Enabling a cloud connection

To configure transparent cloud tiering on the system, you must enable a cloud connection to a supported cloud service provider.

A cloud account is an object on the system that represents a connection to a cloud service provider by using a particular set of credentials. These credentials differ depending on the type of cloud service provider that is being specified. Most cloud service providers require the host name of the cloud service provider and an associated password, and some cloud service providers also require certificates to authenticate users of the cloud storage. Public clouds use certificates that are signed by well-known certificate authorities. Private cloud service providers can use either a self-signed certificate or a certificate that is signed by a trusted certificate authority. These credentials are defined on the cloud service provider and passed to the system through the administrators of the cloud service provider.

The system supports the IBM Cloud®, OpenStack Swift, and Amazon S3 cloud service providers.

Important: As of 10 December 2018, no new accounts of Object Storage OpenStack Swift (infrastructure) can be created on IBM Cloud. Existing Object Storage OpenStack Swift (infrastructure) accounts will continue to work and be supported. Therefore, transparent cloud tiering is only supported by IBM Cloud for users who have an existing Object Storage OpenStack Swift (infrastructure) account.