8. Launch and manage stacks

OpenStack Orchestration is a service that you can use to orchestrate multiple composite cloud applications. This service supports use of both the Amazon Web Services (AWS) CloudFormation template format through both a Query API that is compatible with CloudFormation and the native OpenStack Heat Orchestration Template (HOT) format through a REST API.

These flexible template languages enable application developers to describe and automate the deployment of infrastructure, services, and applications. The templates enable creation of most OpenStack resource types, such as instances, floating IP addresses, volumes, security groups, and users. The resources, once created, are referred to as stacks.

8.1. Launch a stack

  1. Log in to the dashboard, choose a project, and click Stacks in the Orchestration category on the Projects tab.

  2. Click Launch Stack.

  3. In the Select Template dialog box, specify the following values.

    Template Source

    Choose the source of the template from the list.

    Template URL/File/Data

    Depending on the source that you selected, enter the URL, browse to the file location, or directly include the template.

    Environment Source

    Choose the source of the environment from the list. The environment files contain additional settings for the stack.

    Environment URL/File/Data

    Depending on the source that you selected, enter the URL, browse to the file location, or directly include the environment.

  4. Click Next.

  5. In the Launch Stack dialog box, specify the following values.

    Stack Name

    Enter a name to identify the stack.

    Creation Timeout (minutes)

    Specify the number of minutes that can elapse before the launch of the stack times out.

    Rollback On Failure

    Select this check box if you want the service to roll back changes if the stack fails to launch.

    Password for user "demo"

    Specify the password that the default user uses when the stack is created.

    DBUsername

    Specify the name of the database user.

    LinuxDistribution

    Specify the Linux distribution that is used in the stack.

    DBRootPassword

    Specify the root password for the database.

    KeyName

    Specify the name of the key pair to use to log in to the stack.

    DBName

    Specify the name of the database.

    DBPassword

    Specify the password for the database.

    InstanceType

    Specify the flavor for the instance.

  6. Click Launch to create a stack.

  7. The Stacks tab shows the stack.

After the stack is created, click on the stack name to see the following details:

Topology

The topology of the stack.

Overview

The parameters and details of the stack.

Resources

The resources used by the stack.

Events

The events related to the stack.

8.2. Manage a stack

  1. Log in to the dashboard, choose a project, and click Stacks.

  2. Select the stack that you want to update.

  3. Click Change Stack Template.

  4. In the Select Template dialog box, select the new template source or environment source.

  5. Click Next.

    The Update Stack Parameters window appears.

  6. Enter new values for any parameters that you want to update.

  7. Click Update.

8.3. Delete a stack

When you delete a stack, you cannot undo this action.

  1. Log in to the dashboard, choose a project, and click Stacks.

  2. Select the stack that you want to delete.

  3. Click Delete Stack.

  4. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete Stack to confirm the deletion.