Leveraging VMware Technology to Build an Enterprise Grade OpenStack Cloud

It’s Not Always About KVM!Justin Giardina & Julien Anguenot

OpenStack Summit AtlantaMay 15th, 2014

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Agenda

• Use cases• VMware benefits• OpenStack + VMware• A developer’s take

Who are we?

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Justin Giardina ( @jgiardina )• CTO @ iland• Open Source, Cisco, and VMware admin for many years• Network geek at heart• Cisco Champion, vExpert, Technical Advisory Boards• Currently in charge of global cloud footprint and technical

operations at iland

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Julien Anguenot ( @anguenot )• Director of Software Engineering @ iland• Python and Java veteran developer• Open source and open standards advocate• Currently building a cloud management platform,

API and frontend for the iland cloud aiming at connecting VMware and OpenStack services

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iland: cloud experts with years of experience

18 7 7Years delivering

IT Services

Years cloud& disaster recovery

expertise

ISO 27001 & SSAE16 global

data centers

The Forrester Wave™: Disaster-Recovery-As-A-Service Providers (January 2014) Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery Report (March 2012)

IaaS Best of Breed AwardVMworld 2013

VMware & OpenStack

Use cases, technology, terminology

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Religious Debate – No Thanks!

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OpenStack on VMware Use Cases• Why it is interesting for us

– Cloud Provider, SLA’s, Global footprint– Internal operations, Staffing, Efficiency

• Leveraging investment in existing infrastructure– Don’t eliminate what you have– Use existing architectures and knowledge

• Let developers be developers– Provide services that they are used to – SDK/API/ETC

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Benefits of Using vSphere for an Enterprise• History, SLA, Support

– VMware recognition in data center space– Support of verticals and compliance, i.e. Health Care and PCI

• Operations– Scale, diagnostics, performance, troubleshooting

• DRS, HA, SDRS, SIOC, OPS, Log Insight– Enterprise grade features for uptime, performance, and

management• Fully software-defined network stack

– NSX, vCNS, vSwitch

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vSphere Basic TopologyvCenter is the centralized management point for underlying resources and metrics

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iland Pod DesignRepeatable, multi-purpose, pod designCore components (vCenter, ESXi, Cisco UCS, Etc.)

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iland ECS Pod TopologyCentralized point for add-on servicesServices considered “clients” of centralized architecture

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IlandPod

DRaaS

vCloud

Portal

Openstack

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OpenStack Integration with vSphereCeilometer IntegrationVMware and community support and VOVAIcehouse updates, Multiple Linux distro support

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Mapping to OpenStack Relationships (Some loosely, this does not mean these are all integrated)VMware SSO / VMware Inventory Service

KeystonevCenter Server / ESXi

NovavCNS / NSX

NeutronvCloud Director

HorizonvCenter / vCops / vChargeback

CeilometervCloud Catalogs and Templates

GlancevCenter / VM Virtual Disks (VMDK)

CindervCAC / vCO / vFabric

HeatNot Native (yet) - DBaaS

TroveNot Native (yet) - Object Storage

Swift

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VMware & OpenStack

A developer’s take

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VMware stack offering same benefits to developers?

Programming the VMware stack

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First Impression• VMware programming was new to me until beginning of 2013 • Acronyms are confusing (vX, vStuff, vBlah, etc.)• Therefore documentation is hard to find• Java w/ VMware fist-class citizen

– Religious debate again• Non homogenous API (acquisition of products, different API types, SDKs, etc.)• XML and old style object model based API (vSphere for instance)• Programming API is not an industry standard• Very few developers out there interested in programming the VMware stack

– AWS preferred although extremely complicated and proprietary– Enterprise-limited developer community

• Developer sandbox & staging for infrastructure are complicated and time consuming to setup and maintain but are critical for developers: Justin’s profile required

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First Impression is Not Always the Right One• VMware technology is mature, stable, robust and full-featured• API / SDK are well documented, covering the whole stack and

easy to leverage from Java based applications• API compatibility is fantastic• Release cycle for major products is long enough to anticipate

change on legacy applications.• Beta program of VMware interesting for partners to give

feedback as well as anticipate changes• Applications built against VMware stack works extremely well.

If well implemented, of course

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Leverage the VMware APIs: Iland cloud ECS portalCloud management and monitoring portal leveraging vCloud Director, vSphere, vShield Manager. Billing, alerts, VMware specifics (tools, VDC)

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VMware + OpenStack

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What We Like About OpenStack• Open and (to become) one of the standard API for the cloud• ReST API are modern, consistent across components• Abstracting low level stack to developers• Interoperability w/ 3rd party applications• Pluggable!• Not vendor-specific• Programming language and tooling agnostic (exit the religious debate)• Documentation: Python is the documentation?• Culture & Community!

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Anticipated Challenges

• Resource pool vs instance-based models• VMware vApp & OpenStack• Neutron plugin for VCNS (In progress)• Ceilometer: vSphere / vShield Manager• Gradually migrating our own proprietary API to

OpenStack + extensions

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OpenStack

vCloud API

Iland API

Iland ECS portal

Developers

vShield API

vSphere API

Iland platform

Frontend

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OpenStack @ iland Cloud (1/2)• No Horizon frontend for end-users (iland admins only).

ECS portal integration• Support of OpenStack in addition to vCloud Director

abstracted out by our cloud management portal and API• Provide tooling for developers against the iland cloud

– Saltstack, Ubuntu JuJu, etc.• Contributing code to OpenStack if / when it makes sense

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OpenStack @ iland Cloud (2/2)

• In addition to infrastructure, processes, teams, etc. ECS platform to support vCloud and OpenStack: evolution versus revolution

• VMware backend and low level integration to remain the same

• Building an enterprise grade OpenStack offering powered by VMware and developer friendly

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Thank You!

Justin Giardina – jg@iland.com @jgiardinaJulien Anguenot – ja@iland.com @anguenot

iland @ilandcloud - iland is hiring!Presentation and helpful links online:

http://tinyurl.com/ilandatl2014

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Helpful links (1/2)• vCenter Server

http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server

Programming Resources https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/sdk_pubs.html

• vCloud Directorhttp://www.vmware.com/products/vcloud-director

Programming Resources https://developercenter.vmware.com/web/sdk/5.5.0/vcloud-java

• vCNS (vCloud Networking and Security)

http://www.vmware.com/products/vcloud-network-security

Programming Resources https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vshield_55_api.pdf

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Helpful links (2/2)• VMware NSX

http://www.vmware.com/products/nsx

Programming Resources http://www.vmware.com/products/nsx/resources

• vCenter Operations Manager

http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-operations-manager

Programming Resources https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcops-pubs.html

• vCenter Log Insight

http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-log-insight

Programming Resources https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/log-insight-pubs.html

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