Prepare Rocky Server

This article describes how prepare a Rocky physical server to be added as a host to Platform9 Managed OpenStack (PMO) cloud.

Supported Operating System Version

Platform9 Managed OpenStack supports Rocky 9.1 (64-bit).

Step 1 - Install Rocky Operating System and install some pre-requisite packages

Make sure that your server is configured appropriately with access to storage and physical networking. Download and install Rocky on your physical server. You can download Rocky distributions from here: https://rockylinux.org/download/

It’s usually a good practice to get your system up to date with regard to the latest patches and updates.

sudo dnf install -y tar

sudo dnf install -y yum wget vim net-tools python3-libselinux sshpass nfs-utils

sudo dnf install initscripts.x86_64 initscripts-service.noarch python3-dnf-plugin-versionlock -y

sudo dnf upgrade --exclude=centos-release* --exclude=redhat-release* --exclude=kernel* --exclude=rocky-release* --exclude=rocky-repos* -y

sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm -y

Step 2 - Ensure Virtualization is Enabled

Ensure that virtualization is enabled for your server by checking your server’s BIOS settings. If disabled, enable virtualization for the server to be able to act as a hypervisor within Platform9 Managed OpenStack.

Step 3 - Ensure the System Clock is Synchronized

sudo dnf install -y chrony

sudo systemctl enable chronyd.service

sudo systemctl start chronyd.service

The following image (Figure 1) represents three hypervisors connected in a Managed OpenStack Neutron network.

Step 4 - Set SELinux to permissive and update crypto policies to legacy mode

This is required for Open vSwitch (OVS) to be able to manage networking.

Run the following commands to set SELinux to permissive and to change crypto policy to legacy on rocky hosts to allow key type ssh-rsa and reboot.

sudo sed -i s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=permissive/g /etc/selinux/config

sudo setenforce 0

sudo update-crypto-policies --set LEGACY

sudo reboot

Step 5 - Add the Openvswitch YUM Repo

Run the following command to install the Openvswitch YUM repository.

sudo dnf install -y centos-release-openstack-yoga.noarch

For Platform9 releases upto and including 4.4:

Step 6 - Install Openvswitch and openstack-network-scripts packages

Run the following command to install Openvswitch and then remove the repos to prevent an upgrade later.

sudo dnf install -y openvswitch2.17.x86_64 openstack-network-scripts-openvswitch2.17.x86_64

sudo dnf versionlock add openvswitch2.17

Step 7 - Disable Firewalld and NetworkManager

This is required for KVM and OVS to be able to create iptables rules directly without firewalld getting in the way.

Run the following commands to disable firewalld and NetworkManager.

sudo systemctl disable firewalld

sudo systemctl stop firewalld

sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager

sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager

Step 8 - Enable Network and Openvswitch

Run the following command to enable network.

sudo systemctl enable network

sudo systemctl enable openvswitch

sudo systemctl start openvswitch

Step 9 - Load the modules needed for Neutron

Run the following commands to load the modules needed for Neutron as root.

modprobe bridge

modprobe 8021q

modprobe bonding

modprobe tun

modprobe br_netfilter

echo bridge > /etc/modules-load.d/pf9.conf

echo 8021q >> /etc/modules-load.d/pf9.conf

echo bonding >> /etc/modules-load.d/pf9.conf

echo tun >> /etc/modules-load.d/pf9.conf

echo br_netfilter >> /etc/modules-load.d/pf9.conf

Step 10 - Add sysctl options

Run the following commands to add sysctl options as root.

echo net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter=0 >> /etc/sysctl.conf

echo net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter=0 >> /etc/sysctl.conf

echo net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables=1 >> /etc/sysctl.conf

echo net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 >> /etc/sysctl.conf

echo net.ipv4.tcp_mtu_probing=2 >> /etc/sysctl.conf

sysctl -p

Step 11 - Install QEMU KVM EV

Run the following commands to install QEMU KVM EV

sudo dnf install qemu-kvm -y

Step 12 - Install Router Advertisement Daemon

Run the following command to install radvd

sudo dnf -y install radvd

Step 13 - Configure host networking

Please refer Prepare CentOS Server for setting up host networking.

At this point your Rocky server is ready to be added as a hypervisor to Platform9 Managed OpenStack (PMO).