This document provides an overview of OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder) and how it addresses challenges of scaling virtual environments. It discusses how virtualization led to cloud computing with goals of abstraction, automation, and scale. OpenStack was created as open source software to build and manage clouds with common APIs. Cinder provides block storage volumes to OpenStack instances, managing creation and attachment. SolidFire's storage system offers comprehensive Cinder support with guaranteed performance, high availability, and scale for production use.

1. OpenStack Block Storage 101

2. How did we get to this point?
• First there was virtualization…and it was
good
• For smaller scale use cases it still is good
• But, when scaling virtual environments…
• Adding and deploying hypervisors
• Storage performance degradation
• Networking headaches
• Management complexity
• Something had to change
Graphic Source: http://crystaltec.com.au/services/virtualization

3. Enter Cloud Computing
• It’s no longer just about a collection of
virtual machines
• It’s all about:
• Abstraction
• Automation
• Resource utilization
• Utility consumption model
• Portability
• Dynamic and massive scale
• Common interfaces / APIs
Graphic Source: http://www.intelligentitnyc.com

4. Enter OpenStack
• Project launched in 2010
• Open source software for building
and managing clouds
• A collection of software projects that
tie into common management layer
• Created to
• Drive industry standards
• Accelerate cloud adoption
• Put an end to cloud “lock-in”
• Deliver AWS-like functionality and
economics outside of AWS

5. So what does OpenStack really do?
• Abstracted physical and virtualized resources tied into common
management layer
• Virtual machines, Bare Metal, Storage, Networking, etc.
• Easy to use REST-API
• Self-service virtual environments for end users
• Dynamic resource provisioning
• Designed for massive scale

6. OpenStack Value Proposition
• Manage virtualization across hypervisors
• VMware, KVM, Hyper-V, Xen, etc.
• Support the whole IaaS stack, not just compute
• Storage, Networking, Security…
• Drive greater resource utilization across infrastructure
• Scale beyond the limitations of a hypervisor cluster
• Pursuing compatibility between private & public clouds
• Bringing “Software-Defined” Infrastructure vision to life

7. Early Use
Cases
• Test & Development
• Enterprise IT / DevOps / Continuous
Integration
• Database
• Relational (MySQL)
• Non-Relational (MongoDB)
• Internal Web Services
• External Web Services
• i.e. eCommerce, WebEx

8. OpenStack Community Momentum
• Community of almost 10,000 people across 87
countries
• >45 companies contributed to Grizzly release
• >40 listed OpenStack case studies
• >200 participating vendors across ecosystem

9. OpenStack & Storage: Horses for Courses
Cinder / Block Storage Swift / Object Storage
Objectives
• Storage for running VM disk
volumes on a host
• Ideal for performance sensitive apps
• Enables Amazon EBS-like service
• Ideal for cost effective, scale-out storage
• Fully distributed, API-accessible
• Well suited for backup, archiving, data retention
• Enables Dropbox-like service
Use Cases
• Production Applications
• Traditional IT Systems
• Database Driven Apps
• Messaging / Collaboration
• Dev / Test Systems
• VM Templates
• ISO Images
• Disk Volume Snapshots
• Backup / Archive
• Image / Video Repository
Workloads
• High Change Content
• Smaller, Random R/W
• Higher / “Bursty” IO
• Typically More Static Content
• Larger, Sequential R/W
• Lower IOPS

10. OpenStack
Cinder
(Block Storage)
• Architected to provide traditional block level
storage resources to other OpenStack
services
• Presents persistent block level storage
volumes for use with OpenStack Nova
compute instances
• Manages the creation, attaching and
detaching of these volumes between a storage
system like SolidFire and different host
servers

11. Cinder Base Features
• create/delete volumes
• specify custom "types/extra-specs"
• clone
• copy image to volume and volume to image
• point in time copy (snapshots of volumes)
• create volume from snapshot
• backup volume (to object store, SWIFT and CEPH)
• transfer volume ownership
• customized scheduling filters
• per tenant usage quotas

12. Vendor Unique Features
• Exposed through custom types or extensions
• Different back-ends for different use cases
• Back-End selected by filter scheduler
• Back-End is setup based on desired capabilities and
characteristics

13. SolidFire &
Cinder

14. OpenStack Ecosystem
Representative Vendors
Compute Networking Object StorageBlock Storage
Availability, Monitoring & Config. Management
OpenStack Software Distributions
Applications / PaaS

15. Early
Adopters "We are moving to the
cloud powered by
OpenStack to enable
agility, availability and
the innovation necessary
to get the best products
to our customers, faster
than our competitors."
“As we examined the various
initiatives we’d have
underway in our cloud, which
would include the
intermingling of physical and
virtual loads as well as
complex network
configurations, we knew that
the flexibility inherent in
OpenStack would prove
powerful enough to support
our objectives.”
“We have been able to
deploy a VM in just 5 to
10 minutes, provide
faster self services to
our customers, and offer
a rich set of consumable
services that are the
foundation for our cutting
edge SW developers."
”We built a platform called
X1...all of the communication
that we are sending back and
forth from our set-top box to
our network is going through
stuff that is running on our
OpenStack production cloud.
This is a real world next
generation guide experience."
"Created Continuous
Delivery Cloud (CDC) so
teams could have
consistent architecture.
All teams developing
new NoSQL or caching
platforms have a place to
go, it is self service.
Launched on beta
version of Essex, have
done a few patches
along the way but has
been rock solid."
"OpenStack plugged in
really nicely and solved a
lot of our problems in
terms of giving us the
APIs and the
programmatically
definable infrastructure"
"Launched Nova
OpenStack Compute in
August '12 on Nova,
since then 549m API
requests and 99.94%
availability during that
time."

16. SolidFire & OpenStack
• The industry’s most comprehensive Cinder support
• Unparalleled combination of guaranteed performance, high-availability and scale
• Enhanced features in Grizzly release;
• QoS settings via volume types
• Boot from volumes
• Multi-backend support
• Established interoperability & partnerships with industry leaders;
"SolidFire has done a great job leading the Block Storage project in line with the OpenStack
philosophy of delivering a pluggable architecture with integration points for multiple vendors and
technologies. It's exciting to see more production implementations and configuration options
available to OpenStack users.”
Jonathan Bryce, Executive Director, OpenStack Foundation

17. Related
Resources
• OpenStack Solution Page
• OpenStack Solution Brief
• SolidFire/Cinder Reference Architecture
• OpenStack Configuration Guide
• SolidFire/Rackspace Private Cloud Implementation Guide
• Video: Configuring OpenStack Block Storage w/SolidFire
• Blogs
• OpenStack Summit Recap: Mindshare Achieved, Market
Share Must Follow
• Separating from the Pack
• Why OpenStack Matters

18. How to get
involved?
• It’s Easy, Start Here
• https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/
How_To_Contribute
• Any questions?
• Technical
• john.griffith@solidfire.com
• Partnership
• mcclain.buggle@solidfire.com
• Sales
• sales@solidfire.com

19. 1620 Pearl Street,
Boulder, Colorado 80302
Phone: 720.523.3278
Email: info@solidfire.com
www.solidfire.com