How to Seamlessly Connect OpenStack VMs with Kubernetes Pods Using Kube‑OVN

OpenStack is an IaaS cloud platform that helps users build and manage private and public clouds. Over 80% of Chinese enterprises use OpenStack, but many are moving workloads to cloud‑native environments such as Kubernetes.

To enable simultaneous management of OpenStack and Kubernetes, the recommended approach is to use Kubernetes as the foundation, deploying and orchestrating OpenStack on top of it, allowing dynamic tenant subnets across both environments.

The key requirements are that Kube‑OVN be version 1.7 or higher and that OpenStack be deployed on OVN.

Solution 1: Based on ovn‑ic (loose coupling)

ovn‑ic is an inter‑connection tool that exchanges routing information between different OVN controllers, ensuring reliability and performance.

This design provides simple deployment, keeps OpenStack and Kubernetes relatively independent, and avoids mutual impact, but it does not share network isolation features and resource utilization is calculated separately.

Solution 2: Based on a shared OVN foundation (tight coupling)

Kubernetes and OpenStack share the same OVN controller; Kube‑OVN supports OpenStack deployment on its OVN controller, giving both platforms identical networking capabilities.

This approach maximizes host resource utilization by allowing VMs and Pods on the same node and fully supports OpenStack network isolation, though deployment is more complex and the two systems can affect each other’s virtual networking.

OpenStack and Kubernetes can deploy VMs and Pods on the same host, maximizing resource utilization.

Supports OpenStack network isolation features.

Both solutions are available on GitHub at https://github.com/kubeovn/kube-ovn/blob/master/docs/OpenstackOnKubernetes.md; choose the one that best fits your scenario.