openstack-manuals/doc/common/ch_getstart.xml
Rhys Oxenham c5aaf5424c Updated: About OpenStack Object Storage Document
One of the TODO entries was to provide a more comprehensive overview
of Object Storage/Swift than was already written. This is a first
attempt at making it better.

This patch also uncomments a line within the 'admin-guide-cloud' book
that doesn't reference the common 'about-object-storage' page like others
do. I've reverted this and tested thoroughly, not sure why this was there.

In addition, I updated a few other pages where they lacked certain
clarity. For example- the 'Getting Started' page provided only a very
basic overview of the components and without going into too much detail
I added further information. There were also a few English syntax changes
throughout some of the other pages.

Change-Id: I1952d9e1882fc962320304759110a2ccbc50de82
backport: havana
2013-12-14 13:08:33 +00:00

182 lines
8.7 KiB
XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0"
xml:id="ch_getting-started-with-openstack">
<title>Get started with OpenStack</title>
<?dbhtml stop-chunking?>
<para xml:id="para1">The OpenStack project is an open source cloud
computing platform for all types of clouds, which aims to be
simple to implement, massively scalable, and feature
rich. Developers and cloud computing technologists
from around the world create the OpenStack project.</para>
<para xml:id="para2">OpenStack provides an Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS) solution through a set of interrelated
services. Each service offers an application programming
interface (API) that facilitates this integration. Depending
on your needs, you can install some or all services.</para>
<para xml:id="para3">The following table describes the OpenStack
services that make up the OpenStack architecture:</para>
<table rules="all" xml:id="table1" width="85%">
<caption>OpenStack services</caption>
<col width="15%"/>
<col width="15%"/>
<col width="70%"/>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Service</th>
<th>Project name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-dashboard/"
>Dashboard</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/horizon/"
>Horizon</link></td>
<td>Provides a web-based self-service portal to interact
with underlying OpenStack services, such as launching
an instance, assigning IP addresses and configuring
access controls.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-compute/"
>Compute</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/nova/"
>Nova</link></td>
<td>Manages the lifecycle of compute instances in an
OpenStack environment. Responsibilities include
spawning, scheduling and decomissioning of
machines on demand.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-networking/"
>Networking</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/neutron/"
>Neutron</link></td>
<td>Enables network connectivity as a service for
other OpenStack services, such as OpenStack Compute.
Provides an API for users to define networks and the
attachments into them. Has a pluggable architecture
that supports many popular networking vendors and
technologies.</td>
</tr>
<tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Storage</th></tr>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-storage/"
>Object Storage</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/swift/"
>Swift</link></td>
<td>Stores and retrieves arbitrary unstructured
data objects via a RESTful, HTTP based API. It is highly
fault tolerant with its data replication and scale out
architecture. Its implementation is not like a file server
with mountable directories.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-storage/"
>Block Storage</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/cinder/"
>Cinder</link></td>
<td>
Provides persistent block storage to running instances. Its
pluggable driver architecture facilitates the creation and
management of block storage devices.</td>
</tr>
<tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Shared services</th></tr>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-shared-services/"
>Identity Service</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/keystone/"
>Keystone</link></td>
<td>Provides an authentication and authorization service
for other OpenStack services. Provides a catalog of endpoints
for all OpenStack services.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-shared-services/"
>Image Service</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/glance/"
>Glance</link></td>
<td>Stores and retrieves virtual machine disk images.
OpenStack Compute makes use of this during instance
provisioning.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-shared-services/"
>Telemetry Service</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/ceilometer/"
>Ceilometer</link></td>
<td>Monitors and meters the OpenStack cloud for
billing, benchmarking, scalability, and statistical
purposes.</td>
</tr>
<tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Higher-level services</th></tr>
<tr>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-shared-services/"
>Orchestration Service</link></td>
<td><link
xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/developer/heat/"
>Heat</link></td>
<td>Orchestrates multiple composite cloud applications by using
either the native HOT template format or the AWS
CloudFormation template format, through both an
OpenStack-native REST API and a CloudFormation-compatible
Query API.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_conceptual_arch.xml"/>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_logical_arch.xml"/>
<?hard-pagebreak?>
<section xml:id="openstack-services">
<title>OpenStack services</title>
<para>This section describes OpenStack services in
detail.</para>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_compute.xml"/>
<?hard-pagebreak?>
<xi:include href="section_storage-concepts.xml"/>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_object-storage.xml"/>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_block-storage.xml"/>
<?hard-pagebreak?>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_networking.xml"/>
<?hard-pagebreak?>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_dashboard.xml"/>
<xi:include href="section_keystone-concepts.xml"/>
<?hard-pagebreak?>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_image.xml"/>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_telemetry.xml"/>
<xi:include href="section_getstart_orchestration.xml"/>
</section>
<section xml:id="feedback">
<title>Feedback</title>
<para>To provide feedback on documentation, join and use the
<email>openstack-docs@lists.openstack.org</email>
mailing list at <link
xlink:href="http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-docs"
>OpenStack Documentation Mailing List</link>, or <link
xlink:href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/openstack-manuals/+filebug"
>report a bug</link>.</para>
</section>
</chapter>