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Cinder System Architecture
==========================

The Cinder Block Storage Service is intended to be ran on one or more nodes.

Cinder uses a sql-based central database that is shared by all Cinder services in the system.  The amount and depth of the data fits into a sql database quite well.  For small deployments this seems like an optimal solution.  For larger deployments, and especially if security is a concern, cinder will be moving towards multiple data stores with some kind of aggregation system.

Components
----------

Below you will a brief explanation of the different components.

::

                                                  /- ( LDAP )
                              [ Auth Manager ] ---
                                     |            \- ( DB )
                                     |
                                     |
                    cinderclient     |
                   /             \   |
 [ Web Dashboard ]-               -[ api ] -- < AMQP > -- [ scheduler ] -- [ volume ] -- ( iSCSI )
                   \             /   |
                    novaclient       |
                                     |
                                     |
                                     |
                                  < REST >


* DB: sql database for data storage. Used by all components (LINKS NOT SHOWN)
* Web Dashboard: potential external component that talks to the api
* api: component that receives http requests, converts commands and communicates with other components via the queue or http
* Auth Manager: component responsible for users/projects/and roles.  Can backend to DB or LDAP.  This is not a separate binary, but rather a python class that is used by most components in the system.
* scheduler: decides which host gets each volume
* volume: manages dynamically attachable block devices.
