Enabling a cloud connection to Microsoft Azure

Enable a cloud connection to Microsoft Azure by using management GUI or command-line interface.

Using the management GUI

To enable a cloud connection between the system and Microsoft Azure, complete these steps:
  1. In the management GUI, select Settings > System > Transparent Cloud Tiering.
  2. Click Enable Cloud Connection.
  3. On the Welcome page, click Next. If encryption is not activated or configured on the system, several warnings are displayed. Encryption cannot be configured after the cloud account is created.
  4. If a DNS server is not configured on the system, enter the IP address and name of the server that converts the hostname of the cloud service provider to IP addresses for the system. You can configure up to two DNS servers for cloud accounts.
  5. Click Next.
  6. On the Cloud Service Provider page, select Microsoft Azure.
  7. Click Next.
  8. On Cloud Provider Settings page for Microsoft Azure, enter the following information:
    Storage Account Name
    Enter the name of the Microsoft Azure storage account that the system uses to authenticate to cloud storage.
    Storage Account Key
    Enter the account access key that the system uses to access the cloud storage.
    Container Prefix
    Enter the container prefix to identify the objects that the system creates and uses on the cloud storage.
    Encryption
    If encryption is configured on the system, this value is preselected. If encryption is not enabled on the system, this option is disabled by default.
    Bandwidth
    Determine how much bandwidth is used by download or upload operations for the cloud service provider. Specify No Limit to allow the connection to use unlimited bandwidth, regardless of other operations that occur on the system. If you do not want to give unlimited bandwidth to these operations, you can specify the maximum amount of bandwidth that the connection can use for either downloads or uploads. The maximum bandwidth limit for downloads and uploads is 10240 Mbps.
  9. Click Next.
  10. On the Summary page, verify all the settings and click Finish.

Using the command-line interface

To enable a cloud connection between the system and Microsoft Azure in the command-line interface, enter the following command:
mkcloudaccountazure -name myazure -containerprefix sample-az    
  -storageaccountname sampleazureacc
  -storageaccountkey  sVdi0lZQxm/BdKE9u2bVQtPkNotTgAtsVf9JMVTbBqb5zxIfRSKs9ra0pez3up/VfX5vIFybkUZX+AStsK2n4w==
  -encrypt no -upbandwidthmbits 100 -downbandwidthmbits 100