Configuring Systems for use with Calico

When running Calico with OpenStack, you also need to configure various OpenStack components, as follows.

Nova (/etc/nova/nova.conf)

Calico uses the Nova metadata service to provide metadata to VMs, without any proxying by Neutron. To make that work:

  • An instance of the Nova metadata API must run on every compute node.
  • /etc/nova/nova.conf must not set service_neutron_metadata_proxy or service_metadata_proxy to True. (The default False value is correct for a Calico cluster.)

Neutron server (/etc/neutron/neutron.conf)

In /etc/neutron/neutron.conf you need the following settings to configure the Neutron service.

Setting Value Meaning
core_plugin calico Use the Calico core plugin

Calico can operate either as a core plugin or as an ML2 mechanism driver. The function is the same both ways, except that floating IPs are only supported when operating as a core plugin; hence the recommended setting here.

However, if you don’t need floating IPs and have other reasons for using ML2, you can, instead, set

Setting Value Meaning
core_plugin neutron.plugins.ml2.plugin.ML2Plugin Use ML2 plugin

and then the further ML2-specific configuration as covered below.

With OpenStack releases earlier than Liberty you will also need:

Setting Value Meaning
dhcp_agents_per_network 9999 Allow unlimited DHCP agents per network

The following options in the [calico] section of /etc/neutron/neutron.conf govern how the Calico plugin/driver and DHCP agent connect to the Calico etcd datastore. You should set etcd_host to the IP of your etcd server, and etcd_port if that server is using a non-standard port. If the etcd server is TLS-secured, also set:

  • etcd_cert_file to a client certificate, which must be signed by a Certificate Authority that the server trusts

  • etcd_key_file to the corresponding private key file

  • etcd_ca_cert_file to a file containing data for the Certificate Authorities that you trust to sign the etcd server’s certificate.

Setting Default Value Meaning
etcd_host 127.0.0.1 The hostname or IP of the etcd server
etcd_port 2379 The port to use for the etcd node/proxy
etcd_key_file   The path to the TLS key file to use with etcd
etcd_cert_file   The path to the TLS client certificate file to use with etcd
etcd_ca_cert_file   The path to the TLS CA certificate file to use with etcd

ML2 (…/ml2_conf.ini)

In /etc/neutron/plugins/ml2/ml2_conf.ini you need the following settings to configure the ML2 plugin.

Setting Value Meaning
mechanism_drivers calico Use Calico
type_drivers local, flat Allow ‘local’ and ‘flat’ networks
tenant_network_types local, flat Allow ‘local’ and ‘flat’ networks

DHCP agent (…/dhcp_agent.ini)

With OpenStack releases earlier than Liberty, in /etc/neutron/dhcp_agent.ini you need the following setting to configure the Neutron DHCP agent.

Setting Value Meaning
interface_driver RoutedInterfaceDriver Use Calico’s modified DHCP agent support for TAP interfaces that are routed instead of being bridged