Deploying Atmosphere: A Guide to Storage Integration (DRAFT)

Thinking of deploying Atmosphere but unsure how to handle storage integration? In this blog, we will discuss three scenarios of storage integration when migrating to OpenStack using Atmosphere, VEXXHOST’s cloud solution. Our top choice is using Ceph as your storage solution, and we have several reasons for that (explored later in the article). However, we also have other use cases where we integrate different storage solutions with Atmosphere or switch to Ceph later.

But before we dive into discussing storage integration scenarios and highlighting Ceph’s advantages, let us briefly go over what Atmosphere is and what it offers.

What is Atmosphere?

VEXXHOST’s Atmosphere is a comprehensive cloud solution built on OpenStack, offering a flexible and scalable Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform. Designed for diverse deployment options – public cloud, dedicated private cloud, or on-premise environments – Atmosphere caters to a wide range of business needs.

It leverages open-source technologies and integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Kubernetes for container orchestration and Ceph for storage, delivering a robust and modern cloud experience. Key features include compute, networking, storage options, identity management, and orchestration services, allowing for extensive customization and integration with existing infrastructure.

Whether deployed publicly, hosted in global data centers, or implemented on-premise, Atmosphere provides a secure, high-performing, and cost-effective cloud environment backed by professional support for a smooth user experience.

Why Ceph?

Ceph is a unified, distributed storage system designed for excellent performance, reliability, and scalability. It provides an open-source platform to store substantial amounts of data with high redundancy and accessibility. Engineered to work in distributed environments, Ceph offers a resilient and adaptive architecture that can handle massive data growth while maintaining consistent performance. As a versatile and powerful storage system, it is widely used in various environments, including cloud infrastructures like Atmosphere.

Here is a concise overview of Ceph's strengths and how it complements cloud solutions:

Scalability

Ceph's design allows it to scale out to exabyte-level capacities, providing ample room for growth and ensuring that storage can keep pace with increasing data volumes.

Reliability

With its self-healing and self-managing capabilities, Ceph can automatically redistribute data to maintain redundancy and availability, significantly reducing the impact of hardware failures.

Cost-Effectiveness

As an open-source platform, Ceph can be deployed on commodity hardware, saving costs on specialized storage solutions and eliminating licensing fees.

Hardware Flexibility

Ceph's software-defined storage approach means it can run on various hardware configurations, offering flexibility and optimizing existing infrastructure investments.

Security

Ceph supports encryption of data at rest, adding an essential layer of security to protect sensitive data and comply with industry regulations.

Seamless OpenStack Integration

Ceph is often the storage solution of choice for OpenStack deployments due to its native integration, providing consistent and efficient storage services across cloud environment.

Unified Storage Solution

By offering block, object, and file storage in one unified system, Ceph simplifies storage management and enables diverse application requirements to be met without the need for multiple storage systems.

In the context of Atmosphere, Ceph's features directly contribute to delivering a high-performance, scalable, and cost-effective cloud experience. It supports Atmosphere's commitment to providing advanced cloud services by ensuring that the underlying storage platform is solid and capable of meeting the complex needs of modern cloud deployments.

Deploy Atmosphere: 3 Scenarios on Storage Usage

While we strongly recommend Ceph as the storage solution for Atmosphere deployments, we understand that customers may have existing storage investments. This is another scenario. To accommodate various customer needs, we have outlined three primary deployment scenarios: use existing storage, move to Ceph, and start with Ceph.

The following sections will detail each scenario.

Scenario A: Use Your Existing Storage

We have customers aiming to use their current storage ecosystem when deploying Atmosphere. Our cloud solution is designed for compatibility, allowing you to integrate your existing storage solutions without the immediate need for overhaul or replacement. This approach not only protects your storage investments but also minimizes disruptions to your operations.

To ensure seamless integration, it is critical to evaluate your existing storage system's compatibility with OpenStack's interfaces and requirements. You can check the matrix table to help you verify if your storage backend aligns with the OpenStack driver or not. Atmosphere supports a wide array of storage backends, which means most industry-standard solutions can be interfaced with minimal adjustments. The integration process typically involves the following steps:

• Assessment and Planning: Begin with a thorough evaluation of your current storage infrastructure to determine compatibility with Atmosphere's storage requirements. Identify any potential issues or adjustments needed to ensure smooth operation within the OpenStack environment.
• Configuration and Customization: Utilize Atmosphere's extensive documentation to configure the storage integration. This step often involves setting up the necessary drivers and making sure that the storage backend is recognized by the OpenStack components. It may also include customizing certain parameters to match the performance and availability levels expected from your cloud infrastructure.
• Testing and Validation: Once the configuration is complete, it is crucial to conduct rigorous testing to validate that the storage integration operates as expected. This should cover performance benchmarks, failover scenarios, and recovery procedures to ensure the resilience of the storage within the cloud environment.
• Deployment: After successful testing, deploy the integrated solution into your production environment. Atmosphere's deployment tools and services facilitate this process, ensuring that your existing storage is linked effectively with the new cloud infrastructure.
• Optimization and Scaling: Post-deployment, monitor the performance of your storage within the cloud, and make any necessary optimizations. Atmosphere allows for scaling storage resources as needed, ensuring that your cloud environment can grow in tandem with your organization's needs.

Throughout this process, Atmosphere's professional services are available to provide guidance, support, and expertise to ensure that your storage integration is executed with precision and aligned with best practices. Whether you need assistance in the planning phase or require hands-on support during deployment, the platform's team of experts is available to help you every step of the way.

Scenario B: Move to Ceph

Migrating to Ceph storage for your Atmosphere deployment brings numerous benefits, including enhanced scalability, fault tolerance, and performance. Ceph is a highly resilient distributed storage system that offers self-healing capabilities, and it is designed to seamlessly scale both in capacity and performance without any significant downtime.

Migration Process:

1. Preparation and Planning: Conduct an inventory of your existing data and workloads. This step involves understanding the size, distribution, and access patterns of your data to ensure a smooth migration.
2. Environment Setup: Install and configure the Ceph environment. This entails setting up the necessary clusters and ensuring they are optimized for your workload requirements.
3. Data Transfer: Utilize tools such as Rsync or Ceph's native data migration tools to transfer data from your existing storage to the new Ceph clusters. The process is designed to minimize downtime.
4. Validation: After migration, validate the integrity and performance of the data within the Ceph storage system. This ensures that all data is accounted for and accessible as expected.
5. Cutover: Switch operations from the old storage system to Ceph. This step used to have the possibility for a brief period of downtime, but now, thanks to our new tool, MigrateKit, we ensure near-zero downtime.

Migration Tools and Resources: Atmosphere provides a suite of migration tools and comprehensive documentation to facilitate the transition to Ceph. Additionally, professional services are available to assist with the migration, offering support and expertise throughout the process.

Scenario C: Start with Ceph

Deploying Atmosphere directly onto Ceph storage from the outset presents a multitude of advantages for new deployments. Ceph offers a unified platform for block, object, and file storage, which simplifies management and reduces overhead. It is designed to be self-managing and self-healing, which translates to lower operational costs and increased reliability.

Advantages for New Deployments:

• Scalability: Ceph's architecture is designed to scale without any single point of failure, making it ideal for growing cloud environments.
• Performance: By distributing data across the entire storage cluster, Cephoptimizes performance and ensures balanced data distribution.
• Cost-Efficiency: Ceph's efficient use of hardware through replication and erasure coding provides a cost-effective storage solution.

Initial Setup Process:

1. Planning: Determine your storage capacity and performance requirements to inform the architecture of your Ceph cluster.
2. Installation: Deploy Ceph using guided installation tools that are part of the Atmosphere package, which streamlines the setup of storage nodes and clusters.
3. Configuration: Configure storage pools, access controls, and data protection levels tailored to your specific use case.
4. Integration: Integrate Ceph with the Atmosphere cloud platform, ensuring that compute and storage services are fully operational and optimized for use with Ceph.

Security Considerations: Ceph provides powerful security features, including encryption at rest, to protect data from unauthorized access. When deploying Atmosphere with Ceph, it is essential to configure user permissions, encryption keys, and network security settings to safeguard your data and meet compliance requirements.

To Sum Up

Whether you are looking to integrate your current storage solutions with Atmosphere, transition to a more resilient and scalable storage system with Ceph, or start fresh with Ceph as the backbone of your cloud infrastructure, we have laid out the scenarios to suit your business needs.

Each path offers a unique set of advantages, and we are here to support you in making the choice that aligns best with your strategic goals. Our team of experts is ready to guide you through the intricacies of storage integration, migration, and deployment, ensuring a seamless transition and a well-built cloud environment tailored to your requirements.

Are you ready to elevate your cloud strategy with Atmosphere?

Reach out to our sales team today and discover how our solutions can transform your business's approach to cloud infrastructure.