# Export Location Metadata

Manila shares can have one or more export locations. The exact number depends on the driver and the storage controller, and there is no preference for more or fewer export locations. Usually drivers create an export location for each physical network interface through which the share can be accessed.

Because not all export locations have the same qualities, Manila allows drivers to add additional keys to the dict returned for each export location when a share is created. The share manager stores these extra keys and values in the database and they are available to the API service, which may expose them through the REST API or use them for filtering.

## Metadata Keys

Only keys defined in this document are valid. Arbitrary driver-defined keys are not allowed. The following keys are defined:

- is_admin_only - May be True or False. Defaults to False. Indicates that the export location exists for administrative purposes. If is_admin_only=True, then the export location is hidden from non-admin users calling the REST API. Also, these export locations are assumed to be reachable directly from the admin network, which is important for drivers that support share servers and which have some export locations only accessible to tenants.

- preferred - May be True or False. Defaults to False. Indicates that clients should prefer to mount this export location over other export locations that are not preferred. This may be used by drivers which have fast/slow paths to indicate to clients which paths are faster. It could be used to indicate a path is preferred for another reason, as long as the reason isn’t one that changes over the life of the manila-share service. This key is always visible through the REST API.

this page last updated: 2026-03-20 00:30:00

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