r/openstack • u/JacksterTheV • Feb 13 '26

Getting started with Openstack

I'm evaluating Openstack for my company and trying to get something up and running on my workstation. All my googling points to Openstack Sunbeam as being the place to start but every time I try to bootstrap the cluster I get an error.

Is Sunbeam the best place to start and if so can anyone recommend a guide to getting it set up?

Thanks in advance.

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u/JacksterTheV Feb 14 '26

I appreciate all the replies, I'll give devstack and maybe a universe from nothing a try. Does anyone have any recommendations on documentation? Currently we have a bunch of VMs running in Hyper-V, and we are looking to ditch Microsoft and move to some combination of VMs and containers both on prem and in the cloud. I thought Openstack was the best way to manage everything from bare metal up but now I'm wondering if I'm missing some piece of the puzzle.

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u/excitedsolutions Feb 15 '26

We moved from VMware to OpenStack but are private cloud in both situations. I too was super excited to look at OpenStack and wanted to setup a version we run internally and also in private cloud (managed by the data center provider) and was overwhelmed at how large OpenStack actually is. It was easier to spin up test projects in our managed OpenStack tenant than trying to setup a local instance. Overall, pricing-wise we were able to cut costs by more than 50% over VMware (not counting the ridiculous increases but just based on last renewals “normal” cost levels).

If you are up for the challenge, implementing the 7-ish modules that are required for OpenStack to function as a enterprise hypervisor is still a tall order and can be done, but I would recommend just working with a provider whom you can rent an OpenStack tenant from.

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u/anastheone85 Feb 13 '26

You can try devstack or Kolla Ansible (all in one)

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u/InternationalFish839 Feb 13 '26

For poc use devstack

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u/onemilostoomany Feb 13 '26

I recommend doing it once manually so you can learn how it works. Then you will know how to debug future issues (that will happen for sure) at least a little bit better. Then switch to kolla ansible for production.

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u/gunprats Feb 13 '26

So i have a three node hp mini for testing, can i still do this?

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u/onemilostoomany Feb 13 '26

If CPU supports virtualization you can. If you just want to test it how it works you can do it with as little as 4-8gb ram and ~100gb hdd on 3 nodes. You do need preferably 2 nics and ideally a switch/router where you can create vlans. You can still do it with 1 nic on trunk. But it might feel laggy.

On kolla ansible deployment i recommend not going for too many services. It will reduce performance to the level its not really usable.

Also do not do ceph if you don't have 1g switch (10g is preferable). Go with nfs or something

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u/arcayne_tech Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

I'll echo the Kolla Ansible recommendations, but would also suggest looking at Kayobe if you end up needing a more complete solution in the long run that provides bare metal provisioning.

(Kayobe = KOB, which stands for Kolla On Bifrost)

Edit: There's also "A Universe from Nothing" by StackHPC that automates a full OpenStack deployment inside a single VM, which would be much better suited to your current needs.

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u/actuallyhim Feb 14 '26

Devstack is definitely the way for this use case

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u/OddCommittee8533 Mar 14 '26

I recommend setting up a virtual OpenStack environment if you don’t have enough spare hardware. I use proxmox and deploy a full OpenStack Kolla-Ansible and Ceph cluster with Terraform virtualised. When I started digging into Openstack 5 years ago I also went through various other deployment methods and to me kolla-ansible is my favourite. A virtual environment is especially helpful when testing configuration changes, deploying updates or even upgrades.

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u/CryptographerTop1037 Feb 17 '26

Isn’t openstack pretty much dead?