Configuration from Swarm Content Portal
Refer to the following steps to configure Swarm Object Storage from the DataCore Swarm Content Portal:
Generating an access token
The tokens are generated at the domain level, not at the Bucket level. To generate the token;
Go to your web browser and navigate to the Swarm storage domain and then click Settings gear icon.
Expand the drop-down and select Tokens sub-menu. On the Domain settings view, press the +Add to generate a new S3 token.
Enter the description and desired Expiration Date, then check the S3 Secret Key box.
At this point, you can either change the S3 Secret Key to the desired value or accept the auto-generated key. The key in these screenshots is an example value that has been intentionally redacted.
Click Add to save your settings and create the S3 token.
Important to copy the result
Ensure that you have copied the result to a file before clicking Close as these details will be used later to configure object storage credentials.
Creating a dedicated bucket for Veeam Backups
Refer to the following steps to create a bucket dedicated for the Veeam backups:
Go to the Swarm Content Portal and navigate to the storage domain.
Click +Add button on the right next to the settings gear icon and select type Bucket object container.
Specify the desired bucket name. Ensure that the S3 Compatible box is checked and then click Add to create the bucket.
Enable Erasure Coding on the bucket
Veeam uses multi-part S3 operations which require Erasure Coding on the Swarm bucket to protect against hardware failures. Now, you will need to configure Erasure Coding using the following steps:
Go to the domain panel and select the bucket created recently.
Click on the gear icon, then click on Bucket Properties.
To check if Erasure Coding is enabled, uncheck the Inherit Protection box. If Erasure Coding is not enabled, click on Enabled and enter the EC Default Encoding of your choice. It is recommended to use a 4:2 EC Encoding.
See Erasure Coding EC for more detailed information on Erasure Coding options.
Configuration on Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365
Steps to configure Swarm Object Storage on Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 are performed from the Veeam Console.
Creating a new Object Storage repository
From the Veeam Console, select the Home tab, then click Backup Infrastructure from the lower half of the left navigation panel. Backup Proxies and Repositories are created from this context.
Click Add Object Storage to launch the new Object Storage repository wizard. Specify a name for the Object Storage repository and this name will refer to your Swarm bucket.
Select S3 Compatible as the Object Storage Type.
Specify the Service point and account credentials.
The Service point is the fully qualified domain name of the Swarm domain endpoint you specified when configuring Swarm. Ensure that it is prefixed with https:// as shown in the screenshot.
The Data Center region is not utilized so you can leave the default setting of “us-east-1”. This is optional.
Click Add, then specify the Access key and Secret key credentials corresponding to the token you generated for the Swarm domain. The Access key is the Swarm Token ID.
Click OK to continue, then click Next.
Once Veeam gets connected to your Swarm domain successfully, you will be able to browse a list of buckets. Select the bucket created earlier in your Swarm domain that will be used for Office 365 backups.
Click on New Folder to define the folder and add Veeam as a prefix for your backups.
Use a descriptive name. Veeam will create a folder using this prefix to segregate Veeam backups from other data that may also be available in that bucket. Nevertheless, it’s best to dedicate the bucket strictly to backups.
Click OK and then Finish unless you want to customize object storage consumption parameters, like limiting the maximum capacity consumed.
The Swarm bucket will appear in the list of Object Storage Backup Repositories.
Creating a local backup repository
Refer to the following steps to create a local backup repository that will be extended to include Swarm object storage as the backup target:
Click Add Repository to launch the New Backup Repository wizard.
Specify a name for the backup repository in a way that can help you link with your Swarm storage.
Choose a backup proxy server that will provide a local storage for this repository. In the below example, there is only one proxy server. Veeam recommends spreading the load across multiple backup proxy servers.
Create a folder in one of the proxy server’s drives that will be used as a local cache for the Object Storage Repository. Veeam stores metadata in this cache referencing the object storage backup files to minimize retrievals from public clouds. In this way, the Veeam Explorers don’t generate egress charges when navigating catalogs for files to be restored. While such costs are not a problem with on-premises Swarm buckets, Veeam requires the cache configuration step for all S3-compatible object storage. They estimate it will occupy around 1% of the space occupied by the backups in the Object Storage repository.
Next, you will extend the local backup repository to the Swarm Object Storage repository configured earlier. This is how backups are offloaded directly to the object storage.
Encryption of backups adds security, therefore, check the Encrypt backup data uploaded to object storage box, then specify the encryption password.
Note: Important to keep a copy of the password in a safe place since you may need it in the future to restore the encrypted files.
Click Next to specify retention policy settings, which govern how long backups are kept.
This completes the configuration process. The local backup repository associated with the Swarm object storage repository will now be included in the list of all backup repositories.
