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How to Prepare and Use Kolla Ansible

Introduction​

Our Private Cloud Core deployments provide workload orchestration through the use of Kolla Ansible which deploys OpenStack services and infrastructure components in Docker containers. Should you want to make a change to an OpenStack service's configuration, add a new OpenStack service, or even repair your OpenStack cluster, you can do so using Kolla Ansible. In this guide, we explain how to prepare a Kolla Ansible environment, from which configuration changes can be made.

Before Proceeding​

WARNING! -- Our current deployment system deploys a Private Cloud with a known working state. Should you deviate from this state by adjusting your cloud's OpenStack configuration you can no longer safely use the functions in OpenMetal Central to add nodes to your cloud or add IP blocks. Should you use these functions, any custom configurations will be reverted. We are working on rolling out a new deployment system allowing custom cloud configurations. We can still help you modify your cloud, but must do so manually. Please reach out to your Account Manager should this apply to you.

Prerequisites​

  • Root access to your cloud's control plane nodes is required.
  • Experience using Ansible.

Using Kolla Ansible Quick Start​

Caution! Ensure the node from which you are working contains the directory /etc/kolla/config. This directory exists on a single node and is used to provide our custom configuration to OpenStack services.

Follow this section for a summary of the commands required to prepare Kolla Ansible. For more detailed instruction, see the section labeled Prepare Kolla Ansible for Use within this guide.:

# Create a folder for your Kolla Ansible environment
$ mkdir /opt/kolla-ansible

# Navigate to folder
$ cd /opt/kolla-ansible

# Initialize a Python virtual environment
$ virtualenv .venv

# Activate the virtual environment
$ source .venv/bin/activate

# Update pip
pip install --upgrade pip

# Install Kolla Ansible and Ansible
$ pip install git+https://github.com/inmotionhosting/kolla-ansible@stable/victoria
$ pip install 'ansible>=2.9,<2.10,!=2.9.10'

Kolla Ansible, being built off of Ansible, is executed against an inventory file. Each node in your cloud has a copy of the Kolla Ansible inventory used during cloud deployment, located as /etc/fm-deploy/kolla-ansible-inventory.

Caution! Read over the inventory file to ensure the hosts specified within match the hosts you intend to make changes to.

For a full list of available commands, see Kolla Ansible CLI.

Prepare Kolla Ansible for Use​

In this section, we explain the steps needed to create an environment from which Kolla Ansible can be executed. The steps in this section should be performed from the node in your cloud that contains the path /etc/kolla/config. This directory exists on a single node and is used to provide our custom configuration to OpenStack services.

Kolla Ansible Configuration Files​

New Clouds

On clouds provisioned after Dec 2022 you will need to open a support ticket to have the configuration saved to your nodes.

First, we introduce you to the files required for adjusting Kolla Ansible's configuration. These files are used when preparing Kolla Ansible.

  • Kolla Ansible Inventory: /etc/fm-deploy/kolla-ansible-inventory
  • Kolla Ansible Main Configuration: /etc/kolla/globals.yml

Note! It is possible /etc/fm-deploy/kolla-ansible-inventory exists on a single node instead of being synced across all nodes. We recently corrected a bug where the contents in /etc/fm-deploy were not being synced across all nodes at the end of a deployment.

Before Making Changes​

Before any changes are made to the Kolla Ansible configuration, the following variables in /etc/kolla/globals.yml should not be modified, otherwise they will be overwritten:

api_interface
cluster_interface
dns_interface
docker_registry_insecure
kolla_enable_tls_external
kolla_external_fqdn
kolla_external_vip_address
kolla_internal_vip_address
migration_interface
network_interface
neutron_external_interface
openstack_region_name
storage_interface
tunnel_interface

For more information, see the section titled Before Proceeding at the top of this guide.

Prepare Kolla Ansible Environment​

Step 1 - Prepare environment​

First ensure the node you are logged into over SSH contains the directory /etc/kolla/config. This directory exists on a single node and is used to provide our custom configuration to OpenStack services.

Next, create a folder where you will install Kolla Ansible and its dependency, Ansible. For example:

mkdir /opt/kolla-ansible

Step 2 -- Prepare Python virtual environment​

Navigate into the folder created previously, create a Python virtual environment and activate it:

cd /opt/kolla-ansible
virtualenv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Step 3 -- Update pip​

Update the virtual environment's pip to the latest version, otherwise packages may not install as expected.

Update pip using:

pip install --upgrade pip

Step 4 -- Install Kolla Ansible​

With the virtual environment prepared, we can now install Kolla Ansible and Ansible using pip.

Install Kolla Ansible, and its dependency Ansible, using these specified versions:

pip install git+https://github.com/inmotionhosting/kolla-ansible@stable/victoria
pip install 'ansible>=2.9,<2.10,!=2.9.10'

Caution! -- It is important the version of Kolla Ansible installed during this step match your cloud's OpenStack version. Your cloud's OpenStack version can be determined by looking at the Docker image tags associated with the Kolla containers from the output of docker image ls, for example.

Step 5 -- Kolla Ansible is Ready for Use​

At this step, you have everything prepared to use Kolla Ansible. Before proceeding, familiarize yourself with the available Kolla Ansible commands by running kolla-ansible --help. There are a number of functions possible, including maintenance tasks or making configuration changes to your Private Cloud.

Caution! -- Kolla Ansible's configuration is set through the file /etc/kolla/globals.yml where some variables should not be changed. See the section titled Before Making Changes at the top of this guide for more information.

An example configuration change made at this step is to enable TLS for Horizon. Enabling TLS falls outside the scope of this guide. For instruction on how to do so, see How to Enable TLS for OpenStack.

For complete documentation regarding available Kolla Ansible commands, see Operating Kolla.

References​

Next Steps​

The following guides go into detail about specific things you can configure using Kolla Ansible, such enabling TLS for Horizon or enabling Central Logging with an ELK stack: