OpenStack is a very versatile and flexible cloud management platform. By exposing its portfolio of cloud infrastructure services – compute, storage, networking and other core resources — through ReST APIs, it enables a wide range of control over these services, both from the perspective of an integrated Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) controlled by applications, as well as automated manipulation of the infrastructure itself.

This architectural flexibility doesn’t set itself up magically; it asks you, the user and cloud administrator, to organize and manage a large array of configuration options. Consequently, getting the most out of your OpenStack cloud over time – in terms of flexibility, scalability, and manageability – requires a thoughtful combination of automation and configuration choices.

Mirantis Fuel for OpenStack was created to solve exactly this problem. This step-by-step guide takes you through this process of:

* Configuring OpenStack and its supporting components into a robust cloud architecture
* Deploying that architecture through an effective, well-integrated automation package that sets up and maintains the components and their configurations
* Providing access to a well-integrated, up-to-date set of components known to work together