Key terms

Definitions of key terms and concepts used throughout VergeOS documentation, including networking, storage, virtualization, and multi-tenancy terminology.

A

Authorization Sources:

Defines a user management authority (GitLab, Google, OpenID) for a VergeIO cloud, allowing single sign-on experiences for users.

Anti-Virus Settings:

Configuration options within VergeOS for virus scanning and protection, particularly for NAS volumes.

C

Catalog:

A group of related recipes in VergeOS. Catalogs can contain various VM or tenant recipes grouped in a way that makes sense for the organization.

Cloud (VergeIO Cloud):

Refers to each autonomous Virtual Data Center (VDC) created within a VergeIO system, including the base level VDC and each subsequent tenant and subtenant.

System Snapshots:

Point-in-time captures of an entire VergeOS cloud, tenant, individual virtual machine, or NAS volume. Used for recovery, development, and testing purposes.

Cluster:

A group of nodes (physical or virtual) with like hardware resources, used as a pool for storage, compute, or HCI functions. A single VergeIO system can contain various clusters for different performance/costing options.

Compute-Only Cluster:

A set of nodes in VergeOS added solely to expand compute resources.

Compute-Only Node:

A node that expands only the compute resources in a VergeOS system.

Controller Node:

The first two nodes in a VergeOS system, responsible for handling the User Interface, Networking, and vSAN functions.

Core Fabric Network:

A virtual network used by VergeOS for vSAN traffic, Node to Node communication, VM migrations, and other system-level communications.

D

DMZ Network:

A virtual network automatically created during VergeOS installation or Tenant creation, serving as a connection point for all networks.

E

External Network:

A network outside of the VergeOS system, such as a company LAN, direct WAN connections, or Wi-Fi networks, that interfaces with VergeOS.

H

Host:

Refers to the top-level Virtual Data Center (VDC) created during the initial VergeOS install on physical hardware, with direct control over the hardware.

Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI):

A software-defined, unified system in VergeOS that combines storage, compute, networking, and management in a single infrastructure.

I

Internal Network:

A software-defined layer 3 network deployed inside a VergeOS system or tenant, with its own subnet, router, DHCP, and DNS.

L

Local Volume:

A volume stored within the VergeOS vSAN.

M

Maintenance Network:

An External network in VergeOS created to handle IPMI access to Physical Nodes and optional PXE boot.

Media Images:

Files uploaded to the VergeOS vSAN to make them available inside the VergeOS environment, such as VM installation files or imported machine images.

N

Nested Multi-Tenancy:

Provides layers of tenancy where tenants can allocate portions of their resources to child tenants, creating a hierarchical structure.

Node:

A single server running VergeOS. Types include physical nodes (actual hardware servers) and tenant nodes (virtual servers that simulate physical nodes).

P

Physical Network:

A collection of NICs across nodes in VergeOS that serve the same purpose.

R

Recipe (Tenant):

A customizable template for creating a new tenant instance in VergeOS, including predefined settings and custom fields.

Recipe (VM):

A customizable template for launching new virtual machine instances in VergeOS, including hardware specifications and resource pool specifications.

Recipe Consumer:

The VergeIO user creating a new tenant or VM instance using a recipe.

Remote Volume:

A pre-existing (external) NFS or CIFS file system mounted to make it accessible within a VergeOS system.

Repair Server:

A mechanism in VergeOS for potential reconstruction of a system that experienced a problem beyond its redundancy tolerance.

Repository:

A site collection of recipe catalogs in VergeOS. Each tenant can create a local repository to store its own recipe catalogs.

Rules:

Rules allow you to define behavior for incoming and outgoing traffic in VergeOS networks. Types include: Accept/Drop/Reject(firewall), Route(static), and Translate(NAT/PAT).

S

Scale Out:

The process of adding additional Nodes to a VergeOS System.

Scale Up:

The process of adding additional resources to existing Nodes in a VergeOS System.

Site:

A VergeOS system with its own physical hardware, typically separated by geographical location.

Sites Dashboard:

Provides a central page for monitoring and administering multiple VergeOS systems, aggregating top-level statistics from included locations.

Snapshot:

Captures the state of an entity at a particular point in time, allowing for system rollback.

Snapshot Profile:

A definition of the schedule for snapshot creation and cleanup in VergeOS.

Storage-Only Cluster:

A set of nodes in VergeOS added solely to expand storage resources.

Storage-Only Node:

A node that expands only the storage resources in a VergeOS system.

Storage Tiers:

A method of storing data on various types of media based on performance, availability, and recovery requirements in VergeOS.

Subscriptions:

A feature in VergeOS that allows for monitoring a system (or components of a system) by defining system information to send to users via Email.

Subscription Profiles:

Definitions of the aspects of a subscription in VergeOS, such as on-demand/scheduled and trigger criteria/schedule.

T

TB (terabyte):

A unit of storage displayed throughout the VergeOS GUI and usage reports. In VergeOS, values labeled "TB" are calculated using tebibyte (base-1024) math: 1 TB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes, which is approximately 9.95% larger than the SI terabyte (10¹² bytes) used by disk manufacturers. See Storage Units and Capacity Reporting for details.

TiB (tebibyte):

The binary unit equal to 2⁴⁰ bytes (1,099,511,627,776 bytes). Used internally by VergeOS for all storage calculations and displayed in the GUI with the "TB" label — the same convention followed by Windows, most Linux tools, and other hypervisor and infrastructure platforms.

Tenant:

A complete and separate Virtual Data Center running its own instance of the VergeOS OS, apportioned from a parent VergeOS cloud.

Tenant Node:

Virtual servers in VergeOS that simulate physical nodes, used within tenants.

V

VergeOS:

A complete operating system designed for rapid deployment of complete virtual data centers, with nested tenancy functionality.

VergeOS System:

A collection of nodes used to deploy workloads across a single vSAN instance in VergeOS.

vGPU:

A physical GPU installed on a host node that is dissected into multiple virtual GPUs, providing access to multiple VMs simultaneously.

Virtual Switch Port:

The equivalent of an uplink between two virtual switches (networks) in VergeOS, used to provide Layer 2 connectivity.

Volume:

A directory structure/collection of files within a VergeOS NAS. Can be configured with different settings for security, snapshots, tiering, max size, Anti-Virus settings, shares, etc.

vSAN:

The software-defined storage system used in VergeOS to provide shared storage across nodes.