OpenStack Operations Guide

Preface

OpenStack is an open source platform that lets you build an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud that runs on commodity hardware.

Introduction to OpenStack

OpenStack believes in open source, open design, open development, all in an open community that encourages participation by anyone. The long-term vision for OpenStack is to produce a ubiquitous open source cloud computing platform that meets the needs of public and private cloud providers regardless of size. OpenStack services control large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a data center.

The technology behind OpenStack consists of a series of interrelated projects delivering various components for a cloud infrastructure solution. Each service provides an open API so that all of these resources can be managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering users to provision resources through a web interface, a command-line client, or software development kits that support the API. Many OpenStack APIs are extensible, meaning you can keep compatibility with a core set of calls while providing access to more resources and innovating through API extensions. The OpenStack project is a global collaboration of developers and cloud computing technologists. The project produces an open standard cloud computing platform for both public and private clouds. By focusing on ease of implementation, massive scalability, a variety of rich features, and tremendous extensibility, the ...