Deploy Ubuntu 14.04 on OpenStack: A Complete Step‑by‑Step Guide

Because an application needed to run on Ubuntu 14.04, the author set up a virtual machine, logged into the OpenStack backend, and got the app running.

Step 1: Download the image

Download the Ubuntu 14.04 cloud image (trusty‑server‑cloudimg‑amd64‑disk1.img) from cloud‑images.ubuntu.com and upload it to the /root directory of the OpenStack controller.

Step 2: Create a Glance image

glance image-create --name "ubuntu_1404" --file trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.img --disk-format qcow2 --container-format bare --is-public True --progress

After the command finishes, note the name field (e.g., ubuntu_1404) – this is the identifier shown in the Web UI.

Step 3: Load OpenStack credentials

If you encounter an error about missing username, source the admin-openrc.sh file: source admin-openrc.sh The admin-openrc.sh file should contain:

export OS_TENANT_NAME=admin
export OS_USERNAME=admin
export OS_PASSWORD=your_password
export OS_AUTH_URL=http://controller0:35357/v2.0

Step 4: Launch the cloud instance

1. Log in to the OpenStack dashboard.

2. Navigate to Project → Compute → Instances and click Launch Instance . Choose Boot from Image and select the image name created in Step 2.

3. Create a key pair because the Ubuntu cloud image does not support password login. Generate a key pair on a Linux host with: ssh-keygen -t rsa -f cloud.key This creates cloud.key (private key) and cloud.key.pub (public key).

4. Copy the public key content into the dashboard’s Key Pair → Import Key Pair dialog.

5. After the instance is created, associate a floating IP and use the private key ( cloud.key) to SSH into the VM.

Step 5: Access the instance

Use the OpenStack console or SSH with the private key to log in. Once logged in, you can verify that the application runs correctly.

All screenshots in the original article illustrate these steps and have been retained as

tags.