Object storage support overview

IBM Storage Scale object storage combines the benefits of IBM Storage Scale with protocols like the Simple Storage Service (S3).

Important:
  • CES Swift Object protocol feature is not supported from IBM Storage Scale 5.2.0 onwards.
  • IBM Storage Scale 5.1.8 is the last release that has CES Swift Object protocol.
  • IBM Storage Scale 5.2.0 will tolerate the update of a CES node from IBM Storage Scale 5.1.8.
    • Tolerate means:
      • The CES node will be updated to 5.2.0.
      • Swift Object support will not be updated as part of the 5.2.0 update.
      • You may continue to use the version of Swift Object protocol that was provided in IBM Storage Scale 5.1.8 on the CES 5.2.0 node.
      • IBM will provide usage and known defect support for the version of Swift Object that was provided in IBM Storage Scale 5.1.8 until you migrate to a supported object solution that IBM Storage Scale provides.
  • Please contact IBM for further details and migration planning.

Data centers are currently struggling to store and manage vast amounts of data efficiently and cost-effectively. The increasing number of application domains create silos of storage within data centers. These application domains include analytics, online transaction processing (OLTP), and high-performance computing (HPC). With each new application, a new storage system can be required, forcing system administrators to become experts in numerous storage management tools.

In addition, the set of applications that includes mobile and web-based applications, archiving, backup, and cloud storage also has another type of storage system for the system administrator to manage - object storage. Objects cannot be updated after they are created (although they can be replaced, versioned, or removed), and in many cases the objects are accessible in an eventually consistent manner. These types of semantics are suited for:
  • Images
  • Videos
  • Text documents
  • Virtual machine (VM) images
  • Other similar files

IBM Storage Scale object storage combines the benefits of IBM Storage Scale with the most widely used open source object store today, OpenStack Swift. In IBM Storage Scale object storage, data is managed as objects and it can be accessed over the network by using RESTful HTTP-based APIs. This object storage system uses a distributed architecture with no central point of control, providing greater scalability and redundancy. IBM Storage Scale object storage organizes data in the following hierarchy:

  1. Account

    An account is used to group or isolate resources. Each object user is part of an account. Object users are assigned to a project (account) in keystone and can access only the objects that are within or part of the account. Each user is assigned to a project with a role that defines with the user rights and privileges to perform a specific set of operations on the resources of the account to which it belongs.

    Users can be part of multiple accounts but it is mandatory that a user must be associated with at least one account. You must create at least one account before you add users. Account contains a list of containers in the object storage. You can also define quota at the account level.
    Note: There is a one-to-one mapping between accounts in the object protocol and the keystone projects.
  2. Container

    Containers contain objects. Each container maintains a list of objects and provides a namespace for the objects. You can create any number of containers within an account.

  3. Object

    Objects store data. You can create, modify, and delete objects. Accounts have containers, and containers store objects. Each object is accessed through a unique URL. The URLs in the API contain the storage account, container name, and object name. You can define quota both at the account and container levels.

IBM Storage Scale object storage also offers the following features.