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A Red Hat training course is available for Red Hat OpenStack Platform

Chapter 2. Documentation

Documentation should provide a general description of the OpenStack environment and cover all systems used (for example, production, development, or test). Documenting system components, networks, services, and software often provides the perspective needed to thoroughly cover and consider security concerns, attack vectors, and possible security zone bridging points. A system inventory might need to capture ephemeral resources such as virtual machines or virtual disk volumes that would otherwise be persistent resources in a traditional IT environment.

2.1. System Roles and Types

Document roles that are used in your environment. The two broadly defined types of nodes that generally make up an OpenStack installation are:

  • Infrastructure nodes - These run the cloud-related services, such as the OpenStack API providers (such as neutron), the message queuing service, storage management, monitoring, networking, and other services required to support the operation and provisioning of the cloud.
  • Compute, storage, or other resource nodes - Provide compute and storage capacity for instances running on your cloud.

2.2. Hardware Inventory

Clouds without stringent compliance requirements for written documentation might benefit from having a Configuration Management Database (CMDB). CMDBs are normally used for hardware asset tracking and overall life-cycle management. By leveraging a CMDB, an organization can quickly identify cloud infrastructure hardware such as compute nodes, storage nodes, or network devices. A CMDB can assist in identifying assets that exist on the network which might have vulnerabilities due to inadequate maintenance, inadequate protection, or being displaced and forgotten. An OpenStack provisioning system can provide some basic CMDB functions if the underlying hardware supports the necessary auto-discovery features.

2.3. Software Inventory

As with hardware, all software components within the OpenStack deployment should be documented. Examples include:

  • System databases, such as MySQL or mongoDB
  • OpenStack software components, such as Identity or Compute
  • Supporting components, such as load-balancers, reverse proxies, DNS, or DHCP services An authoritative list of software components might be critical when assessing the impact of a compromise or vulnerability in a library, application or class of software.