Using Storage Made Easy File Fabric with Exoscale Object Storage

Exoscale is a Swiss-based cloud services platform providing hosting and infrastructure services, including storage, throughout central Europe. This article walks through adding Exoscale object storage to the Enterprise File Fabric. For information on launching the Enterprise File Fabric from on the Exoscale cloud platform itself see Getting Started with Exoscale.

Create a Bucket

Exoscale object storage is S3-compatible and can be added to the File Fabric using the Open S3 provider.

You’ll need at least one bucket created in Exoscale to add the provider. A bucket can be created from within the Exoscale Portal. Log in to the portal (or register for an account) and navigate to the Storage menu (the cube) to see buckets in the account.

Click “ADD” to bring up the “New Bucket” page. Enter a valid bucket name and a zone for the data center you wish to use. Record the Zone you chose.

New Bucket webpage with prompts for bucket name and choosing Zone such as DE-FRA-1 or CH-DK-2.

Create Access Credentials

File Fabric requires an API key. You can create an API key and secret from the Exoscale Portal and restrict access to object storage.

  1. From the IAM menu (icon with key), choose “ADD”. This brings up the New Key page.
  2. Restrict the key for storage by choosing “RESTRICTED” and then selecting “sos” for object storage. The page should look like the following:
New Key page prompting for key name and showing restriction for object storage and all buckets.

Then select “CREATE”. Record the “Key” and “Secret”.

Partial screen shot showing Key and Secret and note that secret is available only for the duration of your session

Add Provider

Log in to your File Fabric account. You can launch your own instance from Exoscale (sign up for a Enterprise File Fabric trial) or sign up for our SaaS service.

The first step is to choose to add the Open S3 provider to the File Fabric either as a first step on activation of your account, or later from the Dashboard which is accessible from the top menu.

The next step grants the File Fabric access your Exoscale Object Storage. To do this you need to enter a zone-specific endpoint, your API Key and a Secret Key.

The format to use is https://sos-ZONE.exo.io substituting ZONE with the zone your buckets are located in. For example, https://sos-ch-dk-2.exo.io.

Use the API key as an Access Key and the Secret that you created from the portal. For example:

Prompt to set up Open S3 provider including name, endpoint, key and secret and options to show password and index content for search.

After you enter your authentication details, and these are accepted, the File Fabric will list all Exoscale buckets visible for the account. You then choose which buckets you wish to manage through the File Fabric platform. Only choose buckets for the zone you selected. (You can choose any bucket as a “default” – it can be changed later).

 

List of bucket names with some selected via checkboxes.

If you wish to manage buckets in other zones simply follow the steps above using a different endpoint, once that’s for that zone.

As your data is indexed it will be accessible through the Cloud File Manager.

screen page showing web-based file explorer and document open in Microsoft Word.
Cloud File Manager showing an Exoscale object being edited in Microsoft Word

For more information see Adding an S3 Compatible Cloud Provider and Getting Started with Exoscale.

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