Connecting to OpenStack

OpenStack is the new ubiquitous open source cloud computing platform for private and public clouds.

You can use ExpanDrive to connect to your object storage cloud powered by OpenStack and Swift. Using ExpanDrive you connect to Swift object storage by specifying a server, username, and API Access Key.

Why ExpanDrive:

ExpanDrive gives you the opportunity to connect to your OpenStack Swift Storage using a familiar file browser interface native to your OS.

To connect to OpenSack Swift Storage

1. From the ExpanDrive window, click on Add.
2. Click on OpenStack Swift Storage. The OpenStack configuration screen is displayed.



3. Configure the fields as described in the table below.

Parameter	Description
Server	Host name of your Open Stack cloud server. Example: auth.api.yourcloud.com
username	OpenStack Object Storage (Swift) username for the API
api key	API Access Key required to connect to swift storage. Note: Get your API access key from authentication service you chose when installing. You have some options for auth, including tempauth (which is included with Swift), swauth (an auth service for Swift as WSGI middleware that uses Swift itself as a backing store that is provided via download from Github), the OpenStack Identity Service (project named Keystone), or you can use your own authentication system. For more information see the OpenStack documentation.
nickname	optional nickname to identify the connection.
remote path	An optional remote path that you specify, if you would like to map to a specific directory.

4. Click on Validate Credentials.
5. Click on Connect.

ExpanDrive connects to the service, and the file browser interface native to your OS will open upon a successful connection.