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OpenStack Provider Setup

Purpose: For platform engineers, shows how to configure the OpenStack provider for production Kubernetes deployments on Rackspace OpenStack.

Prerequisites​

  • Rackspace OpenStack account with API access
  • Application credentials created in Horizon or via CLI
  • Network and subnet pre-provisioned (or permissions to create them)
  • Floating IP pool available for load balancers
  • openCenter CLI installed (see CLI Installation)

Create Application Credentials​

Generate application credentials in OpenStack (preferred over username/password):

openstack application credential create opencenter-deployer \
  --description "openCenter cluster provisioning"

Save the id and secret from the output.

Initialize Cluster​

opencenter cluster init prod-cluster --org my-org --type openstack

Configure Provider Section​

opencenter cluster edit prod-cluster

Set the OpenStack provider block:

opencenter:
  infrastructure:
    provider: openstack
    cloud:
      openstack:
        auth_url: https://identity.api.rackspacecloud.com/v3
        region: sjc3
        application_credential_id: ${OPENSTACK_APP_CRED_ID}
        application_credential_secret: ${OPENSTACK_APP_CRED_SECRET}
        network_name: my-network
        subnet_id: <subnet-uuid>
        floating_ip_pool: external
        image: Ubuntu-24.04
        flavor_control_plane: general1-8
        flavor_worker: general1-16
        availability_zone: nova

OpenStack-Specific Considerations​

Serial API Calls​

All OpenStack clusters default to provider-requires-serial-api-calls: true for the Cloud Controller Manager. This prevents load balancer API race conditions on Rackspace OpenStack. See ADR-002 for details.

Required Services​

OpenStack clusters automatically include:

  • openstack-ccm — Cloud Controller Manager for LB and node integration
  • openstack-csi — Cinder CSI driver for persistent volumes
  • external-snapshotter — Volume snapshot support
  • metallb — LoadBalancer service type (when floating IPs are not used)

Storage Classes​

The OpenStack CSI driver creates StorageClasses for Cinder volume types. Default is cinder-default with volumeType: __DEFAULT__.

Validate and Deploy​

# Validate (checks OpenStack API connectivity and resource availability)
opencenter cluster validate prod-cluster

# Generate GitOps repository
opencenter cluster setup prod-cluster --render

# Provision infrastructure with Terraform
cd customers/my-org/infrastructure/clusters/prod-cluster/
terraform init
terraform apply

# Deploy Kubernetes with Kubespray
# (runs automatically via Terraform provisioner, or manually)

# Bootstrap FluxCD
opencenter cluster bootstrap prod-cluster

Verification​

# Check OpenStack CCM is running
kubectl get pods -n kube-system -l app=openstack-cloud-controller-manager

# Verify Cinder CSI
kubectl get csidrivers | grep cinder

# Test LoadBalancer service
kubectl create service loadbalancer test-lb --tcp=80:80
kubectl get svc test-lb  # Should get an external IP
kubectl delete svc test-lb