Enabling a cloud connection to IBM Cloud

You can use the management GUI or command-line interface to enable a cloud connection to IBM Cloud®.

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.
To enable a connection between the system and IBM Cloud in the management GUI, 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 appear. Encryption cannot be configured later 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 host name of the cloud service provider to IP addresses for the system. You can configure up to 2 DNS servers for cloud accounts. Click Next.
  5. On the Cloud Service Provider page, select IBM Cloud.
  6. Expand the IBM Cloud account and enter the following information:
    Object storage URL
    Enter the URL to the cloud repository for your account. This URL is provided in your service contract with the cloud service provider.
    Tenant
    Enter the name of the tenant that the system uses to access the cloud storage.
    User name
    Enter the user name that is associated with the account. The user name identifies clients that can access content that is stored by the cloud service provider.
    API key
    Enter the API key and give access to the APIs that the cloud service provider uses. An API key is associated with the user name and authenticates that user to cloud resources that are associated to the cloud account. The API key can be generated on the IBM Cloud interface by using either their customer portal or issuing an API call that creates the key. For more information, see the IBM Cloud documentation.
    Container prefix
    Enter a short string that is added to the beginning of the container name to identify which containers are associated with the system. Prefixes can also be used to identify multiple systems that use the same cloud account to store snapshots of volume data.
    Encryption
    If encryption is configured on the system, this value is preselected. If encryption is not enabled on the system, this option is unavailable.
    Bandwidth
    Determine how bandwidth is used for downloads to and uploads from 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.
  7. Click Next.
  8. On the Summary page, verify all the settings and click Finish.
To enable a connection between the system and IBM Cloud in the command-line interface, complete this step:
  1. Enter the following command:
    mkcloudaccountswift -containerprefix svc_snapshots 
-endpoint https://lon02.objectstorage.softlayer.net/auth/v1.0 
-tenantname tenant -username username -password 'password'