Using OpenStack Swift as ownCloud Storage Backend

ownCloud helps us to access our files from anywhere in the world, without take the control of data from us. Traditionally server's local hard disks have been used to act as storage backend but these days, as the latency of networks is decreasing, storing data over network is becoming cheaper and safer (in terms of recovery). ownCloud is capable of using SFTP, WebDAV, SMB, OpenStack Swift and several other storage mechanisms. We'll see the usage of OpenStack Swift with ownCloud in this tutorial

At this point, the assumption is that we already have admin access to an ownCloud instance and we have set up OpenStack Swift somewhere. If not, to setup OpenStack Swift, follow this tutorial.

Step 1: External storage facilities are provided by an app known as "External storage support", written by Robin Appelman and Michael Gapczynski, which ships with ownCloud and is available on the apps dashboard. It is disabled by default, we need to enable it.

Step 2: We need to go to Admin page of the ownCloud installation and locate "External Storage" configuration area. We'll select "OpenStack Swift" from the drop down menu.

Step 3: We need to fill in the details and credentials. We'll need the following information:

• Folder Name: A user friendly name for the storage mount point.
• user: Username of the Swift user (required)
• bucket : Bucket can be any random string (required). It is a container where all the files will be kept.
• region: Region (optional for OpenStack Object Storage).
• key: API Key (required for Rackspace Cloud Files). This is not required for OpenStack Swift. Leave it empty.
• tenant: Tenant name (required for OpenStack Object Storage). Tenant name would be the same tenant of which the Swift user is a part of. It is created using OpenStack Keystone.
• password: Password of the Swift user (required for OpenStack Object Storage)
• service_name: Service Name (required for OpenStack Object Storage). This is the same name which was used while creating the Swift service
• url: URL of identity endpoint (required for OpenStack Object Storage). It is the Keystone endpoint against which authorization will be done.
• timeout: Timeout of HTTP requests in seconds (optional)

Just to get a better hold on things, check out the image of an empty configuration form and here is a filled up one.

Notice that if ownCloud is successfully able to connect and authorize then a green circle appear on the left side of the configuration. In case things don't work out as expected then check out the owncloud.log in the data directory of ownCloud instance.

That is it. Now ownCloud is now ready to use OpenStack Swift to store data.