Cloud Technical Glossary

Term	Description
Apache HTTP Server	A Web server software. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server.
CALM (cloud account lifecycle management)	Our process for managing the allocation of cloud resources.
Ceph	The distributed data storage platform for our clouds; includes volume storage.
CephFS (Ceph File System)	A filesystem with Ceph storage, which allows data to be mounted simultaneously on multiple instances. Currently only available with Arbutus. See https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/cephfs/.
cloud	When referring to our cloud services, short form of IaaS cloud.
compute cloud	Type of resource allocated to support OpenStack instances intended to run for a limited time, usually with a very high sustained usage of CPU and memory. Flavours for these resources have labels beginning with c*. Currently only available on Arbutus, Béluga and Cedar. Compare with persistent cloud.
CVMFS (CernVM File System)	A read-only content distribution system often used to manage software. See https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/CVMFS.
ephemeral local disk	Virtual disk which is created and destroyed along with an OpenStack instance. An ephemeral disk is created when an instance is launched without the specification of a volume.
flavor	OpenStack term for a predefined specification of a new instance. A flavor can define sizes for RAM, disk, number of cores, and so on.
floating IP	Internet Protocol address that can be associated with an OpenStack instance to allow external access.
Horizon	A dashboard for OpenStack clouds that is used for viewing and managing cloud resources through a Web browser. See https://docs.openstack.org/horizon/latest/.
host	The physical resources supporting an instance (VM, virtual machine).
image	Short for "Virtual disk image". The cloud platform provides a set of prepared base operating system images. An image is used to create a new boot volume or ephemeral disk when launching a new instance.
instance	A virtual server in the cloud infrastructure. Also known as a Virtual Machine (VM).
IPV6	Internet Protocol version 6, a communications protocol and successor to IPv4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6
object storage	Persistent storage space for large amounts of data. Typically read access only, e.g. images and data sets. Available on Arbutus cloud only. Offered as S3 and Swift protocols. Allocated in TB
OpenStack	The software suite used on our clouds to control hardware resources such as computers, storage and networking.
persistent cloud	An allocation type for persistent instances (virtual machines, VMs) that are expected to run indefinitely and have low or bursty CPU requirements. Flavors have labels beginning with p*
RAC	Resource Allocation Competition. Program via which PIs can request storage and compute resources beyond what can be obtained via the Rapid Access Service (RAS).
RAS	Rapid Access Service. Service by which Principal Investigators can request a modest amount of storage and cloud resources without having to apply to the RAC.
S3	Simple Storage Service. A type of object storage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_S3.
security group	A group of rules controlling network traffic to and from an instance (virtual machine, VM). A security rule can be applied as a whole to one or more instances.
service portal	We host many research web portals which serve datasets or tools to a broad research community. These portals generally do not require large computing or storage resources, but may require support effort by our technical team. Groups applying for a service portal often use our clouds, generally require a public IP address, and may (or may not) have more stringent up-time requirements than most research projects.
shared file system storage	Persistent storage space offered as a Unix-compliant file system that can be mounted across multiple hosts in a tenant. This is useful for sharing data across multiple hosts. Service runs on CephFS and requires either a Fuse driver (Windows/Linux) or the CephFS kernel driver (Linux) for access. Allocated in TB.
snapshot	A copy of a volume that can be used as a backup or to launch another instance (virtual machine, VM).
SSL	Secure Sockets Layer. A protocol to allow encrypted communications over networks. SSL is now deprecated, and should be replaced by TLS (Transport Layer Security) wherever possible.
SWIFT	Another type of object storage. https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Swift
tenant	A group or user's allocation of cloud resources (now called a Project).
TSL	Transport Layer Security. The successor of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security
VCPU	Virtual central processing unit. An instance (virtual machine, VM) can have one or more CPUs assigned to it, each of which is seen as a single physical CPU core by the operating system.
VGPU	Virtual graphics processing unit. An instance (virtual machine, VM) can have one or more VGPUs assigned to it.
virtual machine	See "instance."
volume	An allocation of storage resources that can be attached or detached to/from an instance (virtual machine, VM), exposed as a block device (a virtual disk)
volume storage	A persistent cloud storage type providing virtual disk functionality to virtual machines running in the cloud. Implemented with Ceph software. Allocated in GB.

HyperText Transfer Protocol

Rapid Access Service

Resource Allocation Competition