OpenStack Integration

OpenStack HEAT

The mission of the OpenStack Orchestration program is to create a human- and machine-accessible service for managing the entire lifecycle of infrastructure and applications within OpenStack clouds.

Heat is the main project in the OpenStack Orchestration program. It implements an orchestration engine to launch multiple composite cloud applications based on templates in the form of text files that can be treated like code. A native Heat template format is evolving, but Heat also endeavours to provide compatibility with the AWS CloudFormation template format, so that many existing CloudFormation templates can be launched on OpenStack. Heat provides both an OpenStack-native ReST API and a CloudFormation-compatible Query API.

Why ‘Heat’? It makes the clouds rise!

HEAT Provisioning example

In the first part of the lab you have learned:

  • how to design a Service Dialog
  • how to create a Service Catalog
  • put everything together with a Service Catalog Item
  • order from the Service Catalog

In the second part of the lab, we want to use HEAT to create a new instance and to provision an application inside the instance. We are using the probably most popular example: Wordpress. The HEAT template we use, can be found in the OpenStack Git Repository.

Earlier in this lab, we had to create a Service Dialog manually. For a number of templates CloudForms can create a Service Dialog automatically. In this lab we will see how we can create a Service Dialog from a HEAT template. We can still edit this automatically created Service Dialog to adjust it to our needs.

Prepare the HEAT Template

Before we can import the template into CloudForms, we need to download it or have it open in a separate browser window.

Please make sure to use the forked version of the HEAT Template, which has an additional field “Network” defined. Without this field, running the HEAT Template will fail with an error indicating that multiple networks are available and hence a network has to be specified.

Go to the template on the GitHub project page. https://github.com/cbolz/summit-fy19/blob/master/self-service-portal-with-cloudforms/lab/WordPress_Native.yaml

Make sure to open the file in “RAW” mode or use this link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cbolz/summit-fy19/master/self-service-portal-with-cloudforms/lab/WordPress_Native.yaml

Download the HEAT Template or open it in a separate browser window so you can copy and paste it into the CloudForms Web UI

Import the HEAT Template

The following procedure will import a HEAT template, create a Service Dialog and tie everything together in a service catalog item.

Navigate to Services -> Catalogs

navigate to services catalogs

Click on Orchestration Templates in the accordion on the left

orchestration templates

Create a new Orchestration template by clicking on Configuration -> Create new Orchestration Template

Give the template a name and description:

Name: Wordpress HEAT Template

Description: This template can be used to deploy a Wordpress instance on OpenStack

Template Type: OpenStack Heat

Copy and paste the HEAT Template you downloaded before into the large text area below those fields. Make sure you copy the entire HEAT template by opening the RAW page of the file on GitHub.

wordpress template

The screenshot is truncated! Make sure you copy the entire HEAT Template! The first line should be:

heat_template_version: 2013-05-23

And the last line should be:

host: { get_attr: [wordpress_instance, first_address] }

Click Add to save the orchestration template

orchestration template saves

Create a Service Dialog from a HEAT template

Earlier in this lab you learned how to manually create a Service Dialog. Now we will see that CloudForms can do this work for us, if we use an orchestration template.

Navigate to the orchestration template you just created

Click on Configuration -> Create Service Dialog from Orchestration Template

create Service Dialog from wordpress heat template

Enter a name for the new Service Dialog

Service Dialog Name: Wordpress HEAT Template

create Service Dialog from orchestration template

Click on Save to create the Service Dialog

Service Dialog from orchestration template created

Verify the Service Dialog

The Service Dialog was automatically created. We want to verify it was created properly and has all the expected fields.

Navigate to Automation -> Automate -> Customization

navigate to Automation, Automate, Customization

Navigate to Service Dialogs in the accordion on the left.

navigate to Service Dialogs

Click on the new Service Dialog “Wordpress HEAT Template”

A preview will show how the Service Dialog will look like, when it’s used in a Service Catalog Item.

Service Dialog preview

The preview shows us that the Service Dialog is using a default image called “fedora-20.x86_64”. We do not have such an image and want to change the Service Dialog accordingly.

Click on Configuration -> Edit this Dialog. Navigate to the element called “Image” and click the little pen icon next to it.

edit the image name

Click on Options and then change the value of the field “Default Value”

Default Value: rhel7

change the image name

Save the changes of the element by clicking on Save

Commit the changes of the dialog by clicking on Save

You should see an updated preview of your dialog with the new default value “rhel7” in the “Image” field

after saving the changes

Build a HEAT Service Catalog

The following steps will create a service catalog.

The next step is to create a service catalog. First we have to navigate to Services -> Catalogs.

navigate to services, catalog

On this screen click on Catalogs on the left

You should already see three Service Catalogs:

Ansible: the Service Catalog we created in the Ansible part of the lab

OpenShift Templates: the Service Catalog we created in the OpenShift part of the lab

Virtual Machines: the Service Catalog we created in the Virtual Machine part of the lab

service catalogs

Click on Configuration and Add a New Catalog

Fill out name and description:

Name: HEAT Templates

Description: Deploy HEAT Templates from the Catalog

add a new catalog

Click Add to save the Service Catalog

Build a HEAT Service Catalog Item

To put everything together we create a Service Catalog Item similar to before.

Navigate to Services -> Catalogs

navigate to services, catalog

Click on Catalog items in the accordion on the left.

navigate to catalog items

In the Configuration Menu, click on Add a New Catalog Item

Chose the Catalog Item Type. For this example we want to use HEAT on OpenStack which is an Orchestration provider, so click on Orchestration

select catalog item type

The next dialog will ask for the details for the new Catalog Item

Name: Wordpress

The name of the Catalog Item shown in the UI.

Description: Wordpress from HEAT

A more descriptive text about the Catalog Item.

Display in Catalog: check this box

Check the “Display in Catalog” box. If not selected, the Catalog Item will not be visible to users. This can be used for Items which are either still in draft mode, or should only be ordered as a part of a bundle.

Select the previously created Service Catalog:

Catalog: HEAT Templates

Select the previously created Service Dialog:

Dialog: Wordpress HEAT Template

The template to execute:

Orchestration Template: Wordpress HEAT Template

Select on which provider the HEAT Template should be executed:

Provider: OpenStack

All other fields on this tab can remain unchanged.

service catalog item details

For this lab, we want to stick with the out of the box experience and leave those fields unchanged.

Click on the Details tab. You can provide some more descriptive explanation about the Service Catalog Item. We can even use basic HTML formatting in this box.

Finally click on Add to save the Service Catalog Item

catalog item saved

Order the HEAT Wordpress Catalog Item

For sure you want to test the Catalog Item you just created!

Navigate to Services -> Catalogs and then click on Service Catalogs in the accordion on the left.

navigate to services, catalog

You should see the Service Catalog Item we just created:

all services

Click on the Service Catalog Item to see more details.

service item details

Click on Order

Fill out the form:

Select the tenant into which you want to deploy. There is only one tenant in OpenStack called “admin”

Tenant: Admin

Specify a stack name for your deployment:

Stack Name: wordpress001

For all other fields the provided default values can be accepted. Note that the image name is “rhel7” as you specified in your dialog.

order HEAT template

Click on Submit to start the deployment.

You will be redirected to the request queue where you can see CloudForms working on your request.

Since we are using nested virtualization to run these labs, performs will be slow and it can take several minutes to complete the request (20-30 minutes).

after ordering heat service catalog item