Rackspace Private Cloud – Updated to OpenStack Grizzly Release!

rspclogoJust in case you didn’t spot this in the Twitter stream yesterday, there was some really cool news from the team at Rackspace! The Rackspace Private Cloud software is now updated with the Grizzly release of OpenStack. (http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/about-rackspace-private-cloud).

Dubbed the Rackspace Private Cloud v4.0, this is a great way to get your OpenStack cloud up and running with significantly less configuration required. The installation scripts will deploy onto Ubuntu 12.04 and CentOS 6.3 and includes the Chef server with cookbooks for simple management and deployment once you build your environment.

Scripts versus ISO

One of the really neat things that Rackspace did in the past was to build a standalone ISO to be able to deploy the Rackspace Private Cloud which was running the Folsom release of OpenStack. This ISO is still available, but for now, the Grizzly release is only available with the scripted deployment.

If you still want to use the standalone ISO, you can continue to use my series on deploying OpenStack with VMware Workstation (Getting Started, Setting up the All-In-One, Adding Cinder) and you can still download the archived versions of the ISO, and also get to the OpenCenter (version 3.0) installation through links in the Rackspace Knowledge Center – http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/rackspace-private-cloud-software-archived-versions

What’s new with this Release?

The use of Grizzly will add all of the new features of OpenStack of course, but along with that are new Chef cookbooks packaged into the build which make your continued management of OpenStack Grizzly much easier; Especially for those who are just dipping their toes into the OpenStack waters.

All of the core services are included (Nova, Horizon, Swift, Cinder, Keystone, Neutron, Glance) as well as Ceilometer which is the metering tool that is most likely slated for core project inclusion with the upcoming Havana release of the OpenStack software in Q4 of 2013.

Image courtesy of Rackspace: http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/private/openstack_software/
Image courtesy of Rackspace: http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/private/openstack_software/

HA all the way!

Another really cool feature in the Rackspace 4.0 release is the use of HA features of RabbitMQ and database services. The use of HA design in the build gives us another edge up over building from scratch because their are some challenges for many to build out the underlying services in a multi-master configuration.

You have to ensure that your node deployments are built with HA in mind of course, but the steps saved in designing the HA database and message queuing are appreciated because of the time savings you receive from these features being pre-configured.

Thank You Rackspace for another great way to deploy OpenStack and I encourage everyone to take a look at this and reach out to the Rackspace crew. All that you have to do is to click the Download button on the Rackspace Private Cloud page here: http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/private/openstack_software/ and you will receive contact information in email from the Rackspace support team.

 

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