Doc: include information on vendor-data in OpenStack

1 files changed, 24 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/sources/openstack/README.rst b/doc/sources/openstack/README.rst
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+*TODO*
+
+Vendor Data
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The OpenStack metadata server can be configured to serve up vendor data
+which is available to all instances for consumption.  OpenStack vendor
+data is, generally, a JSON object.
+
+cloud-init will look for configuration in the ``cloud-init`` attribute
+of the vendor data JSON object. cloud-init processes this configuration
+using the same handlers as user data, so any formats that work for user
+data should work for vendor data.
+
+For example, configuring the following as vendor data in OpenStack would
+upgrade packages and install ``htop`` on all instances:
+
+.. sourcecode:: json
+
+    {"cloud-init": "#cloud-config\npackage_upgrade: True\npackages:\n - htop"}
+
+For more general information about how cloud-init handles vendor data,
+including how it can be disabled by users on instances, see
+https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~cloud-init-dev/cloud-init/trunk/view/head:/doc/vendordata.txt