Something VCL has been lacking is automated management of storage, both on the system side and on the user side. This is a list of areas that should be addressed when designing storage management and automation:

• System storage:
  • block attached image store for management nodes
  • network attached image store for management nodes
  • block attached image store for hypervisors
  • network attached image store for hypervisors
  • block attached images for node booting (i.e. iSCSI booting)
  • file/block/LUN cloning
  • LUN/share management of existing stores
  • LUN/share management of temporary stores (things created/destroyed dynamically)
  • logging/auditing
  • where does security fit in?
• User storage:
  • block attached
  • networked filesystems
  • allocation
  • authentication/authorization
  • quota management
  • lifetime of storage (just for reservation vs. lifetime of user)
  • backups
  • request process
  • logging/auditing