Preparing to configure cloud-container storage pools for IBM Cloud Object Storage with S3 (off premises)

You can set up cloud-container storage pools to use IBM Cloud Object Storage off premises with the Simple Storage Service (S3) protocol.

1. Log into the IBM Cloud Customer Portal.
2. Click the Storage menu and select Object Storage.
3. From the Object Storage page, select an S3 account.
4. From the Cloud Object Storage page, click Manage Buckets and then click the + symbol to create the bucket that you want to use with the new cloud-container storage pool.
   Restriction: In the Rules & Policies section, the Expiration and Retention policy option settings are not supported.
5. Click Show Credentials to create administrator credentials for your new bucket.
6. Click Add Credential.
7. Locate the Access Key ID, the Secret Access Key, and the Public Authentication Endpoint. Record the values in those fields so that you can use them when you configure storage pools. If you are inside the IBM Cloud network, you can use a private authentication endpoint.
8. If you plan to configure storage pools by using the Add Storage Pool wizard in the Operations Center, select Off-premises cloudand use the following values for the parameters:
   • Cloud type: IBM Cloud Object Storage - S3 API
   • Access key ID: access_key_ID
   • Secret access key: secret_access_key
   • Bucket name: bucket_name (from step 4)
   • URL: geo_authentication_endpoint
     Note: Only one cloud provider endpoint is needed with this configuration. If all of your servers are inside the IBM Cloud network, you can use a private authentication endpoint.
9. If you plan to configure storage pools by using the command-line administrative client, use the following procedure:
   Restriction: Do not change the data in the bucket or edit the configuration settings for the bucket.
   1. Issue the DEFINE CONNECTION command, to define the IBM Cloud credentials in the IBM Storage Protect server with the following parameter values:
      • CLOUDTYPE: S3
      • IDENTITY: access_key_ID (from step 1)
      • PASSWORD: secret_access_key (from step 1)
      • BUCKETNAME: bucket_name (from step 2)
      • CLOUDURL: geo_authentication_endpoint
   2. Issue the DEFINE STGPOOL command, to create a storage pool associated with the cloud connection defined in step 4.
      • CONNection: connection name defined in step 3.
   Note: Only one cloud provider endpoint is needed with this configuration. If all of your servers are inside the IBM Cloud network, you can use a private authentication endpoint.