I bought this really cool 4-node SuperMicro server chassis that was pre-populated with 4 nodes ready to go, just add your own disks and software. Sure, they are old (X8 series, pre-Xeon processors), but it should technically serve the purpose I have in mind; getting OpenStack to install, run, and function consistently. That has been one of my major mental stumbling blocks with OpenStack adoption is that I can basically never get it to work consistently.

I don’t know if it is just that I give up on it too easily, or that the documentation is lacking (it is), or that there seem to be precious few places you could go and talk about it and even fewer where people are willing to engage you on your issue. OpenStack is like a super secret club where everyone who knows about it is awesome at it, but won’t talk about it or help anyone else learn it. Few exceptions to this, and it always seems to me like I don’t want to push those sources too far.

So I struggle with it on my own, then what do you know - I get an install that works! I can’t get any networking on the VM, but whatever, it boots to an operating system at least. Not the one I want, but it seems to work none the less. I can’t get into the VM because there is no password auth, but maybe next time I can fix the networking. So I burn it all down and reinstall. Well, I did something wrong during setup and now nothing works. Shit.

The first rule about OpenStack club is that you don’t talk about OpenStack club.