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This Reference Architecture is based on the Canonical distribution of OpenStack (Charmed OpenStack). Canonical commercially distributes and supports OpenStack, having Ubuntu as the reference operating system for OpenStack deployments. Since 2011, OpenStack packages have been in every Ubuntu release. The release schedules of the two projects are synchronized, ensuring that OpenStack updates and releases are immediately available on widely deployed releases of Ubuntu.
The current Reference Architecture is based on OpenStack Ussuri, however, is it possible to upgrade to the newer OpenStack releases that are supported within the scope of current Ubuntu LTS (see the following release cycle chart) in a fully automated way.
With the current releases of the Ubuntu operating system, multiple releases of OpenStack are available for setup:
The codebase for Charmed OpenStack is evolving at a rapid pace. See https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle for more information.
The current Reference Architecture is delivered on a disaggregated infrastructure approach, where a group of servers accommodate different OpenStack roles or services such as:
However, Canonical offers to deploy OpenStack using a hyperconverged approach, where each server accommodates multiple roles, having OpenStack control, compute, and storage functions and services running across all of them. This approach has its own benefits, including better cost efficiency, simplicity of operation and management overhead.