Block storage service

The OpenStack block storage service (codenamed Cinder) provides users the ability to provision storage volumes in a self-service manner. Block storage volumes can only be attached to a single instance at any one time.

The Cinder service can be used to provision larger volumes of storage to instances in a persistent manner - enabling you to keep hold of important data short-term before archiving to object storage etc.

The following section will detail some of the basic functions available in the Cinder service. For advanced usage - view the Cinder documentation:

http://docs.openstack.org/developer/cinder/

When using block storage volumes - it is important to correctly tag and label the volumes to indicate what is stored within the volume - volumes cannot be searched without attaching to a running instance.