What do I need to get started?

Asked by Matthew Nuzum

Hi, looking at the website it's not clear what is needed to get started with OpenStack. Here are some questions I have:

Do I need a dedicated server or can I install this in a virtual machine?

Does the computer need hardware virtualization support? For example, if I have Xen installed as paravirtualization can I use that?

What are the system requirements are there for the server? For example, how much RAM is needed to have success? If I use Ubuntu Server I can get by with as little as 256MB. Is that enough for OpenStack or do I need more?

Once the server is set up and running what are the requirements for launching and accessing it (starting instances for example)? Do I need to be running Linux or can I run another OS?

What are the requirements for my guest OS?

These were the first things I looked for when coming to the site. Having answers to them would make it easier for me to experiment with OpenStack.

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David Pravec (alekibango) said :
#1

1) it runs in virtual machine if you will use qemu or uml for virtualisation

2) virtualisation support is needed for KVM and maybe some other supervisors. Its not needed for xen/qemu/uml

3) More RAM = better. Especially when running virtual machines.
  I would consider rather asking 'what is the upper limit', as size of RAM will limit number of virtual guests you can run at once. RAM is usually the most required resource.

   256 MB might be ok if you will run only 1-3 guests, each having 64 MB RAM. But that doesnt make much sense for me. Do you have thousands of those old computers? They might be useable for storage, but i would think about new ones for Openstack Compute (Nova)

4) you can use platform independent api or web interface (still new)

5) guest os requirements? If used hypervizor can run it, it will work. And most OSes run without problem in KVM, QEmu, XeN

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