I gave this presentation on 5/17 to the New Mexico VMUG in Santa Fe. The presentation provides an overview of OpenStack, what it is (and isn't), and some things you might learn to get started with OpenStack.
1. An Introduction to OpenStack
What it is, why it potentially matters, and what you need to know
if you want to get started
Scott Lowe, VCDX 39
vExpert, Author, Blogger, Geek
http://blog.scottlowe.org / Twitter: @scott_lowe
2. Before we start
â˘Get involved! Audience participation is encouraged and
requested.
â˘If you use Twitter, feel free to tweet about this session (use
@MyVMUG or hashtag #NMVMUG)
â˘I encourage you to take photos or videos of todayâs session
and share them online
â˘This presentation will be made available online after the event
3. â˘What OpenStack isâand what it is not
â˘OpenStackâs components
â˘Why does OpenStack matter?
â˘Does OpenStack matter to SMBs?
â˘How do I get started with OpenStack?
Agenda
4. â˘Itâs not a single open source project (more on that in a moment)
â˘Itâs not a hypervisor
â˘Itâs not a storage platform
â˘Itâs not (necessarily) competitive to VMware (more on that in a
moment)
What OpenStack is not
5. â˘A group of open source projects aimed at providing
comprehensive cloud services
â˘There are currently seven core projects within OpenStack
â˘More projects are in âincubationâ phase
â˘All these projects communicate via public APIs
â˘Itâs supported by the OpenStack Foundation, an independent
legal entity
So what is OpenStack?
7. â˘Conceptually similar to Amazon EC2
â˘Can leverage multiple hypervisors (Xen, KVM, vSphere/ESXi,
Hyper-V)
â˘Made up of several sub-components (nova-api, nova-compute,
nova-schedule)
â˘Some sub-components are being broken out
â˘nova-network is being replaced by OpenStack Networking
â˘nova-volume is being replaced by OpenStack Block Storage
(âCinderâ)
OpenStackâs components:
Compute
8. â˘Think of it as similar to Amazon S3
â˘Provides distributed object storage
â˘Supports the OpenStack Object API as well as raw HTTP
â˘Authentication is handled via OpenStack Identity (typically)
OpenStackâs components:
Object Store
9. â˘This can be compared to Amazonâs AMI catalog
â˘Provides image storage, image retrieval, and image discovery
services
â˘These images are leveraged to launch instances (VMs)
â˘Can leverage the Object Store (âSwiftâ) or other storage
platforms, including Amazon S3, ďŹlesystems, and HTTP
OpenStackâs components:
Image
10. â˘Provides policy and authentication services for other OpenStack
services
â˘Leverages a pluggable architecture that can support LDAP, SQL,
and other backend services
OpenStackâs components:
Identity
11. â˘Can be compared in concept to Amazon EBS
â˘Provides block storage functionality to instances running on
Compute
â˘Recall that instances are stateless
â˘Block Storage provides persistent storage for instances
â˘Similar to Compute, it has several sub-components (cinder-api,
cinder-volume, cinder-scheduler)
â˘Leverages storage drivers to interact with underlying storage
platforms
OpenStackâs components:
Block Storage
12. â˘Provides ânetwork as a serviceâ functionality
â˘Allows for the programmatic creation of (potentially complex)
per-tenant networks
â˘Uses a plug-in architecture; plugins exist for a number of
different back-end implementations, including Nicira NVP, Open
vSwitch (OVS), Linux bridge, Cisco, and others
â˘Has essentially replaced nova-network
OpenStackâs components:
Network
13. â˘A web application that runs on Apache
â˘Provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for other OpenStack
services
â˘Leverages the APIs of the other OpenStack services
OpenStackâs components:
Dashboard
14. â˘One of only a few signiďŹcant open source projects attempting to
provide a comprehensive cloud services framework
â˘Enjoys broad industry support
â˘Some signiďŹcant providers are adopting OpenStack as their
cloud services platform
â˘Like Linux, OpenStack could have a profound impact on your
data center or cloud deployment
Why does OpenStack matter?
16. â˘The answer is both âYesâ and âNoâ (maybe âIt dependsâ?)
â˘Why no?
â˘Probably not ready for in-house deployments by SMBs (yet)
â˘A fair amount of expertise required to get it up and running
Why OpenStack doesnât matter
to SMBs
17. â˘The answer is both âYesâ and âNoâ (maybe âIt dependsâ?)
â˘Why yes?
â˘It heralds a potential sea change with how cloud environments
are built and deployed
â˘Enables âbest of breedâ clouds built using open (source) APIs
â˘Signals that we could see cross-cloud interoperability in the
not-too-distant future
Why OpenStack does matter to
SMBs
18. â˘DevStack is a great tool for getting started
â˘OpenStack is heavily Linux-based, so get familiar with Linux if
you aren't already (Ubuntu is very common in OpenStack)
â˘Instances are stateless, so conďŹguration management is critical
(Puppet)
â˘OpenStack itself is mostly written in Python
â˘Other commonly-used technologies include KVM, network
namespaces, & OVS
How do I get started with
OpenStack?