OpenStack Installation in CentOS 8 using PackStack.

Introduction OpenStack is a powerful open-source cloud computing platform that allows organizations to manage compute, storage, and networking resources efficiently. One of the easiest ways to install OpenStack on CentOS 8 is by using PackStack, a deployment tool provided by the RDO (RPM Distribution of OpenStack) community. This guide will walk you through the installation of OpenStack on a CentOS 8 system using PackStack.

Prerequisites Before proceeding with the installation, ensure that you have the following:

• A fresh installation of CentOS 8
• At least 4-core CPU and 8GB of RAM
• At least 50GB of disk space
• Network connectivity with access to the internet

Step 1: Prepare Your System

1. Check Available Repositories

yum repolist
yum list # Check the yum list, this is a bug in CentOS, use below steps to fix

2. Fix Repository Issues

$ cd /etc/yum.repos.d/ 
$ sed -i 's/mirrorlist/#mirrorlist/g' /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-* 
$ sed -i 's|#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org|baseurl=http://vault.centos.org|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-*

3. Update the System

$ yum update -y
$ yum list

4. Enable Required Reposistories

$ yum config-manager --enable powertools
$ yum list | grep openstack
centos-release-openstack-train.noarch                   2-1.el8                                                extras          
centos-release-openstack-ussuri.noarch                  1-5.el8                                                extras          
centos-release-openstack-victoria.noarch                1-2.el8                                                extras

5. Install the available OpenStack Repository.

$ yum install centos-release-openstack-victoria.noarch

6. Verify the Packstack software should now be available

$ yum list | grep packstack

If you get an error again then run the below commands
$ sed -i 's/mirrorlist/#mirrorlist/g' /etc/yum.repos.d/*
$ sed -i 's|#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org|baseurl=http://vault.centos.org|g' /etc/yum.repos.d/*

$ yum list | grep packstack
openstack-packstack.noarch                           1:17.0.0-0.3.0rc2.el8                               @centos-openstack-victoria  
openstack-packstack-puppet.noarch                    1:17.0.0-0.3.0rc2.el8                               @centos-openstack-victoria  
openstack-packstack-doc.noarch                       1:17.0.0-0.3.0rc2.el8                               centos-openstack-victoria

Step 2: Install PackStack

$ yum install openstack-packstack -y

Step 3: Configure Hostname and Hosts File

$ hostnamectl set-hostname myopenstack.example.com
$ hostname myopenstack.example.com
$ vi /etc/hosts

Add the following entry or hostname as per your interest:

127.0.0.1   localhost localhost.localdomain
<your-server-ip>   myopenstack.example.com myopenstack

Replace <your-server-ip> with your actual server IP address.

Step 4: Configure Network

yum install network-scripts
systemctl disable NetworkManager
systemctl stop NetworkManager
systemctl enable network
systemctl start network
setenforce 0 # Disable SELinux

Step 5: Deploy OpenStack

$ packstack --gen-answer-file=my.txt

// View the file to see which services will be installed 
$ vi my.txt

// Below command will run the script and install the components.
$ packstack --answer-file=my.txt

Step 6: Access OpenStack Dashboard

Once the installation is complete, you can access the OpenStack dashboard by opening a web browser and navigating to:

http://<your-server-ip>/dashboard

Note: You might not be able to visit the page, if accessing the page via different IP, you need to configure the httpd server and allow the IP as below

$ cd /etc/httpd/conf.d/
$ vi 15-horizon_vhost.conf

Modify the below content as below.
## Server Aliases 
ServerAlias <your public IP>
ServerAlias myopenstack.example.com
ServerAlias localhost

The default username is admin, and the password can be found in the keystone admin password file:

cat /root/keystonerc_admin

You should be able to see the login page.

Conclusion By following these steps, you have successfully installed OpenStack on CentOS 8 using PackStack. You can now explore OpenStack’s features and start deploying virtual machines and other cloud resources.