OpenStack Kilo MultiNode VM Installation using Centos 7 on VirtualBox

In this blog, I will walk you through the steps that need to performed to create a MultiNode OpenStack Kilo setup running on Centos 7 VMs. The resultant network topology will be as follows:

Pre-requisites

• VirtualBox
• A Laptop or Server with 16 GB RAM and around 20 GB free hard disk space
• CentOS 7 Minimal ISO
• Internet Connectivity

 Setup VirtualBox Networking

In VirtualBox go to File -> Preferences -> Network -> Host-Only Networks and create a new Host-Only networks. You can refer to my earlier blog on the various networking options provided by VirtualBox here 

In our topology, this network will act as the Control Plane network and should be configured as follows:

Similarly, create the Data Plane (60.60.60.0/24). The Host-Only Network adapter creates a soft switch using which VMs can talk with each other.

Note: We do not need to configure the DHCP server as we will be using static ips.

Create 4 VMs with the following settings and install CentOS Minimal Server on them:

• RAM : 2 GB
• Hard Disk Space : 4 GB
• Network Adapter 1 (For Internet) : NAT
• Network Adapter 2 (Control Plane) : Host-Only Network Adapter (50.50.50.0/24)
• Network Adapter 3 (Data Plane) : Host-Only Network Adapter (60.60.60.0/24)

On the VM, the network adapters map to the following ethernet interfaces (or something similar):
NW Adapter 1 : enp0s3
NW Adapter 2 : enp0s8
NW Adapter 3 : enp0s9

Now, we need to visit each VM and configure it appropriately.

On each VM

1. Install SSH server and configure it.
   
   

   
   yum -y install openssh-server openssh-clients
   
   If SSH is taking a lot of time to show the login prompt 
   on your VM, open /etc/ssh/sshd_config and update the 
   following fields to 'no':
   
   GSSAPIAuthentication no
   UseDNS no
   
   This will speed up the ssh login
   

2. Update the hostname and hosts file as follows:
   

   
   /etc/hostname 
   controller.kilo.mylab.net (or) networknode.controller.mylab.net e.t.c
   
   /etc/hosts:
   192.168.10.101  controller.kilo.mylab.net     controller
   192.168.10.102  networknode.kilo.mylab.net    netnode
   192.168.10.103  compute1.kilo.mylab.net       compute1
   192.168.10.104  compute2.kilo.mylab.net       compute2
   

3. To assign static ips to the interfaces, open /etc/sysconfig/networking-scripts/ifcg-enp0s8 (and enp0s9) and update as follows:
   

   DEFROUTE=no
   IPV6_DEFROUTE=no
   BOOTPROTO=static
   ONBOOT=yes
   
   # The IP to be configured on enp0s8 for each node 
   # Compute - 50.50.50.101
   # Network Node - 50.50.50.102
   # Compute1 - 50.50.50.103
   # Compute2 - 50.50.50.104
   
   # The IP to be configured on enp0s9 for each node 
   # Compute - 60.60.60.101
   # Network Node - 60.60.60.102
   # Compute1 - 60.60.60.103
   # Compute2 - 60.60.60.104
   IPADDR= 
   NETMASK=255.255.255.0
   GATEWAY=50.50.50.1 (or) 60.60.60.1
   

4. Disable NetworkManager as Neutron wont work if its enabled.
   

   systemctl disable NetworkManager.service

On the Controller VM

Follow the instructions given in my earlier blog and setup packStack for Kilo on the Controller. You will need to use this rpm : https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/openstack/openstack-kilo/rdo-release-kilo-1.noarch.rpm

I have pre-created 2 answer files for VLAN and VXLAN based setups. Download the one you want from the below location:

• VLAN
• VXLAN

The default password for all the services has been set to 'password'. Update it to a different value if you want.

 Start the packstack installation on the server by executing the below command:

packstack --answer-file answer.txt

Once the installation completes you are all set to use the OpenStack Kilo. Open the browser on your laptop and go to the home page by entering http://50.50.50.101 (admin/password)

Enjoy playing with Kilo.

Note : The same installation will also work on physical servers instead of VMs. You will need to take care of the corresponding network configurations.