Nimble Storage fully integrates with the OpenStack platform through the Nimble Cinder driver, allowing a host to configure and manage Nimble Storage array features through Block Storage interfaces. Support for the Liberty release is available from Nimble OS 2.3.8 or later.

Create, delete, clone, attach, and detach volumes Create and delete volume snapshots Create a volume from a snapshot Copy an image to a volume Copy a volume to an image Extend a volume Get volume statistics Manage and unmanage a volume Enable encryption and default performance policy for a volume-type using extra-specs The Nimble Storage implementation uses iSCSI only. Fibre Channel is not supported.

Update the file /etc/cinder/cinder.conf with the given configuration. In case of a basic (single back-end) configuration, add the parameters within the [default] section as follows. [default] san_ip = NIMBLE_MGMT_IP san_login = NIMBLE_USER san_password = NIMBLE_PASSWORD volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.nimble.NimbleISCSIDriver In case of multi back-end configuration, for example, configuration which supports multiple Nimble Storage arrays or a single Nimble Storage array with arrays from other vendors, use the following parameters. [default] enabled_backends = Nimble-Cinder [Nimble-Cinder] san_ip = NIMBLE_MGMT_IP san_login = NIMBLE_USER san_password = NIMBLE_PASSWORD volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.nimble.NimbleISCSIDriver volume_backend_name = NIMBLE_BACKEND_NAME In case of multi back-end configuration, Nimble Storage volume-type is created and associated with a back-end name as follows. Single back-end configuration users do not need to create the volume-type. $ cinder type-create NIMBLE_VOLUME_TYPE $ cinder type-key NIMBLE_VOLUME_TYPE set volume_backend_name=NIMBLE_BACKEND_NAME This section explains the variables used above: NIMBLE_MGMT_IP Management IP address of Nimble Storage array/group. NIMBLE_USER Nimble Storage account login with minimum "power user"(admin) privilege if RBAC is used. NIMBLE_PASSWORD Password of the admin account for nimble array. NIMBLE_BACKEND_NAME A volume back-end name which is specified in cinder.conf. This is also used while assigning a back- end name to the Nimble volume-type. NIMBLE_VOLUME_TYPE The Nimble volume-type which is created from the CLI and associated with NIMBLE_BACKEND_NAME. Restart the cinder-api, cinder-scheduler, and cinder-volume services after updating the cinder.conf.

The Nimble volume driver also supports the following extra spec options: 'nimble:encryption'='yes' Used to enable encryption for a volume-type 'nimble:perfpol-name'=PERF_POL_NAME PERF_POL_NAME is the name of a performance policy which exists on the Nimble array and should be enabled for every volume in a volume-type 'nimble:multi-initiator'='true' Used to enable multi-initiator access for a volume-type These extra-specs can be enabled by using the following command: $ cinder type-key \ VOLUME_TYPE set KEY=\ VALUE VOLUME_TYPE is the Nimble volume-type and KEY and VALUE are the options mentioned above.

The Nimble storage driver supports these configuration options: