--- title: OpenStack Ironic, Cinder volume replication and Glance multi-store – OpenStack Charms 21.01 description: The OpenStack Charms 21.01 release includes operators for OpenStack Ironic which enable to deploy and operate OpenStack Ironic in a fully automated way. url: https://canonical.com/blog/openstack-charms-21-01?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Tytus Kurek](https://canonical.com/blog/author/tkurek "More about Tytus Kurek") 12 February 2021 # OpenStack Ironic, Cinder volume replication and Glance multi-store – OpenStack Charms 21.01 [bare metal](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/bare-metal) [Charms](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/charms) [cloud](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/cloud) [Juju OpenStack](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/juju-openstack) [Private cloud](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/private-cloud) [Storage](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/storage) --- Share the article Canonical is proud to announce the availability of OpenStack Charms 21.01. This new release includes: a tech-preview version of OpenStack Ironic operators (charms), Cinder volume replication and Glance multi-store support for [Charmed OpenStack](https://ubuntu.com/openstack). ## **OpenStack Ironic** The latest version of OpenStack Charms brings initial support for the [OpenStack Ironic](https://docs.openstack.org/ironic/latest/) project. Ironic has been generally available on Ubuntu since the Kilo release. It was not included in the [OpenStack Charms](https://docs.openstack.org/project-deploy-guide/charm-deployment-guide/latest/) portfolio, however, resulting in limited adoption capabilities. The OpenStack Charms 21.01 release includes [operators](https://charmhub.io) for OpenStack Ironic. Operators enable Charmed OpenStack users to deploy and operate Ironic together with other OpenStack components in a fully automated way. Canonical will distribute Ironic in three operators (charms): * **ironic-api** – providing the Openstack Ironic bare metal API service * **ironic-conductor** – providing the OpenStack Ironic bare metal conductor service * **neutron-api-plugin-ironic** – providing the Bare metal ML2 Plugin to the OpenStack Neutron service All three operators are considered tech-preview at this point. They are expected to reach a stable state with the [OpenStack Charms 21.07 release](https://docs.openstack.org/charm-guide/latest/release-schedule.html). In order to deploy OpenStack Ironic in a Charmed OpenStack environment, users have to add Ironic operators to the existing [OpenStack model](https://jaas.ai/openstack-base/bundle/70) and add the necessary relations. They also have to deploy an additional OpenStack Nova compute service and configure it to use OpenStack Ironic as a driver. Since Charmed OpenStack uses operators and [model-driven architecture](https://juju.is/model-driven-operations), the entire process is simple and straightforward. Please refer to the [deployment guide](https://docs.openstack.org/project-deploy-guide/charm-deployment-guide/latest/) for the exact steps. Charmed OpenStack model OpenStack Ironic is an OpenStack project that enables fully automated bare metal provisioning. It uses preboot execution environment (PXE) and intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) technologies to turn bare metal machines on/off and provision them so that they can be used on-demand as virtual machines (VMs) with OpenStack Nova. Since the Ironic project is still facing some challenges, Canonical recommends using [Metal-as-a-Service (MAAS)](https://maas.io) for bare metal provisioning unless it is absolutely necessary to use OpenStack Ironic. ## **Cinder volume replication** Another notable enhancement brought by OpenStack Charms 21.01 is the introduction of Cinder volume replication. This feature improves data durability and disaster recovery capabilities. Although Cinder is usually backed by Ceph in Charmed OpenStack deployments, the default replication mechanism does not span the data centre boundaries. This means that if the entire data centre fails, there is no way to recover Cinder volumes quickly. This new capability addresses this problem by enabling continuous replication of Cinder volumes across two Ceph clusters. As a result, an up to date replica is always available in the second cluster. The feature leverages [RADOS block device (RBD) mirroring](https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/rbd/rbd-mirroring/) technology for the purpose of asynchronous replication of Ceph block devices, serving as Cinder volumes. This enables the usage of the feature in geographically distributed environments, allowing the replication of Cinder volumes across different sites. Whether a particular Cinder volume is replicated or not is configurable for better granularity and is determined by the volume type. ## **Glance multi-store support** OpenStack Charms 21.01 also introduces [multi-store support for OpenStack Glance](https://docs.openstack.org/glance/rocky/admin/multistores.html). Services such as Nova and Cinder make extensive use of available optimisations for Ceph block. These services can create a copy-on-write clone of the image into a new volume which reduces both space usage as well as increases speed at instance launch time or volume creation time. While bare-metal services make extensive use of HTTP(s) URLs to efficiently retrieve images to load onto an image for deployment. Multi-store support enables the use of both Ceph RBD storage and OpenStack Swift compatible storage for serving images, allowing users to take advantage of the appropriate optimisations for each available service. ## **Get in touch** [Get in touch with Canonical](https://ubuntu.com/openstack/contact-us?product=openstack) if you are interested in OpenStack consulting, commercial support or fully-managed service. For more information about OpenStack Charms 21.01, please refer to the official [release notes](https://docs.openstack.org/charm-guide/latest/2101.html). ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/dataprivacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### Deploy your Spring Boot application to production](https://canonical.com/blog/deploy-spring-application-to-production) In this article we walk through the steps required to deploy a Spring Boot application to production using Juju and Kubernetes. The goal is to showcase the integration of the... [Javier de la Puente](https://canonical.com/blog/author/javierdelapuente) 13 January 2026 [### Managing Ubuntu on bare metal at scale](https://canonical.com/blog/managing-ubuntu-on-bare-metal-at-scale) Modern infrastructure teams are expected to deliver cloud-like speed, consistency, and reliability, even when their workloads run on physical servers. Bare metal remains... 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