Neutron

Newton release install scripts for OpenStack

Sriram S
Newton is one the recent releases of OpenStack. I would like to share scripts that can be used to install the Newton release of OpenStack on Ubuntu 16.04 as per the installation guide. As part of my blogging, book writing projects, I have the need to install OpenStack many times. And I have been automating the installation by writing simple shell scripts. The result is a collection of scripts that should help you get going with OpenStack’s latest release.

OpenStack Horizon: extending the dashboard – Part 2

Sriram S
In this second installment of my blog on OpenStack Horizon, I will take you through different source code files that make a custom OpenStack dashboard. As a recap from the first installment, I will show you how to create a custom dashboard to view all the Neutron “ports” in your OpenStack based cloud. Enabling OpenStack Horizon Dashboard Django framework loads and enables dashboards based on entries present in the enabled directory of OpenStack Dashboard.

PyCharm and OpenStack programming

Sriram S

OpenStack is based on the Python programming language and DevStack is the most common development and test environment for OpenStack. If you are doing serious, professional programming around OpenStack, it is very useful to have a proper development environment. In this blog, I will show you how to use the PyCharm IDE from Jetbrains for your OpenStack programming. I will use the Neutron ML2 driver code from my book OpenStack Networking Cookbook to guide you in setting up the PyCharm IDE.

Announcing: OpenStack Networking Cookbook

My first publication OpenStack Networking Cookbook is now available for purchase. It is available as a printed book as well as e-book. OpenStack is a rapidly evolving cloud platform and Networking (Neutron) is one of its critical components. The current trends of SDN and NFV make OpenStack Networking even more exciting and complex. I have co-authored the book with a colleague and the overall experience of writing a book was very satisfying.

Ports in OpenStack Neutron

Sriram S

OpenStack supports rich abstractions to handle virtual networking needs in a cloud. As a user the most visible entities are the Network, Subnets, Routers, Firewall etc. But if we consider ingress and egress points for data traffic, the most critical entity is the Port. OpenStack Neutron Ports are usually created automatically as part of other user operations. However the CLI allows users to create Ports independently as well.

VirtualBox networking settings for OpenStack

The best way to learn OpenStack is by installing, running and playing with it directly. In this blog, I will share the details of the VirtualBox based multi-node OpenStack installation. I will be focusing only on the networking aspects when using VirtualBox. I will also share some tips that are important in this deployment. This blog will not cover the steps to install and create a virtual machine using VirtualBox.

Goals for the second half of 2014

Sriram S

Here is my mid-year (I know I am off by couple of months) review of my blogging and learning goals for 2014. I will start off with my assessment of the first half of 2014 and then wrap with goals for the remaining four months of this year.

OpenStack Networking – an introduction

Sriram S

I continue the series on virtual networking with an overview of OpenStack networking concepts. OpenStack is an open source project with an aim to create a scalable cloud operating platform. The primary goal of this software platform is to help build public and private clouds. Specifically it allows users to build and operate infrastructure as a service or IaaS clouds.