Andrey Markelov

Certified OpenStack Administrator Study Guide

Andrey Markelov

Stockholm, Sweden

Any source code or other supplementary materials referenced by the author in this text are available to readers at www.apress.com . For detailed information about how to locate your book’s source code, go to www.apress.com/source-code/ . Readers can also access source code at SpringerLink in the Supplementary Material section for each chapter.

ISBN 978-1-4842-2124-2

e-ISBN 978-1-4842-2125-9

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-2125-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958120

© Andrey Markelov 2016

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.

While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

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To my wife, Elena, for her love and support.

Introduction

The Certified OpenStack Administrator (COA) is the first professional certification offered by the OpenStack Foundation. As OpenStack’s web site states, it’s designed to help companies identify top talent in the industry, and help job seekers demonstrate their skills.

The COA certification is available to anyone who passes the exam. No mandatory learning is required. However, the Certified OpenStack Administrator is a professional, typically with at least six months’ OpenStack experience. It is very important to gain practical skills of work with OpenStack before taking the exam. If you read this or any other books or if you watch any video courses with no practice, you will likely fail your exam. Practice, practice, practice is the only way to successfully reach the exam goals.

Quick facts about the exam:

  • The duration is 2.5 hours.

  • The price (at the time of writing) to take the exam is $300. One free retake per exam purchase will be granted in the event that a passing score is not achieved.

  • The exam is performance-based. You may use a graphical interface or the command line.

  • The exam is available anywhere in the world through the Internet.

  • Candidates are monitored virtually by a proctor during the exam session via streaming audio, video, and screensharing.

This book is organized to cover all COA exam requirements, publicly available at www.openstack.org/coa/requirements . They are also shown at Figure  I-1 in short form. Exam objectives are subject to change. Please visit the COA exam web site for the most current listing of exam objectives. Even if you don’t plan to take the COA exam, this book can be a useful tutorial for OpenStack operators.

A418972_1_En_BookFrontmatter_Fig1_HTML.jpg
Figure I-1 OpenStack COA exam requirements

Tips for COA Exam Preparation

If you successfully run through all of the book’s contents and think you are ready for exam, you should start by reading the OpenStack Foundation Certification Candidate Handbook for OpenStack Foundation Certified OpenStack Administrator (COA). This guide is available from the COA web site at www.openstack.org/coa/ . It contains all the instructions and conditions you need to know before taking the exam.

A day before the exam, it is better to rest and not to study until into the late evening. Try to schedule the exam for the first part of the day when your brain is fresh.

It’s very important to test your PC to make sure it meets the minimal requirements with the exam provider’s web site. Figure  I-2 shows the requirements (at the time of this writing). Pay attention to the screen resolution. At the time of writing, the minimum was set to 1280x800. It is really a minimum value and it will probably be uncomfortable to work with exam consoles with this resolution. I would recommend you use a monitor as big as possible.

A418972_1_En_BookFrontmatter_Fig2_HTML.jpg
Figure I-2 Screenshot of compatibility checklist at exam provider web site

The handbook tells you to launch http://docs.openstack.org/ to access the technical documentation. Take some time to investigate the information. You do not need to memorize everything, but it is good to know what the documentation web site contains.

It is probably better not to type long names of projects, volumes, directories, and so forth but rather to copy them from the exam task list to the command line during the exam. You can avoid mistypes and errors if you do so. Use Ctrl+Insert to copy and Shift+Insert to paste in Microsoft Windows operating systems. Shortcuts Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V are not currently supported in the exam terminal.

It is highly recommended to use one of the terminal multiplexers because the exam terminal has a single console. You can use the screen command or the more advanced tmux . Take your time to practice with one of them. If you choose to use tmux you can start a new session with the command: 

# tmux new

If the connection is lost, you can rejoin a session with the command:

# tmux attach

In Figure  I-3 you can see what the tmux display looks like. Table  I-1 lists the most common shortcuts for tmux commands.

A418972_1_En_BookFrontmatter_Fig3_HTML.jpg
Figure I-3 The tmux screen multiplexer
Table I-1 Some of tmux Command Key Bindings

Command Key Bindings

Action

Ctrl-B ?

Show screen with help.

Ctrl-B d

Detach from session.

Ctrl-B s

List sessions.

Ctrl-B c

Create a new window.

Ctrl-B n

Change to the next window.

Ctrl-B p

Change to the previous window.

Ctrl-B 0…9

Select windows 0 through 9.

Ctrl-B %

Create a horizontal pane.

Ctrl-B "

Create a vertical pane.

Ctrl-B ↑↓→←

Move to pane.

Other OpenStack Certifications

Although I have the other two OpenStack certificates, there will not be any discussion of other vendors’ OpenStack exams in this book. This book may help for their preparation, but it does not contain any specific information other than for the COA exam. Exam objectives can be different. The comparison in Table  I-2 is purely for information purposes only. It is accurate at the time of writing but is always subject to change.

Table I-2 Comparison of OpenStack Certifications

Vendor

COA

Mirantis

Red Hat

Certification name

Certified OpenStack Administrator

Mirantis Certified Administrator for OpenStack

Red Hat Certified System Administrator in Red Hat OpenStack

Exam availability

Worldwide (through Internet connection)

Restricted (vendor and partners facility)

Restricted (vendor and partners facility)

Performance-based

Yes

Yes (MCA200)

Yes

Vendor neutral

Yes

Yes

No

Free retake per purchase

One

No

No

Certification validity

3 years

--

3 years

Passing score

78%

--

210 out of 300

Exam price

$300

$600

$600

Source of information

https://www.openstack.org/coa/

https://training.mirantis.com/certification

https://www.redhat.com/en/services/certification

Contents

  1. Chapter 1:​ Getting to Know OpenStack
    1. Understanding the Components That Make Up the Cloud
    2. History of OpenStack Project
    3. OpenStack Distribution and Vendors
  2. Chapter 2:​ How to Build Your Own Virtual Test Environment
    1. Installing Vanilla OpenStack with the DevStack Tool
    2. Installing RDO OpenStack Distribution with PackStack
    3. Installing Mirantis OpenStack with Fuel Tool
    4. Using the OpenStack CLI
  3. Chapter 3:​ Identity Management
    1. Architecture and Main Components of Keystone
    2. Managing Keystone Catalog Services and Endpoints
    3. Managing/​Creating Projects, Users, and Roles
    4. Managing and Verifying Operation of the Identity Service
    5. Review Questions
    6. Answers to Review Questions
  4. Chapter 4:​ Image Management
    1. Architecture and Main Components of Glance
    2. Deploying a New Image to an OpenStack Instance
    3. Managing Images
    4. Managing Image Back Ends
    5. Verifying Operation of the Image Service
    6. Review Questions
    7. Answers to Review Questions
  5. Chapter 5:​ OpenStack Networking
    1. Architecture and Components of Neutron
    2. Architecture of Open vSwitch
    3. Manage Network Resources
    4. Manage Project Security Group Rules
    5. Manage Quotas
    6. Verify Operation of Network Service
    7. Review Questions
    8. Answers to Review Questions
  6. Chapter 6:​ OpenStack Compute
    1. Architecture and Components of Nova
    2. Managing Flavors
    3. Managing and Accessing an Instance Using a Keypair
    4. Launching, Shutting Down, and Terminating the Instance
    5. Managing Instance Snapshots
    6. Managing Quotas
    7. Getting Nova Stats
    8. Verifying Operation and Managing Nova Compute Servers
    9. Review Questions
    10. Answers to Review Questions
  7. Chapter 7:​ OpenStack Dashboard
    1. Architecture of Horizon
    2. Verify Operation of the Dashboard
    3. Review Question
    4. Answer to Review Question
  8. Chapter 8:​ OpenStack Object Storage
    1. Overview of Swift Object Storage
    2. Managing Permissions on a Container in Object Storage
    3. Using the cURL Tool for Working with Swift
    4. Managing Expiring Objects
    5. Monitoring Swift Cluster
    6. Review Questions
    7. Answers to Review Questions
  9. Chapter 9:​ Block Storage
    1. Architecture and Components of Cinder
    2. Manage Volume and Mount It to a Nova Instance
    3. Create Volume Group for Block Storage
    4. Manage Quotas
    5. Back Up and Restore Volumes and Snapshots
    6. Manage Volume Snapshots
    7. Manage Volumes Encryption
    8. Set Up Storage Pools
    9. Review Questions
    10. Answers to Review Questions
  10. Chapter 10:​ Orchestration of OpenStack
    1. Architecture and Components of Heat
    2. Introducing the Heat OpenStack Template
    3. Launching a Stack Using a HOT
    4. Using Heat CLI and Dashboard
    5. Review Questions
    6. Answers to Review Questions
  11. Chapter 11:​ Troubleshooting
    1. The Main Principles of Troubleshooting
    2. How to Check the OpenStack Version
    3. Where to Find and How to Analyze Log Files
    4. Back Up the Database Used by an OpenStack Instance
    5. Analyze Host/​Guest OS and Instance Status
    6. Analyze Messaging Servers
    7. Analyze Network Status
    8. Digest the OpenStack Environment
    9. Review Questions
    10. Answers to Review Questions
  12. Chapter 12:​ Conclusion
  13. Index

About the Author and About the Technical Reviewer

About the Author

A418972_1_En_BookFrontmatter_Figb_HTML.jpg

Andrey Markelov is an experienced Linux and cloud architect who currently works as a senior solution architect at Ericsson in Sweden. Before Ericsson, Andrey worked as the first ever Red Hat solution architect in Russia and with various large system integrators. He has written more than 50 articles about Linux and Unix systems services, virtual systems, and OpenSource, published in the Russian IT Press ( Linux Format RE , Computerra , PCWeek/RE , and others). Andrey is the author of the only Russian OpenStack book at the moment. He also has experience in teaching Microsoft and Red Hat authorized courses over the past ten years. Andrey has been a Red Hat Certified Architect since 2009. He has the following certifications: Microsoft Certified System Engineer, Sun Certified System Administrator, Novell Certified Linux Professional, Mirantis Certified OpenStack Administrator, and Certified OpenStack Administrator by The OpenStack Foundation. His LinkedIn profile can be found at http://ru.linkedin.com/in/amarkelov .

About the Technical Reviewer

Anton Arapov leads the team responsible for infrastructure projects in Xura, which help customers unlock and protect the full potential of their mobile communication channels, while supporting the evolution to LTE 4G services and accelerating return on investment. Nowadays, virtualization is crucial for achieving the goals. Prior to Xura, Anton held a role of Engineering Manager at Red Hat, responsible for development of virtualization technologies in Linux Kernel.

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