The Front-end is the central part of an OpenNebula installation and is the very first thing that needs to be deployed (or upgraded). Typically it's a host where the OpenNebula server-side components are installed and which is responsible for the management of an entire virtualization stack. It can be a physical host or a virtual machine (this decision is left up to the cloud administrator) as long as it matches the requirements <uspng>.
Before reading this chapter make sure you are familiar with the Architecture Blueprint <architecture_blueprints>, and the blueprint most appropriate to your needs.
The aim of this chapter is to give you a quick-start guide to deploying OpenNebula. This is the simplest possible installation, but it is also the foundation for a more complex setup. First, you should go through the Database Setup <database_setup> section, especially if you expect to use OpenNebula for production. Then move on to the configuration of OpenNebula Repositories <repositories>, from which you'll install the required components. And finally, proceed with the Front-end Installation <frontend_installation> section. You'll end up running a fully featured OpenNebula Front-end.
After reading this chapter, you can go on to add the KVM <kvm_node>, LXC <lxc_node>, Firecracker <fc_node> hypervisor nodes, or vCenter <vcenter_node>.
To scale from a single-host Front-end deployment to several hosts for better performance or reliability (HA), continue to the following chapters on Large-scale Deployment <large_scale_deployment>, High Availability <ha> and Data Center Federation <federation_section>.
This chapter applies to all supported hypervisors.