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OpenStack Blazar

OpenStack Blazar is a resource reservation (cloud infrastructure management) service for OpenStack that provides advance booking and lease-based allocation of compute, network, and other cloud resources.

  • Advance reservation of OpenStack resources via time-based leases (cloud infrastructure management).
  • Management of dedicated resource pools for capacity planning and isolation (resource scheduling and allocation).
  • Integration with other OpenStack services such as Nova and Neutron to enforce reservations (cloud platform integration).
  • Support for temporary or scheduled access to resources for testing, training, or project-based workloads (capacity management).
  • API-driven reservation workflows for automation and integration with external systems (infrastructure automation).

More About OpenStack Blazar

OpenStack Blazar is an OpenStack service focused on resource reservation (cloud infrastructure management), enabling operators and tenants to reserve cloud resources in advance for a specified time period. It addresses use cases where predictable access to capacity is required, such as scheduled test environments, training labs, maintenance windows, or event-based workloads. Instead of relying only on on-demand allocation, Blazar introduces the concept of leases that describe which resources are needed and for how long.

At its core, Blazar provides an Application Programming Interface (API) and service layer that coordinates reservations for resources such as compute hosts and virtual machines through integration with OpenStack Nova (compute management), and network-related elements through OpenStack Neutron (networking). A lease in Blazar encapsulates start and end times, resource type, quantity, and constraints. When a lease becomes active, Blazar works with the underlying OpenStack services to provision or allocate the reserved capacity, and when the lease ends, it releases those resources back into the general pool.

Blazar also supports the concept of resource pools and host aggregates (capacity management), allowing operators to designate subsets of infrastructure for reservable usage. This enables separation between general on-demand workloads and resources that are held aside for reservations. Policies and filters can be applied to control which resources are eligible for reservation, and how they are scheduled over time, aligning reservations with operational and business requirements.

In enterprise and institutional environments, Blazar is used to provide predictable access to shared OpenStack infrastructure, for example for internal development teams that need dedicated windows of capacity, or for educational and research institutions that schedule lab environments. By exposing an API for creating, updating, and cancelling leases (infrastructure automation), Blazar can integrate into broader workflow systems, portals, or Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines that require scheduled resource availability.

Technically, Blazar follows typical OpenStack architectural patterns, including a RESTful API service, a manager component that handles business logic, and plugins that integrate with other OpenStack services. It uses OpenStack identity and access management via Keystone (identity and access) for authentication and authorization, aligning with the standard OpenStack ecosystem. From a directory and taxonomy perspective, OpenStack Blazar fits into cloud infrastructure management, resource scheduling, and capacity reservation within OpenStack-based private and public clouds.