You can configure OpenStack Compute to use any SQLAlchemy-compatible database. The database name is nova. The nova-conductor service is the only service that writes to the database. The other Compute services access the database through the nova-conductor service. To ensure that the database schema is current, run the following command: # nova-manage db sync If nova-conductor is not used, entries to the database are mostly written by the nova-scheduler service, although all services must be able to update entries in the database. In either case, use the configuration option settings documented in to configure the connection string for the nova database.