2 minute read Published: Author: Colan Schwartz
OpenStack , Ubuntu , IaaS


When working with OpenStack as an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud-computing platform, it’s rather convenient to be able to interface with it via its command-line interface (CLI).

While the service is typically installed on the Ubuntu Long-Term Support (LTS) operating system (OS), which has releases every two years, running the CLI from other OSes, such as interim Ubuntu releases, is often necessary. However, it is currently not possible to install the command-line client with supported Debian packages on Ubuntu 19.10.


Update (2020-05-30): The simplest way to install the OpenStack CLI nowadays, at least on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) and later, is via the Snap package. Debian packages are no longer made available:

sudo snap install openstackclients --classic

This should be all you need to do; there’s no reason to follow the instructions in the remaining portion of this article.


Update (2021-08-18): You may run into the following error on Ubuntu 21.04:

% openstack versions show
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/openstack", line 5, in <module>
    from openstackclient.shell import main
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'openstackclient'

If you do, run the following commands:

  1. sudo apt install pip
  2. sudo pip install python_openstackclient

Openstack commands should start working again.


Attempting to follow the instructions in the documentation for the two listed OpenStack releases, which require an additional software archive, results in the message:

cloud-archive for Rocky only supported on bionic

cloud-archive for Stein only supported on bionic

In addition, attempting to use the native software repository is impossible because the package isn’t available.

As such, I’ve written a short script to fetch and install all of the necessary Debian packages from another release.

#!/bin/sh

DEST_DIR=/tmp/openstack-cli-debs
mkdir $DEST_DIR

wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-netaddr/python-netaddr_0.7.19-1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-iso8601/python-iso8601_0.1.11-1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/pyinotify/python-pyinotify_0.9.6-1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-monotonic/python-monotonic_1.5-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-oslo.context/python-oslo.context_2.22.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-warlock/python-warlock_1.2.0-2_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/s/stevedore/python-stevedore_1.30.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-os-service-types/python-os-service-types_1.6.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-oslo.config/python-oslo.config_6.8.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-debtcollector/python-debtcollector_1.20.0-2_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-oslo.log/python-oslo.log_3.42.3-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-os-client-config/python-os-client-config_1.31.2-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-requestsexceptions/python-requestsexceptions_1.4.0-1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-deprecation/python-deprecation_2.0.6-1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-dogpile.cache/python-dogpile.cache_0.6.2-6_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-json-patch/python-jsonpatch_1.21-1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-munch/python-munch_2.3.2-1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-openstackclient/python-openstackclient_3.18.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-cinderclient/python-cinderclient_4.1.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-cliff/python-cliff_2.14.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-glanceclient/python-glanceclient_2.16.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-keystoneauth1/python-keystoneauth1_3.13.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-keystoneclient/python-keystoneclient_3.19.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-neutronclient/python-neutronclient_6.11.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-novaclient/python-novaclient_13.0.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-openstacksdk/python-openstacksdk_0.26.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/p/python-osc-lib/python-osc-lib_1.12.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-oslo.i18n/python-oslo.i18n_3.23.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-oslo.serialization/python-oslo.serialization_2.28.2-0ubuntu1_all.deb
wget -cP $DEST_DIR http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/p/python-oslo.utils/python-oslo.utils_3.40.3-0ubuntu1_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i $DEST_DIR/*

sudo apt --fix-broken install

Hopefully this helps other folks who have also run into this issue.


The article Installing the OpenStack CLI on Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan), 20.04 (Focal) or later first appeared on the Consensus Enterprises blog.

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