Merge "Mention size limit on user data in docs"

doc/source/user/config-drive.rst

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ You can configure OpenStack to write metadata to a special configuration drive
 that attaches to the instance when it boots. The instance can mount this drive
 and read files from it to get information that is normally available through
 the :doc:`metadata service </user/metadata-service>`.
-This metadata is different from the user data.
+This metadata is different from the :doc:`user data </user/user-data>`.
 
 One use case for using the configuration drive is to pass a networking
 configuration when you do not use DHCP to assign IP addresses to

doc/source/user/launch-instance-from-image.rst

@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ Follow the steps below to launch an instance from an image.
    For example, you can add a description for your server by providing the
    ``--property description="My Server"`` parameter.
 
-   You can pass user data in a local file at instance launch by using the
-   ``--user-data USER-DATA-FILE`` parameter.
+   You can pass :doc:`user data </user/user-data>` in a local file at instance
+   launch by using the ``--user-data USER-DATA-FILE`` parameter.
 
    .. important::
 

doc/source/user/launch-instances.rst

@@ -16,10 +16,10 @@ Before you can launch an instance, gather the following parameters:
   available hardware configuration for a server. It defines the size of
   a virtual server that can be launched.
 
-- Any **user data** files. A user data file is a special key in the
-  metadata service that holds a file that cloud-aware applications in
-  the guest instance can access. For example, one application that uses
-  user data is the
+- Any **user data** files. A :doc:`user data </user/user-data>` file is a
+  special key in the metadata service that holds a file that cloud-aware
+  applications in the guest instance can access. For example, one application
+  that uses user data is the
   `cloud-init <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CloudInit>`__ system,
   which is an open-source package from Ubuntu that is available on
   various Linux distributions and that handles early initialization of

doc/source/user/metadata-service.rst

@@ -118,9 +118,10 @@ metadata, make a GET request to
       "name": "test"
    }
 
-Instances also retrieve user data (passed as the ``user_data`` parameter in the
-API call or by the ``--user-data`` flag in the :command:`openstack server
-create` command) through the metadata service, by making a GET request to
+Instances also retrieve :doc:`user data </user/user-data>` (passed as the
+``user_data`` parameter in the API call or by the ``--user-data`` flag in the
+:command:`openstack server create` command) through the metadata service, by
+making a GET request to
 ``http://169.254.169.254/openstack/2018-08-27/user_data``:
 
 .. code-block:: console

doc/source/user/user-data.rst

@@ -20,3 +20,6 @@ You can place user data in a local file and pass it through the
 
    $ openstack server create --image ubuntu-cloudimage --flavor 1 \
      --user-data mydata.file VM_INSTANCE
+
+.. note:: The provided user data must be base64 encoded and is restricted to
+          65535 bytes.

doc/source/user/vendordata.rst

@@ -15,9 +15,10 @@ The user who booted the instance can pass metadata to the instance in several
 ways. For authentication keypairs, the keypairs functionality of the Nova APIs
 can be used to upload a key and then specify that key during the Nova boot API
 request. For less structured data, a small opaque blob of data may be passed
-via the user-data feature of the Nova API. Examples of such unstructured data
-would be the puppet role that the instance should use, or the HTTP address of a
-server to fetch post-boot configuration information from.
+via the :doc:`user data </user/user-data>` feature of the Nova API. Examples of
+such unstructured data would be the puppet role that the instance should use,
+or the HTTP address of a server to fetch post-boot configuration information
+from.
 
 Nova provided data
 ------------------