Rackspace Linux cloud servers now set OS-DCF:diskConfig to MANUAL when using nova. This means that the full drive isn't partitioned.
19:29:48 ~$ nova boot server01 --image 62df001e-87ee-407c-b042-6f4e13f5d7e1 --flavor performance2-60 --poll --key-name kylepub
+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| Property | Value |
+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| status | BUILD |
| updated | 2013-11-16T01:29:58Z |
| OS-EXT-STS:task_state | scheduling |
| key_name | kylepub |
| image | Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) (PVHVM beta) |
| hostId | |
| OS-EXT-STS:vm_state | building |
| flavor | 60 GB Performance |
| id | 9bd6aaac-bbdd-4644-821d-fb697fd48091 |
| user_id | aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa |
| name | server01 |
| adminPass | XXXXXXXXXXXX |
| tenant_id | 864477 |
| created | 2013-11-16T01:29:58Z |
| OS-DCF:diskConfig | MANUAL |
| accessIPv4 | |
| accessIPv6 | |
| progress | 0 |
| OS-EXT-STS:power_state | 0 |
| config_drive | |
| metadata | {} |
+------------------------+---------------------------------------------+
How do I set OS-DCF:diskConfig to auto so the full disk is partitioned automatically?
Make sure you have os-diskconfig-python-novaclient-ext installed. If it's not, pip install it! It should come as part of installing rackspace-novaclient.
$ pip install os-diskconfig-python-novaclient-ext
Next up, use the --disk-config=AUTO option:
$ nova boot server01 --disk-config=AUTO --image 62df001e-87ee-407c-b042-6f4e13f5d7e1 --flavor performance2-60
Note that this is an extension by Rackspace, so if this is for a separate OpenStack deployment your provider needs the server side extension as well.
Big note: If you do the partitioning yourself, you are able to have non-EXT3 file systems, multiple partitions, and it lets you manage the disk configuration.