OpenStack overview

http://docs.openstack.org/juno/install-guide/install/zypper/content/index.html

Overview

The OpenStack project is an open source cloud computing platform that supports all types of cloud environments. The project aims for simple implementation, massive scalability, and a rich set of features. Cloud computing experts from around the world contribute to the project.

OpenStack provides an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution through a variety of complemental services. Each service offers an application programming interface (API) that facilitates this integration. The following table provides a list of OpenStack services:

Table 1.1. OpenStack services

Service	Project name	Description
Dashboard	Horizon	Provides a web-based self-service portal to interact with underlying OpenStack services, such as launching an instance, assigning IP addresses and configuring access controls.
Compute	Nova	Manages the lifecycle of compute instances in an OpenStack environment. Responsibilities include spawning, scheduling and decommissioning of virtual machines on demand.
Networking	Neutron	Enables Network-Connectivity-as-a-Service for other OpenStack services, such as OpenStack Compute. Provides an API for users to define networks and the attachments into them. Has a pluggable architecture that supports many popular networking vendors and technologies.
Storage
Object Storage	Swift	Stores and retrieves arbitrary unstructured data objects via a RESTful, HTTP based API. It is highly fault tolerant with its data replication and scale out architecture. Its implementation is not like a file server with mountable directories.
Block Storage	Cinder	Provides persistent block storage to running instances. Its pluggable driver architecture facilitates the creation and management of block storage devices.
Shared services
Identity service	Keystone	Provides an authentication and authorization service for other OpenStack services. Provides a catalog of endpoints for all OpenStack services.
Image Service	Glance	Stores and retrieves virtual machine disk images. OpenStack Compute makes use of this during instance provisioning.
Telemetry	Ceilometer	Monitors and meters the OpenStack cloud for billing, benchmarking, scalability, and statistical purposes.
Higher-level services
Orchestration	Heat	Orchestrates multiple composite cloud applications by using either the native HOTtemplate format or the AWS CloudFormation template format, through both an OpenStack-native REST API and a CloudFormation-compatible Query API.
Database Service	Trove	Provides scalable and reliable Cloud Database-as-a-Service functionality for both relational and non-relational database engines.

This guide describes how to deploy these services in a functional test environment and, by example, teaches you how to build a production environment. Realistically, you would use automation tools such as Ansible, Chef, and Puppet to deploy and manage a production environment.