openstack/openstack-manuals
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[image-guide] Reorder the image formats for alphabetical order

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doc/image-guide/source/introduction.rst
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@ -24,17 +24,47 @@ that has a bootable operating system installed on it.
Virtual machine images come in different formats, some of which are
described below.
Raw
The ``raw`` image format is the simplest one, and is natively
supported by both KVM and Xen hypervisors.
You can think of a raw image as being the bit-equivalent of
a block device file, created as if somebody had copied, say,
``/dev/sda`` to a file using the :command:`dd` command.
AKI/AMI/ARI
The `AKI/AMI/ARI
<http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AMIs.html>`_
format was the initial image format supported by Amazon EC2.
The image consists of three files:
.. note::
AKI (Amazon Kernel Image)
A kernel file that the hypervisor will load initially to boot the image.
For a Linux machine, this would be a ``vmlinuz`` file.
We do not recommend creating raw images by dd'ing block device
files, we discuss how to create raw images later.
AMI (Amazon Machine Image)
This is a virtual machine image in raw format, as described above.
ARI (Amazon Ramdisk Image)
An optional ramdisk file mounted at boot time.
For a Linux machine, this would be an ``initrd`` file.
ISO
The `ISO
<http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-119.htm>`_
format is a disk image formatted with the read-only ISO 9660 (also known
as ECMA-119) filesystem commonly used for CDs and DVDs.
While we do not normally think of ISO as a virtual machine image format,
since ISOs contain bootable filesystems with an installed operating system,
you can treat them the same as you treat other virtual machine image files.
OVF
`OVF <http://dmtf.org/sites/default/files/OVF_Overview_Document_2010.pdf>`_
(Open Virtualization Format) is a packaging format for virtual machines,
defined by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) standards group.
An OVF package contains one or more image files, a .ovf XML metadata file
that contains information about the virtual machine, and possibly other
files as well.
An OVF package can be distributed in different ways. For example,
it could be distributed as a set of discrete files, or as a tar archive
file with an ``.ova`` (open virtual appliance/application) extension.
OpenStack Compute does not currently have support for OVF packages,
so you will need to extract the image file(s) from an OVF package
if you wish to use it with OpenStack.
QCOW2
The `QCOW2 <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/QEMU/Images>`_
@ -55,22 +85,17 @@ QCOW2
Because raw images do not support snapshots, OpenStack Compute
will automatically convert raw image files to qcow2 as needed.
AMI/AKI/ARI
The `AMI/AKI/ARI
<http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AMIs.html>`_
format was the initial image format supported by Amazon EC2.
The image consists of three files:
Raw
The ``raw`` image format is the simplest one, and is natively
supported by both KVM and Xen hypervisors.
You can think of a raw image as being the bit-equivalent of
a block device file, created as if somebody had copied, say,
``/dev/sda`` to a file using the :command:`dd` command.
AMI (Amazon Machine Image)
This is a virtual machine image in raw format, as described above.
.. note::
AKI (Amazon Kernel Image)
A kernel file that the hypervisor will load initially to boot the image.
For a Linux machine, this would be a ``vmlinuz`` file.
ARI (Amazon Ramdisk Image)
An optional ramdisk file mounted at boot time.
For a Linux machine, this would be an ``initrd`` file.
We do not recommend creating raw images by dd'ing block device
files, we discuss how to create raw images later.
UEC tarball
A UEC (Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud) tarball is a gzipped tarfile that
@ -82,11 +107,6 @@ UEC tarball
Ubuntu cloud solution that has been replaced by the OpenStack-based
Ubuntu Cloud Infrastructure.
VMDK
VMware ESXi hypervisor uses the
`VMDK <https://developercenter.vmware.com/web/sdk/60/vddk>`_
(Virtual Machine Disk) format for images.
VDI
VirtualBox uses the
`VDI <https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=8046>`_
@ -103,27 +123,7 @@ VHDX
which has some additional features over VHD such as support for larger disk
sizes and protection against data corruption during power failures.
OVF
`OVF <http://dmtf.org/sites/default/files/OVF_Overview_Document_2010.pdf>`_
(Open Virtualization Format) is a packaging format for virtual machines,
defined by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) standards group.
An OVF package contains one or more image files, a .ovf XML metadata file
that contains information about the virtual machine, and possibly other
files as well.
An OVF package can be distributed in different ways. For example,
it could be distributed as a set of discrete files, or as a tar archive
file with an ``.ova`` (open virtual appliance/application) extension.
OpenStack Compute does not currently have support for OVF packages,
so you will need to extract the image file(s) from an OVF package
if you wish to use it with OpenStack.
ISO
The `ISO
<http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-119.htm>`_
format is a disk image formatted with the read-only ISO 9660 (also known
as ECMA-119) filesystem commonly used for CDs and DVDs.
While we do not normally think of ISO as a virtual machine image format,
since ISOs contain bootable filesystems with an installed operating system,
you can treat them the same as you treat other virtual machine image files.
VMDK
VMware ESXi hypervisor uses the
`VMDK <https://developercenter.vmware.com/web/sdk/60/vddk>`_
(Virtual Machine Disk) format for images.