OpenStack with Ubuntu
Ubuntu is the fastest and best-supported
route to creating an OpenStack cloud.
Raring and Grizzly
OpenStack is the world’s number one open cloud infrastructure platform, and Ubuntu Server is the fastest and easiest way to deploy an OpenStack cloud.
Ubuntu Server 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) includes the very latest version of OpenStack, called Grizzly. It has more than 230 new features to support production operations at scale and also supports smoother integration with enterprise technologies.
Enterprises using Ubuntu Server 12.04 Long-Term Support (LTS) can automatically access Grizzly and the latest cloud tools from the Ubuntu Cloud Archive too.
The world’s leading open cloud platform
As an open-source project under the guidance of the OpenStack Foundation, OpenStack provides its users with a cloud architecture technology that is free from vendor lock-in and always will be. In addition, it aims to provide you with the following benefits:
- The most modular and horizontally scalable platform
- The broadest functionality
- The fastest deployment process
- The best development and management tools
- Suitability for private and public clouds
- Low cost of ownership
OpenStack is used by some of the world’s largest public cloud providers, including HP and Rackspace, alongside many more commercial enterprises for high-volume private clouds. And the easiest way to join them is to build your OpenStack cloud on Ubuntu.
Read the free white paper: Creating the Open Cloud ›
Watch our recent webinar: How Cloud Computing Can Help Your Business ›
OpenStack is used by some of the world’s largest public cloud providers, including HP and Rackspace
Creating your cloud with Canonical
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, was the first company to commercially distribute and support OpenStack, under the Ubuntu Cloud Infrastructure brand. Ubuntu remains the reference operating system for the project. Since 2011, we’ve included the latest version of OpenStack in every Ubuntu release, as well as making every OpenStack release available for our most recent long-term support Ubuntu release (LTS) in our unique Cloud Archive. Once you’ve deployed OpenStack on an LTS release of Ubuntu, it means you can move to newer OpenStack versions and benefit from all their new features, while staying on a fully supported and certified LTS release of Ubuntu Server.
Canonical offers a range of products and services to make your OpenStack cloud journey easier, from everyday support to bespoke consulting for complex cloud deployments. Ubuntu Advantage is the service package delivered directly by Canonical. It includes tiered support options for your cloud infrastructure, instances and services alongside access to Landscape, the world’s leading Ubuntu systems management tool.
If you’re interested in creating a cloud quickly, our Jumpstart service will give you a working OpenStack cloud, built on your premises in just five days, by a Canonical engineer.
Ubuntu: the foundation of OpenStack
The relationship between Ubuntu and OpenStack is unique. The release schedules of the two projects are synchronised, ensuring that OpenStack updates and releases are immediately available on widely deployed releases of Ubuntu. But most important is Ubuntu’s status as the reference operating system for OpenStack. This means Ubuntu is the preferred base operating system, the one the developers of OpenStack use every day. No other operating system is as tightly integrated with OpenStack — or as stringently tested. In short, if you want to run OpenStack (and if you’re interested in open cloud infrastructure, you definitely should be) then the best advice is to do so on Ubuntu.
Learning more about OpenStack
OpenStack is a free and open-source software platform on which anyone can develop, test and deploy cloud applications and services. This layer of the cloud stack, known generically as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IAAS) forms the base on which cloud applications — usually referred to as services — can be built, tested and deployed.
OpenStack has quickly become the standard for open cloud infrastructure. OpenStack code is freely available under the Apache 2.0 licence, so anyone can install it, run it or contribute to the project. It’s a development model that has fostered an enormous community, supported by a large and growing ecosystem of tools, solutions and service providers.
An enormous community, supported by a large and growing ecosystem of tools
Making cloud management easy
Our super-fast provisioning and service orchestration tools have been designed specifically to accelerate the OpenStack experience on Ubuntu.
Metal-as-a-service (MAAS) is a hardware provisioning technology built into Ubuntu Server, that enables you to turn a collection of networked servers into a cluster onto which you can deploy OpenStack, in no time at all.
Juju is our service orchestration tool. It saves vast amounts of time in the build, test and deployment stages of service development by allowing developers to package all the information needed to deploy their services in files called Juju charms. These charms can be used to instantly deploy a service into any cloud environment necessary — be it a public cloud, a private cloud or a micro-cloud on a developer’s workstation.
When developers iterate on their laptops and pass their updates to their ops colleagues, they can include the updated charm, speeding the process up radically.
But the cloud-building magic happens when MAAS and Juju work together, to deploy an OpenStack cloud on a cluster of bare metal servers. Once the hardware is powered up and connected to the network, MAAS detects them and begins the installation of the base OS, before handing over to Juju to complete their transition into an OpenStack cloud. A process you might expect to take hours or days can be complete in a matter of minutes.
Cloud infrastructure for everyone
The private cloud for the enterprise
Canonical supports Ubuntu-based OpenStack deployments with enterprise-class tools and services that help you build a rock-solid private cloud fast — and manage it cost-effectively.
Together with Juju and MAAS, the free management tools built into Ubuntu server, Canonical offers enterprise-grade cloud management in the form of Landscape. Giving you a unified view of both your physical systems and your public and private cloud operations — across datacentres, zones and regions — Landscape enables your administrators to manage thousands of cloud instances as easily as one, either via a web-based console or by scripting to its API. Landscape is one component of Ubuntu Advantage, the service package for Ubuntu deployments delivered directly by Canonical.
The micro-cloud for developers
Ubuntu Server includes all the components of OpenStack — and it’s free to set up, use, and maintain. This means that if you’re an independent developer, you’re free to get started in a way that suits your requirements and your budget. You can spin up an OpenStack micro-cloud on individual machines, both to explore the features of the platform and to develop your own services. And with Juju, you can work faster and more productively with your operations teams, by encapsulating the required deployment information in a charm that can be used to deploy your service anywhere.
Watch our recent webinar: An introduction to OpenStack Cloud in Ubuntu 12.04 ›
The infrastructure for the public cloud
If you’re building a public cloud, the combination of OpenStack and Ubuntu gives you a platform that is aligned with public clouds from AT&T, HP, Ericsson and Rackspace, with many more specialised clouds in particular markets adopting the same infrastructure.
Building a public cloud means choosing a platform that has scalability and openness built in. Stable, reliable, scalable dependable and flexible, Ubuntu Cloud supports multiple guest environments, so you can be sure that whatever your customers need to run, Ubuntu Cloud will handle it.
HP, RackSpace, AT&T, Ericsson and Internap have all based their public cloud offerings on OpenStack. If you’re interested in doing the same, click below to contact us and a member of our cloud team will be in touch.
Case study: MercadoLibre
International auction site Mercado Libre is Latin America’s answer to eBay and the fourth largest online retailer in the world. When the company needed to build a full-featured, reliable and open cloud capable of handling the huge volumes of customer activity they face every day, they chose OpenStack running on Ubuntu.
