Mastering OpenStack Administration - Hands‐On Lab

OpenStack Administration: Hands-On with Epoxy 2025.1

Master OpenStack administration with this practical, hands-on course focused on the latest OpenStack 2025.1 "Epoxy" release. Learn to effectively manage and operate an OpenStack cloud using both the graphical user interface (GUI) and the command-line interface (CLI).

What you'll learn:

• Administer OpenStack Projects & Users: Gain expertise in managing projects, users, groups, roles, and role-based access control (RBAC) using Keystone identity.
• Launch & Troubleshoot Instances: Learn to launch, monitor, and troubleshoot virtual machines (instances) with Nova, including managing flavors, key pairs, lifecycles, and quotas.
• Manage Persistent Storage: Understand and utilize Cinder for creating and managing persistent volumes, backends, types, snapshots, and backups.
• Design & Secure Networks: Master Neutron for designing and securing virtual networks, including project networks, routers, floating IPs, and security groups for micro-segmentation.
• Manage Images Effectively: Learn to manage Glance for storing and distributing trusted images, including metadata and ensuring image hygiene.
• Automate with Heat: Utilize Heat for Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) to define and deploy complex cloud infrastructure, including building custom images with cloud-init for immutable updates.
• Troubleshooting & Recovery: Develop skills in diagnosing and resolving common OpenStack issues, utilizing CLI health checks, logs, and safe recovery procedures.
• Immutable Infrastructure: Implement a "cattle-not-pets" approach with immutable images and automated update workflows.

Why Choose This Course?

This course is designed for today's OpenStack administrators who need to be proficient with both GUI and CLI, embrace automation, and quickly resolve issues.

• Up-to-Date Content: Focuses on the latest OpenStack 2025.1 "Epoxy" release.
• GUI & CLI Fluency: Start with the intuitive Horizon/Skyline dashboard and progress to mastering the powerful OpenStack CLI.
• Realistic Lab Environment: Deploy a self-hosted All-in-One (AIO) lab VM on your local machine (using VMware Workstation Pro) for a consistent and reproducible learning experience.
• Troubleshooting Focus: Practice diagnosing and fixing real-world scenarios to build confidence in your abilities.
• Future-Ready Skills: Learn about images as code, cloud-init, Heat for IaC, and automation best practices.

Hands-On Lab Details:

You'll deploy a single-node OpenStack 2025.1 Epoxy lab VM on your Windows machine. The course provides a step-by-step guide, openrc files, helper scripts, and example Heat templates to simplify the setup. All commands and demonstrations will be directly applicable to your local lab environment.

Who is this course for?

• System Administrators
• DevOps Engineers
• Virtualization Professionals migrating from VMware or Hyper-V
• Aspiring OpenStack Admins & Architects

Course Syllabus Highlights:

• OpenStack Foundations & Admin Role: Architecture, governance, and release cycles.
• Getting Started: Lab VM setup, Horizon/Skyline navigation, and CLI basics.
• Keystone Identity & RBAC: Managing users, projects, and permissions.
• Nova Compute: Flavors, key pairs, lifecycle management, and quotas.
• Cinder Storage: Volumes, backends, snapshots, and backups.
• Neutron Networking: Networks, subnets, routers, floating IPs, and security groups.
• Glance Images: Trusted sources, metadata, and image management.
• Advanced Networking & Security: Multi-tier designs, micro-segmentation, and multi-NIC instances.
• Advanced Image Service: Snapshots, cloud-init, immutable images, and Kubernetes node images.
• Troubleshooting: Service health checks, error analysis, and recovery procedures.
• Heat & Automation: Deploying applications with Heat templates.

Immediate Outcomes:

• Confidently administer OpenStack projects using both GUI and CLI.
• Design secure, routed tenant networks and expose services with floating IPs.
• Implement robust access control with role assignments and security groups.
• Deploy cloud-native updates using versioned images and automated workflows.
• Automate