---
title: "Use IBM Cloud Object Storage as Velero's storage destination."
layout: docs
---
You can deploy Velero on IBM [Public][5] or [Private][4] clouds, or even on any other Kubernetes cluster, but anyway you can use IBM Cloud Object Store as a destination for Velero's backups. 

To set up IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS) as Velero's destination, you:

* Download an official release of Velero
* Create your COS instance
* Create an S3 bucket
* Define a service that can store data in the bucket
* Configure and start the Velero server

## Download Velero

1. Download the [latest release's](https://github.com/heptio/velero/releases) tarball for your client platform.

1. Extract the tarball:
    ```bash
    tar -xvf <RELEASE-TARBALL-NAME>.tar.gz -C /dir/to/extract/to 
    ```
    We'll refer to the directory you extracted to as the "Velero directory" in subsequent steps.

1. Move the `velero` binary from the Velero directory to somewhere in your PATH.

_We strongly recommend that you use an [official release](https://github.com/heptio/velero/releases) of Velero. The tarballs for each release contain the
`velero` command-line client **and** version-specific sample YAML files for deploying Velero to your cluster. The code and sample YAML files in the main 
branch of the Velero repository are under active development and are not guaranteed to be stable. Use them at your own risk!_

## Create COS instance
If you don’t have a COS instance, you can create a new one, according to the detailed instructions in [Creating a new resource instance][1].

## Create an S3 bucket
Velero requires an object storage bucket to store backups in. See instructions in [Create some buckets to store your data][2].

## Define a service that can store data in the bucket.
The process of creating service credentials is described in [Service credentials][3].
Several comments:

1. The Velero service will write its backup into the bucket, so it requires the “Writer” access role.

2. Velero uses an AWS S3 compatible API. Which means it authenticates using a signature created from a pair of access and secret keys — a set of HMAC credentials. You can create these HMAC credentials by specifying `{“HMAC”:true}` as an optional inline parameter. See step 3 in the [Service credentials][3] guide.

3. After successfully creating a Service credential, you can view the JSON definition of the credential. Under the `cos_hmac_keys` entry there are `access_key_id` and `secret_access_key`. We will use them in the next step.

4. Create an Velero-specific credentials file (`credentials-velero`) in your local directory:

    ```
    [default]
    aws_access_key_id=<ACCESS_KEY_ID>
    aws_secret_access_key=<SECRET_ACCESS_KEY>
    ```

    where the access key id and secret are the values that we got above.

## Credentials and configuration

In the Velero directory (i.e. where you extracted the release tarball), run the following to first set up namespaces, RBAC, and other scaffolding. To run in a custom namespace, make sure that you have edited the YAML files to specify the namespace. See [Run in custom namespace][0].

```bash
kubectl apply -f config/common/00-prereqs.yaml
```

Create a Secret. In the directory of the credentials file you just created, run:

```bash
kubectl create secret generic cloud-credentials \
    --namespace <VELERO_NAMESPACE> \
    --from-file cloud=credentials-velero
```

Specify the following values in the example files:

* In `config/ibm/05-backupstoragelocation.yaml`:

  * Replace `<YOUR_BUCKET>`, `<YOUR_REGION>` and `<YOUR_URL_ACCESS_POINT>`. See the [BackupStorageLocation definition][6] for details.

* (Optional) If you run the nginx example, in file `config/nginx-app/with-pv.yaml`:

    * Replace `<YOUR_STORAGE_CLASS_NAME>` with your `StorageClass` name.

## Start the Velero server

In the root of your Velero directory, run:

  ```bash
  kubectl apply -f config/ibm/05-backupstoragelocation.yaml
  kubectl apply -f config/ibm/10-deployment.yaml
  ```

  [0]: namespace.md
  [1]: https://console.bluemix.net/docs/services/cloud-object-storage/basics/order-storage.html#creating-a-new-resource-instance
  [2]: https://console.bluemix.net/docs/services/cloud-object-storage/getting-started.html#create-buckets
  [3]: https://console.bluemix.net/docs/services/cloud-object-storage/iam/service-credentials.html#service-credentials
  [4]: https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSBS6K_2.1.0/kc_welcome_containers.html
  [5]: https://console.bluemix.net/docs/containers/container_index.html#container_index
  [6]: api-types/backupstoragelocation.md#aws
  [14]: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/introduction.html
