Glance-common-image-properties
Additional common image properties
In order to make images more easily searchable in different openstack installations, it would be useful to add some common properties identifying operating system characteristics to Glance images.
We propose adding four properties: `os_arch`, `os_distro`, `os_version`, `os_nick`. Descriptions of each follow. For more context, see the email thread on this topic [1].
Property: os_arch
JSONSchema of proposed property in Image Schema:
{
"os_arch":
{
"type": "string",
"required": false,
"default": null,
"description": "Operating system architecture as specified in http://docs.openstack.org/developer/glance/image_properties/os_arch",
}
}
Example usage
"os_arch": "x86_64"
Discussion
Standardized values will aid in searching for an appropriate image. I propose that we keep a list of suggested values on a web page similar to the image statuses page [2]. This could be as loosely moderated as a wiki page or it could have some kind of clearly stated submission procedure for new os_arch values. I think usage would be self-policing, i.e., if you want your images to be found, you'd want to use the community's terms for the architecture.
Property: os_distro
JSONSchema of proposed property in Image Schema:
{
"os_distro":
{
"type": "string",
"required": false,
"default": null,
"description": "Common name of operating system distribution as specified in http://docs.openstack.org/developer/glance/image_properties/os_distro",
}
}
Example usage
"os_distro": "debian"
Discussion
Standardized values will aid in searching for an appropriate image. Same idea as the `os_arch` proposal, though this would probably change much faster. The page would outline the basic rule (e.g., "Common nuame of the operating system distribution in all-lowercase") and provide a list of names to use. (If we want to be developer-friendly, we could have associated with each approved name a list of un-approved variants to make it easier to search for the proper value.)
Property: os_version
JSONSchema of proposed property in Image Schema
{
"os_version":
{
"type": "string",
"required": false,
"default": null,
"description": "Operating system version as specified by the distributor",
}
}
Example usage
"os_version": "11.10"
Discussion
Previous discussion [3] mentioned standardizing this field, but the values are controlled by the operating system vendors. It makes sorting tricky, but this this would be a secondary sort field anyway.
Property: os_nick
JSONSchema of proposed property in Image Schema:
{
"os_nick":
{
"type": "string",
"required": false,
"default": null,
"description": "Operating system release nickname as specified by the distributor",
}
}
Example usage
"os_nick": "Oneiric Oncelot"
Discussion
This could assist searching.
