Container Object Storage Interface (COSI) is a set of abstractions for provisioning and management of object storage. It aims to be a common layer of abstraction across multiple object storage vendors, such that workloads can request and automatically be provisioned object storage buckets.
The goals of this project are:
- Automate object storage provisioning, access and management
- Provide a common layer of abstraction for consuming object storage
- Facilitate lift and shift of workloads across object storage providers (i.e. prevent vendor lock-in)
Kubernetes abstracts file/block storage via the CSI standard. The primitives for file/block storage do not extend well to object storage. Here is the extremely concise and incomplete list of reasons why:
- Unit of provisioned storage - Bucket instead of filesystem mount or blockdevice.
- Access is over the network instead of local POSIX calls.
- No common protocol for consumption across various implementations of object storage.
- Management policies and primitives - for instance, mounting and unmounting do not apply to object storage.
The existing primitives in CSI do not apply to objectstorage. Thus the need for a new standard to automate the management of objectstorage.
You can reach the maintainers and interact with community throught the following channels:
- #sig-storage-cosi slack channel
- container-object-storage-interface mailing list
- Thursday at 10:30AM - 11:00AM PT
- SIG Storage Zoom Meeting Room (Password is
77777) - Meeting Notes