Configuring the networking quota in OpenStack

Quotas are limits defined in OpenStack to ensure that the system resources and capacity are used in a systematic manner. Different users can be given different quota limits based on their requirement and priority. In this recipe, we will show you how to configure a quota related to networking at a project level and for the whole system.

Getting ready

The setting up and enforcement of the quota are done at the project level. If any user in the project tries to exceed the allotted quota, the system will reject the corresponding request. To configure the quota-related parameters, you need to have a good idea about the capacity, scale, and performance requirements of your OpenStack-based cloud.

How to do it…

The following steps will show you how to configure the networking-related quota:

1. Log in to the OpenStack Horizon dashboard using a user ID with an administrative role.
2. In the left navigation menu, click on Identity and then Projects. In the Actions column, select Modify Quota for the tenant of your choice, as follows:
   
3. In the resulting window, the networking-related quotas are defined as shown in the following screenshot. Make the changes and click Save.
   
4. In order to change the networking-related quota at the whole system level, you need to change the settings in the Neutron server configuration file.
5. With the appropriate credentials, SSH into the node where the Neutron server is running.
6. Open the Neutron configuration file using your desired editor. For example, the command for vi editor will be as follows:

   openstack@controller:~$ sudo vi /etc/neutron/neutron.conf
   

7. In the configuration file, look for a section starting with [quotas]. All the quota-related settings start with quota_. Edit these settings as required and save the file.
8. The Neutron server needs to be restarted for these settings to take effect. Restart the Neutron server using the following command:

   sudo service neutron-server restart
   

How it works…

All the quota settings are stored on a per project (tenant) basis. During the creation of a project using CLI or Horizon, OpenStack (Keystone) fetches the system-wide default quotas from the configuration files and associates them to the project (or tenant). Hereafter, even if the system-wide quotas are changed, the project-level quotas do not change automatically. However, the project-level quotas can be changed anytime using Horizon or CLI, and these changes take effect immediately.

All the OpenStack commands and API calls are checked against the project-level quotas. If any commands or API calls violate the limits, they will be rejected with an appropriate error.