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So, you’ve heard about OpenStack, but it sounds like a mythical beast only cloud wizards can tame? Fear not! No magic spells or enchanted scrolls are needed—we’re breaking it down in a simple, engaging, and fun way.

Ever felt like managing cloud infrastructure is like trying to tame a wild beast? OpenStack might seem intimidating at first, but with the right approach, it’s more like training a dragon —challenging but totally worth it!

By the end of this guide, you’ll not only understand OpenStack but also be able to deploy it like a pro using Kolla-Ansible. Let’s dive in! 🚀

🤔 What Is OpenStack?

Imagine you’re running an online store. Instead of buying an entire warehouse upfront, you rent shelf space, scaling up or down based on demand. That’s exactly how OpenStack works for computing!

OpenStack is an open-source cloud platform that lets companies build, manage, and scale their own cloud infrastructure—without relying on expensive proprietary solutions.

Think of it as LEGO blocks for cloud computing—but instead of plastic bricks, you’re assembling compute, storage, and networking components to create a flexible and powerful cloud. 🧱🚀

🤷‍♀️ Why Should You Care?

OpenStack isn’t just another cloud platform—it’s powerful, flexible, and built for the future. Here’s why you should care:

✅ It’s Free & Open-Source – No hefty licensing fees, no vendor lock-in—just pure, community-driven innovation. Whether you’re a student, a startup, or an enterprise, OpenStack gives you the freedom to build your own cloud, your way.

✅ Trusted by Industry Giants – If OpenStack is good enough for NASA, PayPal, and CERN (yes, the guys running the Large Hadron Collider 🤯), it’s definitely worth your time! These tech powerhouses use OpenStack to manage mission-critical workloads, proving its reliability at scale.

✅ Super Scalable – Whether you’re running a tiny home lab or a massive enterprise deployment, OpenStack grows with you. Start with a few nodes and scale to thousands as your needs evolve—without breaking a sweat.

✅ Perfect for Hands-On Learning – Want real-world cloud experience? OpenStack is a playground for learning cloud infrastructure, automation, and networking. Setting up your own OpenStack lab is like a DevOps gym—you’ll gain hands-on skills that are highly valued in the industry.

🏗️ OpenStack Architecture in Simple Terms – The Avengers of Cloud Computing

OpenStack is a modular system. Think of it as assembling an Avengers team, where each component has a unique superpower, working together to form a powerful cloud infrastructure. Let’s break down the team:

🦾 Nova (Iron Man) – The Compute Powerhouse

Just like Iron Man powers up in his suit, Nova is the core component that spins up and manages virtual machines (VMs) in OpenStack. It ensures your cloud has enough compute power and efficiently allocates resources to different workloads.

• Acts as the brain of OpenStack, managing instances on physical servers.

• Works with different hypervisors like KVM, Xen, and VMware to create VMs.

• Supports auto-scaling, so your applications never run out of power.

🕸️ Neutron (Spider-Man) – The Web of Connectivity

Neutron is like Spider-Man, ensuring all instances are connected via a complex web of virtual networking. It enables smooth communication between your cloud instances and the outside world.

• Provides network automation, floating IPs, and load balancing.

• Supports custom network configurations like VLANs, VXLAN, and GRE tunnels.

• Just like Spidey’s web shooters, it’s flexible, allowing integration with SDN controllers like Open vSwitch and OVN.

💪 Cinder (Hulk) – The Strength Behind Storage

Cinder is OpenStack’s block storage service, acting like the Hulk’s immense strength, giving persistent storage to VMs. When VMs need extra storage, Cinder delivers!

• Allows you to create, attach, and manage persistent block storage.

• Works with backend storage solutions like Ceph, NetApp, and LVM.

• If a VM is deleted, the data remains safe—just like Hulk’s memory, despite all the smashing.

📸 Glance (Black Widow) – The Memory Keeper

Glance is OpenStack’s image service, storing and managing operating system images, much like how Black Widow remembers every mission.

• Acts as a repository for VM images, including Ubuntu, CentOS, and custom OS images.

• Enables fast booting of instances by storing pre-configured templates.

• Works with storage backends like Swift, Ceph, or NFS.

🔑 Keystone (Nick Fury) – The Security Gatekeeper

Keystone is the authentication and identity service, much like Nick Fury, who ensures that only authorized people (or superheroes) get access to SHIELD.

• Handles user authentication and role-based access control (RBAC).

• Supports multiple authentication methods, including LDAP, OAuth, and SAML.

• Ensures that users and services only access what they are permitted to see.

🧙‍♂️ Horizon (Doctor Strange) – The All-Seeing Dashboard

Horizon provides a web-based UI for OpenStack, just like Doctor Strange’s ability to see multiple dimensions.

• Gives a graphical interface to manage instances, networks, and storage.

• Allows admins to control the entire OpenStack environment visually.

• Supports multi-user access with dashboards customized for different roles.

🚀 Additional Avengers (Other OpenStack Services)

• Swift (Thor’s Mjolnir) – Object storage, durable and resilient like Thor’s hammer.

• Heat (Wanda Maximoff) – Automates cloud resources like magic.

• Ironic (Vision) – Bare metal provisioning, a bridge between hardware and cloud.

Each of these heroes (services) communicates through APIs, working together to make OpenStack a powerful cloud platform.

🛠️ How This Helps in Installation

Understanding these services will make it easier to set up OpenStack. During installation, configure each component based on your needs:

• If you need VMs, you focus on Nova, Glance, and Cinder.

• If networking is key, properly configure Neutron.

• Secure access? Keystone is your best friend.

Now that you know the Avengers of OpenStack, you’re ready to start your cloud journey. Let’s get our hands dirty with some real-world OpenStack deployment using Kolla-Ansible. 🚀

🛠️ Hands-on: Deploying OpenStack with Kolla-Ansible

So, you’ve learned the Avengers squad of OpenStack—now it’s time to assemble your own OpenStack cluster! 💪

🔍 Pre-requisites: What You Need Before We Begin

Before we start, let’s make sure you have everything in place:

🖥️ Hardware Requirements (Minimum for a Test Setup)

• 1 Control Node + 1 Compute Node (or more for better scaling).

• At least 8GB RAM, 4 vCPUs, 100GB Disk per node (More = Better).

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Recommended) or CentOS 9 Stream.

• Internet Access (for downloading dependencies).

🔧 Software & Tools Needed

✅ Python 3.10+ – Because Python runs the world. 🐍

✅ Ansible 8-9 (ansible-core 2.15-2.16) – Automating OpenStack deployment.

✅ Docker & Docker Compose – Because we’re running OpenStack in containers! 🐳

✅ Kolla-Ansible – The magic tool for OpenStack deployment.

🚀 Step-by-Step: Setting Up OpenStack with Kolla-Ansible

1️⃣ Set Up Your Environment

First, update your system and install dependencies:

apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

apt-get install python3-dev libffi-dev gcc libssl-dev python3-selinux python3-setuptools python3-venv -y

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python3 -m venv kolla-venv

echo "source ~/kolla-venv/bin/activate" >> ~/.bashrc

source ~/kolla-venv/bin/activate

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Install Ansible & Docker:

sudo apt install python3-pip -y

pip install -U pip

pip install 'ansible-core>=2.15,<2.17' ansible

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2️⃣ Install Kolla-Ansible

pip install git+https://opendev.org/openstack/kolla-ansible@master

3️⃣ Prepare Configuration Files

Copy default configurations to /etc/kolla:

CODE: https://gist.github.com/velotiotech/f51d977bc871f4a73ef25f4ad84554e8.js

Generate passwords for OpenStack services:

CODE: https://gist.github.com/velotiotech/6706060996cfdabba420ffdeb860766f.js

Before deploying OpenStack, let’s configure some essential settings in globals.yml. This file defines how OpenStack services are installed and interact with your infrastructure.

Run the following command to edit the file:

CODE: https://gist.github.com/velotiotech/6246fad597f9ab863ae1c5fa4cbbd5c5.js

Here are a few key parameters you must configure:

🔹 kolla_base_distro – Defines the OS used for deployment (e.g., ubuntu or centos).

🔹 kolla_internal_vip_address – Set this to a free IP in your network. It acts as the virtual IP for OpenStack services. Example: 192.168.1.100.

🔹 network_interface – Set this to your main network interface (e.g., eth0). Kolla-Ansible will use this interface for internal communication. (Check using ip -br a)

🔹 enable_horizon – Set to yes to enable the OpenStack web dashboard (Horizon).

Once configured, save and exit the file. These settings ensure that OpenStack is properly installed in your environment.

4️⃣ Bootstrap the Nodes (Prepare Servers for Deployment)

kolla-ansible -i /etc/kolla/inventory/all-in-one bootstrap-servers

5️⃣ Deploy OpenStack! (The Moment of Truth) 🚀

kolla-ansible -i /etc/kolla/inventory/all-in-one deploy

This step takes some time (~30 minutes), so grab some ☕ and let OpenStack build itself.

6️⃣ Access Horizon (Web Dashboard)

Once deployment is complete, check the OpenStack dashboard:

kolla-ansible post-deploy

Now, find your login details:

cat /etc/kolla/admin-openrc.sh

Source the credentials and log in:

source /etc/kolla/admin-openrc.sh

openstack service list

🔹 Open your browser and try accessing: http://<your-server-ip>/dashboard/ or https://<your-server-ip>/dashboard/”

Use the username and the password from admin-openrc.sh. 🎉

🛠️ Troubleshooting Common Issues

Deploying OpenStack isn’t always smooth sailing. Here are some common issues and how to fix them:

🔴 Kolla-Ansible Fails at Bootstrap

💡 Solution: Run `kolla-ansible -i /etc/kolla/inventory/all-in-one prechecks` to check for missing dependencies before deployment.

🔴 Containers Keep Restarting or Failing

💡 Solution: Run docker ps -a | grep Exit to check failed containers. Then inspect logs with:

docker ps --format 'table {{.ID}}\\t{{.Names}}\\t{{.Status}}'

docker logs $(docker ps -q --filter "status=exited")

journalctl -u docker.service --no-pager | tail -n 50

🔴 Horizon Dashboard Not Accessible

💡 Solution: Ensure enable_horizon: yes is set in globals.yml and restart services with:

kolla-ansible -i /etc/kolla/inventory/all-in-one reconfigure

🔴 Missing OpenStack CLI Commands

💡 Solution: Source the OpenStack credentials file before using the CLI:

source /etc/kolla/admin-openrc.sh

By tackling these common issues, you’ll have a much smoother OpenStack deployment experience. 🚀

🎉 Congratulations, You Now Have Your Own Cloud!

Now that your OpenStack deployment is up and running, you can start launching instances, creating networks, and exploring the endless possibilities.

🎯 What’s Next?

✅ Launch your first VM using OpenStack CLI or Horizon!

✅ Set up floating IPs and networks to make instances accessible.

✅ Experiment with Cinder storage and Neutron networking.

✅ Explore Heat for automation and Swift for object storage.

🔥 Final Thoughts

Deploying OpenStack manually can be a nightmare, but Kolla-Ansible makes it much easier. You’ve now got your own containerized OpenStack cloud running in no time. 🚀