Archive/XCP OpenStack

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Introduction

OpenStack is a global collaboration of developers and cloud computing technologists producing the ubiquitous open source cloud computing platform for public and private clouds.

This presentation from Todd Deshane has more information about XCP and OpenStack:

There are many companies using custom installations of OpenStack (notably RackSpace is using OpenStack deployed on XenServer):

There are several paths to setting up XCP with OpenStack management tools depending on your intention.

Basics

XCP works with OpenStack through a combination of configuration and plug-ins on the XCP dom0, along with a domU guest VM that runs the OpenStack components (meaning any of the components, but at least compute)

  • This means that each XCP node you configure will need to run this domU OpenStack guest.
  • This adds complexity and some over-head to your installation, but has benefits that are described best in Todd's presentation above.
  • See the OpenStack Wiki article on setting up XenServer with OpenStack for more information

Read the "Manual Install" section below for a XCP specific variation on the above XenServer installation instructions

DevStack

If you're looking to create a quick test system just see what OpenStack is like, then DevStack is the fastest path. DevStack is a collection of scripts that allow you to quickly setup an OpenStack cluster.

Please note, it is very specifically NOT for production use and makes a number of non-configurable assumptions to get the cluster running right away (e.g. all the network setup is fairly static).

Visit these pages for more information about DevStack:

The "Xen Scripts inside DevStack" above are a specific set of scripts inside DevStack that are designed to get DevStack running on Citrix XenServer (they also work with XCP with a little bit of tweaking). Using these scripts will let you do the following:

  1. Install a clean copy of XCP on a test machine
  2. Download and run the Xen DevStack scripts on the new XCP installation
  3. This will install the plug-ins and configuration needed inside the XCP dom0
  4. It will create a new VM on XCP called ALLINONE which contains the full set of OpenStack node components (nova compute/volume, glance image, keystone identity, etc)
  5. You'll then be able to login to the OpenStack dashboard web page and play around with OpenStack

Please see Setting up DevStack on XCP for a detailed explanation on the above installation.

Manual Install

If you're looking to create a more custom (or production) installation of XCP and OpenStack, the best method is to do it by hand and then consider customizing your own scripted install.

  1. Starting from the OpenStack Wiki article on setting up XenServer with OpenStack, we have provided instructions that are customized to setup OpenStack with XCP.
  1. For creating a custom scripted install, there's a set of recipes that have been developed to setup XenServer for OpenStack using Chef that can be used as a basis for your own custom installation.

Other Relevant Non-XCP References

  • StackOps - Provides a downloadable 64-bit-only Ubuntu ISO for bare-metal creation of a new OpenStack cluster
  • Dell Crowbar - Similar to StackOps - Also provides a bare-metal ISO for a highly customizable OpenStack deployment system based on Chef recipes