# First steps

This chapter contains step-by-step instructions to create a NextGen Object
Storage instance and then to configure its storage properties from the Zadara’s
Provisioning Portal.

## Register a Zadara Account

To register for a new Zadara account, go to
[https://manage.zadarastorage.com/register/](https://manage.zadarastorage.com/register/) and complete the registration form.
In case you wish to provision your new Object Storage instance in a private
location please use the URL provided by Zadara for the local Provisioning Portal
instance.

## Creating a NextGen Object Storage

1. Log on to your **Zadara Provisioning Portal** at
   [https://manage.zadarastorage.com](https://manage.zadarastorage.com), or at your private cloud, using
   your username/email & password.
2. Click **Create New Service** button
3. Select the service - **Next Gen Object Storage**
4. Select the location of for deployment by selecting the cloud provider from
   the dropdown list.
5. Provide a display name and a description for the new Object Storage
6. Select the redundancy level for the storage policy
7. Provide a display name.  This name will be used for display purposes in
   Zadara Provisioning Portal console and in the Object Storage management
   interface. If you are planning on having multiple NextGen Object Storage
   configurations, you might want to give it meaningful name.
8. Provide a description - free text description (i.e.
   Object Storage - Staging US East).
9. In the step **Capacity and Data Protection** phase, select the following:
   - **Redundancy Level for Default Storage Policy**
     * Erasure-Coding 4+2 (using 3 Fault Domains) (default)
     * 2-Way Protection

     Please refer to [Object Storage data policies](introduction.md#data-policies) for additional
     information and requirements regarding Object Storage data policies.
   - **Drive Quantities** - select the type and number of Drives that you
     would like to allocated to your new NextGen Object Storage. The number
     of drives that can be selected depends on the protection level required.
     - For 2-way protection, an even number of drives must be selected.
     - For Erasure Coding protection the number of drives must be in multiple
       of 6 drives (i.e. 6,12,18,24 etc.)
10. In the **Confirmation** step, you can review the summary for your new
    service creation. To change anything, click **Back** and return to the
    desires step and correct as needed. Once you are ready click **Create**
11. The requested Object Storage, will appear in the “Awaiting Approval” list
    until approved by a Zadara Cloud admin.
12. Once approved, the new system only takes a few minutes to launch. During
    that time the Object Storage status will be changes to “Launching”.
13. You’ll receive an email with a temporary password to the registered
    email address once the object storage is ready for use.
14. The NextGen Object Storage web management interface is accessible using
    the Management URL displayed in the portal.
15. Use your registered username or email address, and the temporary
    password, to enter the management interface. You will be immediately prompted
    to set a new password for your NextGen Object Storage Admin account.

**Congratulations!** You have successfully created and provisioned
a new NextGen Object Storage.

The newly created NextGen Object Storage already has a single account named
“zios_admin”, and you are the only user defined “admin” with the
role of “NextGen Object Storage Admin”.
You are now able to start using your your NextGen Object Storage - create
containers and start uploading objects, or create additional accounts and
users for others to use.

Please take a look at the [Management interface](management-interface.md#management-interface) section to
familiarize yourself with the object storage administrator capabilities.

Except provisioning Zadara’s Provisioning Portal allows you to perform
multiple management operations on an existing object storage service,
such as:

1. Change your instance display name and description
2. Add capacity (drives) to the data policy
3. Assign/detach a Public IP to allow external connectivity
4. Request an additional Proxy Virtual Controller (VC)
5. Add a virtual network interface
6. Hibernate the instance (shutdown data services)
7. Delete your object storage

<a id="adding-drives"></a>

### Adding drives

To add drives to your NextGen Object Storage, open the Zadara Provisioning
Portal, select the NextGen Object Storage, click on the **Actions** button
and then press the **Add Drives**.

- Select the number of Drives of the relevant type you wish
  to add to your NextGen Object Storage, and press **Add**. The number
  of drives added to the “Storage Policy” should match its characteristics,
  as described in the previous section of this guide.
- This operation requires the approval of a Zadara Storage Cloud Admin.
  Once approved, you’ll see the number of Drives in the Provisioning
  portal updated according to the request. The new drives will be automatically
  assigned to your object storage’s data policy.

<a id="assigning-public-ips"></a>

### Assigning Public IPs

For security and privacy reasons, by default you cannot access the Object
Storage from a public network (i.e. internet). The Front-End IP address, used for
management (via GUI and REST API) and for data IO workload (S3/Swift API),
is allocated on the Zadara Storage Cloud “Front-End” network 10/40/100
GbE which is routable only from the Cloud Servers network.
As this is an internal IP address, servers outside of your cloud network
will not be able to reach this IP address. This means you cannot access your
Object Storage from the Internet or any network with no routing to the
Front-End network.

To assign a Public IP address to your Object Storage, for internet inbound
connectivity, open the Provisioning Portal, select the Object Storage,
and click the **Actions** button and then the **Allocate Public IP** option.
This operation requires Zadara cloud admin approval. Once approved,
the IP address will be added to the NextGen Object Storage characteristics.
And In the NextGen Object Storage web management interface, under **Settings
> General > Public IP**

To remove it, simply click the **Deallocate Public IP**

<a id="assigning-proxy-virtual-controllers"></a>

### Adding Proxy Virtual Controllers

The object Storage REST API is exposed through the Proxy virtual controllers.
For each request, it will look up the location of the account, container, or
object and route the request accordingly. Failures are also handled in
the Proxy. For example, if an object server is unavailable for an object
PUT request, it will find an alternate route there instead.

On top of the Proxy VCs that are provided out of the box, it is possible to
add additional Proxy VC in order to improve performance.

To assign additional Proxy VC’s, go to the Zadara
Provisioning Portal, select the NextGen Object Storage system, and press the
Add Proxy Virtual Controllers button. Similarly to adding drives,
this operation requires the approval of a Zadara cloud admin.

Upon approval, the Proxy VC will be added automatically to the array and will
start handling clients workloads.

In case the additional proxies are no longer needed - it can be removed
directly and immediately (without administrator approval) from the Object
Storage management interface by the Object Storage administrator or from the
Object Storage management RestAPI.

### Add a virtual network interface

The object storage can support up to 10 additional network interfaces (on
subnets/VLANs) in order to allow client connectivity coming from different
networks for with different use-case or network topology.

The system will create a fully-qualified domain name matches to the new
interface dynamically that matches the default domain name in order to allow
seamless connectivity to the object storage endpoint.

The operation of adding an additional network interface can be handled directly
from the provisioning portal and so as network management (VLAN allocation and
network creation)

### Hibernate

Zadara cloud allows you to “hibernate” your object storage instance and by
doing so you are gracefully shutting down its data services and management
interfaces. It is extremely helpful in cases a complete hardware maintenance
is underway like complete site relocation, networking gear replacement where
all appliances needs to be replaced in parallel etc.

Unlike the VPSA Storage Array/Flash Array, the Virtual Controllers will not
be removed once the instance is hibernated. There will be no impact on billing
once the object storage is hibernated.

### Deleting your Object Storage

The Object Storage owner can delete their instance using Zadara’s Provisioning
Portal in case it is no longer needed. The delete operation will delete all
underlying entities such as data-policy,accounts,users,containers and objects.

In order to delete the Object Storage select the **Delete** action from the **Actions**
dropdown menu in Zadara’s Provisioning Portal. The delete operation will require
an additional authentication confirmation.

Due to the sensitive nature of the delete operation, when the owner
initiates a delete operation, it will generate a delete request that necessitates
approval from a cloud administrator. Once approved, the Object Storage will
be permanently deleted.

## System notifications

Object Storage notifications, both informational and critical, necessitating user
action, will be communicated via email to the service owner and other
designated users set to receive notifications.

System notifications are categorized based on the following priorities:

- Urgent
- High
- Normal
- Low

### Urgent priority notification

An alert that requires an immediate Object Storage administrator action to
ensure the storage service health or to restore the Object Storage to normal
operation, for example:

* Data Policy free capacity state
* System is pending for Master Encryption key from the administrator

### High priority notification

An alert that requires awareness of the Object Storage administrator to ensure the
storage service health or other service issues that are currently being handled
by Zadara’s support team. In some cases VPSA administrator action is required.

Example for high priority notifications:

* Custom (customer provided) TLS certificate expired
* Duplicate Front-End IP discovery
* Account reached it’s quota usage

### Normal priority notification

An alert that requires the administrator’s attention, yet does not necessarily
have an immediate impact on the service. For example:

* New user account creation

### Low priority notification

A low-priority message with no impact on service health.
While the message may require attention or action from administrators,
its lower priority status indicates that it poses minimal
or no threat to the current state of the service and can be addressed at the
convenience of the administrators without causing service disruptions.