Get familiar with OpenStack¶

Welcome!

It’s great to see that you decided to continue your journey with Canonical OpenStack. In the previous tutorial we showed you how to get started with OpenStack in five simple steps. By executing just a few terminal commands we deployed Canonical OpenStack for sample usage and got our first VM running on top of it. Now that the cloud is up and running we’ll dig a little bit deeper into it.

In this tutorial we will help you to get familiar with Canonical OpenStack. We will show you how to use both OpenStack dashboard and OpenStack client for the purpose of provisioning cloud resources. We will also demonstrate how to use the Sunbeam client for Canonical OpenStack daily operations.

Ready for the next step? Let’s dig into OpenStack together!

Note

This tutorial is intended to serve for learning purposes only. If you’re looking for detailed instructions on how to deploy a production-grade cloud, please refer to the How-to Guides section of this documentation instead.

Requirements¶

You will only need one dedicated physical machine with:

Canonical OpenStack deployed according to instructions listed under the “Get started with OpenStack” tutorial.

You can also use a virtual machine instead, but you can expect some performance degradation in this case.

Warning

All terminal commands used in this series of tutorials are run from the aforementioned machine. All web browser examples presented in this series of tutorials are run from the aforementioned machine. Neither OpenStack APIs nor any of the provisioned cloud resources, including VMs and floating IPs will be accessible from any other machine in your network than the aforementioned one. Everything runs on that machine. But it runs and it works!

Get familiar with the OpenStack dashboard¶

Note

Duration: 5 minutes

The OpenStack dashboard is often a preferred way to interact with the cloud. It provides a web interface that enables users to provision and manage cloud resources on demand.

To log in to the OpenStack dashboard, first, obtain the admin user password:

sunbeam openrc | grep OS_PASSWORD | cut -f 2 -d "="

Sample output:

uQ5ztnVmWyMf

Then, obtain the admin user domain:

sunbeam openrc | grep OS_USER_DOMAIN_NAME | cut -f 2 -d "="

Sample output:

admin_domain

Lastly, obtain the OpenStack dashboard URL:

sunbeam dashboard-url

Sample output:

http://10.20.21.12:80/openstack-horizon

Finally, visit this URL, type the credentials obtained, and click the Sign in button:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-01.png

You should now be able to see the OpenStack dashboard:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-02.png

The Project menu on the left is grouped into four sections:

API Access provides information about OpenStack service API endpoints,
Compute provides access to project’s compute resources, such as instances,
Volumes provides access to project’s storage resources, such as volumes,
Network provides access to project’s network resources, such as virtual networks.

For example, to list all images available in the admin project, navigate to Project → Compute → Images:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-03.png

The Admin menu on the left is grouped into five sections:

Overview displays usage metrics across all projects,
Compute provides access to global compute settings, such as hypervisors,
Storage provides access to global storage settings, such as volume types,
Network provides access to global network settings, such as RBAC policies,
System provides access to various system information.

For example, to list all flavors that were defined, navigate to Admin → Compute → Flavors:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-04.png

The Identity menu on the left is grouped into six sections:

Domains provides access to domains,
Projects provides access to projects,
Users provides access to user accounts,
Groups provides access to user groups,
Roles provides access to user roles.
Application Credentials provides access to application credentials.

For example, to list all projects under the admin_domain domain, navigate to Identity → Projects:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-05.png

Get familiar with the OpenStack client¶

Note

Duration: 3 minutes

In addition to the OpenStack dashboard, users can also use the OpenStack client to interact with the cloud. While the dashboard helps to visualize the environment and all the resources being used, the client provides a command line interface which is especially useful when performing bulk operations or automating administrative tasks.

To interact with the cloud through the OpenStack client, first, set necessary environmental variables:

source <(sunbeam openrc)

We will explore in another tutorial what those variables are and how does OpenStack manage identities.

You should now be able to use the openstack command to interact with the cloud:

openstack --help

For example, to list all OpenStack API endpoints, execute the following command:

openstack catalog list

Sample output excerpt:

+-----------+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Name      | Type      | Endpoints                                                                              |
+-----------+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| glance    | image     | RegionOne                                                                              |
|           |           |   internal: http://10.20.21.13:80/openstack-glance                                     |
|           |           | RegionOne                                                                              |
|           |           |   public: http://10.20.21.12:80/openstack-glance                                       |
|           |           | RegionOne                                                                              |
|           |           |   admin: http://10.152.183.136:9292                                                    |
|           |           |                                                                                        |

. . .

+-----------+-----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Provision cloud resource¶

Note

Duration: 8 minutes

Now that you’ve learned how to use both OpenStack dashboard and OpenStack client, we’re going to see how those tools can be used to provision cloud resources. In the previous tutorial - “Getting started with OpenStack” - we launched our first test VM. In the following steps we’re going to check how this process looks like in details under the hood.

We will use demo project for this purpose that was automatically created by Sunbeam during the Canonical OpenStack deployment. This is because the demo project already has all the necessary configuration and required resources in place to enable VM provisioning. We will explore in another tutorial how to setup a new project in OpenStack from scratch.

Launch a VM through the OpenStack dashboard¶

To log in to the dashboard as a demo user, first, obtain the demo user password:

cat demo-openrc | grep OS_PASSWORD | cut -f 2 -d "="

Sample output:

SbH0bjVKqPAT

Then, log out from the dashboard (select Sign Out from the admin drop-down menu on the top right corner):

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-06.png

And log in again using the following credentials:

User Name: type demo
Password: type the password you obtained in the previous step
Domain: type users

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-07.png

Launch a VM¶

Now, once you are back, navigate to Project → Compute → Instances and click the Launch Instance button on the right to initiate the VM launch process:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-08.png

To launch a new VM called my_instance_1, fill in the form as follows:

Instance Name: type my_instance_1

Then, choose Source from the menu on the left:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-09.png

To use the default ubuntu image, fill in the form as follows:

Create New Volume: Choose No
Press UP beside ubuntu

Then, choose Flavor from the menu on the left:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-10.png

To use the default m1.tiny flavor, fill in the form as follows:

Press UP beside m1.tiny

Finally, click the Launch Instance button:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-11.png

Launching instances takes a while. You are going to see that the instance goes through the Scheduling and Spawning stages until it reaches an Active status. Once this process completes, you should be able to see your instance in the OpenStack dashboard:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-12.png

Associate a floating IP address¶

To be able to connect to the VM via SSH, we have to associate a floating IP address with it. Floating IPs are allocated from the OpenStack external network and should be routable within your data center to ensure an inbound access to VMs.

Under the Actions column beside my_instance_1, select Associate Floating IP from the drop-down menu:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-13.png

Press Plus beside the IP Address field:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-14.png

Then, click the Allocate IP button:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-15.png

Lastly, to associate the newly created floating IP with the my_instance_1 VM, fill in the form as follows:

IP Address - Select the available IP address from the drop-down menu (10.20.20.32 in this case)

Then click the Associate button:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-16.png

You should now able to see the floating IP being associated with the VM:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-17.png

Connect to the VM¶

Ubuntu cloud images are distributed with no default username/password set. This means that by default you won’t be able to log into the my_instance_1 VM via console. Therefore, we’ll connect to it over SSH first and set the ubuntu user’s password manually.

Connect to the VM over SSH¶

To connect to the my_instance_1 VM over SSH, execute the following commands:

IP=$(openstack server list --all-projects | grep my_instance_1 | awk '{print $8}' | cut -f 2 -d '=' | cut -f 1 -d ',')
ssh -i ~/snap/openstack/current/sunbeam ubuntu@$IP

Then, set the password (here my_password) for the ubuntu user on the VM:

sudo chpasswd <<<"ubuntu:my_password"

To disconnect from the VM, type exit or press CTRL+D instead.

Connect to the VM via console¶

Under the Actions column beside my_instance_1, select Console from the drop-down menu:

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-18.png

You should now be able to see the console and log into the my_instance_1 VM using the password we set in the previous step (my_password):

../../_images/get-familiar-with-openstack-19.png

Launch a VM through the OpenStack client¶

To log in to the client as a demo user, execute the following command:

source demo-openrc

Launch a VM¶

To launch another VM called my_instance_2 with exactly the same configuration, execute the following command:

openstack server create --flavor m1.tiny --image ubuntu --network demo-network --key-name sunbeam my_instance_2

Launching instances takes a while. You are going to see that the instance goes through the BUILD status first.

To list all instances, execute the following command:

openstack server list

Sample output:

--------------------------------------+---------------+--------+-------------------------------------------+--------+---------+
| ID                                   | Name          | Status | Networks                                  | Image  | Flavor  |
+--------------------------------------+---------------+--------+-------------------------------------------+--------+---------+
| 3482b599-6289-4cbf-90a8-8ddbf62a198c | my_instance_2 | ACTIVE | demo-network=192.168.122.77               | ubuntu | m1.tiny |
| e809c14e-1b30-454a-ab11-1e70bde0f6a8 | my_instance_1 | ACTIVE | demo-network=10.20.20.32, 192.168.122.113 | ubuntu | m1.tiny |
| d3446139-09b5-4306-8208-3e50c1808566 | test          | ACTIVE | demo-network=10.20.20.94, 192.168.122.34  | ubuntu | m1.tiny |
+--------------------------------------+---------------+--------+-------------------------------------------+--------+---------+

Associate a floating IP address¶

To create a floating IP, execute the following command:

openstack floating ip create external-network

To associate newly created floating IP with the my_instance_2 VM, execute the following commands:

IP=$(penstack floating ip list | awk '/None/ { print $4 }')
openstack server add floating ip my_instance_2 $IP

Connect to the VM¶

To connect to the my_instance_2 VM over SSH, execute the following commands:

ssh -i ~/snap/openstack/current/sunbeam ubuntu@$IP

You should now be able to see the VM terminal:

ubuntu@my-instance-2:~$

To disconnect from the VM, type exit or press CTRL+D instead.

Get familiar with the Sunbeam client¶

Note

Duration: 4 minutes

So far we’ve seen how users can interact with the cloud to provision and manage cloud resources. However, when it comes to Canonical OpenStack operations there is one more tool that you should get familiar with as an operator.

We’ve already seen in those tutorials the usage of the sunbeam command on multiple occasions. This command is provided by the Sunbeam client which is a command line interface designed to bootstrap and operate Canonical OpenStack.

To operate the cloud through the Sunbeam client, execute the sunbeam command:

sunbeam --help

For example, to enable the Ubuntu Pro feature, execute the following command:

sunbeam enable pro --token <ubuntu pro token>

Note

Enablement of the Ubuntu Pro feature requires an active Ubuntu Pro subscription. You can get your token at your subscriptions page or request one here. It’s free for limited personal usage.

Once this command finishes, you should be able to see the following message on the screen:

Please check minimum hardware requirements for support:

    https://microstack.run/docs/enterprise-reqs

Ubuntu Pro enabled.

Depending on the subscription type, your machine is now eligible for certain Ubuntu Pro services:

$ pro status
SERVICE          ENTITLED  STATUS       DESCRIPTION
anbox-cloud      yes       disabled     Scalable Android in the cloud
esm-apps         yes       enabled      Expanded Security Maintenance for Applications
esm-infra        yes       enabled      Expanded Security Maintenance for Infrastructure
fips-preview     yes       disabled     Preview of FIPS crypto packages undergoing certification with NIST
fips-updates     yes       disabled     FIPS compliant crypto packages with stable security updates
livepatch        yes       enabled      Canonical Livepatch service
realtime-kernel* yes       disabled     Ubuntu kernel with PREEMPT_RT patches integrated
usg              yes       disabled     Security compliance and audit tools

Next steps¶

Congratulations!

You have reached the end of this tutorial.

You can now:

Move to the next tutorial in this series - “On-board your users”,
Explore How-to Guides for instructions on setting up a production-grade environment.