Insert metadata during launch When booting a server, you can also add metadata, so that you can more easily identify it amongst your ever-growing elastic cloud. Use the --meta option with a key=value pair, where you can make up the string for both the key and the value. For example, you could add a description and also the creator of the server. $ nova boot --image natty-image --flavor 2 smallimage2 --meta description 'Small test image' --meta creator=joecool When viewing the server information, you can see the metadata included on the metadata line: $ nova show smallimage2 +------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Property | Value | +------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | OS-DCF:diskConfig | MANUAL | | OS-EXT-STS:power_state | 1 | | OS-EXT-STS:task_state | None | | OS-EXT-STS:vm_state | active | | accessIPv4 | | | accessIPv6 | | | config_drive | | | created | 2012-05-16T20:48:23Z | | flavor | m1.small | | hostId | de0c201e62be88c61aeb52f51d91e147acf6cf2012bb57892e528487 | | id | 8ec95524-7f43-4cce-a754-d3e5075bf915 | | image | natty-image | | key_name | | | metadata | {u'description': u'Small test image', u'creator': u'joecool'} | | name | smallimage2 | | private network | 172.16.101.11 | | progress | 0 | | public network | 10.4.113.11 | | status | ACTIVE | | tenant_id | e830c2fbb7aa4586adf16d61c9b7e482 | | updated | 2012-05-16T20:48:35Z | | user_id | de3f4e99637743c7b6d27faca4b800a9 | +------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+