The latest release of OpenStack, code-named Icehouse, was released in April 2014 and includes the networking service known as Neutron (formerly Quantum). First introduced in the Folsom release of OpenStack, Neutron provides cloud operators and users with an API to create and manage networks in the cloud. An extension framework allows for additional network services, such as load balancing, firewalls, and virtual private networks, to be deployed and managed.
It is important to note that OpenStack Networking in this book refers only to Neutron and should not be confused with the legacy networking service known as nova-network built in Nova (Compute). While nova-network has slipped its deprecation date in the last two releases, support for the technology is limited in the future.
Chapter 1, Preparing the Network for OpenStack, will provide an introduction to OpenStack Networking that includes a description of the different supported networking technologies, and it will explain how to architect the physical network to support an OpenStack cloud.
Chapter 2, Installing OpenStack, will cover how to install the base components of the Havana release of OpenStack on the CentOS 6.5 operating system.
Chapter 3, Installing Neutron, will explain how to install the Neutron networking components of OpenStack and will help us to understand the internal architecture of Neutron, including the use of agents and plugins to orchestrate network connectivity.
Chapter 4, Building a Virtual Switching Infrastructure, will help us to install and configure the LinuxBridge plugin for Neutron to provide layer 2 connectivity to instances. We will also cover the architectural differences between the LinuxBridge and Open vSwitch plugins and how they connect instances to the network.
Chapter 5, Creating Networks with Neutron, will create networks and subnets in Neutron, boot and attach instances to networks, and explore the process of obtaining DHCP leases and metadata.
Chapter 6, Creating Routers with Neutron, will create Neutron routers and attach them to networks, follow traffic from an instance through a router, and explore the process of applying floating IPs to instances.
Chapter 7, Load Balancing Traffic in Neutron, will explore the fundamental components of a load balancer in Neutron, including virtual IPs, pools, pool members, and monitors. It will also help us to create and integrate a load balancer into the network.
Chapter 8, Protecting Instances on the Network, will cover the creation and management of security-group rules to secure instance traffic. In addition, it will help us create and integrate a firewall into the network using the firewall-as-a-service API.
Appendix A, Additional Neutron Commands, will briefly cover additional Neutron functionality that is outside the scope of this book. It will also acquaint us with VPN-as-a-service, Cisco 1000V integration, and VMWare/Nicera integration.
Appendix B, ML2 Configuration, will briefly cover the configuration of the ML2 plugin as a replacement for the deprecated LinuxBridge and Open Switch plugins.
This book assumes a moderate level of networking experience, including experience with Linux networking configurations as well as physical switch and router configurations. While this book will walk the reader through a basic installation of OpenStack, little time will be spent on services other than Neutron. Therefore, it is important that the reader has a basic understanding of OpenStack and its general configuration prior to configuring OpenStack Networking.
In this book, the following software is required:
Operating system
CentOS 6.5
Software
OpenStack Havana
Internet connectivity will be required to install OpenStack packages and to make use of the example architectures in the book. While virtualization software, such as VMware or VirtualBox, can be used to simulate the servers and the network infrastructure, this book assumes that OpenStack will be installed on physical hardware and that a physical network infrastructure is in place.
This book is for the novice-to-intermediate OpenStack cloud administrators who are looking to build or enhance their cloud using the networking service known as Neutron. By laying down a basic installation of OpenStack, the reader should be able to follow the examples laid out in the book to receive a functional understanding of the various components of OpenStack Networking. This book is focused on the usage of OpenStack Networking services rather than its development, and it uses free and open source software rather than commercial solutions.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "OpenStack services can be installed either as root or as a user with sudo permissions."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
# nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "To view the status of Nova (Compute) services, click on the Compute Services tab."
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