To re-create, log in as admin. Navigate to Admin/System Panel/Defaults. Click Update Defaults. Change any quota to a reasonable value (or don't change any at all) and click Update Defaults. There will be both a success and error message (there is a separate bug about that). But no changes from the UI will be applied. Inside the log there is the following trace info:
[Fri Mar 14 14:20:30 2014] [error] NotFound: Not found (HTTP 404)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] Not Found: Not found (HTTP 404)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] Traceback (most recent call last):
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] File "/usr/share/openstack-dashboard/openstack_dashboard/wsgi/../../openstack_dashboard/dashboards/admin/defaults/workflows.py", line 93, in handle
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] nova.default_quota_update(request, **nova_data)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] File "/usr/share/openstack-dashboard/openstack_dashboard/wsgi/../../openstack_dashboard/api/nova.py", line 626, in default_quota_update
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] novaclient(request).quota_classes.update(DEFAULT_QUOTA_NAME, **kwargs)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/novaclient/v1_1/quota_classes.py", line 44, in update
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] 'quota_class_set')
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/novaclient/base.py", line 165, in _update
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] _resp, body = self.api.client.put(url, body=body)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/novaclient/client.py", line 289, in put
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] return self._cs_request(url, 'PUT', **kwargs)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/novaclient/client.py", line 260, in _cs_request
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] **kwargs)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/novaclient/client.py", line 242, in _time_request
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] resp, body = self.request(url, method, **kwargs)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/novaclient/client.py", line 236, in request
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] raise exceptions.from_response(resp, body, url, method)
[Fri Mar 14 14:27:04 2014] [error] NotFound: Not found (HTTP 404)
I'm concerned that this has been caused by a change in nova that we haven't reflected in horizon
http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-dev/2014-February/027560.html
Thank you for the bug report, I can reproduce in a recent devstack.
The email thread is unclear to me, it sounds like people are talking about a new feature that was never fully implemented, while "Update Defaults" did work at some point.