Simplifying End-to-End Apache CloudStack Deployment with a Web-Based Automation Portal
Deploying Apache CloudStack often involves complex manual steps across multiple systems. In this session, Vivek presents a web-based automation portal him and his colleagues have developed, to simplify and streamline the entire CloudStack deployment process—from provisioning MySQL clusters to installing CloudStack management servers and prepare the KVM nodes. Vivek walks you through the architecture, shows how inventories and variables are dynamically generated via a UI, and demonstrates how they trigger and monitor live Ansible playbook execution in the browser. Attendees gain insights into operationalising CloudStack deployments and extending the portal for broader infrastructure automation use cases. ---------------------- The CloudStack India User Group 2025 took place on July 11th in Greater Noida, India. The event once again brought together open-source cloud professionals, contributors, developers, and users for a day of deep technical insights, knowledge sharing, and community connection.
Simplifying End-to-End Apache CloudStack Deployment with a Web-Based Automation Portal
- 2. • Introduction • Why was it needed • What we Built • Modules of the Portal • Module 1 - CloudStack Management & DB • Module 2 - Install KVM Hosts • Module 3 - CloudStack Test Cases • Technical Stack • Key Benefits • What’s Next? • Q&A TABLEOF CONTENTS
- 3. ABOUTME • Living in Noida • Lead DevOps Engineer at Yotta. • Working on CloudStack since 2016. • 10+ Years Experience in IaC. • Expertise in Automation, CloudStack, DevOps In short, I translate infrastructure challenges into clean, repeatable code so teams can deploy faster, scale confidently, and sleep better at night.
- 4. WHYWASITNEEDED The Problem: • Manual CloudStack setup was time-consuming, repetitive, and error-prone • Teams were configuring: ⚬ Netplan (NICs, Bonds, Bridges) ⚬ MySQL primary-replica ⚬ CloudStack management nodes ⚬ KVM hosts with consistent topology The Risk: • Human errors caused delays (typos, wrong NIC names, misconfigured replication) • No standard way to deploy or review settings before applying The Goal: • Make deployments consistent, fast, and error-free • Enable non-experts to provision complex infrastructure
- 5. WHATWE BUILT A Flask-based automation portal for Installing & Configuring CloudStack, setup MySQL replication cluster, setup KVM hosts, predefined CloudStack use cases. Features: • GUI-based input collection • Ansible inventory and var file generation • Jinja2 templating for Netplan • Real-time streaming output from playbooks • Dynamic cloudstack.ini for test cases
- 6. MODULES OFTHE PORTAL Install/Configure Management + DB Servers Install/Configure KVM Hosts Run CloudStack Test Cases
- 7. MODULE1-CLOUDSTACK MANAGEMENT&DB • Define number of MGMT and DB nodes • Assign hostnames, roles (master/slave) • Enter passwords and MySQL credentials • Generates: ⚬ inventory.ini ⚬ variable_file.yml • Executes: ⚬ MySQL installation ⚬ CloudStack mgmt node install • Live playbook streaming
- 8. MODULE2-INSTALLKVM HOSTS • User Specifies: ⚬ Number of KVM hosts ⚬ NIC layout ⚬ Bond/Bridge config (shared or per-host) • Generates: ⚬ inventory_kvm.ini ⚬ Netplan config per host • Applies: ⚬ Netplan configs via playbook ⚬ KVM installation steps ⚬ Handles bonding, bridging, IPs, DNS
- 9. MODULE3-CLOUDSTACKTEST CASES • Inputs: API URL, Key, Secret, Zone • Dynamically generates cloudstack.ini • Runs selected playbooks (Example: VPC Workflow, Kubernetes Workflow) • Shows live output • Fully decoupled from backend infra
- 10. TECHNICAL STACK • Frontend: HTML + Bootstrap (Jinja2 templates) • BACKEND: FLASK + SQLALCHEMY • AUTOMATION: ANSIBLE + JINJA2 • LIVE LOGS: FLASK STREAM_WITH_CONTEXT
- 11. KEY BENEFITS • Reduces deployment time from hours to minutes • Reduced error from manual steps • Consistency across environments • Avoids configuration drift and typos • Promotes standardization and collaboration • Non-experts can perform infra tasks
- 12. WHAT’SNEXT • Fine tune the portal • Potential open-source release • Add more automation use cases, i.e. Storage installation, Monitoring Setup, Logging Setup
- 13. THANKYOU NAME VIVEK KUMAR EMAIL ADDRESS VAKUMAR@YOTTA.COM Thanks for listening! If you have questions, don’t worry — I do too. Let’s figure it out together.