There are definitely many perks that come with being designated a vExpert but one of the most beneficial in my mind is the complete access to the Trainsignal, now Pluralsight library. Pluralsight has an extensive library of online self-paced training videos – and I mean extensive…I stopped counting at roughly 600!!! The library consists of everything and anything tech based; whether you are looking brush up on your vSphere networking skills, start podcasting, or learn Ruby Pluralsight has a course for that! It’s awesome and I definitely would recommend to anyone to check it out!
But on to the real reason this post exists. When I heard that Eric Wright aka DiscoPosse (blog/twitter) had authored a Pluralsight course titled “Introduction to OpenStack” I was very excited. One, Eric is a great friend, fellow Toronto VMUG Leader and all around great guy and I was excited for him. Two, one of my goals this year was to dip my toes into the OpenStack waters to see what all the fuss was about – and an introduction course was a great way for me to start!
So whats it all aboot eh!
To start things off Eric briefly describes some of the concepts evolving around clouds, as well as the as a service mentality that IT is shifting towards. From there, Eric introduces us to OpenStack; where it came from, how its released, how its deployed and what is exactly required to run OpenStack.
Eric then gives us a great explanation of OpenStacks core services; Keystone, Glance, Nova, Nova Networking and Neutron – with each service residing on its’ own section of the course. This was key to my understanding of OpenStack as I’ve never really read up on these crazy words I’ve been hearing in the community. Eric does a great job at explaining what they are, what they do, and how they are implemented.
From here we get a great demo of the many different types of access that are provided through the Horizon dashboard and move straight into storage. Eric describes OpenStack’s Swift and Cinder in an easy to understand way, which allows us to really distinguish what makes them different and why we might chose one of the other. In my opinion, this storage module is the best part of this course.
To cap everything off Eric gives us a brief overview of some of the new functionality that was introduced in Havana, and then speaks to the many different types of OpenStack distributions that exist out there today.
Honestly this course was awesome!!! Not knowing much about OpenStack going in, I feel like I have a great general understanding of it now. Again, this is an introduction course, and it suited me perfect! Throughout the course Eric mentions that many of the concepts and functions he was speaking of will be covered in greater details in future courses – I can only hope this is true! If you haven’t heard Eric, he’s got a great radio voice and kept me interested throughout the entire course!
So, if you are in the same boat as I, and are looking to begin exploring OpenStack I would definitely recommend that you go and check out Introduction to OpenStack by @DiscoPosse over on Pluralsight.com
Thanks Eric for the great course and Thank You Pluralsight for the access!!!
