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OpenStack Manila

OpenStack Manila is the OpenStack shared file systems service that provides API-driven provisioning and management of network-attached file shares for cloud workloads (shared storage / cloud infrastructure).

  • Shared file system service for OpenStack clouds (shared storage)
  • Provisioning and lifecycle management of file shares via Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs and Command-Line Interface (CLI) (storage orchestration)
  • Support for multiple back-end storage drivers and vendor plug-ins (storage integration)
  • Access control, quotas, and share networking for multi-tenant environments (cloud infrastructure)
  • Integration with other OpenStack services such as Compute and Identity (cloud platform)

More About OpenStack Manila

OpenStack Manila is the shared file systems service within the OpenStack ecosystem, focused on providing network-accessible file storage that can be provisioned and managed through standard OpenStack APIs (shared storage / cloud infrastructure). Its core purpose is to give cloud operators and tenants a way to create, manage, and consume file shares in a manner similar to how block storage and object storage are exposed in OpenStack, but optimized for workloads that require POSIX-style or file-level access semantics.

Manila exposes file shares as first-class resources that can be created, resized, exported, and deleted using REST APIs, a CLI, and the OpenStack dashboard (storage orchestration). It supports multiple protocols through back-end drivers, most commonly NFS and CIFS/SMB, depending on what the underlying storage systems provide (shared storage protocols). The service manages share exports, access rules, security settings, and networking configuration required to make these file systems available to client instances.

The architecture of Manila follows the general pattern of other OpenStack services with an Application Programming Interface (API) service, scheduler, and share service components (cloud platform services). The scheduler selects appropriate back-end storage pools, while share services interact with vendor-specific drivers that implement the actual provisioning on storage arrays or software-defined storage platforms (storage integration). Back-end drivers integrate with a range of storage products when they implement the Manila driver interface as documented by the project.

In enterprise environments, Manila is used to supply shared file storage for applications that run on OpenStack Compute instances and require concurrent access to common data sets, configuration directories, or user home directories (enterprise infrastructure). Administrators can define share types, quotas, and policies, enabling multi-tenant isolation and service-level distinctions between different classes of storage (resource governance). Access control lists and export policies are managed through Manila, which coordinates with OpenStack Identity and Networking services where applicable (identity and network integration).

Manila also includes capabilities for share snapshots and, in some back-end implementations, share replication and migration, depending on driver support (data protection / data mobility). These functions allow operators to align shared file storage with backup, Disaster Recovery (DR), and maintenance workflows within their OpenStack clouds. From a taxonomy perspective, OpenStack Manila fits into the category of cloud-based shared file system management, providing an abstraction layer over heterogeneous file storage systems and exposing them through OpenStack’s unified control plane (shared storage management).