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

Types of routers


Neutron routers act as the default gateway for connected tenant networks and provide outbound and inbound connectivity to the instances they service. Neutron provides three types of routers to users:

  • Standalone

  • Highly available

  • Distributed

Routers can be created in both the Horizon dashboard and via the Neutron CLI. As an ordinary user, the type of router that is created via the API is predetermined, based on a combination of settings found in the Neutron server and L3 agent configuration files. Users with the admin role are free to define the type of router to be created using the router-create command, using the following flags:

--distributed {true | false}
--ha {true | false}

Neutron does not expose the router type to users via the API, even with the router-show command. Users with the admin role, however, can see those details. The Horizon dashboard limits all users, including administrative users, to the default router type specified in the configuration. This behavior may...