bugs filed from operations staff unless they include as much information about the problem experienced. You'll also find that your bug will get more attention if you use the right tags so that its visible to the developers.

Specifically:
 * please include the version you're running (both OpenStack release, and where you got the packages from if relevant).
 * tag the bug with the "ops" tag. When reporting a new bug, you need to expand the "extra options" field to add a tag (see [[media:Launchpad.report.bug.png|image]]). For an existing bug, the "Add tags" link is right after the bug's description (see [[media:Bugs_launchpad_add_tag.png|image]]).
 * if you think the bug is trivial, for example a log message emitted at the wrong level, please tag it as "low-hanging-fruit" as well.
 * include any logs which seem relevant.
 * describe your production environment -- what database you use, approximately how many machines, and so on.
 * subscribe the 'openstack-ops' Launchpad team to the bug.
 * If you know that other people are also affected by the bug, encourage them to go to the Launchpad bug page and click on the "Does this bug affect you?" link (see [[media:Bugs.launchpad.net.png|image]]). This will increase the "heat" of the bug which is an indication of importance for developers.

See Operations/Bugs to get the list of bugs tagged with 'ops'.

= Example Configs = The OSOPS Git repository has a selection of real configs you can look at : http://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/osops-example-configs