Manual Chapter : Integrating OpenStack

Applies To:

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BIG-IQ Cloud

  • 4.5.0
Manual Chapter

About OpenStack integration

BIG-IQ Cloud provides you with the tools to manage OpenStack versions 2013.1 (Grizzly) and 2013.2 (Havana) resources required to run applications. Management tasks include discovering BIG-IP VE virtual machines and discovering, creating, starting, and stopping OpenStack application servers running in the private cloud. You can use this feature to accommodate seasonal traffic fluctuations by periodically adding and retracting devices and application servers as needed. Additionally, you can provide tenants access to self-deployable iApps through OpenStack integration.

To provide access to these services for OpenStack tenants, you configure communication between OpenStack products, and BIG-IQ Cloud. Then, you associate an OpenStack cloud connector with a device, and create a catalog entry for a corresponding OpenStack service profile. The tenants to whom you give access to the catalog entry see it in their applications panel. From there, they can use it to self-deploy their own iApps.

Network requirements for communication with OpenStack cloud services

Before you can manage devices residing in an OpenStack private cloud, you must establish proper communication between the BIG-IQ Cloud and the OpenStack controller node. Generally, this means defining a network route between the BIG-IQ Cloud internal VLAN and the public Internet, or the OpenStack private cloud endpoint.

The BIG-IQ Cloud connector for OpenStack parses the OpenStack cloud's network naming convention as follows:

  • Any network that contains the name mgmt, management, internal, or external is assumed to indicate a network type (always-on management network, internal network, and external network, respectively). If there are multiple networks, BIG-IQ Cloud uses the first network it finds with those names to communicate with the OpenStack cloud.
  • If there are no networks with those names, BIG-IQ Cloud assigns the network type based on the order in which the network was discovered. For example, if BIG-IQ Cloud discovers networks 10.10.10.0/24, 20.20.20.0/24, and 30.30.30/24, it assigns them as follows:
  • Management network 10.10.10.0/24
  • External network 20.20.20.0/24
  • Internal network 30.30.30.0/24

This is important to know, because when you create a new application server in OpenStack through BIG-IQ Cloud, you are allowed to select the internal or external network, but not the management network.

Tip: If you deploy a BIG-IP device in the OpenStack cloud and you want to discover it from BIG-IQ Cloud, you must have an external or interface route from BIG-IQ Cloud to the OpenStack cloud network. If BIG-IQ Cloud is not on same network as OpenStack, you might need to add a floating IP address to the interface to make it accessible. While either external or internal interfaces are acceptable, we recommend using the external interface.
Important: For specific instructions about how to configure your network for OpenStack, refer to the OpenStack documentation.

OpenStack Compute edits required to use BIG-IP VE systems

Before you create BIG-IP VE systems in an OpenStack environment, you must edit a file on each OpenStack Compute node. If you do not edit this file, any BIG-IP VE system you configure fails to start.

  1. Log in to the command line of each OpenStack Compute node and edit /etc/nova/release to read as follows: [Nova] vendor = Red Hat product = Bochs package = RHEL 6.3.0 PC
  2. Restart the OpenStack Compute node services.
This edit provides the BIG-IP VE system required access to the OpenStack hypervisor. Any BIG-IP VE systems you create in the OpenStack environment can now properly start.

Discovering devices located in the OpenStack cloud

After you license and perform the initial configuration for the BIG-IQ system, you can discover BIG-IP devices running version 11.5 or later. For proper communication between the managing BIG-IQ system and the devices it manages, you must configure the BIG-IQ system with a route to each F5 device you want to manage. If you do not specify the required network communication route between the devices, then device discovery fails.

You must know the IP address that the BIG-IQ device will use to access the BIG-IP device.

  1. Hover over the Devices header, click the + icon when it appears, and then select New Device. The Devices panel expands to show the New Device screen.
  2. In the IP Address field, type the device's IP address. The preferred address for discovering a BIG-IP device is its management IP address.
  3. (This step applies only if the BIG-IQ system is not hosted on AWS version 4.4 or later.) If the BIG-IQ system and the BIG-IP device are on different subnets, then you need to log in to the BIG-IQ system using SSH to specify an IP route between them.
    • If the BIG-IQ system and the BIG-IP device communicate using the management IP address, then there must be a default route specified. If there is no default route, issue a route command.
      1. Use SSH to log in to the BIG-IQ system's management IP address as the root user.
      2. Type the following command: route <route name> {gw <x.x.x.x> network default}
    • If the BIG-IQ system and the BIG-IP device use something other than the management IP address to communicate, then issue a tmsh route command.
      1. Use SSH to log in to the BIG-IQ system's management IP address as the root user.
      2. Type the following command: tmsh create net route <route name> {gw <x.x.x.x> network default}
      Note: Where <route name> is a user-provided name to identify the new route, and <x.x.x.x> is the IP address of the default gateway for the internal network.
  4. In the User Name and Password fields, type the administrator user name and password for the managed device.
  5. For the Auto Update Framework setting, select the Update Automatically check box to direct the BIG-IQ system to perform any required REST framework updates on the BIG-IP device. For the BIG-IQ system to properly manage a BIG-IP device, the BIG-IP device must be running the most recent REST framework.
    Important: When you update the REST framework for BIG-IP devices running version 11.6 or earlier, the traffic management interface (TMM) restarts. Before you update the REST framework on a BIG-IP device, verify that no critical network traffic is targeted to that device. Additionally, In any system upgrade scenario, the potential exists for unexpected errors. Because there is not currently an automatic recovery and rollback feature, if an upgrade fails, it is conceivable that a BIG-IP device would not be left in the pre-discovery state. If you want to roll back the upgrade due to an error or any other reason, the recommended recovery for this situation is to perform a partition restore (restoring both the pre-discovery management components and any related configuration).
  6. Click the Add button.
The BIG-IQ system populates the properties of the device that you added, and displays the device in the Devices panel. Its configuration files display in the Configuration panel.
You can now associate this device with an OpenStack cloud connector and allocate resources to tenants.

Associating an OpenStack connector with devices

BIG-IQ Cloud must be able to collect statistics to provide server diagnostics to tenants. By default, most OpenStack deployments are configured to disallow diagnostics collection. For successful deployment, you must change this option by editing the Nova policy.json file (typically located in the /etc/nova/ directory) and changing the following line: compute_extension:server_diagnostics": "rule:admin_api to compute_extension:server_diagnostics": "rule:admin_or_owner".
To enable integration between a third-party cloud provider and BIG-IQ Cloud, you must configure a cloud connector. A cloud connector is a resource that identifies the local or virtual environment in which a tenant deploys applications and, when necessary, adds parameters required by third-party cloud providers.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ Cloud with your administrator user name and password.
  2. Hover over the Connectors header, click the + icon when it appears, and then click New Connector.
  3. In the Name and Description fields, type a name and description. You can use the name and description to help you organize network resources into logical groups based on certain criteria, such as the location or application.
  4. From the Cloud Provider list, select OpenStack.
  5. In the OpenStack Controller Node URI field, type the URI for the OpenStack controller node.
  6. In the OpenStack User Name field, type the user name for the OpenStack administrator. For example, https://<IP address>:<Port> or http://<IP address>:<Port>. Note that default port for http is 5000.
  7. In the OpenStack Tenant Name and OpenStack Password fields, type the tenant (also known as, project) name and password.
  8. Click the Save button.
BIG-IQ Cloud discovers all associated OpenStack servers, and populates them in the Servers panel.
To complete discovery of BIG-IP devices and populate the Devices panel, provide the administrator user name and password when requested. You can then associate tenants with the OpenStack connector.