IDC released a report titled “Worldwide File-Based Storage 2012-2016 Forecast,” where it revealed that file-based storage would see global spending to exceed $34.6 billion by 2016. IDC also estimated that 18 out of the 27 Exabyte shipped in 2012 were file-based.

File-based systems are a popular choice for a wide variety of applications such as server virtualization, collaborative content creation, distributed databases and other similar systems. This is because file-based systems are highly scalable, simple and high performing.

OpenStack has been known for its open IaaS capabilities, and is a strong option for running classic and traditional infrastructure on the cloud or making it “as a service”. It just makes sense that OpenStack gets into shared file systems to give a more complete and comprehensive solution.

Manila is a multitenant and secure file share as a service solution from OpenStack and it currently supports CIFS and NFS protocols. There are plans to support more file systems. Why should anyone be interested in Manila? For one, IDC found that around 65% of disk capacity is earmarked for file storage but the management and provisioning of shared file systems can prove to be difficult. So OpenStack wanted to remove that hurdle.

Manila provides a suite of services that would allow you to easily manage a shared file system in a multitenant environment in the cloud. Manila is the shared file systems equivalent of another OpenStack program, Block Storage. Block Storage is used for block-based storage management.

OpenStack relates that they want a management interface that is vendor neutral, with support for a variety of backends, a public REST API, as well as a scheduler that would make decisions related to resource assignment.

Current features and functionalities of OpenStack Manila

OpenStack Manila currently has the following use cases.

1. With Manila, you could create a shared storage volume and connect it to a variety of VMs.
2. You can also accommodate and allow mechanisms for last mile consumption of these shares by your users.
3. You can deactivate a share while also keeping your data. This means that you can use the data later on, and is also great in complying with regulatory requirements.
4. If you need to, you also have the option to unassign the share and completely wipe the data on it, thus allowing you to free up the space.

OpenStack Manila is still a work in progress and new features are being worked out now. Two features that are on everybody’s wish list are:

1. The ability to resize shares on the fly.
2. The ability to import an existing share and all its data into a tenant or a virtual machine.

Manila is primarily an OpenStack project, but several high profile contributors have joined the fray, including IBM, EMC, Red Hat, NetApp and Mirantis.

You can get the source code for OpenStack Manila here.

Call Four Cornerstone at 1 (817) 377 1144 to learn more about OpenStack Manila. You can also rely on us for anything related to Oracle. Four Cornerstone offers Oracle consulting in Dallas that can help you get off the ground with Oracle, as well as other technologies.

Photo by OpenStack.