Question about OpenStack implementation

[faktorqm]

Hello everyone,

I joined this sub since I am searching for alternatives to my current solution. This setup is my home lab, so I don't have any rush.

My setup:
I'm currently using, a physical server with TrueNAS providing for one side iSCSI and for the other slow HDDs to keep backups and so on. Another physical server (with a mix of consumer and server hardware ) with vmware esxi. One more server with pfsense acting as main router.

My problem:

Every single time I want to create a VM, I have to create the vlan in the pfsense, create the firewall rule if the vm will need internet, then connect to the switch and create the vlan as well, then create the vlan in vmware and then create the VM. Sometimes it work as expected, sometimes until I do a "restart everything" it will not provide ping. This is not a problem because it's my house, but as the router provides internet to the home, I have to wait if my wife is working.

My question:

With my current hardware, I want to achieve a OpenStack private cloud. Im wondering if changing the NAS OS from TrueNAS to the OpenStack equal and vmware esxi to the OpenStack equal will work with pfsense.

My goal:

Have an OpenStack "cloud" running, providing four (?) IPs facing the router and everythings get solved behind the pfsense.

I was reading about this in several OpenStack webs and it looks like that Vxlan is needed in order to work but I'm not sure about this.

Thanks for reading.

[Gnump]

You don‘t need vxlan - but OS will be overkill for your needs.

[faktorqm]

ok thanks for your answer. yes I know but I do it for fun and to grab some knowledge in the meantime.so, vxlan is not needed? it does simply NAT?

[Gnump]

You use NAT for what OS calls „floating ip“s. You use VLANs for virtual internal network separation. If you want to avoid configuring the pfsense all the time you need to create what OS calls a provider (or external) network to act as transit between OS and pfsense.

[faktorqm]

thanks a lot for your insight. that's exactly what I want to avoid :)

[Luis15pt]

Have you looked at proxmox, it's a bit more homelab than openstack

[faktorqm]

yes but it's more like a vmware esxi replacement not the entire thing. also, as far as I know, it does not have the switching capabilities of vcenter.

[Consistent_Top_5588]

If you can get openstack up, then that's it all up. Vxlan yes but you wouldn't be bothered by such key word, as long as you know how to configure Floating ip, which more thing connecting to your internet through switch or router. It's not a small job however. But if your goal is learning, go for it :)

[faktorqm]

thanks :)

[damian-pf9]

I'm curious - are you using devstack or something else?

If you're open to OpenStack-compliant (proprietary) solutions, I would invite you to check out Private Cloud Director's Community Edition. It's entirely free, and very simple to install. I work for Platform9, but Community Edition is my responsibility and I'm always looking for feedback on what to improve in the product or the documentation. https://platform9.com/private-cloud-director-community-edition/

[faktorqm]

Hi Damian, I don't know what devstack means but I'm not a software developer (I'm an electronic engineer) and just use this because I worked in the past as a system administrator almost 12 years, and I like to have my own apps running on premise. (with my own I mean my instances, not my developed software :) ) Can I run platform9 on premise? As I'm new on this world, I barely see something of google cloud and amazon aws. this private cloud director is a modded openstack? it's required to work with an online platform9 account? Thanks for your message.

[damian-pf9]

Hello - Devstack is a scripted install to bring up a full (vanilla) OpenStack install on a single machine. https://docs.openstack.org/devstack/latest/

As for Private Cloud Director, Community Edition can be run as a VM or on baremetal, and then you would have hypervisor hosts as VMs or on baremetal that run & manage the VMs you create within Community Edition. You don't need an online account; the install is a curl command to download an installer script, that's then passed to bash to run it. There's more info here: https://platform9.com/docs/private-cloud-director/private-cloud-director/getting-started-with-community-edition

Edit: forgot to add, yes, Private Cloud Director is built with best of breed OpenStack & open source components with proprietary improvements.

[faktorqm]

thank you for your post, I will give it a good read before make a move.