openstack-manuals/doc/config-reference/compute/section_compute-configure-backing-storage.xml
Diane Fleming 64b6c9261e Folder rename, file rename, flattening of directories
Current folder name	New folder name	        Book title
----------------------------------------------------------
basic-install 	        DELETE
cli-guide	        DELETE
common	                common
NEW	                admin-guide-cloud	Cloud Administrators Guide
docbkx-example	        DELETE
openstack-block-storage-admin 	DELETE
openstack-compute-admin 	DELETE
openstack-config 	config-reference	OpenStack Configuration Reference
openstack-ha 	        high-availability-guide	OpenStack High Availabilty Guide
openstack-image	        image-guide	OpenStack Virtual Machine Image Guide
openstack-install 	install-guide	OpenStack Installation Guide
openstack-network-connectivity-admin 	admin-guide-network 	OpenStack Networking Administration Guide
openstack-object-storage-admin 	DELETE
openstack-security 	security-guide	OpenStack Security Guide
openstack-training 	training-guide	OpenStack Training Guide
openstack-user 	        user-guide	OpenStack End User Guide
openstack-user-admin 	user-guide-admin	OpenStack Admin User Guide
glossary	        NEW        	OpenStack Glossary

bug: #1220407

Change-Id: Id5ffc774b966ba7b9a591743a877aa10ab3094c7
author: diane fleming
2013-09-08 15:15:50 -07:00

35 lines
1.8 KiB
XML

<section xml:id="section_configure-backing-storage"
version="5.0"
xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
xmlns:ns5="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ns4="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
xmlns:ns3="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"
xmlns:ns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook">
<title>Configuring Compute Backing Storage</title>
<para>Backing Storage is the storage used to provide
the expanded operating system image, and any ephemeral storage.
Inside the virtual machine, this is normally presented as two
virtual hard disks (for example, /dev/vda and /dev/vdb respectively).
However, inside OpenStack, this can be derived from one of three
methods: LVM, QCOW or RAW, chosen using the
<literal>libvirt_images_type</literal> option in <filename>nova.conf</filename>
on the compute node.</para>
<para>QCOW is the default backing store. It uses a copy-on-write philosophy to
delay allocation of storage until it is actually needed. This means that the
space required for the backing of an image can be significantly less on the real
disk than what seems available in the virtual machine operating system.
</para>
<para>RAW creates files without any sort of file formatting, effectively creating
files with the plain binary one would normally see on a real disks. This can
increase performance, but means that the entire size of the virtual disk is
reserved on the physical disk.
</para>
<para>Local <link xlink:href="http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Volume_Manager_(Linux)">LVM volumes</link>
can also be used.
Set <literal>libvirt_images_volume_group=nova_local</literal> where <literal>nova_local</literal> is the name
of the LVM group you have created.
</para>
</section>