Integrated OpenStack connects vSphere resources to OpenStack components.

Integrated OpenStack is implemented as compute and management clusters in your vSphere environment. The compute clusters handle tenant workloads, while the management cluster contains OpenStack components and other services such as load balancing, database, and DHCP.

The core OpenStack projects included in Integrated OpenStack are as follows:

Nova (compute)
Compute clusters in vSphere are used as Nova compute nodes. Nova creates instances as virtual machines in these clusters, and vSphere uses DRS to place the virtual machines.
Neutron (networking)
Neutron implements networking functions by communicating with the NSX Manager (for NSX-T Data Center or NSX Data Center for vSphere deployments) or with vCenter Server (for VDS-only deployments).
Cinder (block storage)
Cinder executes block volume operations through the VMDK driver, causing the desired volumes to be created in vSphere.
Glance (image service)
Glance images are stored and cached in a dedicated image service datastore when the virtual machines that use them are booted.
Keystone (identity management)
Authentication and authorization in OpenStack are managed by Keystone.

Integrated OpenStack also provides the following OpenStack components:

  • Octavia (load balance)
  • Barbican (secret management)
  • Ceilometer (telemetry), including Aodh (alarming), Panko (event storage), and Gnocchi (time series database)
  • Designate (DNS)
  • Heat (orchestration)
  • Horizon (user interface)
  • Swift (object storage) - technical preview only
Figure 1. Overview of Integrated OpenStack Components