MCP-OpenStack-Ops

MCP OpenStack Operations Server: A comprehensive MCP (Model Context Protocol) server providing OpenStack project management and monitoring capabilities with built-in safety controls and single-project scope.

Architecture & Internal (DeepWiki)

Features

• ✅ Project-Scoped Operations: Every tool enforces the configured OS_PROJECT_NAME, validating resource ownership so actions stay inside a single tenant.
• ✅ Safety-Gated Writes: Modify (set_*) tooling only registers when ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=true, keeping default deployments read-only and auditable.
• ✅ 90+ Purpose-Built Tools: Broad coverage across compute, networking, storage, images, identity, Heat, and Octavia load balancing tasks—all constrained to the current project.
• ✅ Bulk & Filtered Actions: Instance, volume, network, image, snapshot, and keypair managers accept comma-delimited targets or filter criteria to orchestrate bulk changes intentionally.
• ✅ Post-Action Feedback & Async Guidance: Mutating tools reuse a shared result handler that adds emoji status checks, asynchronous timing notes, and follow-up verification commands.
• ✅ Monitoring & Usage Insights: get_service_status, get_resource_monitoring, get_usage_statistics, and quota tools surface service availability, utilization, and capacity for the active project.
• ✅ Unified Instance Queries: The get_instance tool consolidates name, ID, status, and free-form search paths with pagination plus summary/detailed modes.
• ✅ Server Insight & Audit Trail: Dedicated tools expose server events, hypervisor details, availability zones, quotas, and resource ownership to speed diagnostics.
• ✅ Load Balancer Management: Octavia tools cover listeners, pools, members, health monitors, flavors, quotas, and amphora operations with the same safety gates.
• ✅ Connection & Deployment Flexibility: Connection caching, configurable service endpoints, Docker packaging, and both stdio/streamable-http transports support proxy/bastion and multi-project setups.

⚠️ Compatibility Notice: This MCP server is developed and optimized for OpenStack Epoxy (2025.1) as the primary target environment. However, it is compatible with most modern OpenStack releases (Dalmatian, Caracal, Bobcat, etc.) as the majority of APIs remain consistent across versions. Only a few specific API endpoints may require adaptation for full compatibility with older releases.

🚧 Coming Soon: Dynamic multi-version OpenStack API compatibility is actively under development and will be available in upcoming releases, providing seamless support for all major OpenStack deployments automatically.

🔧 OpenStackSDK Version Customization for Older Releases

Officially Supported Releases:

• ✅ OpenStack Epoxy (2025.1) - Fully tested
• ✅ OpenStack Dalmatian (2024.2) - Fully tested

For older OpenStack releases (Wallaby, Caracal, Bobcat, etc.), you may need to customize the OpenStackSDK version to match your environment. The SDK version must be changed in BOTH files:

Step 1: Modify Dockerfile.MCP-Server

dockerfileCopy code
RUN pip install \
        'uv>=0.8.5' \
        'mcpo>=0.0.17' \
        'fastmcp>=2.12.3' \
        'aiohttp>=3.12.0' \
        'openstacksdk==3.1.1' \  # ← Change to your required version (e.g., 3.1.1 for Wallaby)
        'python-dotenv>=1.0.0'

Step 2: Modify pyproject.toml

tomlCopy code
dependencies = [
    "fastmcp>=2.12.3",
    "openstacksdk==3.1.1",  # ← Must match Dockerfile version
    "python-dotenv>=1.1.1",
    # ... other dependencies
]

Step 3: Rebuild Docker Image

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docker-compose build --no-cache mcp-server
docker-compose up -d

OpenStackSDK Version Reference:

⚠️ Important: Both Dockerfile.MCP-Server and pyproject.toml must have the same version to avoid dependency conflicts during container runtime.

Screenshots

OpenStack Dashboard (Epoxy 2025.1)

MCP Query Example - Cluster Status

🆕 Latest Enhancements (v1.x)

Bulk Operations & Filter-based Targeting

Revolutionary approach to resource management enabling one-step operations:

bashCopy code
# Traditional approach (multiple steps):
1. search_instances("test") → get list
2. set_instance("vm1", "stop") → stop individually  
3. set_instance("vm2", "stop") → stop individually

# NEW enhanced approach (single step):
set_instance(action="stop", name_contains="test")  # ✨ Stops ALL instances containing "test"

Supported Tools with Enhanced Capabilities:

• set_instance: Bulk lifecycle management with filtering (name_contains, status, flavor_contains, image_contains)
• set_volume: Bulk volume operations with filtering (name_contains, status, size filtering)
• set_image: Bulk image management with filtering (name_contains, status)
• set_networks: Bulk network operations with filtering (name_contains, status)
• set_keypair: Bulk keypair management with filtering (name_contains)
• set_snapshot: Bulk snapshot operations with filtering (name_contains, status)

Input Format Flexibility:

pythonCopy code
# Single resource
resource_names="vm1"

# Multiple resources (comma-separated)
resource_names="vm1,vm2,vm3"

# JSON array format
resource_names='["vm1", "vm2", "vm3"]'

# Filter-based (automatic target identification)
name_contains="test", status="ACTIVE"

Post-Action Status Verification

Every operation now provides immediate feedback with visual indicators:

bashCopy code
✅ Bulk Instance Management - Action: stop
📊 Total instances: 3
✅ Successes: 2
❌ Failures: 1

Post-Action Status:
🟢 test-vm-1: SHUTOFF  
🟢 test-vm-2: SHUTOFF
🔴 test-vm-3: ERROR

Unified Resource Queries

New consolidated get_instance tool replaces multiple separate tools:

• ❌ Old: get_instance_details, get_instance_info, get_instance_status, get_instance_network_info
• ✅ New: get_instance(instance_names="vm1,vm2") - Single tool, comprehensive information

📊 OpenStack CLI vs MCP Tools Mapping

Detailed Mapping by Category

1. 🖥️ Compute (Nova)

2. 🌐 Network (Neutron)

3. 💾 Storage (Cinder)

4. 🖼️ Image (Glance)

5. 👥 Identity (Keystone)

6. 🔥 Orchestration (Heat)

7. ⚖️ Load Balancer (Octavia)

8. 📊 Monitoring & Logging

9. 📏 Usage & Quota

Quick Start

💡 Need an OpenStack Cluster for Testing?
Check out this comprehensive guide: Tutorial: Install OpenStack Multinode Cluster /w Kolla-Ansible (Epoxy/Dalmatian)
Perfect for setting up a test environment to explore MCP-OpenStack-Ops capabilities.

1. Environment Setup

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# Clone and navigate to project
cd MCP-OpenStack-Ops

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your OpenStack credentials

Environment Configuration

Configure your .env file with OpenStack credentials:

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# OpenStack Authentication (required)
OS_AUTH_HOST=your-openstack-host
OS_AUTH_PORT=5000
OS_AUTH_PROTOCOL=http  # Use 'https' for production with SSL/TLS
# OS_CACERT=/etc/ssl/certs/openstack-ca.pem  # Required for HTTPS (optional for HTTP)
OS_IDENTITY_API_VERSION=3
OS_USERNAME=your-username
OS_PASSWORD=your-password
OS_PROJECT_NAME=your-project
OS_PROJECT_DOMAIN_NAME=default
OS_USER_DOMAIN_NAME=default
OS_REGION_NAME=RegionOne

# OpenStack Service Ports (customizable)
OS_COMPUTE_PORT=8774
OS_NETWORK_PORT=9696
OS_VOLUME_PORT=8776
OS_IMAGE_PORT=9292
OS_PLACEMENT_PORT=8780
OS_HEAT_STACK_PORT=8004
OS_HEAT_STACK_CFN_PORT=8000

# MCP Server Configuration (optional)
MCP_LOG_LEVEL=INFO
ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=false
FASTMCP_TYPE=stdio
FASTMCP_HOST=127.0.0.1
FASTMCP_PORT=8080

HTTPS Configuration for Production Environments

For secure OpenStack deployments with SSL/TLS:

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# Enable HTTPS protocol
OS_AUTH_PROTOCOL=https
OS_AUTH_HOST=your-secure-openstack-host
OS_AUTH_PORT=13000  # Your HTTPS Keystone port

# SSL Certificate Configuration
# Option 1: Use custom CA certificate (recommended for production)
OS_CACERT=/etc/ssl/certs/openstack-ca.pem

# Option 2: Skip CA certificate (SSL verification disabled - insecure)
# Just omit OS_CACERT - the server will warn you about insecure connection

# Docker: Mount CA certificate into container
# Add to docker-compose.yml volumes:
#   - /path/to/your/ca-cert.pem:/etc/ssl/certs/openstack-ca.pem:ro

Protocol Configuration Notes:

• OS_AUTH_PROTOCOL=http: Use for local development or HTTP-only OpenStack deployments
• OS_AUTH_PROTOCOL=https: Use for production environments with SSL/TLS enabled
• When https is set without OS_CACERT, SSL verification is disabled (insecure but functional)
• For secure production deployments, always provide OS_CACERT with your CA certificate path

2. Run Server

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# Start all services
docker-compose up -d

# Check logs
docker-compose logs mcp-server
docker-compose logs mcpo-proxy

Container Architecture:

• mcp-server: OpenStack MCP server with tools
• mcpo-proxy: OpenAPI (REST-API)
• open-webui: Web interface for testing and interaction

📌 Note: Web-UI configuration instructions are based on OpenWebUI v0.6.22. Menu locations and settings may differ in newer versions.

Service URLs - Docker Internal:

• MCP Server: localhost:8080 (HTTP transport)
• MCPO Proxy: localhost:8000 (OpenStack API proxy)
• Open WebUI: localhost:3000 (Web interface)

Service URLs - Docker External:

• MCP Server: host.docker.internal:18005 (HTTP transport)
• MCPO Proxy: host.docker.internal:8005 (OpenStack API proxy)
• Open WebUI: host.docker.internal:3005 (Web interface)

For Claude Desktop Integration

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration:

jsonCopy code
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-openstack-ops": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--python", "3.12", "mcp-openstack-ops"],
      "env": {
        "OS_AUTH_HOST": "your-openstack-host",
        "OS_AUTH_PORT": "5000",
        "OS_PROJECT_NAME": "your-project",
        "OS_USERNAME": "your-username",
        "OS_PASSWORD": "your-password",
        "OS_USER_DOMAIN_NAME": "Default",
        "OS_PROJECT_DOMAIN_NAME": "Default",
        "OS_REGION_NAME": "RegionOne",
        "OS_IDENTITY_API_VERSION": "3",
        "OS_INTERFACE": "internal",
        "OS_COMPUTE_PORT": "8774",
        "OS_NETWORK_PORT": "9696",
        "OS_VOLUME_PORT": "8776",
        "OS_IMAGE_PORT": "9292",
        "OS_PLACEMENT_PORT": "8780",
        "OS_HEAT_STACK_PORT": "8004",
        "OS_HEAT_STACK_CFN_PORT": "18888",
        "ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS": "false",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "INFO"
      }
    }
  }
}

Server Configuration

Command Line Options

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uv run python -m mcp_openstack_ops --help

Options:
  --log-level {DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR,CRITICAL}
                        Logging level
  --type {stdio,streamable-http}
                        Transport type (default: stdio)
  --host HOST          Host address for HTTP transport (default: 127.0.0.1)
  --port PORT          Port number for HTTP transport (default: 8080)
  --auth-enable        Enable Bearer token authentication for streamable-http mode
  --secret-key SECRET  Secret key for Bearer token authentication

Environment Variables

🔒 Project Isolation & Security

Single Project Scope Operation

MCP-OpenStack-Ops operates within a strictly defined project scope determined by the OS_PROJECT_NAME environment variable. This provides complete tenant isolation and data privacy in multi-tenant OpenStack environments.

Key Security Features:

• 100% Complete Resource Isolation: All operations are restricted to resources within the specified project with enhanced security validation
• Zero Cross-tenant Data Leakage: Advanced project ownership validation prevents access to resources from other projects
• Multi-layer Security Filtering: Each service implements intelligent resource filtering by current project ID with additional validation
• Secure Resource Lookup: All resource searches use project-scoped lookup with ownership verification
• Shared Resource Access: Intelligently includes shared/public resources (networks, images) while maintaining strict security boundaries
• Cross-Project Access Prevention: Enhanced protection against accidental operations on similarly-named resources in other projects

Filtered Resources by Project:

Security Validation & Testing

Project Isolation Security Test

To verify that project isolation is working correctly, run the included security test:

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# Run project isolation security test
python test_project_isolation.py

Expected Test Results:

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🔒 OpenStack Project Isolation Security Test
==================================================
📋 Testing project isolation for: your-project

1️⃣ Testing Connection and Project ID...
✅ Connection successful
✅ Current project ID: abc123-def456-ghi789
✅ Project name 'your-project' matches project ID

2️⃣ Testing Resource Ownership Validation...
✅ Found 5 compute instances
   Instance web-server-01: ✅ Owned
   Instance db-server-01: ✅ Owned
✅ Found 3/8 owned networks
✅ Found 10/10 owned volumes

3️⃣ Testing Service-Level Project Filtering...
✅ Compute service returned 5 instances
✅ Network service returned 3 networks  
✅ Storage service returned 10 volumes

4️⃣ Testing Secure Resource Lookup...
ℹ️  Network 'admin' not found or not accessible in current project
ℹ️  Instance 'demo' not found or not accessible in current project

🎯 Project Isolation Test Results
========================================
✅ All security tests passed!
✅ Project 'your-project' isolation verified
✅ Cross-project access prevention confirmed

🔒 Your OpenStack MCP Server is properly secured!

Security Features Validated:

• ✅ Project ID verification and matching
• ✅ Resource ownership validation for all services
• ✅ Service-level project filtering
• ✅ Secure resource lookup with cross-project protection
• ✅ Prevention of accidental operations on other projects' resources

For managing multiple OpenStack projects, deploy multiple MCP server instances with different OS_PROJECT_NAME values:

Example: Managing 3 Projects

bashCopy code
# Project 1: Production Environment
OS_PROJECT_NAME=production
# ... other config
python -m mcp_openstack_ops --type stdio

# Project 2: Development Environment  
OS_PROJECT_NAME=development
# ... other config  
python -m mcp_openstack_ops --type streamable-http --port 8001

# Project 3: Testing Environment
OS_PROJECT_NAME=testing  
# ... other config
python -m mcp_openstack_ops --type streamable-http --port 8002

Claude Desktop Multi-Project Configuration Example:

jsonCopy code
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openstack-production": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_openstack_ops", "--type", "stdio"],
      "env": {
        "OS_PROJECT_NAME": "production",
        "OS_USERNAME": "admin",
        "OS_PASSWORD": "your-password",
        "OS_AUTH_HOST": "192.168.35.2"
      }
    },
    "openstack-development": {
      "command": "python", 
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_openstack_ops", "--type", "stdio"],
      "env": {
        "OS_PROJECT_NAME": "development",
        "OS_USERNAME": "admin",
        "OS_PASSWORD": "your-password", 
        "OS_AUTH_HOST": "192.168.35.2"
      }
    },
    "openstack-testing": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_openstack_ops", "--type", "stdio"], 
      "env": {
        "OS_PROJECT_NAME": "testing",
        "OS_USERNAME": "admin",
        "OS_PASSWORD": "your-password",
        "OS_AUTH_HOST": "192.168.35.2"
      }
    }
  }
}

This allows Claude to access each project independently with complete isolation between environments.

📁 Ready-to-use Configuration File:

A complete multi-project configuration example is available at mcp-config.json.multi-project:

• Production: Read-only operations for safety (ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=false)
• Development: Full operations enabled (ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=true)
• Testing: Debug logging enabled (MCP_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG)

bashCopy code
# Copy and customize the multi-project configuration
cp mcp-config.json.multi-project ~/.config/claude-desktop/mcp_servers.json
# Edit with your OpenStack credentials

Safety Controls

Modification Operations Protection

By default, all operations that can modify or delete OpenStack resources are disabled for safety:

bashCopy code
# Default setting - Only read-only operations allowed
ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=false

Protected Operations (when ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=false):

• Instance management (start, stop, restart, pause, unpause)
• Volume operations (create, delete, attach, detach)
• Keypair management (create, delete, import)
• Floating IP operations (create, delete, associate, disassociate)
• Snapshot management (create, delete)
• Image management (create, delete, update)
• Heat stack operations (create, delete, update)

Always Available (Read-Only Operations):

• Cluster status and monitoring
• Resource listings (instances, volumes, networks, etc.)
• Service status checks
• Usage and quota information
• Search and filtering operations

⚠️ To Enable Modify Operations:

bashCopy code
# Enable all operations (USE WITH CAUTION)
ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=true

Tool Registration Behavior:

• When ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=false: Only read-only tools are registered with the MCP server
• When ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=true: All tools (read-only + modify operations) are registered
• Tool availability is determined at server startup - restart required after changing this setting

Best Practices:

• Keep ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS=false in production environments
• Enable modify operations only in development/testing environments
• Use separate configurations for different environments
• Review operations before enabling modify capabilities
• Restart the MCP server after changing the ALLOW_MODIFY_OPERATIONS setting

💬 Example Queries & Usage Patterns

For comprehensive examples of how to interact with this MCP server, including natural language queries and their corresponding tool mappings, see:

📖 Example Queries & Usage Patterns

This section includes:

• 🎯 Cluster overview and status queries
• �️ Instance management operations
• 🌐 Network configuration tasks
• � Storage management workflows
• 🔥 Heat orchestration examples
• ⚖️ Load balancer operations
• � Advanced search patterns
• 📊 Monitoring and troubleshooting
• 🧠 Complex multi-tool query combinations

Performance Optimization

Large-Scale Environment Support

The MCP server is optimized for large OpenStack environments with thousands of instances:

Pagination Features:

• Default limits prevent memory overflow (50 instances per request)
• Configurable safety limits (maximum 200 instances per request)
• Offset-based pagination for browsing large datasets
• Performance metrics tracking (processing time, instances per second)

Search Optimization:

• 2-phase search process (basic info filtering → detailed info retrieval)
• Intelligent caching with connection reuse
• Selective API calls to minimize overhead
• Case-sensitive search options for precise filtering

Connection Management:

• Global connection caching with validity testing
• Automatic retry mechanisms for transient failures
• Connection pooling for high-throughput scenarios

Usage Examples:

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# Safe large environment browsing
get_instance_details(limit=50, offset=0)     # First 50 instances
get_instance_details(limit=50, offset=50)    # Next 50 instances

# Emergency override for small environments
get_instance_details(include_all=True)       # All instances (use with caution)

# Optimized search for large datasets
search_instances("web", "name", limit=20)    # Search with reasonable limit

Development

Adding New Tools

Edit src/mcp_openstack_ops/mcp_main.py to add new MCP tools:

pythonCopy code
@mcp.tool()
async def my_openstack_tool(param: str) -> str:
    """
    Brief description of the tool's purpose.
    
    Functions:
    - List specific functions this tool performs
    - Describe the operations it enables
    - Mention when to use this tool
    
    Use when user requests [specific scenarios].
    
    Args:
        param: Description of the parameter
        
    Returns:
        Description of return value format.
    """
    try:
        logger.info(f"Tool called with param: {param}")
        # Implementation using functions.py helpers
        result = my_helper_function(param)
        
        response = {
            "timestamp": datetime.now().isoformat(),
            "result": result
        }
        
        return json.dumps(response, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False)
        
    except Exception as e:
        error_msg = f"Error: Failed to execute tool - {str(e)}"
        logger.error(error_msg)
        return error_msg

Helper Functions

Add utility functions to src/mcp_openstack_ops/functions.py:

pythonCopy code
def my_helper_function(param: str) -> dict:
    """Helper function for OpenStack operations"""
    try:
        conn = get_openstack_connection()
        
        # OpenStack SDK operations
        result = conn.some_service.some_operation(param)
        
        logger.info(f"Operation completed successfully")
        return {"success": True, "data": result}
        
    except Exception as e:
        logger.error(f"Helper function error: {e}")
        raise

Testing & Validation

Local Testing

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# Test with MCP Inspector (recommended)
./scripts/run-mcp-inspector-local.sh

# Test with debug logging
MCP_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG uv run python -m mcp_openstack_ops

# Validate OpenStac