Chapter 1. Introduction to configuring Block Storage backups to use Google Cloud storage
The Red Hat OpenStack Platform director is a toolset to install and manage a complete Red Hat OpenStack environment. It is based primarily on the OpenStack project TripleO (OpenStack-on-OpenStack). The primary objective of the director is to orchestrate a functional, Enterprise-grade OpenStack deployment with minimal manual configuration. Director addresses many of the issues inherent in configuring individual OpenStack components manually.
The OpenStack environment that you deploy with the director is called the overcloud. The overcloud contains all of the components that provide services to end users, including Block Storage. This document provides guidance on how to deploy custom back ends to the Block Storage service on the overcloud.
Red Hat OpenStack Platform supports several third-party services, devices, and applications for functions ranging from block storage back ends to data processing. You can configure the Block Storage service to use Google Cloud as a backup storage service. This Google Cloud integration is available in this release as a technology preview feature.
Technology Preview features are not fully supported by Red Hat. The deployment scenario described in this document should only be used for testing, and should not be deployed in a production environment.
For more information about Technology Preview features, see Scope of Coverage Details.
This document presents a test scenario where the Block Storage service on an overcloud deployment is configured to back up volumes to Google Cloud storage. This test scenario requires the following prerequisites:
- The overcloud has already been deployed through director. For more information about director deployment, see the Director Installation and Usage guide.
-
You have the username and password of an account with elevated privileges. You can use the same account that you create to deploy the overcloud. If you follow the steps in the Director Installation and Usage guide, you create a user named
stackfor this purpose. - The Block Storage service is installed on the Controller nodes, or, on every Controller node in an HA deployment.
- You have a Google account with access to Google Cloud Platform. The Block Storage service uses this account to access and use Google Cloud to store backups.
1.1. Understanding the configuration process
Configuring the Block Storage service to use Google Cloud as a backup service involves the following steps:
- Creating and downloading the service account credentials of your Google account. For more information, see (Chapter 2, Creating and downloading the GCS credentials file).
- Creating an environment file to define the Block Storage settings that you require. For more information, see (Chapter 3, Create the Block Storage environment file). This environment file also uses the service account credentials that you created in the previous step.
- Re-deploying the overcloud using the new environment file. For more information, see (Chapter 4, Re-deploying the overcloud).
