Enabling a cloud connection to IBM SoftLayer

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

To enable a connection between the system and IBM SoftLayer 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. Before you proceed, ensure that you understand the security considerations that are related to cloud storage and encryption in Planning for transparent cloud tiering.
  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 SoftLayer.
  6. Expand the SoftLayer account and enter the following information:
    Object storage URL
    Enter the URL to the IBM SoftLayer 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 cloud storage provider uses to store objects that are related to your account. A tenant is a container that is used to store objects that are created for a particular account.
    User name
    Enter the user name that is associated with the account. The user name is used to identify 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 SoftLayer interface by using either their customer portal or issuing an API call that creates the key. For more information, see the IBM SoftLayer documentation.
    Container prefix
    Enter short string that is added to the beginning of the tenant name to identify which tenants 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 SoftLayer 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
Parent topic: Enabling a cloud connection
Related reference:
mkcloudaccountswift
Related information:
SoftLayer