# Install and configure a compute node for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise

This section describes how to install and configure the Compute service on a compute node. The service supports several hypervisors to deploy instances or virtual machines (VMs). For simplicity, this configuration uses the Quick EMUlator (QEMU) hypervisor with the kernel-based VM (KVM) extension on compute nodes that support hardware acceleration for virtual machines. On legacy hardware, this configuration uses the generic QEMU hypervisor. You can follow these instructions with minor modifications to horizontally scale your environment with additional compute nodes.

Note

This section assumes that you are following the instructions in this guide step-by-step to configure the first compute node. If you want to configure additional compute nodes, prepare them in a similar fashion to the first compute node in the example architectures section. Each additional compute node requires a unique IP address.

## Install and configure components

Note

Default configuration files vary by distribution. You might need to add these sections and options rather than modifying existing sections and options. Also, an ellipsis (`...`) in the configuration snippets indicates potential default configuration options that you should retain.

1. Install the packages:

       # zypper install openstack-nova-compute genisoimage qemu-kvm libvirt

2. Edit the `/etc/nova/nova.conf` file and complete the following actions:

   - In the `[DEFAULT]` section, enable only the compute and metadata APIs:

         [DEFAULT]
         # ...
         enabled_apis = osapi_compute,metadata

   - In the `[DEFAULT]` section, set the `compute_driver`:

         [DEFAULT]
         # ...
         compute_driver = libvirt.LibvirtDriver

   - In the `[DEFAULT]` section, configure `RabbitMQ` message queue access:

         [DEFAULT]
         # ...
         transport_url = rabbit://openstack:RABBIT_PASS@controller

     Replace `RABBIT_PASS` with the password you chose for the `openstack` account in `RabbitMQ`.

   - In the `[api]` and `[keystone_authtoken]` sections, configure Identity service access:

         [api]
         # ...
         auth_strategy = keystone

         [keystone_authtoken]
         # ...
         www_authenticate_uri = http://controller:5000/
         auth_url = http://controller:5000/
         memcached_servers = controller:11211
         auth_type = password
         project_domain_name = Default
         user_domain_name = Default
         project_name = service
         username = nova
         password = NOVA_PASS

     Replace `NOVA_PASS` with the password you chose for the `nova` user in the Identity service.

     Note

     Comment out or remove any other options in the `[keystone_authtoken]` section.

   - In the `[service_user]` section, configure service user tokens:

         [service_user]
         send_service_user_token = true
         auth_url = https://controller/identity
         auth_strategy = keystone
         auth_type = password
         project_domain_name = Default
         project_name = service
         user_domain_name = Default
         username = nova
         password = NOVA_PASS

     Replace `NOVA_PASS` with the password you chose for the `nova` user in the Identity service.

   - In the `[DEFAULT]` section, configure the `my_ip` option:

         [DEFAULT]
         # ...
         my_ip = MANAGEMENT_INTERFACE_IP_ADDRESS

     Replace `MANAGEMENT_INTERFACE_IP_ADDRESS` with the IP address of the management network interface on your compute node, typically `10.0.0.31` for the first node in the example architecture.

   - Configure the `[neutron]` section of /etc/nova/nova.conf. Refer to the Networking service install guide for more details.

   - In the `[vnc]` section, enable and configure remote console access:

         [vnc]
         # ...
         enabled = true
         server_listen = 0.0.0.0
         server_proxyclient_address = $my_ip
         novncproxy_base_url = http://controller:6080/vnc_auto.html

     The server component listens on all IP addresses and the proxy component only listens on the management interface IP address of the compute node. The base URL indicates the location where you can use a web browser to access remote consoles of instances on this compute node.

     Note

     If the web browser to access remote consoles resides on a host that cannot resolve the `controller` hostname, you must replace `controller` with the management interface IP address of the controller node.

   - In the `[glance]` section, configure the location of the Image service API:

         [glance]
         # ...
         api_servers = http://controller:9292

   - In the `[oslo_concurrency]` section, configure the lock path:

         [oslo_concurrency]
         # ...
         lock_path = /var/run/nova

   - In the `[placement]` section, configure the Placement API:

         [placement]
         # ...
         region_name = RegionOne
         project_domain_name = Default
         project_name = service
         auth_type = password
         user_domain_name = Default
         auth_url = http://controller:5000/v3
         username = placement
         password = PLACEMENT_PASS

     Replace `PLACEMENT_PASS` with the password you choose for the `placement` user in the Identity service. Comment out any other options in the `[placement]` section.

3. Ensure the kernel module `nbd` is loaded.

       # modprobe nbd

4. Ensure the module loads on every boot by adding `nbd` to the `/etc/modules-load.d/nbd.conf` file.

## Finalize installation

1. Determine whether your compute node supports hardware acceleration for virtual machines:

       $ egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

   If this command returns a value of `one or greater`, your compute node supports hardware acceleration which typically requires no additional configuration.

   If this command returns a value of `zero`, your compute node does not support hardware acceleration and you must configure `libvirt` to use QEMU instead of KVM.

   - Edit the `[libvirt]` section in the `/etc/nova/nova.conf` file as follows:

         [libvirt]
         # ...
         virt_type = qemu

2. Start the Compute service including its dependencies and configure them to start automatically when the system boots:

       # systemctl enable libvirtd.service openstack-nova-compute.service
       # systemctl start libvirtd.service openstack-nova-compute.service

Note

If the `nova-compute` service fails to start, check `/var/log/nova/nova-compute.log`. The error message `AMQP server on controller:5672 is unreachable` likely indicates that the firewall on the controller node is preventing access to port 5672. Configure the firewall to open port 5672 on the controller node and restart `nova-compute` service on the compute node.

## Add the compute node to the cell database

Important

Run the following commands on the controller node.

1. Source the admin credentials to enable admin-only CLI commands, then confirm there are compute hosts in the database:

       $ . admin-openrc

       $ openstack compute service list --service nova-compute
       +----+-------+--------------+------+-------+---------+----------------------------+
       | ID | Host  | Binary       | Zone | State | Status  | Updated At                 |
       +----+-------+--------------+------+-------+---------+----------------------------+
       | 1  | node1 | nova-compute | nova | up    | enabled | 2017-04-14T15:30:44.000000 |
       +----+-------+--------------+------+-------+---------+----------------------------+

2. Discover compute hosts:

       # su -s /bin/sh -c "nova-manage cell_v2 discover_hosts --verbose" nova

       Found 2 cell mappings.
       Skipping cell0 since it does not contain hosts.
       Getting compute nodes from cell 'cell1': ad5a5985-a719-4567-98d8-8d148aaae4bc
       Found 1 computes in cell: ad5a5985-a719-4567-98d8-8d148aaae4bc
       Checking host mapping for compute host 'compute': fe58ddc1-1d65-4f87-9456-bc040dc106b3
       Creating host mapping for compute host 'compute': fe58ddc1-1d65-4f87-9456-bc040dc106b3

   Note

   When you add new compute nodes, you must run `nova-manage cell_v2 discover_hosts` on the controller node to register those new compute nodes. Alternatively, you can set an appropriate interval in `/etc/nova/nova.conf`:

       [scheduler]
       discover_hosts_in_cells_interval = 300

this page last updated: 2026-06-10 20:07:09

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