OpenStack Image Service (code-named Glance) provides discovery, registration, and delivery services for virtual disk images. The Image Service API server provides a standard REST interface for querying information about virtual disk images stored in a variety of back-end stores, including OpenStack Object Storage. Clients can register new virtual disk images with the Image Service, query for information on publicly available disk images, and use the Image Service's client library for streaming virtual disk images.
A multi-format image registry, OpenStack Image Service allows uploads of private and public images in a variety of formats, including:
OpenStack Image Service - Diablo Release
Released September 22, 2011. Release Notes
Documentation: Online Manuals
OpenStack Image Service "Essex" planned for Q2 2012.
Developer editions of OpenStack Image Service are available on the OpenStack Launchpad.
The features below are available in the current release.
| Feature | Benefit |
|---|---|
|
Image-as-a-service |
Store and retrieve virtual machine images at scale |
|
Multi-format/container support |
Compatible with all common image formats |
|
Image status |
Provides visibility and availability structure |
|
Scalable API |
Image Services scales with OpenStack |
|
Metadata |
Store and retrieve information about the image |
|
Image Checksum |
Ensure data integrity |
|
Extensive Logging |
Provide audit and debugging capability |
|
Integrated testing |
Verify functionality of the virtual machine |
|
Back-end store options |
Greater flexibility with Swift, Local, S3 or HTTP |
|
Version control |
Provides structure and control |
|
CLI access |
Administrative options |
|
Built-in Mgmt. utilities |
Acct. Management: Create, add, verify, delete users Container Management: upload, download, verify Monitoring: Capacity, Host, Network, Log trawling, cluster health |
|
Drive auditing |
Allows to detect drive failures preempting data corruption |
|
VNC Proxy through web browser |
Quick and easy CLI administration |
The features below are planned for future releases.
| Feature | Benefit |
|---|---|
|
Auth. System integration |
Allows for specific ownership vs public/private |
|
Open metadata fields (Diablo v3 07/28 – In Progress) |
Additional key pairs for custom association |
|
Auth. System integration |
Allows for specific ownership vs public/private |
|
API improvements (Diablo v1 06/02 – Implemented) |
Results limiting, filtering, sorting, and version support |
|
Shared image groups (Diablo v3 07/28 – Blocked) |
Capability to allow image sharing and access by groups |
|
HTTPS (Diablo v3 07/28 – Blocked) |
Secure query and transfer |
|
XML Support (Diablo TBD – TBD) |
Broader system integration capabilities |
|
GZIP compression (Diablo TBD – Blocked) |
Increase speed and decrease bandwidth for large queries |
|
ISO format support (Diablo v1 06/02 – Implemented) |
Extend format types |