MicroStack

The smallest, simplest OpenStack

Pure upstream, lightweight OpenStack in a single package that makes OpenStack simple to setup, manage and maintain.

Perfect for:

• Developer workstations
• Edge
• Small-scale private cloud deployments
• CI/CD

Why MicroStack?

• Small. Developers want the smallest and simplest stable OpenStack for laptop and workstation development.
• Simple. Minimize administration and operations with a single-package install that has no moving parts for simplicity and certainty. All dependencies and batteries included.
• Compact. MicroStack comes with minimal footprint which makes it ideal for devices with limited hardware resources.
• Comprehensive - MicroStack contains core OpenStack services and world class virtualisation software for your cloud needs:
  • Keystone
  • Horizon
  • Glance
  • Nova (KVM)
  • Neutron (OVN)

For more information, check the MicroStack documentation.

Quickstart

MicroStack is going in a whole new direction - in a good way! We've listened to feedback from users and there is a general desire to go from a single-node trial run on a developer workstatation / solitary server and grow that installation into a production-grade OpenStack.

Quickstart (Sunbeam)

Install pre-requisites:

sudo snap install microk8s --channel 1.25-strict/stable
sudo microk8s enable dns hostpath-storage
sudo microk8s enable metallb 10.20.20.1/29
sudo snap install juju --channel 3.0/edge
sudo microk8s status --wait-ready

Enable microk8s permissons

sudo usermod -a -G snap_microk8s ubuntu
sudo chown -f -R ubuntu ~/.kube
newgrp snap_microk8s

Install MicroStack from the sunbeam channel:

sudo snap install microstack --devmode --channel sunbeam/beta

Connect Microstack to Juju:

sudo snap connect microstack:juju-bin juju:juju-bin

Install OpenStack hypervisor snap

sudo snap install --channel xena/edge openstack-hypervisor

Bootstrap the cloud and configure the OpenStack services. Note that this step may take some time (approx. 15 minutes or more).

microstack bootstrap

Configure the cloud with a standard set of images, flavors, networks etc. When this step has finished it will provide you with credentials that can be used for interacting with microstack.

microstack configure

To use OpenStack cli install the openstack clients snap and export the credentials provided in the previous step.

sudo snap install openstackclients
# Replace the values below with those provided by the `microstack configure` step
export OS_AUTH_URL=http://10.20.20.2:80/openstack-keystone
export OS_USERNAME=demo
export OS_PASSWORD=OFcjF2vEiKk5
export OS_USER_DOMAIN_NAME=users
export OS_PROJECT_DOMAIN_NAME=users
export OS_PROJECT_NAME=demo
export OS_AUTH_VERSION=3
export OS_IDENTITY_API_VERSION=3
openstack image list

Quickstart (Beta)

Install MicroStack from the Beta channel. Note, this must be installed in devmode:

sudo snap install microstack --devmode --beta

Initialise MicroStack for your environment. This will set up databases, networks, security groups, flavors, and a CirrOS image for testing your installation:

sudo microstack init --auto --control

Launch your first instance:

microstack launch cirros --name test

SSH to your test instance. SSH Keys are setup as part of the initialisation step and can be used to access the CirrOS instance just launched:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_microstack cirros@<ip-address>

Requirements

A system running MicroStack should have the following minimum requirements:

• multi-core CPU
• 8 GiB of RAM
• 100 GiB of Disk space

OpenStack client

The OpenStack client can be installed by running sudo snap install openstackclients. Once installed, you will be able to use the openstack client as normal:

openstack network list
openstack flavor list
openstack keypair list
openstack image list
openstack security group rule list

Accessing Horizon

To create an instance (called "awesome") based on the CirrOS image:

microstack.launch cirros --name awesome

SSH to an instance

The launch output will show you how to connect to the instance. For the CirrOS image, the user account is 'cirros'.

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_microstack cirros@<ip-address>

Horizon

The launch output will also provide information for the Horizon dashboard. The username is 'admin' and the password can be obtained in this way:

sudo snap get microstack config.credentials.keystone-password

Getting Help

The great team behind MicroStack are available in the following places:

Reporting a bug

Please report bugs to the MicroStack project on Launchpad.