[rhos-list] More Swift questions - IBM HPSS VFS as backend storage

[Pete Zaitcev]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:00:48 -0600
David Hernandez <dhern at us.ibm.com> wrote:

> What is the largest amount of extended attribute data Swift will try to 
> store for an account/container/object?

Sorry to say that, but I do not know. I meant to research it,
because I was curious why everyone suggests to allocate 1000-byte
inodes (regardless of filesystem). I'll let you know what I find.

> I am currently using the swift command utility locally to upload and list 
> containers and objects in my Swift (Essex Preview) install.  What changes 
> do I need to do to my configuration to allow secure remote client access 
> to my Swift storage.  I know I will need to create some self-signed 
> certificates but don't know to get it to work with my current 
> configuration.  I would like still be able to access locally using the 
> swift command which uses port 8080.
> 
> How would I access my Swift storage through a web-server?  Is there 
> anything readily available that I can use?

I sense a certain confusion here. Swift is a webserver and it uses
token-based authentication over HTTP. "Local" swift(1) command is
exactly the same as remote. So, if your Swift cluster is configured
with proper authentication (e.g. swauth or Keystone), and SSL is
configured, swift(1) or other apps can traverse public Internet
in reasonable safety. But in any case, it makes little sense to
talk about a separate "web-server".

Note that in many installations, a load balancer terminates SSL
in front of Swift proxy server, and so the client-visible endpoint
could end at port 431 at LB's outside interface. This may not be
well addressed in the documentation, being an operational detail.
If this happens, there's a difference between "local" and "remote",
like you said.

I hope I did not confuse you even further with this.

-- Pete