With OpenStack becoming the new normal for building infrastructure clouds, having the right tools in your sysadmin utility belt is key. From deployment to monitoring and everything in between, open source solutions help you effectively govern OpenStack‘s diverse components.
This post rounds up five leading options – Chef, Ansible, Fuel, Puppet and Compass – for taming OpenStack environments. You‘ll get an insider look at their capabilities, architecture, use cases and more. Let‘s get started!
Why Are Open Source Tools Needed for OpenStack?
First, some quick facts on OpenStack‘s massive growth:
- 76% enterprises use OpenStack already, with another 15% planning to adopt it
- Average OpenStack user manages 6000+ cores across diverse infrastructure
- 85% of OpenStack deployments are hybrid or multi-cloud
OpenStack‘s API-driven scale-out design allows assembling cloud systems like lego blocks. But with great flexibility comes great complexity!
As your infrastructure grows across on-premise data centers and public cloud, effectively managing those OpenStack building blocks is crucial.
This is where open source automation and orchestration tools come in. Leading options like Chef and Ansible help solve challenges like:
- Quickly provision OpenStack resources through IaC
- Ensure consistency in configurations across components
- Implement governance with change controls
- Improve productivity through less manual tasks
Let‘s analyze the top 5 open source choices for tackling the complexity of real-world OpenStack environments.
1. Chef
Chef leads the wave of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tooling bringing cloud-style agility to enterprises. Thousands rely on Chef‘s declarative policies and automation capabilities to effectively manage OpenStack deployments.
Key Capabilities
Chef provides unmatched capabilities to model infrastructure lifecycles as code. Key features include:
- Powerful Ruby DSL for writing reusable infrastructure definitions
- Ability to treat infrastructure as versioned code
- Built-in support for testing and validation of environments
- Agent-based architecture that scales seamlessly
With Chef, sysadmins become developers! Defining configuration policies and deployment processes programmatically unlocks game-changing productivity.
OpenStack Integration
Chef brings its robust IaC capabilities to OpenStack via Cookbooks – reusable definitions for deploying and managing components. For example:
- openstack-common – provides resources for Identity service, Dashboard etc
- openstack-compute – handles Hypervisor hosts and Compute instances
- openstack-network – configures Networking endpoints and SDNs
Further, Chef Supermarket offers an extensive library of community Cookbooks. Integrations with AWS/Azure allow spanning OpenStack environments.
When to Use Chef
Consider Chef if you need:
- Mature IaC framework with OpenStack support
- Straightforward transition from manual ops to automation
- Tie-ins with CI/CD pipeliness
Downsides
Chef has a learning curve for developing expertise with its Ruby DSL and agent architecture. Upgrades can get complex for large deployments.
2. Ansible
Ansible brings simple yet powerful orchestration for automating OpenStack environments. Thousands of organizations use Ansible for faster, more reliable OpenStack deployments.
Key Capabilities
Ansible provides straightforward tools to coordinate OpenStack infrastructure end-to-end:
- Agentless architecture using SSH push for configuration changes
- Idempotence support for consistency during operations
- Extensive library of playbooks for OpenStack tasks
- Security hardening capabilities like access control, encryption
The agentless approach and playbook orchestration engine make Ansible extremely powerful yet simple to grasp.
OpenStack Modules
Ansible offers 50+ modules covering diverse aspects of OpenStack management:
- os_keystone_domain – manage Identity domains
- os_nova_flavor – create/delete Compute flavors
- os_object – manipulate Storage containers
Further, Ansible Galaxy provides thousands of community scripts for tackling specific automation needs.
When to Use Ansible
Consider Ansible if you need:
- A gentle on-ramp to configuration automation
- Multi-tier orchestration across environments
- Integration with on-premise and public cloud infrastructure
Downsides
Ansible may not offer the depth of IaC maturity as solutions like Chef which have evolved specifically for the automation première. The agentless approach brings some inherent risks as well.
3. Fuel
Fuel streamlines taking OpenStack from zero to production-grade cloud through powerful yet intuitive lifecycle management. Enterprise giants like Telefonica leverage Fuel for building robust OpenStack Private Clouds.
Key Capabilities
Fuel accelerates OpenStack rollouts by providing:
- Graphical User Interface for controlling infrastructure
- Multi-node discovery and bootstrapping
- Modular architecture aligned with OpenStack services
- Role-based access control for users
The visual interface and broad vendor/OS support make Fuel a favorite for bare-metal OpenStack deployments. Under the hood, integration with additional automation tools extends capabilities further.
Supported Platforms
Fuel supports diverse infrastructure, hypervisors and operating systems:
- Public/private cloud as well as bare-metal
- Hypervisors – KVM, VMware ESXi, Hyper-V
- OS – CentOS, RHEL, Ubuntu
When to Use Fuel
Consider Fuel if you need:
- Rapid bare-metal OpenStack deployment
- Visual management console for infrastructure
- Third-party tool integration post-deployment
Downsides
Fuel manages OpenStack environments as black boxes to an extent without finer-grained configuration controls seen in tools like Chef or Puppet. The UI also brings overheads and performance constraints at large scale.
4. Puppet
Puppet brings robust configuration management capabilities to OpenStack users through its declarative language and master-agent architecture. Notable users like CERN and Dreamhost rely on Puppet.
Key Capabilities
Puppet empowers administrators to define desired system state in code and automatically enforce. Core features:
- Declarative language to model infrastructure elements
- Powerful templating for customizing deployments
- Change orchestration across multi-tier apps
The opinionated approach accelerates organizations‘ path to modeling infrastructure-as-code. Integration with DevOps pipelines drives agility further.
Supported Platforms
Puppet supports all major OS distributions making it easy to sustain consistency as your OpenStack footprint grows:
- Linux – RedHat, CentOS, Ubuntu, SUSE
- Unix – Solaris, AIX
- Windows Server
When to Use Puppet
Consider Puppet if you need:
- Mature framework for IaC policies
- Regulatory controls for change management
- Enterprise platform integrations
Downsides
Puppet‘s briefly rises with scale and complexity. Upgrades can be tedious requiring state migrations. The agent-based design also warrants securing master-agent traffic.
5. Compass
Compass brings powerful bare-metal deployment capabilities for OpenStack. Leading web-scale players use Compass to provision OpenStack on low-level hardware.
Key Capabilities
Compass automates manual ops associated with physical hardware and OpenStack:
- Discover and inventory bare-metal resources
- Bootstrap hardware with OS, drivers etc.
- Role-based access control for users
- Customize deployments through metadata
The bare-metal focus makes Compass a specialist within our open source OpenStack tools toolkit!
Supported Hardware
As a bare-metal specialist, Compass supports diverse servers, networking and storage gear:
- Servers – HP, Dell, Lenovo, Quanta, Supermicro
- Network – Cisco, Juniper, Mellanox
- Storage – EMC, NetApp, PureStorage
When to Use Compass
Consider Compass if you need:
- Automated bare-metal OpenStack deployment
- Rapid rollback with hardware snapshotting
- Life cycle management for physical assets
Downsides
Compass lacks maturity in higher-level orchestration features expected from enterprise configuration management tools. UI and bootstrapping also need polish.
Comparing the OpenStack Tools
All five open source solutions provide robust capabilities for taming OpenStack environments. Choosing the right one depends on your team‘s skills, deployment type, integration needs and other factors
Architectural Tradeoffs
Ansible‘s agentless approach simplifies setup but poses risks at scale. Chef and Puppet offer industrial-grade automation powered by their agents. Compass shines at physical infrastructure layers. Fuel accelerates through visual abstractions and third-party integrations.
Capability Spectrum
Ansible and Fuel simplify getting started with OpenStack automation. Chef and Puppet offer enterprise-scale policy engines. Compass doubles down on bare-metal provisioning capabilities.
Most Well-Rounded
Chef and Puppet strike a balance across ease of use, scalability, maturity and breadth of ecosystem.
Conclusion
Effectively governing OpenStack demands automating operational complexity away. Open source tools in this post allow your team to tap into the cloud operating model.
Chef, Ansible and Puppet make infrastructure programmable through robust policy engines. Platforms like Fuel and Compass optimize OpenStack lifecycle workflows further through specialization.
Evaluate options keeping in mind your team‘s constraints, growth roadmap and capability gaps. Mix and match tools to assemble an integrated toolchain on your journey toward infrastructure automation nirvana!
