VanTosh

OpenStack

OpenStack is an open-source software platform for cloud computing, storage and networking.
OpenStack is deployed as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), whereby virtual servers and other resources are made available.

The software platform consists of interrelated components that control diverse, multi-vendor hardware pools of processing, storage, and networking resources throughout a data center.
Users either manage it through a web-based dashboard, through command-line tools, or through RESTful web services.

OpenStack has a modular architecture with various code names for its components :

Compute (Nova)

OpenStack Compute (Nova) is a cloud computing fabric controller, which is the main part of an IaaS system.
It is designed to manage and automate pools of computer resources and can work with widely available virtualization technologies, as well as bare metal and high-performance computing (HPC) configurations.
KVM, VMware, and Xen are available choices for hypervisor technology (virtual machine monitor), together with Hyper-V and Linux container technology such as LXC.

Networking (Neutron)

OpenStack Networking (Neutron) is a system for managing networks and IP addresses.
OpenStack Networking ensures the network is not a bottleneck or limiting factor in a cloud deployment, and gives users self-service ability, even over network configurations.

OpenStack Networking provides networking models for different applications or user groups.
Standard models include flat networks or VLANs that separate servers and traffic.
OpenStack Networking manages IP addresses, allowing for dedicated static IP addresses or DHCP.
Floating IP addresses let traffic be dynamically rerouted to any resources in the IT infrastructure, so users can redirect traffic during maintenance or in case of a failure.

Block storage (Cinder)

OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder) provides persistent block-level storage devices for use with OpenStack compute instances. The block storage system manages the creation, attaching and detaching of the block devices to servers. Block storage volumes are fully integrated into OpenStack Compute and the Dashboard allowing for cloud users to manage their own storage needs. In addition to local Linux server storage, it can use storage platforms including Ceph, CloudByte, Coraid, EMC (ScaleIO, VMAX, VNX and XtremIO), GlusterFS, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM Storage (IBM DS8000, Storwize family, SAN Volume Controller, XIV Storage System, and GPFS), Linux LIO, NetApp, Nexenta, Nimble Storage, Scality, SolidFire, HP (StoreVirtual and 3PAR StoreServ families), INFINIDAT (InfiniBox) and Pure Storage. Block storage is appropriate for performance sensitive scenarios such as database storage, expandable file systems, or providing a server with access to raw block level storage. Snapshot management provides powerful functionality for backing up data stored on block storage volumes. Snapshots can be restored or used to create a new block storage volume. Identity (Keystone)

Identiy Management (Keystone)

OpenStack Identity (Keystone) provides a central directory of users mapped to the OpenStack services they can access. It acts as a common authentication system across the cloud operating system and can integrate with existing backend directory services like LDAP. It supports multiple forms of authentication including standard username and password credentials, token-based systems and AWS-style (i.e. Amazon Web Services) logins. Additionally, the catalog provides a queryable list of all of the services deployed in an OpenStack cloud in a single registry. Users and third-party tools can programmatically determine which resources they can access. Image (Glance)

Object Storage (Swift)

OpenStack Object Storage (Swift) is a scalable redundant storage system.
Objects and files are written to multiple disk drives spread throughout servers in the data center, with the OpenStack software responsible for ensuring data replication and integrity across the cluster.
Storage clusters scale horizontally simply by adding new servers. Should a server or hard drive fail, OpenStack replicates its content from other active nodes to new locations in the cluster.
Because OpenStack uses software logic to ensure data replication and distribution across different devices, inexpensive commodity hard drives and servers can be used.