vCenter Web Client Plug-in for OpenStack

Last week right before the start of the OpenStack Summit the Team OpenStack at VMware released a new version of the vSphere OpenStack Virtual Appliance (VOVA) based on the stable Havana release to the VMware and OpenStack communities.

The new version of the appliance provides a relatively easy and out of the box sort of experience for vSphere and OpenStack integration for compute (Nova) and Storage (Cinder) via the vSphere driver and vSphere datastore driver. But there was another great feature included and worth mentioning on its own which provides a great deal of assistance for vSphere administrators when testing vSphere infrastructure with OpenStack frameworks.

The Havana version of the vSphere OpenStack Virtual Appliance includes the new vCenter Server Plug-in for OpenStack frameworks. The plug-in provides vSphere administrators the ability identify OpenStack instances and some of their respective properties from the vCenter Server.

It’s important to point out thatVOVA and the vCenter Web Client Plug-in for OpenStack are non-production tools that are used for understanding how OpenStack integrates with VMware.

After successfully deploying and configuring the vSphere OpenStack Appliance, log into the vCenter Server associated with the vSphere OpenStack Virtual Appliance with the vSphere Web Client and configure the plug-in as instructed below:

1. Using an administrative account connect to vCenter Server with the vSphere Web Client
2. On the left hand pane of the Home screen select Administration
3. Once in the administration screen, select OpenStack which located under the solutions section
4. Configure the vCenter Endpoint first by clicking the “+” button on the top of the grid select vCenter and provide the URL https://vcenter_ip_or_fqdn/sdk and the required credentials.
5. Configure the OpenStack Keystone Endpoint by clicking on the “+” button on the top of the grid, select Keystone and provide the URL http://vova_ip_or_fqdn:5000/v2.0 and the required credentials

Once both Endpoints have been successfully added and configured, both endpoints should be listed active and listed in green color as illustrated below:

At this point, any OpenStack instance that is launched from the OpenStack Horizon portal or a command line interface (CLI) will be associated with searchable tags that will be created for each instances or virtual machines in vSphere.

For example, when a new instance is launched and it’s named “RawlinsonVM” in OpenStack, that name is not reflected as such in the vCenter inventory. The instance name in vCenter is normally based on a long GUID or UUID, which is not the way vSphere administrators are accustomed to.

The plug-in provides search capabilities between the OpenStack framework inventory and vCenter inventory. Searches for instances such as the one used in the example above “RawlinsonVM” can now be performed from the Web Client’s search bar and tags associated with a virtual machine in the vCenter inventory that represents a specific instance will be displayed.

Also, when navigating the virtual machines summary tab, a new portlet named “OpenStack VM” displays the data properties related to OpenStack instances as illustrated below.

I hope everyone on the journey of testing OpenStack with vSphere find this useful as this is another cool and useful feature created by the Team OpenStack at VMware who continue to contribute to the OpenStack community and vSphere customers.

For more information about the vSphere OpenStack Virtual Appliance, the vCenter Web Client Plug-in visit the VMware OpenStack Community forum.

- Enjoy

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