nova_console_recorder

nova_console_recorder - ansible role

Role to deploy nova-console-recorder service on the OpenShift cluster for recording VNC console sessions of Nova instances to MP4 video files.

The recorder captures graphical (VNC) console output from Nova instances, storing recordings as timestamped MP4 files. Useful for troubleshooting boot issues, debugging OS installation, and capturing console activity for auditing.

This role deploys:

• NFS-backed PersistentVolume for shared storage across nodes
• PersistentVolumeClaim for console recordings
• Deployment with one container per Nova instance UUID

The automation-vars.yml is used with the hotloop role to apply the resources on the OpenShift cluster.

Features

• Records VNC console sessions to MP4 video files
• One container per Nova instance
• NFS-backed storage for pod mobility across OpenShift nodes
• Automatic reconnection and new file creation per session
• Deployed in sushy-emulator namespace
• Recordings collected by hotlogs role

Requirements

• OpenStack clouds.yaml and cacert.pem in cloud_config_dir
• At least one instance UUID in instances_uuids (role does nothing if empty)
• NFS server must be running and accessible at the configured nova_console_recorder_nfs_server and nova_console_recorder_nfs_path
  • When used with redfish_virtual_bmc, the controller role automatically sets up NFS
  • For standalone use, either run the controller role first or provide your own NFS server and update the NFS variables
• The role automatically creates the sushy-emulator namespace and OpenStack credentials secret if they don't exist

Variables

Variable	Default	Description
hotstack_enable_nova_console_recorder	true	Enable/disable console recorder deployment
sushy_emulator_os_cloud	default	OpenStack cloud name from clouds.yaml
instances_uuids	[]	List of Nova instance UUIDs to record
cloud_config_dir	/home/zuul/.hotcloud	Directory containing clouds.yaml and cacert.pem
nova_console_recorder_manifests	/home/zuul/manifests/nova_console_recorder_manifests	Manifest storage location
nova_console_recorder_image	quay.io/rhn_gps_hjensas/nova-console-recorder:latest	Container image
nova_console_recorder_use_custom_ca	false	Use custom CA certificate for VNC SSL verification (set to true for clouds with self-signed certs)
nova_console_recorder_nfs_server	controller-0.openstack.lab	NFS server hostname
nova_console_recorder_nfs_path	/export/nova-console-recordings	NFS export path
nova_console_recorder_storage_size	1Gi	PVC storage size

Output

Recordings are stored as:

<instance-name>-<timestamp>.mp4

Example:

compute-0-20260216-143022.mp4
compute-0-20260216-144530.mp4

Example playbook

- name: Deploy Nova Console Recorder
  hosts: localhost
  roles:
    - role: nova_console_recorder
      vars:
        instances_uuids:
          - "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"
          - "6ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c8"
        sushy_emulator_os_cloud: mycloud

Disabling

To disable console recorder deployment:

hotstack_enable_nova_console_recorder: false

Log Collection

Console recordings are automatically collected by the hotlogs role from the NFS export on controller-0 and stored in the logs directory under nova-console-recordings/.