1

I have recently been given a server rack consisting of 8 machines each equiped with Ubuntu 14.04. Each machine is a CORE I7, 2TB of data storage and 16GB of Memory. Machine 1 is equiped with 2 NICs, 1 connecting it with a public IP and the 2nd connecting it with a D-ink switch. The remaining 7 have single NICs and are connected to the same switch. My mission is to setup a cloud on the provided machines.

My initial mission is to setup 1 controller node and 1 compute node. I've gone through several tutorials. I cant figure out where to start. I've seen the tutorial where after cloud installation we select single machine. However, that installs most of the tools and features on a single machine.

I've seen the Openstack Installation Guide for Ubuntu 14.04 Juno released on 10th May this year. Went through the Nova architecture. But that setup is without a switch and with multiple NICs on multiple machines.

I've read that The landscape autopilot option requires MAAS and I believe Juju as well. The second option (the one with MAAS), I couldnt figure out what that was all about.

I'm kind of stuck here trying to figure out what my starting step would be. Can anyone please help and guide me what to do. Anyone who can guide me where I should start and what I should follow?

7
  • The quick answer is "Yes, someone can guide you." But I bet that isn't what you are looking for. So lets find out what your requirements really are. This cloud you wish to build, what will it do? Will it be configured once for a particular set of software, or will its function change from time to time? Are you planning on getting more hardware, or will this be you setup for the foreseeable future? Is this going to be a "production" system, or is it for you to learn how to deal with clusters, clouds, virtual machines, etc.? Get back to me with these, and I can give you more information.
    – rmustakos
    Jun 8, 2015 at 20:50
  • The functionality of this cloud will be very limited only for research purposes. Running a couple of instances, performance evaluations etc. I doubt that the hardware will ever change and most probably this would be everything. Not a production system. Initially, I was told by my instructor to setup a 2 node cloud i:e controller node and compute node. The remaining 6 nodes may be added later as block storage nodes, networking node or object storage node. However, I believe that I wont be asked to later add a network node. Jun 8, 2015 at 21:28
  • MaaS, while it would be good to learn in the general case, will cost you more time than it will save you, on a 2 node cluster. I am not an IT person, and my IT group wouldn't help, so i spent a lot of time learning stuff someone with linux IT background would know up front (just stupid low level stuff). It took me about 4 months to come up with a MaaS juju system i can now rebuild, as needed, in a day, but I blame most of that on my ignorance.
    – rmustakos
    Jun 8, 2015 at 21:37
  • A maas juju controlled cluster needs at least 3 nodes - 1) the MaaS region/cluster controller and juju controller 2) the juju bootstrap node and 3) a node that does something. To be interesting, you need 4 modes, so that different juju charms can interact between the nodes.
    – rmustakos
    Jun 8, 2015 at 21:39
  • So, we are back to the main question - what do you want to do/learn? I'd suggest learning MaaS / juju, as, after building a system like that, you will be able to expand it to the "cloud" fairly easily. By this I mean, turn a small system (a number of varied servers on a few nodes) into a huge virtual system (the same types of servers on a lot of nodes) fairly quickly.
    – rmustakos
    Jun 8, 2015 at 21:43

1 Answer 1

2

rmustakos is correct and giving good advice, thank you!

From my perspective since you have 8 nodes, MAAS is worthwhile. You will need one node for MAAS, and on that node you can create some VMs for the Juju bootstrap node, leaving 7 nodes for cloud or other projects.

You will need to add some network cards, it is required to have some nodes with multiple disks and some with multiple NICs.

The main question I would have for you is which mechanism you will use for power control. Do the nodes have IPMI?

6
  • I'll have to get back to you on all these questions. All I know for now is that I was introduced to a server rack consisting of 8 machines (1 with 2 NICs and the others with only 1 NIC) connected to a switch. There is also a KVM for toggling. All have Ubuntu server 14.04 installed on them and I have to create a cloud using Openstack. I am starting from scratch learning and experiencing. I was told that I have to do it all on my own and once done, my sup/adviser should be able to login to the cloud through the internet and setup some instances or virtual machines. Jun 10, 2015 at 18:39
  • If im using a switch, do I still need multiple NICs on these machines? Jun 10, 2015 at 18:40
  • No. You don't need to have more nics. You are not going to be bandwidth constrained, as this is a "can you do this?", not a "process this by 0900" exercise.
    – rmustakos
    Jun 11, 2015 at 0:12
  • As a matter of fact, reading your post, it looks like all you have to do is install MaaS & juju & juju-gui, and get the other machines commissioned. That will allow your sup to log in to juju-gui, add some charms and relations and tell it to go. How long do you have to do it?
    – rmustakos
    Jun 11, 2015 at 0:15
  • Sorry for getting back to you so late. Was stuck up in my exams. How long do I have? How long would it take? If this can be done by the end of this month(July) after putting in some extra time, I'm willing to go the distance. BTW, I asked my Sup what kind of instances is he planning to run. The answer "any instance". He said all I have to do is to get the basic cloud up and running allowing him to access it through the GUI. Jul 7, 2015 at 19:43

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .