RSH Network

1. What Is OpenStack Heat?

OpenStack Heat is the orchestration service of OpenStack that enables Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using YAML-based templates. It automates the provisioning and lifecycle management of compute, storage, and networking resources in a repeatable, scalable, and consistent manner.

Heat is ideal for:

Deploying complex applications
Managing multi-tier architectures
Automating CI/CD pipelines
Ensuring consistent dev, test, and production environments

2. Heat Architecture

OpenStack Heat consists of the following key components:

Heat Engine
Parses templates and manages the full lifecycle of resources.
Heat API
Receives template uploads and stack operation requests.
Heat CLI
Command-line interface for managing stacks.
Orchestration Templates
YAML files defining cloud resources and their dependencies.
Stack
A collection of resources created and managed together from a template.

3. Sample Heat Template

Below is a simple Heat template that deploys a virtual machine:

heat_template_version: 2018-03-02

description: Simple VM deployment

resources:

demo_instance:

type: OS::Nova::Server

properties:

name: demo-vm

image: Ubuntu 22.04

flavor: m1.small

networks:

- network: demo-net

🔹 This template creates a VM named demo-vm using the specified image, flavor, and network.

4. Stack Operations

You can manage Heat stacks using the OpenStack CLI:

# Create a stack

openstack stack create -t demo.yaml demo-stack

# List stacks

openstack stack list

# Show stack details

openstack stack show demo-stack

# Delete a stack

openstack stack delete demo-stack

These commands allow full lifecycle management of infrastructure deployments.

5. Advanced Features

OpenStack Heat supports powerful orchestration features:

Parameters – Accept user-defined inputs at deployment time
Outputs – Return values such as IP addresses or resource IDs
Nested Templates – Break large architectures into reusable components
Conditions – Control resource creation logic dynamically
Dependencies – Ensure correct order of resource provisioning

6. Best Practices

To use OpenStack Heat effectively:

Use version-controlled templates for reproducibility

Validate templates before deployment:

openstack orchestration template validate -t demo.yaml

Modularize complex stacks using nested templates

Secure sensitive parameters with:

hidden: true

Integrate Heat with CI/CD pipelines for automated infrastructure delivery

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OpenStack Heat – Automating Infrastructure with Orchestration Templates