What is OpenStack?

OpenStack is an open-source cloud computing platform designed to provide scalable, flexible, and robust Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Through a suite of modular services—such as compute, storage, and network management—it offers enterprises and organisations a solution for building private or public clouds. OpenStack supports a range of virtualisation technologies, including KVM, Xen, and VMware, making it suitable for cloud environments of varying sizes and requirements.

Drawbacks of OpenStack:

  • Complex architecture and heavy deployment:
    OpenStack is highly modular—each function (like Nova, Neutron, Cinder, etc.) operates as an independent service. Deploying and integrating them involves considerable complexity, and upgrading or maintaining such a system comes with a high operational cost.

  • Performance overhead:
    The control plane and scheduling logic introduce latency. For performance-critical, large-scale internet services, OpenStack is often not lightweight enough.

  • Limited flexibility despite high customisability:
    While it is theoretically highly customisable, making significant changes requires deep knowledge of its internal workings. This demands strong in-house development capability.

Domestic cloud platform:

  • Alibaba Cloud’s Apsara is indeed its self-developed cloud platform, supporting massive computing, storage, and networking needs. Although early iterations may have drawn on open-source tools, it’s now fully proprietary.

  • Tencent Cloud’s vStation was an earlier name for part of their virtualisation platform. This evolved into a broader internal infrastructure, with “TStack” and the “Xingxinghai” architecture forming the basis of Tencent’s cloud platform.

Cloud Platform Base Comparison Table

Cloud Provider Core Platform (Base) OpenStack-Based? Notes
Alibaba Cloud Apsara (飞天) ❌ No Fully in-house developed. Highly optimised for Alibaba’s scale.
Tencent Cloud TStack / vStation ❌ No Self-developed virtualisation and orchestration stack.
Huawei Cloud FusionSphere ✅ Yes (modified) Based on OpenStack, heavily customised and commercialised.
Baidu Cloud ABC Stack ❌ No Proprietary platform optimised for AI and big data workloads.
Open Telekom Cloud Based on OpenStack ✅ Yes European carrier cloud offering. Standard OpenStack distribution.
OVHcloud Based on OpenStack ✅ Yes One of the largest OpenStack-based public clouds.
Red Hat TripleO (OpenStack) ✅ Yes Red Hat’s IaaS/PaaS offering, often used for private cloud setups.
Google Cloud Proprietary Infrastructure ❌ No Uses fully in-house cloud platform. OpenStack not used.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Proprietary Infrastructure ❌ No Entirely proprietary and highly integrated platform.
Microsoft Azure Proprietary Infrastructure ❌ No Microsoft’s fully self-developed cloud ecosystem.

Server Configurations

One Controller node + One Compute node.

Hostname IP address Operating System OpenStack Version
controller Management Network：192.168.225.33
Provider Network：No IP addr		 Rocky 9.5 Dalmatian (2025.1)
node Management Network：192.168.225.34
Provider Network：NO IP addr		 Rocky 9.5 Dalmatian (2025.1)

Modular-each Services

Controller

  • Identity service: Used for user authentication and authorisation.

  • Image service: Used to store and manage virtual machine images.

  • Placement service: Used for resource tracking and allocation.

  • Compute management component: Manages the lifecycle of virtual machines.

  • Networking management component: Handles the management of network resources.

  • Various networking agents: Implement networking functions.

  • Dashboard: Provides a graphical user interface for management.

  • Cinder block storage: Offers block storage services.

  • Manila file sharing service: Provides file sharing capabilities.

  • SQL database: Stores data for OpenStack services.

  • ETCD database: Stores distributed configuration data.

  • Message queue: Facilitates communication between services.

  • NTP (Network Time Protocol): Ensures time synchronisation across components.

Compute

  • Compute management component: Manages the lifecycle of virtual machines.

  • KVM virtualisation component: Responsible for running virtual machines.

  • Networking agent: Implements networking functions.