Level up from CloudStack basics and learn how to design and deploy a real IaaS cloud. This session covers CloudStack architecture, key components, and a live demo: from setting up the Management Server to configuring KVM hosts and adding your first zone. Perfect for engineers and architects ready to build with CloudStack. ---------------------- 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.

1. Apache CloudStack 201
Let's design & build an IaaS cloud
Jithin Raju

2. About Me
• Cloud Architect at ShapeBlue
• Apache CloudStack Committer
• Hands-on experience designing,
deploying, and supporting
CloudStack

3. About ShapeBlue
“ShapeBlue are expert builders of public & private clouds. They are the
leading global CloudStack services company.”

4. ShapeBlue Customers

5. What can you do with Apache CloudStack?

6. Let’s build an IaaS Cloud using Apache CloudStack

7. Design
Pre
installation
Installation
Post
Installation
Physical Layout
Logical Layout
Review
Requirements
Internal DNS
Setup
Database Server
Setup
Management
Server Setup
KVM Hypervisor
Setup
Storage Setup
Configure Repo
Install Management
Server
Access CloudStack
UI
Add Zone
Install Additional
Management Server
Install CloudStack
Usage

8. Physical Layout

9. Logical Layout

10. Management VMs Specification
Count 4
vCPU 8
Memory 16 GB
Storage 100/500 GB

11. Hardware for Management Hypervisors
Count 2
Model Any
CPU 1 x 64-bit x86 CPU, Minimum 16 cores, must
support HVM (Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled)
RAM 64 GB
Storage 240 GB (If you are using shared storage for VMs)
2 x 1 TB (If you are using local storage for VMs)
Redundant eg: RAID-backed, High performance
Hard disks recommended.
Optional Shared Storage: 1 TB
NICs 2 x 10+ Gbps,1 x 1Gbps (OOB)

12. Example Scale
Average Instance Specification
vCPUs 2
Memory 8 GB
Volume (Disk) 50 GB
Bandwidth 100 Mbps
500 Standard Instances with
Medium Density allocation on
Medium-End Compute Nodes

13. Hardware for Compute Hypervisors
Count 8 (8 hosts in a cluster, 7 +1 redundancy)
Model Any
CPU 2 x 64-bit x86 CPU, 32 core, must support HVM
(Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled)
RAM 768 GB
Storage 2 x 240 GB (This will not be used for the VMs),
Redundant eg: RAID-backed
NICs 4 x 10/25Gbps, 1 x 1Gbps (OOB)

14. Storage for the Zone
Primary Storage 20 TB NFS or any supported shared storage.
Secondary Storage 10 TB NFS

15. Networking Hardware
Leaf Switches 2 x 48 Port 10/25 GbE + 8 Port 40/100 GbE
Spine Switches 2 x 32 Port 40/100 GbE

16. IP Addresses / VLAN
Item Quantity/Description Network IP Address VLAN ID/ VNI
Public Network
200 public addresses – /24
network IP range. Can be a
Public/ Private Intranet
10.0.48.0/24 51
Guest Network
200x VLANs dedicated to
CloudStack use.
1111-1300
Management and Storage Network 10x RFC 1918 addresses 10.0.32.0/20
Reserved System VM Public
Public IP Addresses for System
VMs
10.1.52.61-10.1.52.80
Reserved System VM Management
Management IP Addresses for
System VMs, VRs ( VMware)
10.1.36.61 – 10.1.36.70

17. Management Hypervisor Networking

18. Compute Host Networking

19. The Absolute Essentials of CloudStack

20. Infrastructure Logical View

21. Infrastructure Physical View

22. Compute
KVM VMware
XenServer/
XCP-ng
Hyper-V Baremetal
OVM

23. Compute
Primary Storage (Compute)
KVM VMware
XenServer/
XCP-ng
Hyper-V Baremetal
OVM
Local Storage NFS
iSCSI FiberChannel

24. Compute
Primary Storage (Compute)
KVM VMware
XenServer/
XCP-ng
Hyper-V Baremetal
OVM
Local Storage NFS
iSCSI FiberChannel Managed Storage
Ceph
NetApp
LinBit PureStorage HPE
Dell Storpool

25. Compute
Primary Storage (Compute)
Secondary Storage (User Accessible)
KVM VMware
XenServer/
XCP-ng
Hyper-V Baremetal
OVM
Local Storage NFS
iSCSI FiberChannel Managed Storage
Ceph
NetApp
LinBit PureStorage HPE
Dell Storpool
NFS
Swift S3

26. Compute
Primary Storage (Compute)
Secondary Storage (User Accessible)
KVM VMware
XenServer/
XCP-ng
Hyper-V Baremetal
OVM
Local Storage NFS
iSCSI FiberChannel Managed Storage
Ceph
NetApp
LinBit PureStorage HPE
Dell Storpool
NFS
Swift S3
Object Storage (User Accessible)
Ceph
MinIO

27. Networking
Advanced L2 VLAN VXLAN NSX …
Basic L3 Security Groups

28. Networking
Advanced L2 VLAN VXLAN NSX …
Basic L3 Security Groups
Services
Static Routing
Firewall
DHCP DNS
LB VPN PF
…
NAT
Userdata, Metadata
Password
Dynamic Routing RVR

29. Virtual Router

30. Console Proxy VM

31. Secondary Storage VM

32. Templates & ISOs

33. Instances

34. Volumes

35. Snapshots

36. Backups

37. Service Offerings

38. Network Traffic Types

39. Guest Networks : Isolated

40. Guest Networks : Shared

41. Guest Networks : L2

42. Guest Networks : VPC

43. Guest Networks : VPC

44. Domain, Account &
Project

45. Usage
• Tracks various Usage Types
• Instance runtime (Including
Stopped Instances)
• Volume, Template Storage
• Enables billing integration

47. Where to Go Next
• https://docs.cloudstack.apache.org/en/4.20.1.0/
• https://cloudstack.apache.org/mailing-lists/
• https://github.com/apache/cloudstack/discussions
• https://www.shapeblue.com/apache-cloudstack-for-beginners/
• https://www.youtube.com/@ApacheCloudStack
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/apachecloudstack/
• https://x.com/cloudstack
• https://www.reddit.com/r/ApacheCloudStack

48. You can build This !

49. Q&A