Learn OpenStack with TryStack

Getting an opportunity to play with OpenStack effectively can be cost-prohibitive. Particularly for developers looking to integrate Keystone API functionality into their applications - you shouldn't have to build your own OpenStack deployment, or cough up boku bucks. Even if you have the resources, time is irreplaceable.

That's where TryStack can come into play. To get going, start by joining the TryStack Facebook group. This is the only down-side to TryStack to my mind. I absolutely *despise* Facebook and everything it stands for. Still, even I managed to reset my long-unused F-Book login to join (they should be rolling out other auth capabilities soon - GitHub is supposed to be next).

Within a day Dan Radez with Red Hat had activated my account, and I was able to spin up a couple of servers and got them routing out to the big bad world. Dan has put together a very easy-to-understand instructional video to help with new users:

I should make clear that this is only a testing environment - as a result, instances only stay live for 24 hours before getting wiped. Still, this is more than enough time to confirm functionality using Keystone before, say, pushing a new feature out to your production system.

Enjoy.