I've been reading the book http://smile.amazon.com/OpenStack-Essentials-Dan-Radez/dp/1783987081 (OpenStack Essentials) to get a feel for OpenStack. I suppose the wisdom of this decision is open to debate but, since it is available on a library service I subscribe to it isn't much of a loss for me. That said, there seems to be some things that are left out, such as mentioning that python-docutils might reside in a non-standard repository. I've since learned this using the RDO docs and this here fancy Q&A site.

I'm early in the book's monologue. Only as far as the installation, really. It says to create an answer file using

# packstack --gen-answer-file ~/answers.txt

This is cool. Nothing substantial should go wrong with that and nothing does.

It then instructs its readers to add configuration options for the multinode situation:

CONFIG_NEUTRON_SERVER_HOST=192.168.123.102
CONFIG_NEUTRON_L3_HOSTS=192.168.123.102
CONFIG_NEUTRON_DHCP_HOSTS=192.168.123.102
CONFIG_NEUTRON_METADATA_HOSTS=192.168.123.102
CONFIG_NOVA_COMPUTE_HOSTS=192.168.123.103
CONFIG_HORIZON_HOST=192.168.122.101
CONFIG_NEUTRON_OVS_TENANT_NETWORK_TYPE=vxlan
CONFIG_NEUTRON_OVS_TUNNEL_RANGES=1:1000
CONFIG_NEUTRON_OVS_TUNNEL_IF=eth0
CONFIG_SWIFT_INSTALL=y
CONFIG_HEAT_INSTALL=y

I happily add these options configuring the IPs to what they actually are in my case.

After running the command to generate the answer file and adding the options per the book's instructions, I then run the command to install OpenStack:

# packstack --answer-file ~/answers.txt

Generally, this goes well and I'm left with OpenStack running on the Control node. I am able to log into the dashboard. Yippee!

But, when I try to sort out what else happened, I find that the answer file has been edited to exclude the options that I've added. There is no specification of the network (Neutron) host IP or the compute (Nova) host IP. The VLAN config is gone as are the options telling packstack to install Swift and Heat. Basically, all 11 of the lines I list above are not in the new file.

Is this supposed to happen? The book doesn't mention it. Red Hat's documentation doesn't mention it. The Internet doesn't mention it. At least, not as far as I've been able to find.

With the answer file method being idempotent I wouldn't expect to have to reconfigure it each time I want to execute it (except maybe for the Swift or Heat installations; no need to do that over and over again).

So, what happened? Is the book just off on it's instructions?