Book Image

OpenStack Networking Essentials

By : James Denton, Derek Chamorro
Book Image

OpenStack Networking Essentials

By: James Denton, Derek Chamorro

Overview of this book

The OpenStack Networking API offers users the ability to create and manage both basic and complex network architectures that blend the virtual and physical network infrastructure. This book kicks off by describing various components of Openstack Neutron and installing Ubuntu OpenStack based on Canonical's process. Further on, you will use various methods to interface with Neutron to create and manage network resources. You will also get to grips with the relationship between ports, networks, and subnets through diagrams and explanations, and see how the logical components are implemented via plugins and agents. Moving forward, you will learn how virtual switches are implemented and how to build Neutron routers. You will also configure networks, subnets, and routers to provide connectivity to instances using simple examples. At the end, you will configure and manage security groups, and will observe how these rules translate to iptables rules on the host machines. By the end of the book, you will be able to build basic network architectures using Neutron networks and routers in no time.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
OpenStack Networking Essentials
Credits
About the Author
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

The basics of switching in OpenStack


In the context of computer networking, a switch is defined as a device that connects multiple devices together and uses packet switching techniques to receive, process, and forward data from one device to another. Traditionally, switches have been physical in nature and range in size from that of a physical network rack or larger to the switch built into our home routers, or even smaller. In a reference implementation, Neutron relies on the use of virtual switches to forward packets to virtual machine instances and other virtualized devices hosted on infrastructure nodes. Those nodes, in turn, are connected to physical switches that forward traffic between nodes and other physical devices such as routers and firewalls. How Neutron configures these virtual switches depends on the virtual switching platform in use within the environment and the type of network requested by the user. In the following sections, we'll take a look at the two most popular virtual...