Adding IBM Cloud Object Storage as a backup storage provider

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You can add IBM Cloud™ Object Storage as primary backup storage for container workloads and the IBM Storage® Protect Plus catalog, or as secondary storage from the vSnap server.

Before you begin

Configure the key and certificate that are required for the cloud object. For instructions, see Adding an access key and Adding a certificate.

Ensure that there are cloud storage buckets created for the IBM Storage Protect Plus data before you add the cloud storage in the following steps. For information how to create buckets, see About IBM Cloud Object Storage.

When creating a bucket on IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS), ensure that both Add Archive rule and Add Expiration rules are not selected when creating buckets that are to be used for copy or archive. This can result in a failure with the “bucket has an unsupported lifecycle configuration” error when the job attempts to run in IBM Storage Protect Plus. The Add Retention policy option may be set for a bucket to be used for copy, but should not be set for a bucket that will be used for archiving.

The Cold Vault bucket of type should only be used when archiving, as it is the lowest-cost option and is described as ideal for long-term retention of data that will be minimally accessed.

For on-premises IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS), the user associated with the access key and secret key that is registered in IBM Storage Protect Plus must be assigned as an Owner of the vault in the IBM COS Manager interface. It is not sufficient for the user to have only Read/Write access to the vault.

When adding IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS), the method for obtaining the access and secret key will depend on the deployment model. If on-premise, keys can be obtained from the IBM® COS Manager Console. For IBM COS IaaS, keys are created when a service account is created and can be obtained from the softlayer portal. If using IBM COS (COS as a Service), the access and secret key are not created by default; when a service account is created, check the Include HMAC Credential box, and add {“HMAC”:true} to the Add Inline Configuration Parameters text area.

Procedure

To add IBM Cloud Object Storage as a backup storage provider, complete the following steps:

In the navigation panel, click System Configuration > Storage > Cloud storage.
Click Add cloud storage to open the Add cloud storage wizard.
Click IBM Cloud Object Storage, and then click Next.
Complete the fields on the Cloud details page, and then click Next:

Name

Enter a meaningful name to help identify the cloud storage.

Use existing access key

Enable to select a previously entered key for the storage, and then select the key from the Select a key list.

If you do not select this option, complete the following fields to add a key:

Key name

Enter a meaningful name to identify the key.

Access key

Enter the access key.

Secret key

Enter the secret key.

Certificate

Select a method of associating a certificate with the resource:

Upload

Select and click Browse to locate the certificate, and then click Upload.

Copy and paste

Select to enter the name of the certificate, copy and paste the contents of the certificate, and then click Create.

Use existing

Select to use a previously uploaded certificate.

A certificate is not required if you are adding public IBM Cloud Object Storage.
Complete the fields on the Get buckets page, and then click Next:

Endpoint

Enter the endpoint path for the cloud storage, and then click Update buckets to select the buckets that you want to use for storage backup, copy, and archive operations. The buckets that you select depend on the backup configuration that you want to use.

If you are backing up container workloads, you can use cloud storage as your primary backup storage.

If your primary backup storage location is a vSnap server, you can use cloud storage as a copy or archive location.

Backup object storage bucket

Select a bucket to serve as the backup storage target.

Standard object storage bucket

Select a bucket to serve as the copy target.

Archive object storage bucket

Select a cloud storage resource to serve as the archive target.

Archiving data creates a full data copy and can provide longer-term protection, cost, and security benefits. For more information about archiving data, see the information about copying data to cloud archive storage in Copying snapshots to secondary backup storage.
Review your selections, and then click Submit.
The cloud storage is added to the cloud servers table.

What to do next

After you add the IBM Cloud Object Storage, complete the following action:


Action	How to
Associate the cloud storage with the SLA policy that is used for the backup job.	To create an SLA policy, see Creating an SLA policy for databases and file systems. To modify an existing SLA policy, see Editing an SLA policy.