diff --git a/nova/api/metadata/base.py b/nova/api/metadata/base.py
index 5d216b20751f..95555ce615af 100644
--- a/nova/api/metadata/base.py
+++ b/nova/api/metadata/base.py
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@ metadata_opts = [
                     'config drive'),
     cfg.StrOpt('vendordata_driver',
                default='nova.api.metadata.vendordata_json.JsonFileVendorData',
-               help='Driver to use for vendor data'),
+               help='DEPRECATED: Driver to use for vendor data',
+               deprecated_for_removal=True),
 ]
 
 CONF = cfg.CONF
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/deprecate_vendordata_driver-eefc745365a881c3.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/deprecate_vendordata_driver-eefc745365a881c3.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..80f97e26810c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/deprecate_vendordata_driver-eefc745365a881c3.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+deprecations:
+
+  - Deprecate the ``vendordata_driver`` config option. This allowed
+    creating a different class loader for defining vendordata
+    metadata. The default driver loads from a json file that can be
+    arbitrarily specified, so is still quite flexible. Deployments that
+    felt the need to use this facility are encoraged to propose
+    additions upstream so we can create a stable and supported
+    interface here.