IBM Cloud Object Storage

Lithops with IBM COS as storage backend.

Installation

1. Create an IBM Cloud Object Storage account.

2. Crate a bucket in your desired region. Remember to update the corresponding Lithops config field with this bucket name.

Configuration

1. Create the credentials to access to your COS account (Choose one option):

Option 1 (COS API Key):

2. In the side navigation, click Service Credentials.

3. Click New credential + and provide the necessary information.

4. Click Add to generate service credential.

5. Click View credentials and copy the apikey value.

6. Edit your lithops config file and add the following keys:

   lithops:
       storage: ibm_cos
      
   ibm_cos:
       storage_bucket: <BUCKET_NAME>
       region   : <REGION>
       api_key  : <API_KEY>
   

Option 2 (COS HMAC credentials):

2. In the side navigation, click Service Credentials.

3. Click New credential +.

4. Click on advanced options and enable Include HMAC Credential button.

5. Click Add to generate service credential.

6. Click View credentials and copy the access_key_id and secret_access_key values.

7. Edit your lithops config file and add the following keys:

   lithops:
       storage: ibm_cos
      
   ibm_cos:
       storage_bucket: <BUCKET_NAME>
       region : <REGION>  
       access_key  : <ACCESS_KEY_ID>
       secret_key  : <SECRET_KEY_ID>
   

Option 3 (IBM IAM API Key):

2. If you don’t have an IAM API key created, navigate to the IBM IAM dashboard

3. Click Create an IBM Cloud API Key and provide the necessary information.

4. Copy the generated IAM API key (You can only see the key the first time you create it, so make sure to copy it).

5. Edit your lithops config file and add the following keys:

   lithops:
       storage_backend: ibm_cos
   
   ibm:
       iam_api_key: <IAM_API_KEY>
      
   ibm_cos:
       storage_bucket: <BUCKET_NAME>
       region : <REGION>
   

Lithops COS Endpoint configuration

Using region

The easiest apporach is to let Lithops to choose the right endpoint by itself. To enable this, just configure Lithops with the region name of your storage_bucket, as follows:

    ibm_cos:
        region   : <REGION>

Valid region names are: us-east, us-south, eu-gb, eu-de, etc..

Using endpoints path

Alternative to using region, you can configure the public and private endpoints as follows:

1. Login to IBM Cloud and open up your dashboard. Then navigate to your instance of Object Storage.

2. In the side navigation, click Endpoints to find your COS endpoints. You must copy both public and private endpoints of the region where you created your bucket.

    ibm_cos:
        endpoint: https://s3.<region>.cloud-object-storage_config.appdomain.cloud
        private_endpoint: https://s3.private.<region>.cloud-object-storage_config.appdomain.cloud 

Summary of configuration keys for IBM Cloud:

IBM IAM:

Group	Key	Default	Mandatory	Additional info
ibm	iam_api_key		no	IBM Cloud IAM API key to authenticate against IBM COS and IBM Cloud Functions. Obtain the key here
ibm	iam_endpoint	https://iam.cloud.ibm.com	no	IAM Identity Services API global endpoint URL.

IBM Cloud Object Storage:

Group	Key	Default	Mandatory	Additional info
ibm_cos	storage_bucket		yes	The name of a bucket that exists in you account. This will be used by Lithops for intermediate data. If set, this will overwrite the storage_bucket set in lithops section
ibm_cos	region		no	Region of your bucket. Mandatory if no endpoint. For example: us-east, us-south, eu-gb, eu-de, etc..
ibm_cos	endpoint		no	Endpoint to your COS account. Mandatory if no region. Make sure to use the full path with ‘https://’ as prefix.
ibm_cos	private_endpoint		no	Private endpoint to your COS account. Mandatory if no region. Make sure to use the full path with ‘https://’ or http:// as prefix.
ibm_cos	api_key		no	API Key to your COS account. Mandatory if no access_key and secret_key. Not needed if using IAM API Key
ibm_cos	access_key		no	HMAC Credentials. Mandatory if no api_key. Not needed if using IAM API Key
ibm_cos	secret_key		no	HMAC Credentials. Mandatory if no api_key. Not needed if using IAM API Key
ibm_cos	iam_api_key		no	IBM Cloud IAM API key to authenticate against IBM COS. Used in case separate authorization for storage and compute required