Qinling
What is Qinling?
Qinling is an OpenStack service for Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) workloads that manages the lifecycle, execution, and scaling of short-lived functions on underlying container or orchestration platforms.
- FaaS engine for running short-lived functions without managing servers (cloud compute orchestration).
- Abstraction layer over container and orchestration backends such as Kubernetes and Docker Swarm (container orchestration integration).
- APIs and Command-Line Interface (CLI) to create, version, configure, and invoke functions, including asynchronous execution (cloud application runtime).
- Support for multiple runtimes and drivers through a pluggable architecture (extensibility framework).
- Integration with other OpenStack services for authentication and multi-tenant isolation (cloud infrastructure platform integration).
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More About Qinling
Qinling is an OpenStack service focused on FaaS workloads, enabling users to deploy and execute functions without managing the underlying server infrastructure. It provides a serverless-style execution model in which developers package code as functions, while Qinling handles provisioning, execution, and scaling using container-based backends.
The project introduces an abstraction layer (cloud compute orchestration) between function definitions and container or orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes or Docker Swarm. Through drivers, Qinling maps function invocations to container runtimes, manages function packages, and coordinates execution environments. This decouples function management from specific container technologies and allows operators to swap or configure different backends according to their platform standards.
Qinling exposes Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs and a CLI (cloud management tools) for defining, updating, and versioning functions. Users can specify runtime images, configuration parameters, and entry points, then invoke functions synchronously or asynchronously. The service includes constructs for function versioning, execution logs, and execution records, which support operations and troubleshooting within multi-tenant environments.
The architecture is aligned with other OpenStack services (cloud infrastructure platform). Qinling integrates with identity and access management via OpenStack Identity (identity and access), uses other core services for authentication and authorization, and follows OpenStack patterns for multi-tenancy and resource isolation. This makes it deployable as part of a broader OpenStack cloud, where operators can offer FaaS capabilities alongside virtual machines, containers, and object storage.
From an enterprise perspective, Qinling fits into serverless and cloud-native application platforms (application runtime and orchestration). It allows application teams to implement event-driven workflows, background jobs, or microservices-style functions while infrastructure teams standardize on container orchestration backends. The pluggable driver model (extensibility framework) enables integration with different container clusters and runtimes, aligning with existing Kubernetes or Docker Swarm operations.
Within a technical taxonomy, Qinling can be positioned as a FaaS engine within the OpenStack ecosystem, bridging serverless development models and container orchestration platforms. It addresses workloads that benefit from short-lived, on-demand execution, and provides a structured, API-driven way to manage, invoke, and operate these functions in cloud or private data center environments.