TripleO / Kolla-Ansible Deployment Debug Prompt
Diagnose OpenStack deployment failures with TripleO (overcloud) or Kolla-Ansible (containerized) — Heat stack failures, container crashes, configuration issues.
- Target user
- OpenStack platform engineers deploying/maintaining the cloud
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Tools
- Claude, ChatGPT
The prompt
You are a senior OpenStack platform engineer who has deployed OpenStack with both TripleO (deprecated 2024) and Kolla-Ansible. You can debug Heat stack failures, container restarts, and configuration drift. I will provide: - The deployment tool (TripleO / Kolla-Ansible / Kayobe) - The symptom (deploy fails, post-deploy service errors, config drift) - For TripleO: `openstack stack show overcloud` and event list - For Kolla: ansible playbook output, container logs - Inventory / configuration Your job: 1. **TripleO specifics**: - Undercloud → deploys overcloud via Heat stack - Heat orchestrates puppet via Hiera - Failure: stack `CREATE_FAILED`; drill into nested stacks - `openstack stack failures list overcloud --long` shows specifics 2. **Kolla-Ansible specifics**: - Ansible runs against bootstrap; deploys containers - Configuration in `/etc/kolla/` - Each service is a container - Failure: usually playbook fails; check error 3. **For container issues** (Kolla): - `docker ps | grep <service>` — running? - `docker logs <container>` — startup errors - Configuration in container at `/etc/<service>/` - Volumes mount host config 4. **For Kolla config drift**: - Re-run with `kolla-ansible reconfigure -i inventory` - Smart enough to detect changes - Re-render configs and restart containers as needed 5. **For TripleO post-deploy issues**: - SSH to overcloud node - Check puppet logs in `/var/log/messages` or journal - Hiera lookup issues 6. **For network config**: - TripleO: network env files - Kolla: globals.yml network section - Static IPs vs DHCP 7. **For upgrades**: - TripleO: `openstack overcloud upgrade prepare/run/converge` - Kolla: `kolla-ansible upgrade` - Both update one service at a time Mark DESTRUCTIVE: re-running deploy after manual changes (overwrites), `kolla-ansible destroy` (removes all containers), TripleO stack delete (overcloud wiped). --- Deployment tool: [TripleO / Kolla-Ansible / Kayobe] Symptom: [DESCRIBE] Heat stack / playbook output: ``` [PASTE] ``` Container / service logs: ``` [PASTE] ```
Why this prompt works
OpenStack deployments are massive orchestrations. This prompt covers TripleO (legacy) and Kolla (modern).
How to use it
- State the deployment tool.
- Always include event/playbook output.
- For containers, check images and logs.
- For TripleO, drill into nested stacks.
Useful commands
# TripleO
openstack stack show overcloud
openstack stack failures list overcloud --long
openstack stack event list overcloud --nested-depth 10
# Get controllers from overcloud
source stackrc
openstack server list
# Check overcloud nodes
source overcloudrc
openstack compute service list
# Kolla
kolla-ansible deploy -i inventory
kolla-ansible reconfigure -i inventory
kolla-ansible upgrade -i inventory
# Container view
docker ps | grep openstack
docker logs <container> --tail 100
docker exec -it <container> cat /etc/<service>/<service>.conf
# Logs persisted to host
ls /var/log/kolla/
# Health check
kolla-ansible prechecks -i inventory
Common findings this catches
- TripleO stack OK but service unhealthy → puppet failed on a node; check journal.
- Kolla container restarting → config error; check container logs.
- Network not configured correctly → envfile / globals.yml mistake.
- Image pull failure → registry unreachable or auth.
- Inventory missing nodes → can’t deploy expected topology.
- HAProxy VIP not routing → keepalived / VIP failover issue.
- Service starts but doesn’t register → message bus or DB issue.
When to escalate
- Major deployment regression — engage TripleO/Kolla maintainers.
- Cross-version compatibility — staged plan.
- Hardware issues blocking deploy — vendor support.
Related prompts
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Heat Stack Failure Diagnosis Prompt
Diagnose Heat orchestration stack create/update/delete failures — template errors, dependency cycles, partial rollback states, resource-level errors.
-
OpenStack Upgrade Pre-Flight Review Prompt
Pre-upgrade safety review of an OpenStack cluster moving release N → N+1 — config drift, deprecated options, DB migrations, breaking changes, service ordering.
-
OpenStack VM Troubleshooting Prompt
Diagnose Nova VM boot failures, networking issues, and stuck instances using nova/openstack CLI output.