Summary

Allow administrators to define approved metadata options that can be set on instances within OSIE, enabling users to select predefined metadata values when deploying or managing virtual machines.

This would allow providers to drive automation, service configuration, and billing based on metadata applied to instances.

Current Behaviour

There is currently no mechanism for administrators to expose controlled metadata options to users within the OSIE interface.

As a result:

• Users cannot easily set metadata during instance deployment

• Metadata must be applied manually through external tools or APIs

Problem

Service providers often rely on metadata or tags to drive automation and billing workflows across multiple systems.

Without the ability to allow users to set controlled metadata values in OSIE, providers must rely on:

• manual classification of workloads

• external automation

• API-based workarounds

This reduces the effectiveness of metadata-driven automation and increases operational overhead.

Desired Behaviour

Allow administrators to define custom OpenStack metadata options that can be applied to instances within OSIE.

These options would appear as selectable fields when creating or managing instances.

Example deployment options:

Backup
Yes / No

Disaster Recovery
Yes / No

Service Tier
T1 / T2 / T3

When selected, OSIE would apply metadata directly to the instance such as:

backup=yes
dr=yes
tier=T2

If no option is selected, OSIE would simply leave the metadata unset or retain any existing metadata already associated with the instance or source image.

Example Use Cases

Backup Automation

backup=yes

Automatically:

• include the instance in backup platform policies based on OpenStack instance metadata

• apply backup-related billing (as referenced in the previous feature request)

Disaster Recovery Services

dr=yes

Used to automatically include instances in:

• DR replication policies

• DR orchestration workflows

Administrative Control

Metadata options should be defined and controlled by administrators, ensuring consistency and preventing invalid values.

Potential capabilities could include:

• defining allowed metadata keys and values

• exposing options globally or per tenant

• optionally restricting certain options to specific users or roles (this is very powerful)

Why This Matters

Allowing controlled metadata selection within OSIE would enable providers to:

• automate service configuration across multiple platforms

• enable tenant self-service for managed services

• implement flexible metadata-driven billing

• reduce manual operational overhead

This feature would significantly improve OSIE's ability to support automation-driven cloud operations and service provider workflows.

Thanks!