Whitepaper · 10 pages · September 2026

# Private Cloud on CloudStack and Ceph

Architecture, change process, upgrades and monitoring for a two-region KVM cloud, with eight lessons from production

[Download the PDF 1.0 MB](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/downloads/whitepapers/cloudstack-ceph-private-cloud.pdf)

[Talk to an engineer](https://calendar.app.google/ceY8b2bxhCYgB1ot9)

[![Cover of the Building and Operating a Private Cloud on Apache CloudStack and Ceph whitepaper](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/images/whitepapers/cloudstack-ceph-private-cloud-cover.webp) Free download, no form](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/downloads/whitepapers/cloudstack-ceph-private-cloud.pdf)

A practitioner guide to how ZSoftly builds and runs the ZSoftly Cloud Platform. It covers reference architecture, Ceph pool and placement design, VXLAN networking, and numbered Ansible playbooks. It also covers CloudStack and Ceph upgrades, host patching, per-region monitoring and a readiness checklist.

- Apache CloudStack
- Ceph
- KVM
- Ansible
- Observability

Production Lessons

8

Each with the control that prevents a repeat

Readiness Checks

10

To test your own estate

Ceph Monitors

3

The production minimum

Public Sources

16

Every fact links to the docs

Inside

## What the paper covers

- ### Reference Architecture

  Management plane, database, KVM clusters, system VMs and one Ceph cluster per region
- ### Replica Policy

  When size 3 applies, when size 2 is tolerable, and why size 2 with min\_size 1 never is
- ### VXLAN Networking

  Why multicast group limits and CPU mode decide whether networks and live migration work
- ### Numbered Playbooks

  Region-scoped inventories, reviewed dry runs and one change, then verify
- ### Upgrades and Patching

  CloudStack and cephadm upgrade steps and a host patch routine that confirms the reboot
- ### Monitoring That Pages Once

  Per-region stacks, federation for dashboards only, and a peer watchdog

Steps

## The migration, step by step

1. 01

   Assess against the checklist

   Step 1
2. 02

   Design zone, storage and network

   Step 2
3. 03

   Build as roles and playbooks

   Step 3
4. 04

   Operate upgrades and patching

   Step 4
5. 05

   Hand over code and runbooks

   Step 5

## Get the full paper

10 pages, PDF, 1.0 MB. Your first hour with our engineers is free.

[Download the PDF](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/downloads/whitepapers/cloudstack-ceph-private-cloud.pdf)

[Book a discovery call](https://calendar.app.google/ceY8b2bxhCYgB1ot9)

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