The Quantum Service is a python process, similar to other OpenStack projects like OpenStack Nova. If your deployment uses a ''controller host'' to run centralize OpenStack Nova components, you can deploy Quantum on that same host. However, Quantum is entirely standalone and can be deployed on its own server as well.
If you are building a host from scratch to use for Quantum, we recommend using a recent versions of Ubuntu (11.10 or newer) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (version 6.x) as these are the best-tested platforms.
