Book Image

Learning OpenStack Networking (Neutron)

By : James Denton
Book Image

Learning OpenStack Networking (Neutron)

By: James Denton

Overview of this book

OpenStack Neutron is an OpenStack component that provides networking as a service for other OpenStack services to architect networks and create virtual machines through its API. This API lets you define network connectivity in order to leverage network capabilities to cloud deployments. Through this practical book, you will build a strong foundational knowledge of Neutron, and will architect and build an OpenStack cloud using advanced networking features. We start with an introduction to OpenStack Neutron and its various components, including virtual switching, routing, FWaaS, VPNaaS, and LBaaS. You’ll also get hands-on by installing OpenStack and Neutron and its components, and use agents and plugins to orchestrate network connectivity and build a virtual switching infrastructure. Moving on, you’ll get to grips with the HA routing capabilities utilizing VRRP and distributed virtual routers in Neutron. You’ll also discover load balancing fundamentals, including the difference between nodes, pools, pool members, and virtual IPs. You’ll discover the purpose of security groups and learn how to apply the security concept to your cloud/tenant/instance. Finally, you' ll configure virtual private networks that will allow you to avoid the use of SNAT and floating IPs when connecting to remote networks.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Learning OpenStack Networking (Neutron) Second Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Building a load balancer


To demonstrate the creation and use of load balancers in Neutron, this next section is dedicated to building a functional load balancer based on the following scenario:

A tenant has a simple Neutron network set up with a router attached to both an external provider network and internal tenant network. The user would like to load balance HTTP traffic between two instances running a web server. Each instance is configured with an index.html page containing a unique server identifier.

To eliminate the installation and configuration of a web server for this example, you can mimic the behavior of one using the SimpleHTTPServer Python module on the instances, as follows:

ubuntu@web1:~$ echo "This is Web1" > ~/index.html
ubuntu@web1:~$ sudo python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 80 ...

Repeat the mentioned commands for the second instance, substituting Web2 for Web1 in the index.html file.

Creating a pool

The first step to building a functional load balancer...