OpenStack Dev Server Setup Ubuntu

Ubuntu 22.04 is the most common platform for OpenStack development. This guide sets up a complete development environment using DevStack on Ubuntu, configured for contributing to OpenStack 2024.2 Dalmatian, running tests, and debugging services.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Update and Install Dependencies

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y git vim python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv \
  gcc libffi-dev libssl-dev libpq-dev

Step 2: Create the Stack User

sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -d /opt/stack -m stack
sudo chmod +x /opt/stack
echo "stack ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/stack
sudo -u stack -i

Step 3: Clone DevStack

git clone https://opendev.org/openstack/devstack -b stable/2024.2
cd devstack

Step 4: Configure local.conf

cat > local.conf <<'EOF'
[[local|localrc]]
ADMIN_PASSWORD=devstack
DATABASE_PASSWORD=devstack
RABBIT_PASSWORD=devstack
SERVICE_PASSWORD=devstack
HOST_IP=10.0.0.10

# Networking with OVN
Q_AGENT=ovn
Q_ML2_PLUGIN_MECHANISM_DRIVERS=ovn
Q_ML2_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=geneve
OVN_L3_CREATE_PUBLIC_NETWORK=true

# Cinder with LVM
enable_service c-vol c-api c-sch
CINDER_VOLUME_BACKEND=lvm

# Development tools
enable_service tempest
enable_plugin heat https://opendev.org/openstack/heat stable/2024.2

# Logging
LOGFILE=/opt/stack/logs/stack.sh.log
VERBOSE=True
LOG_COLOR=True

# Avoid recloning on restart
RECLONE=False
OFFLINE=False
EOF

Step 5: Deploy

./stack.sh

Expect 20–45 minutes. All services start as systemd units named devstack@<service>.

Step 6: Verify

source openrc admin admin
openstack service list
openstack endpoint list
openstack network agent list

Access Horizon at http://10.0.0.10/dashboard.

Development Workflow

Install Development Tools

pip3 install tox git-review python-openstackclient

Clone and Set Up a Project

cd /opt/stack
git clone https://opendev.org/openstack/nova
cd nova

# Set up Gerrit remote for code review
git review -s

# Create a feature branch
git checkout -b fix-scheduler-bug stable/2024.2

Run Unit Tests

# All tests
tox -e py311

# Specific test module
tox -e py311 -- nova.tests.unit.scheduler.test_filter_scheduler

# Specific test method
tox -e py311 -- nova.tests.unit.scheduler.test_filter_scheduler.FilterSchedulerTestCase.test_schedule_happy_path

# Code style
tox -e pep8

# Generate docs
tox -e docs

Test Changes Live

After modifying code, restart the affected service:

# Edit Nova code
vim /opt/stack/nova/nova/scheduler/filter_scheduler.py

# Restart just the scheduler
sudo systemctl restart devstack@n-sch

# Watch logs
journalctl -u devstack@n-sch -f

Submit a Patch to Gerrit

cd /opt/stack/nova
git add .
git commit -m "Fix scheduler weight calculation

The RAM weigher was not accounting for reserved memory
when calculating available resources.

Closes-Bug: #12345"

# Submit for review
git review

Review and Test Someone Else's Patch

# Download a patch by Gerrit change number
git review -d 123456

# Run tests on it
tox -e py311

# Test it live
sudo systemctl restart devstack@n-sch

Running Tempest Integration Tests

source openrc admin admin

# Smoke tests (quick)
tempest run --smoke

# Specific API tests
tempest run --regex tempest.api.compute.servers.test_create_server

# Full compute test suite
tempest run --regex tempest.api.compute

IDE Setup

VS Code Remote Development

1. Install VS Code with Remote-SSH extension
2. Connect to your dev server
3. Open /opt/stack/nova as workspace
4. Install Python extension for IntelliSense

PyCharm Remote Interpreter

1. Configure SSH interpreter pointing to /opt/stack
2. Set project root to the OpenStack project directory
3. Configure test runner as pytest or stestr

Debugging Services

# Stop the service
sudo systemctl stop devstack@n-api

# Run manually with debugger
cd /opt/stack/nova
python3 -m pdb -m nova.cmd.api

Or add breakpoints in code:

import pdb; pdb.set_trace()

Managing the Dev Environment

Troubleshooting

Summary

Ubuntu 22.04 with DevStack provides the standard OpenStack development environment. The workflow is: edit code, run unit tests with tox, test live by restarting services, and submit patches via git-review to Gerrit.