# User Documentation

The OpenStack Compute service allows you to control an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform. It gives you control over instances and networks, and allows you to manage access to the cloud through users and projects.

Compute does not include virtualization software. Instead, it defines drivers that interact with underlying virtualization mechanisms that run on your host operating system, and exposes functionality over a web-based API.

## End user guide

- Availability zones
- Security Groups
- Launch instances
- Server Groups
- Metadata
- Manage IP addresses
- Image Signature Certificate Validation
- Resize an instance
- Reboot an instance
- Rescue an instance
- Block Device Mapping in Nova
- REST API Version History

this page last updated: 2026-08-20 01:33:50

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