kolla-ansible/doc/source/reference/compute/vmware-guide.rst

VMware - Nova Virtualisation Driver

Overview

Kolla can deploy the Nova and Neutron Service(s) for VMware vSphere. Depending on the network architecture (NsxT, NsxV or DVS) you choose, Kolla deploys the following OpenStack services for VMware vSphere:

For VMware NsxT:

• nova-compute
• neutron-server

For VMware NsxV:

• nova-compute
• neutron-server

For VMware DVS:

• nova-compute
• neutron-server
• neutron-dhcp-agent
• neutron-metadata-agent

Kolla can deploy the Glance and Cinder services using VMware datastore as their backend. You can create Cinder volumes as VMDKs or as First Class Disks (FCDs).

An FCD, also known as an Improved Virtual Disk (IVD) or Managed Virtual Disk, is a named virtual disk independent of a virtual machine. Using FCDs for Cinder volumes eliminates the need for shadow virtual machines.

The FCD backend is offered in addition to the default VMDK backend. If you use FCD as the backend driver for Cinder, you can use both FCD and VMDK volumes in the same deployment.

Ceilometer metering for vSphere is also supported.

Because the vmware-nsx drivers for neutron use completely different architecture than other types of virtualization, vmware-nsx drivers cannot coexist with other type of virtualization in one region. In neutron vmware-nsx drivers, neutron-server acts like an agent to translate OpenStack actions into what vSphere/NSX Manager API can understand. Neutron does not directly takes control of the Open vSwitch inside the VMware environment but through the API exposed by vSphere/NSX Manager.

Note

VMware NSX plugin is not in the kolla image by default. VMware NSX plugin has to be added in the neutron image and if you are using vmware_dvs also in neutron-dhcp-agent image.

For VMware DVS, the Neutron DHCP agent does not attaches to Open vSwitch inside VMware environment, but attach to the Open vSwitch bridge called br-dvs on the OpenStack side and replies to/receives DHCP packets through VLAN. Similar to what the DHCP agent does, Neutron metadata agent attaches to br-dvs bridge and works through VLAN.

Note

VMware NSX-DVS plugin does not support tenant networks, so all VMs should attach to Provider VLAN/Flat networks.

VMware NSX-T

Preparation

You should have a working NSX-T environment, this part is out of scope of Kolla. For more information, please see VMware NSX-T documentation. The NSX Manager provides a web-based user interface where you can manage your NSX-T environment. It also hosts the API server that processes API calls. The NSX Manager interface provides two modes for configuring resources:

• Policy mode
• Manager mode

In Kolla you will have the choice between both with neutron plugin vmware_nsxv3 for Manager mode and vmware_nsxp for Policy Mode. For more information, please see documentation.

---

In addition, it is important to modify the firewall rule of vSphere to make sure that VNC is accessible from outside VMware environment.

On every VMware host, edit /etc/vmware/firewall/vnc.xml as below:

<!-- FirewallRule for VNC Console -->
<ConfigRoot>
<service>
<id>VNC</id>
<rule id = '0000'>
<direction>inbound</direction>
<protocol>tcp</protocol>
<porttype>dst</porttype>
<port>
<begin>5900</begin>
<end>5999</end>
</port>
</rule>
<rule id = '0001'>
<direction>outbound</direction>
<protocol>tcp</protocol>
<porttype>dst</porttype>
<port>
<begin>0</begin>
<end>65535</end>
</port>
</rule>
<enabled>true</enabled>
<required>false</required>
</service>
</ConfigRoot>

Then refresh the firewall config by:

# esxcli network firewall refresh

Verify that the firewall config is applied:

# esxcli network firewall ruleset list

---

Deployment

The deployment below covers the Policy mode (vmware_nsxp)

Enable VMware nova-compute plugin and NSX-T neutron-server plugin in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

enable_openvswitch: no
nova_compute_virt_type: "vmware"
neutron_plugin_agent: "vmware_nsxp"

If you want to set VMware datastore as cinder backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

enable_cinder: "yes"
cinder_backend_vmwarevc_vmdk: "yes"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

If you want to set VMware First Class Disk (FCD) datastore as VMware vStorage Object backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

enable_cinder: "yes"
cinder_backend_vmware_vstorage_object: "yes"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

If you want to set VMware datastore as glance backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

glance_backend_vmware: "yes"
vmware_vcenter_name: "TestDatacenter"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

VMware options are required in /etc/kolla/globals.yml, these options should be configured correctly according to your NSX-T environment.

Options for nova-compute and ceilometer:

vmware_vcenter_host_ip: "127.0.0.1"
vmware_vcenter_host_username: "admin"
vmware_vcenter_cluster_name: "cluster-1"
vmware_vcenter_insecure: "True"
vmware_vcenter_datastore_regex: ".*"

Note

The VMware vCenter password has to be set in /etc/kolla/passwords.yml.

vmware_vcenter_host_password: "admin"

Options for Neutron NSX-T support:

vmware_nsxp_api_user: "admin"
vmware_nsxp_insecure: true
vmware_nsxp_default_tier0_router: "T0-Example"
vmware_nsxp_dhcp_profile: "dhcp-profile-example"
vmware_nsxp_metadata_proxy: "metadata_proxy-example"
vmware_nsxp_api_managers: "nsx-manager.local"
vmware_nsxp_default_vlan_tz: "vlan-tz-example"
vmware_nsxp_default_overlay_tz: "overlay-tz-example"

Note

If you want to set secure connections to VMware, set vmware_vcenter_insecure to false. Secure connections to vCenter requires a CA file, copy the vCenter CA file to /etc/kolla/config/vmware_ca.

Note

The VMware NSX-T password has to be set in /etc/kolla/passwords.yml.

vmware_nsxp_api_password: "xxxxx"
vmware_nsxp_metadata_proxy_shared_secret: "xxxxx"

Then you should start kolla-ansible deployment normally as KVM/QEMU deployment.

VMware NSX-V

Preparation

You should have a working NSX-V environment, this part is out of scope of Kolla. For more information, please see VMware NSX-V documentation.

---

In addition, it is important to modify the firewall rule of vSphere to make sure that VNC is accessible from outside VMware environment.

On every VMware host, edit /etc/vmware/firewall/vnc.xml as below:

<!-- FirewallRule for VNC Console -->
<ConfigRoot>
<service>
<id>VNC</id>
<rule id = '0000'>
<direction>inbound</direction>
<protocol>tcp</protocol>
<porttype>dst</porttype>
<port>
<begin>5900</begin>
<end>5999</end>
</port>
</rule>
<rule id = '0001'>
<direction>outbound</direction>
<protocol>tcp</protocol>
<porttype>dst</porttype>
<port>
<begin>0</begin>
<end>65535</end>
</port>
</rule>
<enabled>true</enabled>   <required>false</required>
</service>
</ConfigRoot>

Then refresh the firewall config by:

# esxcli network firewall refresh

Verify that the firewall config is applied:

# esxcli network firewall ruleset list

---

Deployment

Enable VMware nova-compute plugin and NSX-V neutron-server plugin in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

nova_compute_virt_type: "vmware"
neutron_plugin_agent: "vmware_nsxv"

Note

VMware NSX-V also supports Neutron FWaaS and VPNaaS services, you can enable them by setting these options in globals.yml:

• enable_neutron_vpnaas: "yes"
• enable_neutron_fwaas: "yes"

If you want to set VMware VMDK datastore as cinder backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

enable_cinder: "yes"
cinder_backend_vmwarevc_vmdk: "yes"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

If you want to set VMware First Class Disk (FCD) datastore as VMware vStorage Object backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

enable_cinder: "yes"
cinder_backend_vmware_vstorage_object: "yes"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

If you want to set VMware datastore as glance backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

glance_backend_vmware: "yes"
vmware_vcenter_name: "TestDatacenter"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

VMware options are required in /etc/kolla/globals.yml, these options should be configured correctly according to your NSX-V environment.

Options for nova-compute and ceilometer:

vmware_vcenter_host_ip: "127.0.0.1"
vmware_vcenter_host_username: "admin"
vmware_vcenter_cluster_name: "cluster-1"
vmware_vcenter_insecure: "True"
vmware_vcenter_datastore_regex: ".*"

Note

The VMware vCenter password has to be set in /etc/kolla/passwords.yml.

vmware_vcenter_host_password: "admin"

Options for Neutron NSX-V support:

vmware_nsxv_user: "nsx_manager_user"
vmware_nsxv_manager_uri: "https://127.0.0.1"
vmware_nsxv_cluster_moid: "TestCluster"
vmware_nsxv_datacenter_moid: "TestDataCeter"
vmware_nsxv_resource_pool_id: "TestRSGroup"
vmware_nsxv_datastore_id: "TestDataStore"
vmware_nsxv_external_network: "TestDVSPort-Ext"
vmware_nsxv_vdn_scope_id: "TestVDNScope"
vmware_nsxv_dvs_id: "TestDVS"
vmware_nsxv_backup_edge_pool: "service:compact:1:2"
vmware_nsxv_spoofguard_enabled: "false"
vmware_nsxv_metadata_initializer: "false"
vmware_nsxv_edge_ha: "false"

Note

If you want to set secure connections to VMware, set vmware_vcenter_insecure to false. Secure connections to vCenter requires a CA file, copy the vCenter CA file to /etc/kolla/config/vmware_ca.

Note

The VMware NSX-V password has to be set in /etc/kolla/passwords.yml.

vmware_nsxv_password: "nsx_manager_password"

Then you should start kolla-ansible deployment normally as KVM/QEMU deployment.

VMware NSX-DVS

Preparation

Before deployment, you should have a working VMware vSphere environment. Create a cluster and a vSphere Distributed Switch with all the host in the cluster attached to it.

For more information, please see Setting Up Networking with vSphere Distributed Switches.

Deployment

Enable VMware nova-compute plugin and NSX-V neutron-server plugin in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

nova_compute_virt_type: "vmware"
neutron_plugin_agent: "vmware_dvs"

If you want to set VMware VMDK datastore as cinder backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

enable_cinder: "yes"
cinder_backend_vmwarevc_vmdk: "yes"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

If you want to set VMware First Class Disk (FCD) datastore as VMware vStorage Object backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

enable_cinder: "yes"
cinder_backend_vmware_vstorage_object: "yes"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

If you want to set VMware datastore as Glance backend, enable it in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

glance_backend_vmware: "yes"
vmware_vcenter_name: "TestDatacenter"
vmware_datastore_name: "TestDatastore"

VMware options are required in /etc/kolla/globals.yml, these options should be configured correctly according to the vSphere environment you installed before. All option for nova, cinder, glance are the same as VMware-NSX, except the following options.

Options for Neutron NSX-DVS support:

vmware_dvs_host_ip: "192.168.1.1"
vmware_dvs_host_port: "443"
vmware_dvs_host_username: "admin"
vmware_dvs_dvs_name: "VDS-1"
vmware_dvs_dhcp_override_mac: ""

Note

The VMware NSX-DVS password has to be set in /etc/kolla/passwords.yml.

vmware_dvs_host_password: "password"

Then you should start kolla-ansible deployment normally as KVM/QEMU deployment.

For more information on OpenStack vSphere, see VMware vSphere <admin/configuration/hypervisor-vmware.html>, VMware-NSX package.