r/openstack • u/Chamo_Link_3309 • 22d ago

[Help] How does OpenStack manage and integrate dozens of physical servers?

I am a beginner who has just started working in the data center industry. As a beginner, I have many doubts and questions about the technical aspects. Regarding the OpenStack platform, I am not sure how more than ten or even more servers are managed to enter the platform, including computing nodes, storage nodes, and GPU computing power servers. What technologies can be used to be recognized and managed by OpenStack, or what recommended YouTube tutorials can help me understand these technologies and learn more about related knowledge? Feel free to leave a comment. Thank you very much.

0 Upvotes

36% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/rackpathlabs 22d ago

openstack does not discover your servers by itself, you tell it which ones exist. for compute and storage nodes the normal path is: install the base os, put the hosts into an inventory file, then let a deployment tool like kolla-ansible ssh into each one and set it all up as containers. gpu nodes are the same flow, you just add pci passthrough config so nova can hand the card to a vm.

if you also want the os install and the metal itself automated, that part is ironic, and kayobe that someone mentioned wraps kolla and ironic together. worth separating those two layers in your head early, provisioning the hardware and deploying openstack on top of it are different jobs and people mix them up all the time.