System requirements

OpenStack components are intended to run on standard hardware that range from desktop machines to enterprise-grade servers. For optimal performance, the processors of the compute nodes must support hardware virtualization technologies, such as Intel's VT-x or AMD's AMD-v virtualization extensions.

This book assumes that OpenStack will be installed on physical hardware that meets the following minimum requirements:

While machines that fail to meet the minimum requirements may be capable of installation based on the documentation included here, these minimums have been defined to ensure a successful experience. Virtualization products, such as VirtualBox, may be used in lieu of physical hardware. However, they will require additional configuration to the environment and to OpenStack, which is outside the scope of this book.

Operating system requirements

OpenStack currently supports CentOS, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Ubuntu. Each new release of OpenStack tends to support the current releases of these operating systems, with little regard to backward compatibility. This book assumes that the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server operating system has been installed on all hosts prior to the installation of OpenStack. You can find Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server at http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server.

In order to support all the Neutron features discussed in this book, the minimum kernel version recommended is 3.16.0-38.