Managing our OpenStack environment through a command-line interface allows us to have complete control of our cloud environment, but having a web-based interface that operators and administrators can use to manage their environments and instances makes this process easier. The OpenStack Dashboard, known as Horizon, provides a graphical, web-based, user interface. Horizon is a web service that runs from an Apache installation, using Python's Web Service Gateway Interface (WSGI) and Django, a rapid development web framework.

With the OpenStack Dashboard installed, we can manage all the core components of our OpenStack environment. If you are using OpenStack Ansible playbooks, Horizon gets installed using the os-horizon-install.yml playbook.