Automated OpenStack orchestration with openQRM

Automated OpenStack deployments with openQRM

This HowTo is about how to fully automate OpenStack Cloud orchestration with openQRM.

Why do we integrate with e.g. Amazon EC2, Eucalyptus and OpenStack (and some more in the pipeline) ?

Pure Cloud projects do normally only care about virtual machine deployment.

That means the "Cloud“ is actually something „within“ your datacenter so it needs management and administration in the same way as „regular“ IT.

Since openQRM works on a much lower level of your IT we "see" those "other" Cloud providers as "tools". Because of that those „tools“ needs a comprehensive management platform to automate them to 100%. Therefore in openQRM public and private Cloud provider are becoming „just another resource type“ and we are happy to integrate with them.

Requirements

Two physical Server - at least 1 GB of Memory
at least 100 GB of Diskspace
VT (Virtualization Technology) enabled in the Systems BIOS so that the openQRM Server and the OpenStack system can run Virtual Machines later

Please notice!

The OpenStack integration in openQRM is only available in the openQRM Enterprise Edition >= 5.1.3! If you would like to test this feature please contact us for an openQRM Enterprise evaluation edition.

Install a e.g. minimal Debian on a physical Server.

Install and initialize openQRM

Please notice!

A detailed Howto about the above initial starting point is available at 'Install openQRM on Debian'

For the fully automatic OS and OpenStack Installation of the second system to be integrated into openQRM we assume you have followed the 'Fully automatic OpenStack installation on bare-metal with openQRM'.

For this howto we assume you have have used the same openQRM server (updated to version 5.1.3) as for the howtos about 'Virtualization with KVM and openQRM on Debian' and 'Automated Amazon EC2 Cloud deployments with openQRM on Debian'. That means with this howto we are going to add functionality to an existing openQRM setup. This is to show that openQRM manages all different virtualization and deployment types seamlessly.

Here the starting point for this openQRM/OpenStack howto. A ready-to-use openQRM Enterprise server.

Enable plugins

For this HowTo please enable and start the following plugins in the sequence below:

dns plugin - type Networking
dhcpd plugin - type Networking
tftpd plugin - type Networking
device-manager plugin - type Management
nfs-storage - type Storage
lvm-storage - type Storage
nagios3 - type Monitoring
puppet - type Deployment
sshterm plugin - type Management
local-server plugin - type Misc
hybrid-cloud - type Deployment

Hint: You can use the filter in the plugin list to find plugins by their type easily!

Now please check the "local-server" plugins usage page how to easily integrate the second system (the OpenStack one) into openQRM.

Here the commands used to integrate the OpenStack system into openQRM. First copy the "openqrm-local-server" integration utility to the OpenStack controller via "scp". Then login into the OpenStack controller and run the "openqrm-local-server" integration utility with the "integrate" action.

Configure an OpenStack account

Now go to

Plugins -> Deployment -> Hybrid Cloud -> Actions

and click on the "Add a new account" button.

Set the following parameter in the "add account" form:

Account name: a name for this account entry
Account type: select "OpenStack Cloud (libcloud)"
Username: your OpenStack username
Password: the password for the above username
Tenant: the tenant you would like to use
Host IP: the ip of the OpenStack system
Auth port: the port number for the OpenStack API authentication service (normally: 8773)
API Endpoint: the Url for the OpenStack API Endpoint (e.g. http://[openstack-controller-ip-address]:5000/v2.0/tokens/)
(optional) Description

Clicking on submit checks the account parameters and creates the new openQRM hybrid-cloud account.

Add an OpenStack image to openQRM

After setting up the connection to the OpenStack controller via the hybrid-cloud account click on the "AMI" action to add a new image object to openQRM.

In the AMI list please click on the "C" character on the upper filter.

Here the filtered AMI list with the default "cirros" image in the OpenStack controller. Please click on the "Add Image" to add this OpenStack image to openQRM's image repository.

Create and manage the OpenStack keyparis with the "keypair" action in the hybrid-cloud account.

Here the list of the OpenStack security groups available through the "groups" action in the hybrid-cloud account.

Creating a new instance on the OpenStack Cloud

Creating a new instance in the OpenStack Cloud now is "as easy as a pie"!

We are now following openQRM's generic server wizard to create a new instance on the OpenStack Cloud. The instance is then fully controlled by the server life-cycle management of openQRM which provides the following added-values:

automated highavailability
automated system and service monitoring
automated configuration management
automated application deployment
automated documentation
automated Cloud billing
etc.

Please go to

Datacenter -> Components -> Server

and click on "Add a new server"

Provide name for the new server, optional a description.

In the second step of the wizard click on "New resource".

Now please select "Cloud (localboot) Virtual Machine" as the instance type.

The last action now forwards the the hybrid-cloud account overview. Please click on the "Instances" button.

In the instance overview please click on "add instance".

In the instance-create for please provide an instance name, select the cirros AMI image and configure the security group and keypair. Additionally you can set a URL to a custom script to pre-configure the instance.

Creating the new OpenStack instance automatically returns back into the wizard with the new created resource selected. Please click on submit.

In the following step please select the "cirros" AMI image and enable the "edit image" checkbox.

In the Image-configuration step of the "add-server" wizard the login password to the instance can be set. Setting the password automatically pre-configures the "ssh" service on the instance to additionally work with login password instead of permitting only logins based on security keys.

Here the final overview of the just created server in openQRM. Dependent on which plugins are enabled in your setup you can now pre-configure additional service and configuration items of this server.