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Glossary

Reference · Updated May 2026

Glossary

Affinity#

  • Affinity specifies that instances within a server group are co-located on the same host or hosts. Anti-affinity specifies that instances within the server group are distributed across different hosts. Soft anti-affinity and soft affinity allow less-strict policy execution.

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Anti-affinity#

Ansible#

  • Ansible is an agentless configuration-management tool from Red Hat. On Quake AI, Ansible is the recommended Day 1 / Day 2 layer above OpenTofu provisioning: OpenTofu creates the VMs, then Ansible logs in over SSH and configures them.

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Application credential#

  • Application credentials are authentication mechanisms that enable applications to make API requests without using user credentials or extended life tokens. Application credentials use Roles-Based Access Control and can include an expiration date.

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Availability zone#

  • Availability zones are the geographic regions in which your underlying cloud hardware and infrastructure reside. When planning your cloud project, consider the availability zone when considering cost, residency, latency, compliance, disaster recovery, backup, and high availability strategies.

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Block storage#

  • Block storage (Volumes service) is a type of data storage typically used in storage-area network (SAN) environments where data is stored in fixed-size blocks, each with a unique address. In block storage, data is organized as an array of blocks, and each block can be individually accessed and managed.

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Certificate#

  • Certificates are X.509 Certificates that are used for secure communication between systems in your cloud networks.

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CIDR notation#

  • CIDR notation is a compact way of representing an IP address and its associated network mask, which defines the size and boundaries of a network.

  • CIDR notation is written as an IP address followed by a slash (/) and a number, which represents the subnet mask in terms of the number of leading 1 bits. For example:

    • 192.168.1.0/24: This represents the IPv4 network 192.168.1.0 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, covering IP addresses from 192.168.1.0 to 192.168.1.255.
    • 2001:db8::/32: This represents the IPv6 network 2001:db8:: with a subnet mask that includes the first 32 bits, covering the IP address range within that specific prefix.

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Classless inter-domain routing (CIDR)#

  • CIDR is a notation used to specify IP address ranges and subnet masks for networks and subnets within the Network service.

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Cloud console#

cloud-init#

  • cloud-init is the industry standard multi-distribution method for cross-platform cloud instance initialization. It is supported across all major public cloud providers, provisioning systems for private cloud infrastructure, and bare-metal installations.

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Cloud YAML file#

  • cloud.yaml files are configuration files used with CLI tools to set authentication and authorization details for one or more cloud projects.

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Cloud#

  • Clouds are networked computing resources that are available as online services. Clouds lets you create and manage virtual machines, networks, and computing resources using self-service billing, provisioning, and management. Clouds can reduce ownership costs versus owning and managing physical servers and hardware, and can help reduce the time and effort to build, test, and scale your projects.

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Cluster template#

  • Cluster templates are files that define the characteristics of clusters including the image, flavor, and network. Creating a cluster requires the definition of at least one cluster template.

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Cluster#

  • Clusters are a group of containers managed as a logical unit.

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Container orchestration engine (COE)#

  • Container orchestration engines (or COE) manage the lifecycle of one or more containers as a cluster.

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Container#

  • Containers are packaged software including dependencies and an operating system that enable containers to run on different physical devices regardless of the native operating system of the device.

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Distributed virtual routing (DVR)#

  • Distributed Virtual Routing (DVR) routes traffic between VMs and external networks directly from compute nodes, avoiding a centralized network node bottleneck. It improves performance and eliminates a single point of failure for east-west traffic.

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Domain name system (DNS)#

  • DNS is a hierarchical and decentralized naming system used to translate human-readable domain names (such as www.example.com) into numerical IP addresses (like 192.0.2.1 for IPv4 or 2001:db8::1 for IPv6) that are used by computers to locate and communicate with each other on the internet or private networks.

External network#

  • External networks are networks that connect your Quake AI projects to the internet.

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Flavor#

  • Flavors are the virtual hardware specifications of a virtual machine, such as memory, CPU, and storage. You’ll select a flavor based on a general use case, such as general purpose, memory-optimized, compute-optimized, or shared resources.

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Floating IP address#

  • Floating IP addresses are IP addresses that you can assign to your virtual machine instance from a predefined pool of static public addresses. They enable your cloud resources to communicate with the internet using an IP address. Floating IP addresses are assigned to your account, and you can associate, disassociate, and re-assign the address as needed.

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High availability (HA)#

  • High Availability (HA) refers to the design and implementation of systems and services within a cloud environment to ensure continuous operation and minimal downtime, even in the event of hardware failures, network issues, or other disruptions. The goal of HA is to provide a reliable and resilient cloud infrastructure that can maintain service availability and data integrity under fault conditions.

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Hybrid cloud#

  • Hybrid clouds combine both public and private cloud services.

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Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)#

HTTP is a foundational protocol used for transmitting data on the World Wide Web. It is a request-response protocol that enables communication between clients (such as web browsers) and servers (where websites are hosted).

Image#

  • Images are virtual machine definitions that specify properties such as operating system and operating system version. A virtual machine runs its own independent and isolated operating system on top of a physical computer’s operating system, enabling a single physical computer to support multiple virtual machines at once.

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Instance#

  • Instances are virtual machine images that you activate and put into use (as an instance of a given image template) as servers.

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Instance snapshot#

Instance tag#

  • Instance tags are key-value pairs that you can use to help manage and organize your cloud resources. Tags can be used to search and filter for resources in the platform and can also be used in automation scripts. Your cloud environment may come with pre-defined key-value pairs for common software and environments.

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Internet control message protocol (ICMP)#

  • ICMP is a network layer protocol used within the Internet Protocol Suite (IP). It is primarily used for diagnostic and error-reporting purposes to help manage and control network communication. ICMP is core part of IP and is used by network devices like routers, switches, and hosts to send error messages and operational information indicating the status of network communication.

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Internet message access protocol (IMAP)#

  • IMAP is a protocol used for accessing and managing email messages on a mail server. It allows users to view, organize, and manipulate their emails directly on the server without downloading them to their local device.

Inventory (Ansible)#

  • Inventory is the list of hosts Ansible targets. Static inventory is a hand-maintained inventory.ini or YAML file that lists hostnames and connection details. Dynamic inventory is generated from a live API such as Quake AI's Keystone, using the openstack.cloud.openstack plugin to group instances by metadata, flavor, or region.

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Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)#

  • IPv4 is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol (IP) and is the most widely used version for routing and addressing data packets over the internet and other networks. It is the foundational protocol that allows devices to communicate over a network by providing unique addresses to each device and specifying how data should be routed between them.

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)#

  • IPv6 is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), which is the set of rules that devices use to communicate over the internet and other networks. IPv6 was developed to address the limitations of the previous version, IPv4, primarily the exhaustion of available IPv4 addresses.

IP address (internet protocol)#

  • IP addresses, or Internet Protocol addresses, are unique numerical identifiers assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses are essential for enabling network communication between instances (virtual machines), accessing instances from external networks, and managing network services.

Key pair#

  • Key pairs are an authentication mechanism that uses a pair of keys: a public key (that you share with others) to encrypt data, and a private key (that is never shared with anyone) to decrypt. You can store or generate your key pair in your Quake AI project and use your key pairs to authenticate into your virtual machine.

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Kubernetes#

  • Kubernetes is a popular open-source container orchestration system (COE). Although Quake AI supports the deployment of Kubernetes (and other container orchestration engines), no orchestration systems are pre-installed by default nor does Quake AI specify how you choose to deploy container orchestration.

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Lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP)#

  • LDAP is a protocol used for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. It is commonly used for organizing and providing access to directories that store information about users, groups, computers, and other resources within a network.

Local area network (LAN)#

  • Local area networks (LANs) are partitioned, logical subnets within a network.

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Load balancer#

  • A load balancer distributes incoming traffic across backend instances or containers. On Quake AI, run a self-managed reverse proxy or use supported Kubernetes LoadBalancer behavior for this role.

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MAC address#

  • MAC addresses (Media Access Control) are unique identifiers assigned to network interface cards (NIC) for use as a network addresses in communications within a network segment. A MAC address is a hardware address that identifies each device on a local network uniquely. MAC addresses are used in the data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model.

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Network#

  • Networks are isolated Layer 2 networking segments. In Quake AI, networks refer to virtual networks that provide connectivity between instances (virtual machines), routers, and other network resources within the cloud environment. Networks are managed by the Network service.

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Network address translation (NAT)#

  • Network Address Translation (NAT) modifies packet headers in transit so multiple devices on a private network can share a single public IP address. It conserves IPv4 addresses and adds a layer of security by hiding internal network structure.

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Network topology#

  • Network topology shows the relationships between the different networks and network resources in your project.

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NVMe#

  • Non-Volatile Memory express or NVMe is a high-performance, low-latency storage protocol and interface standard used for Quake AI object storage.

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Object storage#

  • Object storage (also called S3 storage) lets you store objects (files) in object containers (or containers). You can use APIs or the cloud console to upload and edit stored objects. You can make objects private or public (and accessible online).

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OpenRC file#

  • openrc.sh files (also called OpenStack RC and OpenRC files) are shell scripts used with the OpenStack CLI client to set environment variables, authentication and authorization details, available API endpoints, domain, and export commands.

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openstack.cloud collection#

  • The openstack.cloud collection is the Ansible collection that ships modules for managing OpenStack resources. Compatible with Quake AI's Antelope release at >= 2.2.0 (2.5.0 is the current latest). Install with ansible-galaxy collection install openstack.cloud and pip install "openstacksdk>=1.0.0".

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Ports#

  • Ports are connection points for a device such as a virtual machine instance to a network. Ports use network interfaces to connect to networks to virtual machine instances.

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Post office protocol 3 (POP3)#

  • POP3 is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. It is one of the most widely used protocols for downloading emails from a remote server to a local client, allowing users to access their email offline.

Playbook#

  • Playbooks are YAML files describing a sequence of Ansible tasks against an inventory of hosts. Each task calls a module (for example ansible.builtin.apt or openstack.cloud.server) with parameters; Ansible runs the tasks in order, reports changed, ok, or failed per task, and converges the host toward the declared state.

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Project#

  • Projects are isolated workspaces within a domain that enable resources and users to operate independently from other projects. Projects are sometimes referred to as tenants.

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Private cloud#

  • Private clouds are cloud services that are privately owned and controlled by an organization. Private clouds may be managed on-site by the organization, or they can be managed by a cloud provider.

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Public cloud#

  • Public clouds are cloud infrastructure and services managed and sold by a cloud provider. Customers can use public cloud services without having to manage or own physical hardware.

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Quake AI#

  • Quake AI is the cloud platform this documentation describes: OpenStack-backed compute, network, storage, Kubernetes, and automation services. The developer platform site documents APIs, Console workflows, CLI commands, and infrastructure templates for Quake AI.

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Quality of service (QoS)#

  • Quality of Service (QoS) policies are sets of rules that manage network resources and traffic to ensure certain traffic is prioritized.

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Remote desktop protocol (RDP)#

  • RDP is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft that provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection. You run RDP client software on your machine, while the remote computer runs RDP server software.

Role (Ansible)#

  • Roles are reusable bundles of Ansible tasks, handlers, files, and templates that encapsulate a single configuration concern (for example, "install nginx" or "harden SSH"). A playbook imports one or more roles to compose a full configuration. Roles live under roles/<role-name>/ with a conventional layout (tasks/, handlers/, templates/, defaults/).

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Role-based access control (RBAC)#

  • Role-based access control (or RBAC) determines the features and functions available to you. Your Quake AI administrator has assigned user roles and permissions for each project to which you are assigned.

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Router#

  • Virtual routers are logical entities within the Networking service that provides Layer 3 (L3) routing and forwarding capabilities. Virtual routers enable network traffic to be routed between different subnets within a cloud environment, as well as provide external connectivity to instances (virtual machines) through the use of floating IP addresses and Network Address Translation (NAT).

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Console#

  • Console is the graphical user interface for managing your cloud projects.

Routing table#

  • Routing tables are data structures used by routers and networking devices to store information about the paths to network destinations. The primary purpose of a routing table is to determine the best route for forwarding packets to their intended destinations.

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S3 credential#

  • S3 credentials are authentication tokens used to authenticate into object storage. S3 credentials are based on the object storage interface originally developed by Amazon (Simple Storage Service) and now widely adopted across cloud providers. Credentials take the form of an access key (used as a username) and secret (used as a password).

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Security group#

Server group#

  • Server groups are instructions that specify affinity or anti-affinity policies for the placement of instances. The policies influence how instances are placed on physical hosts within your cloud, and can be used as a part of your overall cloud architecture strategies for isolating resources, performance, optimization, and high-availability.

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Shared network#

  • Shared networks are networks shared across Quake AI projects.

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Simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP)#

  • SMTP is an Internet standard protocol used for sending and transmitting email messages between mail servers, as well as for sending messages from a mail client to a mail server. It operates at the application layer of the Internet Protocol Suite and is the primary protocol used for email relay and delivery.

Stack#

  • Stacks (also called Heat stacks) are instantiated Heat template files.

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TLS termination#

  • TLS termination (also known as SSL termination) decrypts encrypted traffic at a reverse proxy before forwarding it to the destination server. The reverse proxy encrypts the server response before returning it to the client.

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Template file#

  • Template files (also called Heat templates and templates) are written in a human-readable format, such as YAML or JSON, and used by the Automation service to specify cloud resources, states, dependencies, state rollbacks, and autoscaling. Templates are used in conjunction for managing your cloud resources. Use cases include deployment automation or resource autoscaling.

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Token#

  • Tokens (or API tokens) are temporary credentials that you’ll use for authentication into API resources. You’ll present your token in the header of your API requests.

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Transmission control protocol (TCP)#

  • TCP is a connection-oriented protocol used for reliable transmission of data between devices on a network. It ensures that data is delivered in order and without errors.

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User datagram protocol (UDP)#

  • UDP is a connectionless protocol used for transmitting data with minimal overhead. It does not guarantee delivery, order, or error checking, making it faster but less reliable than TCP.

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Virtual adaptors#

  • Virtual adaptors (also called virtual network interface cards (vNICs) are software abstractions that provide the functionality of a physical network interface. Virtual machine instances use virtual adaptors to connect to a network.

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Virtual machine (VM)#

Virtual private network (VPN)#

  • Virtual private networks enable the creation of secure, encrypted connections over a public or shared network, such as the internet. Quake AI does not include a managed VPN service. For site-to-site or remote-access VPN connectivity, deploy a self-managed VPN gateway (such as WireGuard or IPsec) on a Compute instance. See the Private Network + VPN template for a ready-to-use configuration.

Volume#

  • Volumes are block storage devices that can be attached to and detached from instances to provide persistent storage for virtual machines.

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Volume clone#

  • Volume clones are exact replicas of an existing volume, and are useful for backups or standardized provisioning.

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Volume snapshot#

  • Volume snapshots capture a volume at a point in time. Use snapshots for recovery or as the source for a new volume. A snapshot depends on its original storage volume, while a clone is an independent volume.

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