RackN revisits OpenStack deployments with an eye on ongoing operations.

I’ve been an outspoken skeptic of a Joint OpenStack Kubernetes Environment (my OpenStack BCN preso, Super User follow-up and BOS Proposal) because I felt that the technical hurdles of cloud native architecture would prove challenging. Issues like stable service positioning and persistent data are requirements for OpenStack and hard problems in Kubernetes.

I was wrong: I underestimated how fast these issues could be addressed.

The Kubernetes Helm work out of the AT&T Comm Dev lab takes on the integration with a “do it the K8s native way” approach that the RackN team finds very effective. In fact, we’ve created a fully integrated Digital Rebar deployment that lays down Kubernetes using Kargo and then adds OpenStack via Helm. The provisioning automation includes a Ceph cluster to provide stateful sets for data persistence.

This joint approach dramatically reduces operational challenges associated with running OpenStack without taking over a general purpose Kubernetes infrastructure for a single task.

Given the rise of SRE thinking, the RackN team believes that this approach changes the field for OpenStack deployments and will ultimately dominate the field (which is already mainly containerized). There is still work to be completed: some complex configuration is required to allow both Kubernetes CNI and Neutron to collaborate so that containers and VMs can cross-communicate.

We are looking for companies that want to join in this work and fast-track it into production. If this is interesting, please contact us at sre@rackn.com.

Why should you sponsor? Current OpenStack operators facing “fork-lift upgrades” should want to find a path like this one that ensures future upgrades are baked into the plan. This approach provide a fast track to a general purpose, enterprise grade, upgradable Kubernetes infrastructure.

Closing note from my past presentations: We’re making progress on the technical aspects of this integration; however, my concerns about market positioning remain.