Created attachment 1488181 [details] How snapshots are displayed in cloudforms for Openstack (left) and VMWare (right) Description of problem: Need the ability to perform instance snapshots in OpenStack and provide a 'lineage' or genealogy of the snapshot. Currently OpenStack's version of 'snapshot' is a clone of the entire guest and memory (if selected) and creates a reusable image from that clone. However, it stands alone and does not provide a lineage of what it was cloned from, and an instance cannot easily be restored to the state when the image was created manually rebuilding with the new image. We have a customer asking for the ability to perform multiple (up to 500 per day) snapshots in their OpenStack environment. These snapshots are only for the instance they are created from and they need the ability to visually see when a snapshot was made and it's 'genealogy'. The customer is asking for a interface or graphical representation of this, similar to how VMWare presents their snapshots. Actual results: OpenStack doesn't preserve the genealogy of the clones it creates. Expected results: Expectation is to be able to create snapshots, and be able to see which snapshot was created from what snapshot and in which branch of the snapshot tree. This customer is currently using cloudforms to manage their environments, so a screenshot of how it is being presented in cloudforms Business Justification: "Multiple elements of the US government are increasingly involved in various forms of cyber operations. Because these entities need a secure environment with the flexibility to undertake a wide variety of operations, a product like Red Hat OpenStack is in great demand. OpenStack provisions laboratory-like SDN that can be used to carry out cyber operations securely and with confidence, and when paired with Ansible or Cloudforms, can deliver highly tailored and repeatable operations that can greatly improve knowledge of cyber threats worldwide and the US government's ability to deal with such threats. The US government agency that provides strategic leadership, and in many cases, tactical-level guidance to other agencies on how to carry out cyber operations has just concluded a $2.5m annual project with Red Hat focused on OpenStack. This figure does not include subscriptions, which would significantly increase the total funding outlay. While this project made major progress in establishing OpenStack as a highly viable option for cyber operations, there were a few major technical blockers which ultimately led this agency to choose other technology options going forward. These blockers include the inability of OpenStack, as an infrastructure provider in Cloudforms, to provide a tree-like genealogy of VM snapshots and its inability to allow one instance in an SDN to conduct two-way (read-write) debugging of another instance via a virtual serial console port. The potential market for using OpenStack as a cyber operations infrastructure platform is large. Besides the aforementioned lead government agency, which would likely generate $2-3m in annual subscriptions and service deals on its own, there are at least three major elements of the DoD, an intelligence community component, and a handful of quasi-governmental laboratories that could generate another $10-12m in subscription and services deals as well just to set up and configure OpenStack for cyber operations. Additionally, even after the initial services work is done, the highly complex architectures that these entities use to conduct cyber operations would require ongoing services and support to administer environments, provide troubleshooting, manage product upgrades, and evolve the technical solution in line with evolutions to the underlying cyber operations tradecraft. In sustainment, these services could be worth $5m annually across all the entities involved. Over a five year period, this represents a $35m market for our subscriptions and services."