Feature Support Matrix

updated: 2021-04-10 07:30

Feature Support Matrix¶

Warning

Please note, while this document is still being maintained, this is slowly being updated to re-group and classify features using the definitions described in here: Feature Classification

When considering which capabilities should be marked as mandatory the following general guiding principles were applied

Inclusivity - people have shown ability to make effective use of a wide range of virtualization technologies with broadly varying featuresets. Aiming to keep the requirements as inclusive as possible, avoids second-guessing what a user may wish to use the cloud compute service for.
Bootstrapping - a practical use case test is to consider that starting point for the compute deploy is an empty data center with new machines and network connectivity. The look at what are the minimum features required of a compute service, in order to get user instances running and processing work over the network.
Competition - an early leader in the cloud compute service space was Amazon EC2. A sanity check for whether a feature should be mandatory is to consider whether it was available in the first public release of EC2. This had quite a narrow featureset, but none the less found very high usage in many use cases. So it serves to illustrate that many features need not be considered mandatory in order to get useful work done.
Reality - there are many virt drivers currently shipped with Nova, each with their own supported feature set. Any feature which is missing in at least one virt driver that is already in-tree, must by inference be considered optional until all in-tree drivers support it. This does not rule out the possibility of a currently optional feature becoming mandatory at a later date, based on other principles above.

Summary

Feature	Status	Hyper-V	Ironic	Libvirt KVM (ppc64)	Libvirt KVM (s390x)	Libvirt KVM (x86)	Libvirt LXC	Libvirt QEMU (x86)	Libvirt Virtuozzo CT	Libvirt Virtuozzo VM	Libvirt Xen	PowerVM	VMware vCenter	XenServer
Attach block volume to instance	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Detach block volume from instance	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Extend block volume attached to instance	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`?`	`?`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`?`	`?`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
Attach virtual network interface to instance	optional	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Detach virtual network interface from instance	optional	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Set the host in a maintenance mode	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Evacuate instances from a host	optional	`?`	`?`	`?`	`✔`	`✔`	`?`	`?`	`✖`	`✖`	`?`	`?`	`?`	`?`
Rebuild instance	optional	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`?`	`✔`	`✔`
Guest instance status	mandatory	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`
Guest host status	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`
Live migrate instance across hosts	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Force live migration to complete	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
Launch instance	mandatory	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`
Stop instance CPUs (pause)	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Reboot instance	optional	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`
Rescue instance	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Resize instance	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`?`	`✔`	`✔`
Restore instance	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Set instance admin password	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Save snapshot of instance disk	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Suspend instance	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Swap block volumes	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
Shutdown instance	mandatory	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`
Trigger crash dump	optional	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
Resume instance CPUs (unpause)	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Auto configure disk	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Instance disk I/O limits	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
Config drive support	choice	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Inject files into disk image	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Inject guest networking config	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Remote desktop over RDP	choice	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
View serial console logs	choice	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Remote interactive serial console	choice	`✔`	`✔`	`?`	`✔`	`✔`	`?`	`?`	`✖`	`✖`	`?`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
Remote desktop over SPICE	choice	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
Remote desktop over VNC	choice	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`
Block storage support	optional	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Block storage over fibre channel	optional	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`
Block storage over iSCSI	condition	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
CHAP authentication for iSCSI	optional	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Image storage support	mandatory	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`
Network firewall rules	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`
Network routing	optional	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Network security groups	optional	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
Flat networking	choice	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
VLAN networking	choice	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✔`
uefi boot	optional	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✔`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`	`✖`

Details

Attach block volume to instance
Status: optional. The attach volume operation provides a means to hotplug additional block storage to a running instance. This allows storage capabilities to be expanded without interruption of service. In a cloud model it would be more typical to just spin up a new instance with large storage, so the ability to hotplug extra storage is for those cases where the instance is considered to be more of a pet than cattle. Therefore this operation is not considered to be mandatory to support.

CLI commands:
- nova volume-attach <server> <volume>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Detach block volume from instance
Status: optional. See notes for attach volume operation.

CLI commands:
- nova volume-detach <server> <volume>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Extend block volume attached to instance
Status: optional. The extend volume operation provides a means to extend the size of an attached volume. This allows volume size to be expanded without interruption of service. In a cloud model it would be more typical to just spin up a new instance with large storage, so the ability to extend the size of an attached volume is for those cases where the instance is considered to be more of a pet than cattle. Therefore this operation is not considered to be mandatory to support.

CLI commands:
- cinder extend <volume> <new_size>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): unknown
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): unknown
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: unknown
- Libvirt Xen: unknown
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Attach virtual network interface to instance
Status: optional. The attach interface operation provides a means to hotplug additional interfaces to a running instance. Hotplug support varies between guest OSes and some guests require a reboot for new interfaces to be detected. This operation allows interface capabilities to be expanded without interruption of service. In a cloud model it would be more typical to just spin up a new instance with more interfaces.

CLI commands:
- nova interface-attach <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: partial
  Works without issue if instance is off. When hotplugging, only works if using Windows/Hyper-V Server 2016 and the instance is a Generation 2 VM.
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Detach virtual network interface from instance
Status: optional. See notes for attach-interface operation.

CLI commands:
- nova interface-detach <server> <port_id>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
  Works without issue if instance is off. When hotplugging, only works if using Windows/Hyper-V Server 2016 and the instance is a Generation 2 VM.
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Set the host in a maintenance mode
Status: optional. This operation allows a host to be placed into maintenance mode, automatically triggering migration of any running instances to an alternative host and preventing new instances from being launched. This is not considered to be a mandatory operation to support. The driver methods to implement are "host_maintenance_mode" and "set_host_enabled".

CLI commands:
- nova host-update <host>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): missing
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Evacuate instances from a host
Status: optional. A possible failure scenario in a cloud environment is the outage of one of the compute nodes. In such a case the instances of the down host can be evacuated to another host. It is assumed that the old host is unlikely ever to be powered back on, otherwise the evacuation attempt will be rejected. When the instances get moved to the new host, their volumes get re-attached and the locally stored data is dropped. That happens in the same way as a rebuild. This is not considered to be a mandatory operation to support.

CLI commands:
- nova evacuate <server>
- nova host-evacuate <host>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): unknown
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: unknown
- Hyper-V: unknown
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): unknown
- XenServer: unknown
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: unknown
- PowerVM: unknown
- Ironic: unknown
- VMware vCenter: unknown
Rebuild instance
Status: optional. A possible use case is additional attributes need to be set to the instance, nova will purge all existing data from the system and remakes the VM with given information such as 'metadata' and 'personalities'. Though this is not considered to be a mandatory operation to support.

CLI commands:
- nova rebuild <server> <image>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: unknown
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Guest instance status
Status: mandatory. Provides a quick report on information about the guest instance, including the power state, memory allocation, CPU allocation, number of vCPUs and cumulative CPU execution time. As well as being informational, the power state is used by the compute manager for tracking changes in guests. Therefore this operation is considered mandatory to support.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: complete
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Guest host status
Status: optional. Unclear what this refers to

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: complete
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Live migrate instance across hosts
Status: optional. Live migration provides a way to move an instance off one compute host, to another compute host. Administrators may use this to evacuate instances from a host that needs to undergo maintenance tasks, though of course this may not help if the host is already suffering a failure. In general instances are considered cattle rather than pets, so it is expected that an instance is liable to be killed if host maintenance is required. It is technically challenging for some hypervisors to provide support for the live migration operation, particularly those built on the container based virtualization. Therefore this operation is not considered mandatory to support.

CLI commands:
- nova live-migration <server>
- nova host-evacuate-live <host>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bug/1192192
Force live migration to complete
Status: optional. Live migration provides a way to move a running instance to another compute host. But it can sometimes fail to complete if an instance has a high rate of memory or disk page access. This operation provides the user with an option to assist the progress of the live migration. The mechanism used to complete the live migration depends on the underlying virtualization subsystem capabilities. If libvirt/qemu is used and the post-copy feature is available and enabled then the force complete operation will cause a switch to post-copy mode. Otherwise the instance will be suspended until the migration is completed or aborted.

CLI commands:
- nova live-migration-force-complete <server> <migration>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
  Requires libvirt>=1.3.3, qemu>=2.5.0
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
  Requires libvirt>=1.3.3, qemu>=2.5.0
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
  Requires libvirt>=1.3.3, qemu>=2.5.0
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
  Requires libvirt>=1.3.3, qemu>=2.5.0
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Launch instance
Status: mandatory. Importing pre-existing running virtual machines on a host is considered out of scope of the cloud paradigm. Therefore this operation is mandatory to support in drivers.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: complete
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Stop instance CPUs (pause)
Status: optional. Stopping an instances CPUs can be thought of as roughly equivalent to suspend-to-RAM. The instance is still present in memory, but execution has stopped. The problem, however, is that there is no mechanism to inform the guest OS that this takes place, so upon unpausing, its clocks will no longer report correct time. For this reason hypervisor vendors generally discourage use of this feature and some do not even implement it. Therefore this operation is considered optional to support in drivers.

CLI commands:
- nova pause <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Reboot instance
Status: optional. It is reasonable for a guest OS administrator to trigger a graceful reboot from inside the instance. A host initiated graceful reboot requires guest co-operation and a non-graceful reboot can be achieved by a combination of stop+start. Therefore this operation is considered optional.

CLI commands:
- nova reboot <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: complete
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Rescue instance
Status: optional. The rescue operation starts an instance in a special configuration whereby it is booted from an special root disk image. The goal is to allow an administrator to recover the state of a broken virtual machine. In general the cloud model considers instances to be cattle, so if an instance breaks the general expectation is that it be thrown away and a new instance created. Therefore this operation is considered optional to support in drivers.

CLI commands:
- nova rescue <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Resize instance
Status: optional. The resize operation allows the user to change a running instance to match the size of a different flavor from the one it was initially launched with. There are many different flavor attributes that potentially need to be updated. In general it is technically challenging for a hypervisor to support the alteration of all relevant config settings for a running instance. Therefore this operation is considered optional to support in drivers.

CLI commands:
- nova resize <server> <flavor>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: unknown
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Restore instance
Status: optional. See notes for the suspend operation

CLI commands:
- nova resume <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Set instance admin password
Status: optional. Provides a mechanism to (re)set the password of the administrator account inside the instance operating system. This requires that the hypervisor has a way to communicate with the running guest operating system. Given the wide range of operating systems in existence it is unreasonable to expect this to be practical in the general case. The configdrive and metadata service both provide a mechanism for setting the administrator password at initial boot time. In the case where this operation were not available, the administrator would simply have to login to the guest and change the password in the normal manner, so this is just a convenient optimization. Therefore this operation is not considered mandatory for drivers to support.

CLI commands:
- nova set-password <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
  Requires libvirt>=1.2.16 and hw_qemu_guest_agent.
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
  Requires libvirt>=2.0.0
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
  Requires libvirt>=1.2.16 and hw_qemu_guest_agent.
- XenServer: complete
  Requires XenAPI agent on the guest.
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
  Requires libvirt>=2.0.0
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Save snapshot of instance disk
Status: optional. The snapshot operation allows the current state of the instance root disk to be saved and uploaded back into the glance image repository. The instance can later be booted again using this saved image. This is in effect making the ephemeral instance root disk into a semi-persistent storage, in so much as it is preserved even though the guest is no longer running. In general though, the expectation is that the root disks are ephemeral so the ability to take a snapshot cannot be assumed. Therefore this operation is not considered mandatory to support.

CLI commands:
- nova image-create <server> <name>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: partial
  Only cold snapshots (pause + snapshot) supported
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Suspend instance
Status: optional. Suspending an instance can be thought of as roughly equivalent to suspend-to-disk. The instance no longer consumes any RAM or CPUs, with its live running state having been preserved in a file on disk. It can later be restored, at which point it should continue execution where it left off. As with stopping instance CPUs, it suffers from the fact that the guest OS will typically be left with a clock that is no longer telling correct time. For container based virtualization solutions, this operation is particularly technically challenging to implement and is an area of active research. This operation tends to make more sense when thinking of instances as pets, rather than cattle, since with cattle it would be simpler to just terminate the instance instead of suspending. Therefore this operation is considered optional to support.

CLI commands:
- nova suspend <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Swap block volumes
Status: optional. The swap volume operation is a mechanism for changing a running instance so that its attached volume(s) are backed by different storage in the host. An alternative to this would be to simply terminate the existing instance and spawn a new instance with the new storage. In other words this operation is primarily targeted towards the pet use case rather than cattle, however, it is required for volume migration to work in the volume service. This is considered optional to support.

CLI commands:
- nova volume-update <server> <attachment> <volume>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Shutdown instance
Status: mandatory. The ability to terminate a virtual machine is required in order for a cloud user to stop utilizing resources and thus avoid indefinitely ongoing billing. Therefore this operation is mandatory to support in drivers.

CLI commands:
- nova delete <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
  Fails in latest Ubuntu Trusty kernel from security repository (3.13.0-76-generic), but works in upstream 3.13.x kernels as well as default Ubuntu Trusty latest kernel (3.13.0-58-generic).
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: complete
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Trigger crash dump
Status: optional. The trigger crash dump operation is a mechanism for triggering a crash dump in an instance. The feature is typically implemented by injecting an NMI (Non-maskable Interrupt) into the instance. It provides a means to dump the production memory image as a dump file which is useful for users. Therefore this operation is considered optional to support.

CLI commands:
- nova trigger-crash-dump <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: missing
Resume instance CPUs (unpause)
Status: optional. See notes for the "Stop instance CPUs" operation

CLI commands:
- nova unpause <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Auto configure disk
Status: optional. something something, dark side, something something. Unclear just what this is about.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): missing
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Instance disk I/O limits
Status: optional. The ability to set rate limits on virtual disks allows for greater performance isolation between instances running on the same host storage. It is valid to delegate scheduling of I/O operations to the hypervisor with its default settings, instead of doing fine grained tuning. Therefore this is not considered to be an mandatory configuration to support.

CLI commands:
- nova limits
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Config drive support
Status: choice(guest.setup). The config drive provides an information channel into the guest operating system, to enable configuration of the administrator password, file injection, registration of SSH keys, etc. Since cloud images typically ship with all login methods locked, a mechanism to set the administrator password or keys is required to get login access. Alternatives include the metadata service and disk injection. At least one of the guest setup mechanisms is required to be supported by drivers, in order to enable login access.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Inject files into disk image
Status: optional. This allows for the end user to provide data for multiple files to be injected into the root filesystem before an instance is booted. This requires that the compute node understand the format of the filesystem and any partitioning scheme it might use on the block device. This is a non-trivial problem considering the vast number of filesystems in existence. The problem of injecting files to a guest OS is better solved by obtaining via the metadata service or config drive. Therefore this operation is considered optional to support.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Inject guest networking config
Status: optional. This allows for static networking configuration (IP address, netmask, gateway and routes) to be injected directly into the root filesystem before an instance is booted. This requires that the compute node understand how networking is configured in the guest OS which is a non-trivial problem considering the vast number of operating system types. The problem of configuring networking is better solved by DHCP or by obtaining static config via config drive. Therefore this operation is considered optional to support.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): partial
  Only for Debian derived guests
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): partial
  Only for Debian derived guests
- XenServer: partial
  Only for Debian derived guests
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: partial
  requires vmware tools installed
Remote desktop over RDP
Status: choice(console). This allows the administrator to interact with the graphical console of the guest OS via RDP. This provides a way to see boot up messages and login to the instance when networking configuration has failed, thus preventing a network based login. Some operating systems may prefer to emit messages via the serial console for easier consumption. Therefore support for this operation is not mandatory, however, a driver is required to support at least one of the listed console access operations.

CLI commands:
- nova get-rdp-console <server> <console-type>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): missing
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
View serial console logs
Status: choice(console). This allows the administrator to query the logs of data emitted by the guest OS on its virtualized serial port. For UNIX guests this typically includes all boot up messages and so is useful for diagnosing problems when an instance fails to successfully boot. Not all guest operating systems will be able to emit boot information on a serial console, others may only support graphical consoles. Therefore support for this operation is not mandatory, however, a driver is required to support at least one of the listed console access operations.

CLI commands:
- nova console-log <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Remote interactive serial console
Status: choice(console). This allows the administrator to interact with the serial console of the guest OS. This provides a way to see boot up messages and login to the instance when networking configuration has failed, thus preventing a network based login. Not all guest operating systems will be able to emit boot information on a serial console, others may only support graphical consoles. Therefore support for this operation is not mandatory, however, a driver is required to support at least one of the listed console access operations. This feature was introduced in the Juno release with blueprint https://blueprints.launchpad.net/nova/+spec/serial-ports

CLI commands:
- nova get-serial-console <server>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): unknown
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: unknown
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): unknown
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: unknown
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: missing
Remote desktop over SPICE
Status: choice(console). This allows the administrator to interact with the graphical console of the guest OS via SPICE. This provides a way to see boot up messages and login to the instance when networking configuration has failed, thus preventing a network based login. Some operating systems may prefer to emit messages via the serial console for easier consumption. Therefore support for this operation is not mandatory, however, a driver is required to support at least one of the listed console access operations.

CLI commands:
- nova get-spice-console <server> <console-type>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Remote desktop over VNC
Status: choice(console). This allows the administrator to interact with the graphical console of the guest OS via VNC. This provides a way to see boot up messages and login to the instance when networking configuration has failed, thus preventing a network based login. Some operating systems may prefer to emit messages via the serial console for easier consumption. Therefore support for this operation is not mandatory, however, a driver is required to support at least one of the listed console access operations.

CLI commands:
- nova get-vnc-console <server> <console-type>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: complete
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
Block storage support
Status: optional. Block storage provides instances with direct attached virtual disks that can be used for persistent storage of data. As an alternative to direct attached disks, an instance may choose to use network based persistent storage. OpenStack provides object storage via the Swift service, or a traditional filesystem such as NFS may be used. Some types of instances may not require persistent storage at all, being simple transaction processing systems reading requests & sending results to and from the network. Therefore support for this configuration is not considered mandatory for drivers to support.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: partial
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Block storage over fibre channel
Status: optional. To maximise performance of the block storage, it may be desirable to directly access fibre channel LUNs from the underlying storage technology on the compute hosts. Since this is just a performance optimization of the I/O path it is not considered mandatory to support.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Block storage over iSCSI
Status: condition(storage.block==complete). If the driver wishes to support block storage, it is common to provide an iSCSI based backend to access the storage from cinder. This isolates the compute layer for knowledge of the specific storage technology used by Cinder, albeit at a potential performance cost due to the longer I/O path involved. If the driver chooses to support block storage, then this is considered mandatory to support, otherwise it is considered optional.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
CHAP authentication for iSCSI
Status: optional. If accessing the cinder iSCSI service over an untrusted LAN it is desirable to be able to enable authentication for the iSCSI protocol. CHAP is the commonly used authentication protocol for iSCSI. This is not considered mandatory to support. (?)

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: missing
Image storage support
Status: mandatory. This refers to the ability to boot an instance from an image stored in the glance image repository. Without this feature it would not be possible to bootstrap from a clean environment, since there would be no way to get block volumes populated and reliance on external PXE servers is out of scope. Therefore this is considered a mandatory storage feature to support.

CLI commands:
- nova boot --image <image> <name>
drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: complete
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Network firewall rules
Status: optional. Unclear how this is different from security groups

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: missing
Network routing
Status: optional. Unclear what this refers to

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
Network security groups
Status: optional. The security groups feature provides a way to define rules to isolate the network traffic of different instances running on a compute host. This would prevent actions such as MAC and IP address spoofing, or the ability to setup rogue DHCP servers. In a private cloud environment this may be considered to be a superfluous requirement. Therefore this is considered to be an optional configuration to support.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: partial
  This is supported by the Neutron NSX plugins
Flat networking
Status: choice(networking.topology). Provide network connectivity to guests using a flat topology across all compute nodes. At least one of the networking configurations is mandatory to support in the drivers.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: complete
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: complete
- VMware vCenter: complete
VLAN networking
Status: choice(networking.topology). Provide network connectivity to guests using VLANs to define the topology. At least one of the networking configurations is mandatory to support in the drivers.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): complete
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): complete
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: complete
- Libvirt LXC: complete
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: complete
- Libvirt Xen: complete
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: missing
- VMware vCenter: complete
uefi boot
Status: optional. This allows users to boot a guest with uefi firmware.

drivers:
- Libvirt KVM (s390x): missing
- Libvirt KVM (ppc64): missing
- Libvirt KVM (x86): complete
- Libvirt Virtuozzo CT: missing
- Libvirt LXC: missing
- Hyper-V: missing
- Libvirt QEMU (x86): complete
- XenServer: missing
- Libvirt Virtuozzo VM: missing
- Libvirt Xen: missing
- PowerVM: missing
- Ironic: partial
  depends on hardware support
- VMware vCenter: missing

Notes

Virtuozzo was formerly named Parallels in this document

updated: 2021-04-10 07:30

Except where otherwise noted, this document is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. See all OpenStack Legal Documents.

Feature Support Matrix

Feature Support Matrix¶

Summary

Details

Notes

nova 16.1.9.dev92