250 lines
13 KiB
XML
250 lines
13 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0"
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xml:id="module001-ch011-block-storage">
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<title>OpenStack Block Storage</title>
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<para><emphasis role="bold">Block Storage and OpenStack
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Compute</emphasis></para>
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<para>OpenStack provides two classes of block storage, "ephemeral"
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storage and persistent "volumes". Ephemeral storage exists only
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for the life of an instance, it will persist across reboots of the
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guest operating system but when the instance is deleted so is the
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associated storage. All instances have some ephemeral storage.
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Volumes are persistent virtualized block devices independent of
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any particular instance. Volumes may be attached to a single
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instance at a time, but may be detached or reattached to a
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different instance while retaining all data, much like a USB
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drive.</para>
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<para><guilabel>Ephemeral Storage</guilabel></para>
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<para>Ephemeral storage is associated with a single unique instance.
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Its size is defined by the flavor of the instance.</para>
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<para>Data on ephemeral storage ceases to exist when the instance it
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is associated with is terminated. Rebooting the VM or restarting
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the host server, however, will not destroy ephemeral data. In the
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typical use case an instance's root filesystem is stored on
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ephemeral storage. This is often an unpleasant surprise for people
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unfamiliar with the cloud model of computing.</para>
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<para>In addition to the ephemeral root volume all flavors except
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the smallest, m1.tiny, provide an additional ephemeral block
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device varying from 20G for the m1.small through 160G for the
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m1.xlarge by default - these sizes are configurable. This is
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presented as a raw block device with no partition table or
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filesystem. Cloud aware operating system images may discover,
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format, and mount this device. For example the cloud-init package
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included in Ubuntu's stock cloud images will format this space as
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an ext3 filesystem and mount it on /mnt. It is important to note
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this a feature of the guest operating system. OpenStack only
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provisions the raw storage.</para>
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<para><guilabel>Volume Storage</guilabel></para>
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<para>Volume storage is independent of any particular instance and
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is persistent. Volumes are user created and within quota and
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availability limits may be of any arbitrary size.</para>
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<para>When first created volumes are raw block devices with no
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partition table and no filesystem. They must be attached to an
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instance to be partitioned and/or formatted. Once this is done
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they may be used much like an external disk drive. Volumes may
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attached to only one instance at a time, but may be detached and
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reattached to either the same or different instances.</para>
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<para>It is possible to configure a volume so that it is bootable
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and provides a persistent virtual instance similar to traditional
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non-cloud based virtualization systems. In this use case the
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resulting instance may still have ephemeral storage depending on
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the flavor selected, but the root filesystem (and possibly others)
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will be on the persistent volume and thus state will be maintained
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even if the instance is shutdown. Details of this configuration
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are discussed in the<link
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xlink:href="http://docs.openstack.org/user-guide/content/"
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>OpenStack End User Guide</link>.</para>
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<para>Volumes do not provide concurrent access from multiple
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instances. For that you need either a traditional network
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filesystem like NFS or CIFS or a cluster filesystem such as
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GlusterFS. These may be built within an OpenStack cluster or
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provisioned outside of it, but are not features provided by the
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OpenStack software.</para>
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<para>The OpenStack Block Storage service works via the interaction
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of a series of daemon processes named cinder-* that reside
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persistently on the host machine or machines. The binaries can all
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be run from a single node, or spread across multiple nodes. They
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can also be run on the same node as other OpenStack
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services.</para>
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<para><guilabel>The current services available in OpenStack Block
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Storage are:</guilabel></para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis role="bold">cinder-api</emphasis> - The
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cinder-api service is a WSGI app that authenticates and routes
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requests throughout the Block Storage system. It supports the
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OpenStack API's only, although there is a translation that can
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be done via Nova's EC2 interface which calls in to the
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cinderclient.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis role="bold">cinder-scheduler</emphasis> - The
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cinder-scheduler is responsible for scheduling/routing
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requests to the appropriate volume service. As of Grizzly;
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depending upon your configuration this may be simple
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round-robin scheduling to the running volume services, or it
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can be more sophisticated through the use of the Filter
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Scheduler. The Filter Scheduler is the default in Grizzly and
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enables filter on things like Capacity, Availability Zone,
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Volume Types and Capabilities as well as custom
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filters.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis role="bold">cinder-volume</emphasis> - The
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cinder-volume service is responsible for managing Block
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Storage devices, specifically the back-end devices
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themselves.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis role="bold">cinder-backup</emphasis> - The
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cinder-backup service provides a means to back up a Cinder
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Volume to OpenStack Object Store (SWIFT).</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para><guilabel>Introduction to OpenStack Block
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Storage</guilabel></para>
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<para>OpenStack Block Storage provides persistent High Performance
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Block Storage resources that can be consumed by OpenStack Compute
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instances. This includes secondary attached storage similar to
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Amazon's Elastic Block Storage (EBS). In addition images can be
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written to a Block Storage device and specified for OpenStack
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Compute to use a bootable persistent instance.</para>
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<para>There are some differences from Amazon's EBS that one should
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be aware of. OpenStack Block Storage is not a shared storage
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solution like NFS, but currently is designed so that the device is
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attached and in use by a single instance at a time.</para>
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<para><guilabel>Backend Storage Devices</guilabel></para>
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<para>OpenStack Block Storage requires some form of back-end storage
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that the service is built on. The default implementation is to use
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LVM on a local Volume Group named "cinder-volumes". In addition to
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the base driver implementation, OpenStack Block Storage also
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provides the means to add support for other storage devices to be
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utilized such as external Raid Arrays or other Storage
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appliances.</para>
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<para><guilabel>Users and Tenants (Projects)</guilabel></para>
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<para>The OpenStack Block Storage system is designed to be used by
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many different cloud computing consumers or customers, basically
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tenants on a shared system, using role-based access assignments.
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Roles control the actions that a user is allowed to perform. In
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the default configuration, most actions do not require a
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particular role, but this is configurable by the system
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administrator editing the appropriate policy.json file that
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maintains the rules. A user's access to particular volumes is
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limited by tenant, but the username and password are assigned per
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user. Key pairs granting access to a volume are enabled per user,
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but quotas to control resource consumption across available
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hardware resources are per tenant.</para>
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<para><guilabel>For tenants, quota controls are available to limit
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the:</guilabel></para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Number of volumes which may be created</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Number of snapshots which may be created</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Total number of Giga Bytes allowed per tenant (shared
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between snapshots and volumes)</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para><guilabel>Volumes Snapshots and Backups</guilabel></para>
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<para>This introduction provides a high level overview of the two
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basic resources offered by the OpenStack Block Storage service.
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The first is Volumes and the second is Snapshots which are derived
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from Volumes.</para>
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<para><guilabel>Volumes</guilabel></para>
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<para>Volumes are allocated block storage resources that can be
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attached to instances as secondary storage or they can be used as
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the root store to boot instances. Volumes are persistent R/W Block
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Storage devices most commonly attached to the Compute node via
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iSCSI.</para>
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<para><guilabel>Snapshots</guilabel></para>
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<para>A Snapshot in OpenStack Block Storage is a read-only point in
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time copy of a Volume. The Snapshot can be created from a Volume
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that is currently in use (via the use of '--force True') or in an
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available state. The Snapshot can then be used to create a new
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volume via create from snapshot.</para>
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<para><guilabel>Backups</guilabel></para>
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<para>A Backup is an archived copy of a Volume currently stored in
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Object Storage (Swift).</para>
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<para><guilabel>Managing Volumes</guilabel></para>
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<para>Cinder is the OpenStack service that allows you to give extra
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block level storage to your OpenStack Compute instances. You may
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recognize this as a similar offering from Amazon EC2 known as
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Elastic Block Storage (EBS). The default Cinder implementation is
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an iSCSI solution that employs the use of Logical Volume Manager
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(LVM) for Linux. Note that a volume may only be attached to one
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instance at a time. This is not a ‘shared storage’ solution like a
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SAN of NFS on which multiple servers can attach to. It's also
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important to note that Cinder also includes a number of drivers to
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allow you to use a number of other vendor's back-end storage
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devices in addition to or instead of the base LVM
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implementation.</para>
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<para>Here is brief walk-through of a simple create/attach sequence,
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keep in mind this requires proper configuration of both OpenStack
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Compute via cinder.conf and OpenStack Block Storage via
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cinder.conf.</para>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>The volume is created via cinder create; which creates
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an LV into the volume group (VG) "cinder-volumes"</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The volume is attached to an instance via nova
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volume-attach; which creates a unique iSCSI IQN that will be
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exposed to the compute node</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The compute node which run the concerned instance has
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now an active ISCSI session; and a new local storage
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(usually a /dev/sdX disk)</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>libvirt uses that local storage as a storage for the
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instance; the instance get a new disk (usually a /dev/vdX
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disk)</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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<para><guilabel>Block Storage Capabilities</guilabel></para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>OpenStack provides persistent block level storage
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devices for use with OpenStack compute instances.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The block storage system manages the creation, attaching
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and detaching of the block devices to servers. Block storage
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volumes are fully integrated into OpenStack Compute and the
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Dashboard allowing for cloud users to manage their own
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storage needs.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>In addition to using simple Linux server storage, it has
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unified storage support for numerous storage platforms
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including Ceph, NetApp, Nexenta, SolidFire, and
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Zadara.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Block storage is appropriate for performance sensitive
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scenarios such as database storage, expandable file systems,
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or providing a server with access to raw block level
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storage.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Snapshot management provides powerful functionality for
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backing up data stored on block storage volumes. Snapshots
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can be restored or used to create a new block storage
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volume.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</chapter>
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