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AI for OpenStack Difficulty: Advanced ClaudeChatGPT

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

  1. State the deployment tool.
  2. Always include event/playbook output.
  3. For containers, check images and logs.
  4. 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.

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