Learn how OpenStack manages different types of storage

Before you get started!

Welcome to OpenStack!

In this series of tutorials, we will walk you through all the necessary steps to install, configure and get started with OpenStack. Using just your workstation, you will learn how to use OpenStack for cloud infrastructure implementation purposes, from a single-node installation to large-scale clusters.

This tutorial is the tenth in the “Phase I - Single-node OpenStack on your workstation” series.

Explore other tutorials >

What is OpenStack?

OpenStack is a collection of open-source projects designed to work together to form the basis of a cloud. OpenStack can be used for both private and public cloud implementation.

What is Sunbeam?

Sunbeam is an OpenStack project created to set the foundation for zero-ops OpenStack. By using highly opinionated architecture and native Kubernetes principles, Sunbeam delivers distilled OpenStack excellence on top of K8s.

What is MicroStack?

MicroStack (based on Sunbeam) is an OpenStack flavour designed for small-scale cloud environments, edge deployments, testing and development, with full commercial support available from Canonical.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

• Distinguish between the various types of storage in OpenStack

There are three types of storage available in OpenStack:

• Ephemeral storage - Volatile storage that can be attached to instances during their provisioning process. It is removed permanently once instances are deleted. Ephemeral storage is managed by Nova, and can be used to store temporary data, including common OS files, caches, buffers, etc.

• Block storage - Persistent storage that is attached to instances during their provisioning process by default. It is not removed by default when instances are deleted. Block storage is managed by Cinder, and can be used to store persistent data, such as databases, logs, binaries, etc.

• Object storage - Persistent cloud-native storage that is not attached to instances, but is accessible through the API instead. Object storage used to be managed by the OpenStack Swift service, but in production environments it is usually implemented with (Ceph Object Gateway)[https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/radosgw/] instead.

Cinder is not included by default in Sunbeam when installed in the single-node mode. For more information on enabling Cinder in Sunbeam, please refer to the official multi-node installation instructions

Congratulations! You have reached the end of this tutorial.

You can now move to the next tutorial - “11. Quotas”.

In this tutorial, you have learnt how to:

• Distinguish between the various types of storage in OpenStack

Where to go from here?

• Refer to Sunbeam documentation
• Join the community and ask questions
• Report a bug in Sunbeam
• Explore Charmed OpenStack