# Compute API configuration

The Compute API, is the component of OpenStack Compute that receives and responds to user requests, whether they be direct API calls, or via the CLI tools or dashboard.

## Configure Compute API password handling

The OpenStack Compute API enables users to specify an administrative password when they create, rebuild, rescue or evacuate a server instance. If the user does not specify a password, a random password is generated and returned in the API response.

In practice, how the admin password is handled depends on the hypervisor in use and might require additional configuration of the instance. For example, you might have to install an agent to handle the password setting. If the hypervisor and instance configuration do not support setting a password at server create time, the password that is returned by the create API call is misleading because it was ignored.

To prevent this confusion, set the `enable_instance_password` configuration to `False` to disable the return of the admin password for installations that do not support setting instance passwords.

this page last updated: 2026-06-08 12:33:00

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