VMware Integrated OpenStack is a component that Telco Cloud Infrastructure OpenStack Edition exposes as the interface to the VNF services. It uses the vCenter Server Appliance and NSX Manager to orchestrate compute, storage, and networking infrastructure services from a single programmable interface.

VMware Integrated OpenStack Overview

OpenStack is a cloud framework for creating an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (or IaaS) cloud. It provides cloud-style APIs and a plug-in model that activates a choice of virtual infrastructure technologies. OpenStack does not provide the virtual technologies, instead leverages the underlying hypervisor, networking, and storage from different vendors. VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO) is a VMware production-grade OpenStack that consumes industry-leading VMware technologies. VIO leverages your existing VMware investment to simplify installation, upgrade, operations, monitoring, and so on. VIO is OpenStack-powered and is validated through testing to provide API compatibility for OpenStack core services.

Service

API Coverage

Block Storage API and Extensions

FULL

Compute Service API and Extensions

FULL

Identity service API and Extensions

FULL

Image Service API

FULL

Networking API and Extensions

FULL

Object Store API and Extensions (Tech Preview)

FULL

Orchestration API

FULL

Load Balancer

FULL

Metering and Data Collection Service API

FULL

Key Manager Service

FULL
In VIO, an OpenStack cloud can operate on top of vSphere and NSX, which is the industry standard for security, stability, performance, and reliability. Tools that manage, monitor, and troubleshoot existing private SDDC clouds can be used with VMware Integrated OpenStack.

VMware Integrated OpenStack Architecture

Based on virtual platform designs outlined in the platform tier, a three-pod design is recommended for production. Separate vSphere clusters are used for Management, Edge, and Compute.

  • Management Pod: OpenStack Control Plane and OpenStack Life Cycle Manager are deployed in the Management Pod.

  • Edge Pod: OpenStack Neutron DHCP, NAT, Metadata Proxy services reside in the Edge Pod.

  • Compute Pod: User VMs and VNF provisioned by OpenStack resides in the Compute Pod.

Figure 1. VIO Deployment Architecture
VIO Deployment Architecture

The management cluster requires at least three hosts, so that management components can run on different hosts and the failure of one host does not impact the control plane availability. The NSX Edge cluster requires a minimum of two hosts with at least one workload or compute cluster. You can deploy additional compute clusters based on application, scale, and SLA requirements. vCenter Server can support up to 64 hosts in a single cluster but is not recommended for environments with large churn, because large vSphere clusters add a delay in VM scheduling and boot time. In a deployment with a large number of concurrent operations, create new clusters when you need additional compute capacity.