Single-node quickstart

This tutorial shows how to install OpenStack (based on project Sunbeam) in the simplest way possible. It will deploy an OpenStack 2023.1 (Antelope) cloud.

The cloud will only allow access to its VMs from the local host. To enable access from any host on your network, follow the Single-node guided tutorial instead.

Requirements

You will need a single machine whose requirements are:

  • physical or virtual machine running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  • a multi-core amd64 processor ideally with 4+ cores
  • a minimum of 16 GiB of free memory
  • 50 GiB of SSD storage available on the root disk

Caution: Any change in IP address of the local host will be detrimental to the deployment. A virtual host will generally have a more stable address.

Deploy the cloud

Install the openstack snap

Duration: 5 minutes
Depending on internet connection speed to required resources may be shorter or longer.

Begin by installing the openstack snap:

sudo snap install openstack --channel 2024.1/beta

Caution: It is highly recommended to use the --channel 2024.1/beta switch which includes all the latest bug fixes and updates before the next stable release coming in Q4 2024.

Prepare the machine

Duration: 1 minute

Sunbeam can generate a script to ensure that the machine has all of the required dependencies installed and is configured correctly for use in OpenStack - you can review this script using:

sunbeam prepare-node-script

or the script can be directly executed in this way:

sunbeam prepare-node-script | bash -x && newgrp snap_daemon

The script will ensure some software requirements are satisfied on the host. In particular, it will:

  • install openssh-server if it is not found
  • configure passwordless sudo for all commands for the current user (NOPASSWD:ALL)

Bootstrap the cloud

Duration: 30 minutes
Depending on internet connection speed to required resources may be shorter or longer.

Deploy the OpenStack cloud using the cluster bootstrap command and accept software defaults:

sunbeam cluster bootstrap --accept-defaults

Note: If your host is a virtual one managed with Multipass, you will need to ensure it has an FQDN set in the /etc/hosts file. See bug GH #3277.

Configure the cloud and obtain credentials

Duration: 5 minutes
Depending on internet connection speed to required resources may be shorter or longer.

Now configure the deployed cloud using the configure command:

sunbeam configure --accept-defaults --openrc demo-openrc

The --openrc option specifies a regular user (non-admin) cloud init file (demo-openrc here).

Launch a VM

Duration: 2 minutes
First VM launch will take longer.

Verify the cloud by launching a VM called ‘test’ based on the ‘ubuntu’ image (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS). The launch command is used:

sunbeam launch ubuntu --name test

Sample output:

Launching an OpenStack instance ...
Access instance with `ssh -i /home/ubuntu/.config/openstack/sunbeam ubuntu@10.20.20.200`

Connect to the VM over SSH using the provided command.

Related how-tos

Now that OpenStack is set up, be sure to check out the following how-to guides:

Last updated 6 days ago. Help improve this document in the forum.