Using a StorageGRID Webscale tenant account

Tenant accounts allow you to use the Simple Storage Service (S3) REST API or the Swift REST API to store and retrieve objects on StorageGRID Webscale.

Each tenant account supports the use of a single protocol, which is specified by the grid administrator when the account is created. To store and retrieve objects to a StorageGRID Webscale system with both protocols, you must have two tenant accounts: one for S3 buckets and objects, and one for Swift containers and objects. Each tenant account has its own unique account ID, federated or local groups, users, containers (buckets for S3), and objects.

Optionally, tenant accounts can be used to segregate stored objects by different entities. For example, multiple tenant accounts can be used for either of these use cases:

Enterprise use case: If the StorageGRID Webscale system is being used within an enterprise, the grid's object storage might be segregated by the different departments in the organization. For example, there might be tenant accounts for the Marketing department, the Customer Support department, the Human Resources department, and so on.
Note: If you use the S3 client protocol, you can also use S3 buckets and bucket policies to segregate objects between the departments in an enterprise. You do not need to create separate tenant accounts. See instructions for implementing S3 client applications.
Service provider use case: If the StorageGRID Webscale system is being used by a service provider, the grid's object storage might be segregated by the different entities that lease the storage. For example, there might be tenant accounts for Company A, Company B, Company C, and so on.

Creating tenant accounts

Tenant accounts are created by a StorageGRID Webscale grid administrator using the Grid Manager. When creating a tenant account, the grid administrator specifies the following information:

Display name for the tenant account (the tenant's account ID is assigned automatically and cannot be changed)
Which client protocol will be used by the tenant account (S3 or Swift)
Initial password for the tenant account’s root user
Whether the tenant account will use its own identity source or share the grid's identity source
For S3 tenant accounts: Whether the tenant account has permission to use platform services. If the use of platform services is permitted, the grid must be configured to support their use.
Optionally, a storage quota for the tenant account—the maximum number of gigabytes, terabytes, or petabytes available for the tenant's objects. A tenant's storage quota represents a logical amount (object size), not a physical amount (size on disk).

Configuring S3 tenants

After an S3 tenant account is created, you can access the Tenant Manager to perform tasks such as the following:

Setting up identity federation (unless the identity source is shared with the grid), or creating local groups and users
Managing S3 access keys
Creating and managing S3 buckets
Using platform services (if enabled)
Monitoring storage usage

Attention: While you can create and manage S3 buckets with the Tenant Manager, you must have S3 access keys and use the S3 REST API to ingest and manage objects.

Configuring Swift tenants

After a Swift tenant account is created, the tenant's root user can access the Tenant Manager to perform tasks such as the following:

Setting up identity federation (unless the identity source is shared with the grid), or creating local groups and users
Monitoring storage usage

Attention: The tenant's root user can sign in the Tenant Manager. However, the tenant's root user does not have permission to use the Swift REST API. To authenticate into the Swift REST API to create containers and ingest objects, you must belong to a group with the Administrator permission. However, administrator users cannot sign in to the Tenant Manager.