Which Cinder Volume Types are supported in Cloud Instance?

Introduction

The OpenStack Cinder Block Storage service uses storage hardware to provide a backend that supports its volumes. Typically, Cinder is configured with a single backend.

IBM Bluemix Private cloud has two offerings, commonly called Dedicated and Local.

• IBM Bluemix Private Cloud (Dedicated) can support two backends using Ceph Storage, namely rbd_hybrid and rbd_ssd. The rbd_hybrid backend uses a Ceph Storage Pool corresponding to the Hybrid type. Similarly, rbd_ssd uses a Ceph Storage Pool corresponding to the SSD type.

• IBM Bluemix Private Cloud (Local) can support two backends that use either Ceph Storage or IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 Storage. The rbd_hybrid backend is supported through Ceph Storage. When using V7000 Gen2 storage, the customer can bring their own iSCSI-based device and their own pool(s) configuration. The Cinder backend will be configured accordingly.

Each Cinder backend is associated with a Volume Type. The Volume Type assignment is a mechanism for providing scheduling to a specific backend.

IBM Bluemix Private Cloud (Dedicated)

Supported Volume Types

• CEPH_HYBRID
• CEPH_SSD

Supported Ceph Storage

• SSD
• Hybrid
• Multi-tier (SSD and Hybrid)

Storage Type	Supported Volume Types	Cinder Backend Name
SSD	CEPH_SSD	rbd_ssd
Hybrid	CEPH_HYBRID	rbd_hybrid
Multi-tier	CEPH_HYBIRD, CEPH_SSD	rbd_hybrid, rbd_ssd

IBM Bluemix Private Cloud (Local)

Supported Volume Types

• CEPH_HYBRID
• V7K_POOL

Supported Ceph Storage

• Hybrid

Supported IBM Storewize V7000 Gen2 Storage

• iSCSI

Storage Type	Supported Volume Types	Cinder Backend Name
Hybrid	CEPH_HYBRID	rbd_hybrid
V7000 Gen2	V7K_POOL	v7k_pool

Note:

• For Multi-tier Storage, Cinder volumes are created with type CEPH_HYBRID by default. Please contact our support team if this default behavior needs to be changed.

• For IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 storage, each customer can decide their own pool name(s). Cinder backends and Volume Types will be configured accordingly.