1.4.3. OpenStack Networking Service
The OpenStack Networking service provides a scalable and API-driven system for managing the network connectivity, addressing, and services within an OpenStack IaaS cloud deployment. Because the OpenStack network is software-defined, it can easily and quickly react to changing network needs (for example, creating and assigning new IP addresses).
Advantages include:
- Users can create networks, control traffic, and connect servers and devices to one or more networks.
- OpenStack offers flexible networking models, so that administrators can change the networking model to adapt to their volume and tenancy.
- IPs can be dedicated or floating; floating IPs allow dynamic traffic rerouting.
Table 1.4. Networking Service components
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
|
neutron-server
|
A Python daemon, which manages user requests (and exposes the API). It is configured with a plugin that implements the OpenStack Networking API operations using a specific set of networking mechanisms. A wide choice of plugins are also available. For example, the
openvswitch and linuxbridge plugins utilize native Linux networking mechanisms, while other plugins interface with external devices or SDN controllers.
|
|
neutron-l3-agent
|
An agent providing L3/NAT forwarding.
|
|
neutron-*-agent
|
A plug-in agent that runs on each node to perform local networking configuration for the node's VMs and networking services.
|
|
neutron-dhcp-agent
|
An agent providing DHCP services to tenant networks.
|
|
Database
|
Provides persistent storage.
|