Setting up on Openstack

You got set up on Eucalyptus-based Fractus. Now you also have the option to use the OpenStack-based Fractus. Openstack is a software platform for management of cloud-computing resources. It grew as a joint project between Rackspace and NASA, but nowadays the project has grown considerably and is very widely used. Most importantly for us, Openstack makes managing our instances a whole lot easier.

To log in, make sure you VPN to the Cornell network. Go to the Openstack Console, and log in with your netid as both username and password. Immediately upon logging in, make sure you change your password. For this tutorial, we will be using my account ks2232.

Upon logging in, you will be presented with the central console:

IMPORTANT: Resource management

Each student in CS6410 this semester will be given unlimited (read: large enough) vCPUs, RAM, and storage; 50 floating IPs, 10 security groups; 10 storage volumes; and only one compute volume; two flavors for instance types: ''6410.small'' has 2GB memory, 2 vCPUs, and 20GB storage, while ''6410.large'' has 8GB memory, 4 vCPUs, and 50GB storage.

Although you may launch as many instances as you would like, you may only have two active instance at any time. We will be able to view all instances through the admin console, and if we see more than two active instance per user at any time, we will shut you down.

Building your environment

Building your network

In Openstack, before launching your instance you must build your network. This is the virtual equivalent to setting up your internet at home, router, and then your computer.

Go to Projects > Network > Network Topology, and you will be presented with the following:

The globe logo in the middle is the main entry point of all network requests, called admin_floating_net. You now must create your network. Click on Create Network. On the Network tab, write netid_internal_net (replace netid accordingly). Click Next to edit subnet information. For subnet name, wrte netid_internal_subnet. For Network Address, write ''192.168.0.0/[0-90-9]''. For example, ''192.168.0.0/24''. Go to Subnet Details tab by clicking Next. For DNS name servers, we can simply use the Google DNS at address ''8.8.8.8''. Click Create.

You now must plug in your router. Back on Network Topology, click on Create Router. Set router name to netid_router and the External Network option to admin_floating_net. Click Create. You now will have plugged your router to the external network.

Let's plug in the router to the internal network you created before. In the Network Topology page, you will have the following view:

Click on Add Interface. For Subnet select the subnet you created before, and click Submit.

Starting your instances

You are now ready to start your instances.

Go to Project > Compute > Instances, and click Launch Instance.

Name your instance, for example ks2232_small_instance. In the Source tab, select the Ubuntu6 image. This is a 64bit Ubuntu 16.04 image. In the Flavor tab, select ''6410.small''. In the Key Pair tab, click on Create Key Pair to generate a new keypair. Do not share this file. If you prefer, you may also import an already existing keypair. Finally, launch your instance by clicking Launch Instance.

Wait a few minutes for your instance to start.

Once your instance is in ''Running'' state, you must finally associate a floating IP. Go back to Project > Compute > Instances, click on the drop-down menu for the instance and click on Associate Floating IP, as follows:

Click on the plus sign next to ''No floating IP addresses associated'', and in the new window click on Allocate IP. Finally, click on Associate.

Edit Security Policies

Before you can ssh into your new instance, you must set up some policies. By default, the firewall will block on all connections. Go to Project > Compute > Access & Security. Click on Manage Rules, and then on Add Rule.

In the new ''Add Rule'' window, drop down on the ''Rule'' menu, and select ALL ICMP. For direction, select Ingress, and click on Add. Redo this step, but for the Egress direction. Finally, redo this step for the SSH rule.

Launching

You are now ready to launch. Go back to Project > Compute > Instances, and copy the floating IP of the new instance you created. To launch:

$ # Ensure your keypair is read only
$ sudo chmod 400 /path/to/yourkeypair.pem
$ ssh -i yourkeypair.pem ubuntu@youripaddress

Post launch

Congrats, you now have been able to launch an instance using Openstack. Notice that there are many more options available to you, and we recommend you explore around. The official Openstack website has all the information you need.

Before we end this tutorial, we must point you to one last step: ensure that you save and shutdown your instances accordingly. If you go to Project > Compute > Instances, click on Create Snapshot to create a snapshot. Once you are done with your work, ensure you do not use resources without need and shut down your instance in the console.

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Questions or comments? email hweather@cs.cornell.edu

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