In this chapter, you learned:
An object is stored as a binary file along with metadata which is stored in the file's extended attributes (xattrs). Objects can be text files, videos, images, emails, or virtual machine images. Objects are simply identified with a GUID and have no relationship to other objects in the container.
Many of the OpenStack services use swift for object storage. Glance creates images but cannot actually store them, it utilizes swift as an image store Cinder backups can also be stored in swift. The Nova service can create snapshots of instances which are passed to Glance for storage in a swift container. Ironic stores introspection results as objects in swift. Ironic bare metal images are stored in a swift container. Swift also supports the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) API.
The choice of object storage technology can be affected by several factors, including cost, existing storage investment, and application requirements. However, the decision should also be based on an understanding of the technologies and their features as they pertain to business needs.
The OpenStack Shared File System service enables tenant users to provision and manage network accessible shared file systems or shares. Tenant users access the shares from instances as remote file systems.
Manila is designed with the ideal NAS architecture in mind. Manila supports several different protocols, including NFS, CIFS, CephFS, MAPRFS, HDFS, and GlusterFS. It offers many different features, including quota control, tenant driven share replication, snapshots for cloning, and access control and authentication services.