Cinder
Cinder is the OpenStack Block Storage (infrastructure storage) service that provides persistent block-level storage resources to virtual machines and bare metal instances in OpenStack clouds.
- Block storage provisioning and lifecycle management for OpenStack Compute and other consumers (infrastructure storage)
- Support for multiple storage back ends through a pluggable driver architecture, including LVM, hardware arrays, and software-defined storage systems (storage integration)
- Snapshot, clone, and volume backup operations for data protection and copy management (data protection)
- Multi-tenant volume access control, quotas, and scheduling across hosts and back ends (resource management)
- RESTful Application Programming Interface (API), command-line tools, and Horizon dashboard integration for operational control and automation (cloud management)
More About Cinder
Cinder is the block storage (infrastructure storage) component of the OpenStack cloud platform, designed to offer persistent, network-accessible block devices to computing resources such as virtual machines or bare metal instances. It focuses on abstracting storage hardware and software back ends behind a consistent API so that cloud operators and tenants can request, attach, detach, and manage volumes independent of the underlying storage technology.
The service exposes a RESTful API (cloud management) that supports core operations including volume creation, deletion, extension, attachment, detachment, snapshotting, cloning, and backup. These operations enable typical enterprise storage workflows such as boot-from-volume, test/dev cloning, and point-in-time copies for recovery or migration. Cinder also implements quota controls, volume types, and extra-specs (resource management) that let operators define different performance or availability classes mapped to specific back ends or capabilities.
Cinder adopts a modular architecture (cloud infrastructure) with components such as the cinder-api service for request handling, the cinder-scheduler for placement decisions, and cinder-volume services that interact with individual storage systems. Storage connectivity is provided through drivers that support technologies commonly used in data centers, including Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), Fibre Channel (FC), NFS, and vendor-specific protocols where implemented (storage integration). This design allows an OpenStack deployment to connect to local disks managed by LVM, networked storage arrays, or distributed storage platforms, while presenting a unified block storage interface to consumers.
In enterprise environments, Cinder is used to back the root and data volumes of instances provisioned by OpenStack Compute, and can also serve other services that require block devices. Administrators can deploy multiple back ends, manage availability zones, and configure scheduling policies to direct workloads to specific storage pools based on cost, performance, or compliance characteristics. Cinder integrates with OpenStack Identity for authentication and with other OpenStack services for coordinated lifecycle operations, such as cleaning up volumes when instances are deleted or managing volume-based boot images.
From an operational standpoint, Cinder supports volume backups to external back ends and volume replication features where implemented by drivers (data protection), which enterprises use for resilience and Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies. The project is maintained under the Open Infrastructure Foundation and follows OpenStack release processes, documentation, and governance. In a technical taxonomy, Cinder fits in the category of block storage orchestration and management for cloud infrastructure, providing an API-driven layer between compute services and heterogeneous storage platforms.