Summary

OpenStack networking provides an overwhelming list of features that enable cloud operators and architects to implement advanced network topologies and offer cloud users and tenants more managed network services. As seen in this chapter, the ML2 plugin extends Neutron’s capabilities by unlocking some pertinent features that were lacking in older OpenStack releases. OVS was explored as a mechanism driver that brings more traffic control based on flow rules. For extended networking that requires common VLAN and VXLAN topologies, the chapter demonstrated the support of OVS and OVN drivers in Neutron within the latest OpenStack releases, in addition to their deployments using kolla-ansible. It is worth noting that the direction of future networking based on mechanism drivers is almost certainly moving toward adopting the OVN mechanism driver, due to its performance in larger production-grade and hybrid cloud environments. Another big deal, routing in the OpenStack networking...