The Glance project provides a service where users can upload and discover data assets that are meant to be used with other services. This currently includes images and metadata definitions.
Glance image services include discovering, registering, and retrieving virtual machine images. Glance has a RESTful API that allows querying of VM image metadata as well as retrieval of the actual image.
The Glance architecture consists of several components:
- A client - any application that uses Glance server.
- REST API - exposes Glance functionality via REST.
- Database Abstraction Layer (DAL) - an application programming interface which unifies the communication between Glance and databases.
- Glance Domain Controller - middleware that implements the main Glance functionalities: authorization, notifications, policies, database connections.
- Glance Store - organizes interactions between Glance and various data stores.
- Registry Layer - optional layer organizing secure communication between the domain and the DAL by using a separate service.