While the official documentation for OpenStack is a fantastic resource that's growing every day, sometimes all you're looking for is a single-purpose guide to walk you through a specific task.

In this monthly roundup of our favorite how-tos, guides, and tutorials, we look at getting OpenStack play well with firewalld and NetworkManager, using Test Kitchen with Puppet on an OpenStack deployment, and more.

First up, are you using Kerberos to control network authentication in your organization? Ever wondered how to integrate it with Keystone , the OpenStack identity service? Adam Young provides a guide for doing just that, by configuring Keystone to run with an LDAP backend in Apache httpd, and then connecting the two.

to control network authentication in your organization? Ever wondered , the OpenStack identity service? Adam Young provides a guide for doing just that, by configuring Keystone to run with an LDAP backend in Apache httpd, and then connecting the two. Firewalls are an important part of any system's security, but not everyone is an expert in configuring them correctly. Lars Kellogg-Stedman provides a quick set of notes on how to configure your FirewallD, as well as NetworkManager with OpenStack.

with OpenStack. Test Kitchen is a tool that allow's you to test our your configured code on a platform of your choice with a number of testing frameworks. Edmund Haselwanter has written a great article on how to use Test Kitchen with Puppet to easily conduct your tests against an OpenStack environment by using the kitchen-openstack driver.

to easily conduct your tests against an OpenStack environment by using the kitchen-openstack driver. There has been a lot of buzz using Linux containers—and Docker specifically —as an alternative to traditional virtual machine environments for isolating applications running on the same physical server. Docker has very low overhead, so for applications that can be packaged up in Docker containers, it might be a faster alternative than a normal VM, and possibly easier to configure, too, depending on your requirements. Maish Saidel-Keesing has written a guide, aptly titled "The quickest way to get started with Docker," which will take you through the basics and let you evaluate Docker as a potential tool for managing and deploying applications in your OpenStack environment.

—as an alternative to traditional virtual machine environments for isolating applications running on the same physical server. Docker has very low overhead, so for applications that can be packaged up in Docker containers, it might be a faster alternative than a normal VM, and possibly easier to configure, too, depending on your requirements. Maish Saidel-Keesing has written a guide, aptly titled "The quickest way to get started with Docker," which will take you through the basics and let you evaluate Docker as a potential tool for managing and deploying applications in your OpenStack environment. Finally, are you managing systems in a Solaris environment and want to give OpenStack a try? Oracle has provided a simple guide to get started exploring OpenStack on top of VirtualBox with a Solaris 11.2 virtual machine template, though you'll still need a Linux live CD of your favorite distribution to get through some of the steps.

That's it for this month. Check out our past OpenStack tutorials collection for more great guides and hints. And if we missed your favorite new guide or resource, let us know in the comments!