Add new import method to support downloading image from another glance/region¶
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/glance/+spec/glance-download-import
This spec describe a new import method called glance-download that implements a glance to glance download in a multi-region cloud with a federated Keystone.
Problem description¶
When dealing with a multi-region cloud it often appears that operators or customers need to copy images from a region to another, for example:
Copy all your public images between your regions (operator)
Copy instance snapshot in another region to have a backup (user)
Build your base application image from a factory in one region, then propagate it to multiple regions (user)
We can’t rely on the “copy-image” import method to copy an image from a backend to another because it requires the same glance endpoint in the same region which is not our use-case here.
The only way we have to do it now is to locally download the image data and upload it elsewhere, which requires some orchestration, and is a huge disk space and bandwidth loss.
Proposed change¶
Implement an internal plugin called glance-download based on the existing internal plugin web-download that will import an image stored on a remote glance. The web-download workflow will remain unchanged, the only difference is to retrieve the downloadable data from an other glance endpoint instead of from an arbitrary URL.
We should note several things:
To authenticate on the remote glance we propose to use the context token of the call, so it will require a federated Keystone environment between the two Glance.
The creation of the image must be handled by the end user as for the web-download plugin meaning that it is the responsibility of the user to take care of disk format, container format and metadata of the newly created image. If necessary, the plugin will update the container_format and disk_format to match what is set on source glance.
The plugin will come with an extra task in the taskflow that will be in charge of setting the container_format and disk_format to be the same as it is on the source glance. It will also copy some extra properties defined in the extra_properties_prefixes option of glance_download_properties section. The default extra_properties_prefixes values are ‘hw_’, ‘trait:’, ‘os_distro’, ‘os_secure_boot’ and ‘os_type’ which are needed to ensure an instance can boot on the image. An operator will be able to remove or add other extra properties by modifying this configuration variable. This extra_properties_prefixes is a list of prefixes, meaning that all the metadata that are starting with a prefix belonging to that list will be copied.
[glance_download_properties]
extra_properties_prefixes = [
'hw_',
'trait:',
'os_distro',
'os_secure_boot',
'os_type'
]
If metadata injection is configured on the target glance it will override the metadata as the injection is run after the import.
Alternatives¶
We could imagine a take out alternative where the owner of the image in the source cloud generates a limited-use tokenized URL that allows access to the image without any keystone auth. Such solution is more risky as we do not have any authentication mechanism to access the remote image. It will also require rewriting the code as there is no existing source.
This would also require developing a mechanism to manage creation and expiration of the temporary urls which would result in a more complex solution that requires more time to develop, document and test.
Data model impact¶
None
REST API impact¶
Modification of existing API resource
Resource /v2/images/<image id>/import
Method: POST
- Common response code:
201: import job queued
400: bad request with details
401: Unauthorized
403: Forbidden
JSON body definition
"method": {
"name": {
"description": "Name of the method used, here is glance-download",
"type": "string"
},
"glance_image_id": {
"description": "The image id to download on remote glance",
"type": "string"
},
"glance_region": {
"description": "The region name of remote glance",
"type": "string"
},
"glance_service_interface": {
"decription": "The interface of remote glance, default to 'public'",
"type": "string"
}
}
Example:
"method": {
"name": "glance-download",
"glance_image_id": "02ea04ba-72b3-4687-810d-8ba10c991a97",
"glance_region": "REGION1",
"glance_service_interface": "admin"
}
Security impact¶
We use the token of the request to authenticate on remote glance. As we are in multi-region context with a federated keystone, there is no security impact.
Notifications impact¶
None
Other end user impact¶
Users will have a new import mechanism open to them, after updating their client
Performance Impact¶
None
Other deployer impact¶
None
Developer impact¶
None
Implementation¶
Assignee(s)¶
- Primary assignee:
pslestang
- Other contributors:
alistarle
Work Items¶
glance:
Create a base download class that will be inherited by web-download and glance-download
Patch the web-download class to inherit from base download class
Write the glance-download class
Patch the api image import to support the glance-download method
Add in task flow a class in charge of:
setting the correct container_format and disk_format
copying the metadatas defined in extra_properties option of the glance_download_properties section. Default list must be [‘hw_’, ‘trait:’, ‘os_distro’, ‘os_secure_boot’, ‘os_type’]
The class has to be added to taskflow as a normal task to be reusable if needed. We only have to check for input parameters to know if it can be run or not.
Add the glance-download internal plugin in setup
write unit/functional tests
update documentation
glance and openstack client
add support for glance-download method
update documentation
Dependencies¶
None
Testing¶
Unit and functional tests in Glance
Tempest tests. Testing glance-download plugin with the g-api-r separate endpoint looks good even if it shares the same database to validate the workflow.
Documentation Impact¶
The documentation needs to be updated to identify this new import method
