# The site configuration

Every CHI-in-a-Box deployment is highly configurable, though many settings are defaulted to what Chameleon considers the most useful or likely scenario. Some configuration values like hostnames or private IP addresses do not have defaults and must be specified by the operator. These settings are specified as part of a *site configuration*, which is a folder containing a few important files:

## Summary

* an [Ansible inventory](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/intro_inventory.html)
* an [Ansible Vault](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/vault.html) password file
* an (encrypted) [passwords](https://docs.openstack.org/kolla-ansible/latest/user/quickstart.html#kolla-passwords) YAML file
* a `defaults.yaml` file used to configure most settings. These defaults apply in a low-priority and can be overridden via Ansible inventory host\_vars or group\_vars.
* an (optional) post-deploy YAML file, which is an Ansible playbook that can be run after normal post-deploy steps via `cc-ansible post-deploy`. This is a useful place to put additional settings that need to be invoked via Ansible, such as setting up tagged VLAN interfaces or custom firewall rules.

A directory with examples is located in the CHI-in-a-Box repo at `./site-config.example`

{% embed url="<https://github.com/ChameleonCloud/chi-in-a-box/tree/stable/xena/site-config.example>" %}


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://chameleoncloud.gitbook.io/chi-in-a-box/before-you-begin/the-site-configuration.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.