S3 Backup Feeds to RStor

Backup

Objects in the S3 backup bucket are wholly dedicated to disaster recovery for Swarm and are not for general use by owners of the account where the bucket resides. Consider this feature a restricted form of S3, with constraints on the bucket's namespace that support Swarm's ability to backup and restore. For this reason, do not expect the namespace to be end-user friendly.

Swarm S3 backups to RStor targets have been verified. To implement an S3 backup feed, first complete a one-time set up of the destination: set up an account with RStor and then create an S3 bucket dedicated to backing up this cluster .

Setting up the S3 Bucket

Note

Swarm has the RStor access granted as part of this configuration. Neither the S3 Backup feed nor the S3 Backup Restore Tool administers the S3 credentials or creates any S3 buckets in RStor. See RStor Support for assistance.

These instructions are for RStor cloud storage, but any Internet-based S3 service has similar functionality:

Service — If needed, sign up for RStor: rstor.io
Bucket — Create a bucket dedicated to backing up the Swarm cluster.
1. Sign in to the RStor console: rstorcloud.io.
2. Choose Add new bucket.
3. For Bucket name, enter a DNS compliant name for the new bucket. Buckets cannot be renamed, so choose wisely:
  - The name must be unique across all existing bucket names in RStor S3.
  - The name must be a valid DNS name, containing lowercase letters and numbers (and internal periods, hyphens, underscores), between 3 and 64 characters.
    (See S3 documentation: Rules for Bucket Naming.)
    Tip: For easier identification, incorporate the name of the Swarm cluster this bucket is dedicated to backing up.
4. For Region, choose the one appropriate for the business needs.
5. Best practice: Do not enable versioning or any other optional features unless it is required for the organization.
6. Record these values for configuring the S3 Backup feed in Swarm:
  - Bucket Name
  - Region
7. Click Submit.
S3 Key Pair — Create an S3 key pair dedicated to Swarm access.
1. Click My account under the email address.
2. Down below click Generate Key.
3. An S3 key pair is automatically created. Download and secure the access key:
4. Record these values for configuring the S3 Backup feed in Swarm:
  - Access Key ID
  - Secret Access Key
RProtect — Complete any subnet whitelisting needed.
1. Click on RProtect in the global menu bar.
2. Verify the IP address of the Swarm cluster contacting the RStor S3 cloud service is allowed.
3. Request a new rule if not the case.

Configuring the S3 Backup Feed

Create a new S3 backup feed with RStor as the target on the Swarm side.

Open the Cluster > Feeds page in the Swarm UI.
Click + Add at the top right.
Choose the feed type S3 Backup.
Provide the following values. See S3 Backup Feeds for details on these fields.
- Name - For description, such as "Replication to RStor"
- Endpoint - Include the complete endpoint, without the bucket: s3.rstorcloud.io
- Region - This example uses the us-west-1 storage region. Check with RStor Support for any other region.
- Bucket - Enter the newly created bucket, which is dedicated to backing up the Swarm cluster.
- Credentials - Paste in both the Access key name and Secret Key
- Use SSL - Yes
  See S3 Backup Feeds for details on all field options.
Verify the new S3 backup appears in the list of Swarm feeds on the Cluster > Feeds dashboard.

See Managing Feeds for more details on feed administration in Swarm.