# Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service

This guide provides information on how to set up Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS) as a storage for your backups in Cloudback.

## About Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service

Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS) is an encrypted, secure, cost-effective, and easy-to-use object storage service that enables you to store, back up, and archive large amounts of data in the cloud, with a guaranteed durability of 99.9999999999% (12 9’s). RESTful APIs allow storage and access to OSS anywhere on the Internet. You can elastically scale the capacity and processing capability and choose from a variety of storage types to optimize the storage cost.

## Set up Alibaba Cloud OSS Storage in Cloudback

To set up Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS) as a storage for your backups, follow the steps below.

### Create a new Alibaba storage

* Open the [Cloudback Dashboard](https://app.cloudback.it/)
* Navigate to the `Storages` page by clicking on the `Storages` link in the left-side navigation pane
* Click on the `Add a new storage` button:

![Add new storage](https://2781059148-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FQEI7SjBF2CddqNXZpCoE%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-48c773c5876576956efc547df9c59cfec230772b%2Fcustomer-managed-storages.png?alt=media)

* Type a storage name in the `Storage name` field. Use a name that will help you identify this storage in the future
* Select `Alibaba` from a Storage Provider dropdown:

![Alibaba Cloud Storage settings](https://2781059148-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FQEI7SjBF2CddqNXZpCoE%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-a34a19d4c864eec24951322e21774e03c94e8e0c%2Fcreate-new-storage-alibaba.png?alt=media)

### Set up storage settings

Choose the settings for the storage:

* **Deduplication type** - enable or disable data deduplication. For more details, please refer to the [Deduplication](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/data-deduplication) documentation
* **Archive type** - enable or disable archive password protection. For more details, please refer to the [Password-Protected Archives](https://docs.cloudback.it/security-and-compliance/password-protected-archives) documentation
* **Archive name pattern** - configure the archive name pattern, which is used to generate the name of the backup archive. For more details, please refer to the [Archive Name Pattern](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/archive-name-pattern) documentation

### Create Alibaba Cloud OSS Bucket

Follow the `Step 1` on the `New Storage` page to create a new Alibaba Cloud OSS Bucket.

To integrate Alibaba Cloud OSS with Cloudback, you need to create a new bucket in the Alibaba Cloud OSS console. If you already have a bucket, you can skip this step. For more details about creating a bucket, please refer to the [Alibaba Cloud documentation](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/oss/user-guide/create-a-bucket-4). Alternatively, you can follow the link on the `Step 1` field on the `New Storage` page.

### Grant Cloudback access to the bucket

On the `Step 2`, you need to grant Cloudback access to the bucket. Cloudback needs access to the bucket to store backups of your repositories.

To grant Cloudback access to the bucket, you need to create a new RAM user and assign the necessary permissions to the user. Follow the steps below to create a new RAM user and grant the necessary permissions:

* Copy Cloudback RAM account ID from `Step 2`
* Grant Cloudback access to the bucket:
  * On the Buckets page, click the name of your bucket to configure bucket policies
  * In the left-side navigation pane, click `Files`, then click `Authorize`
  * On the GUI tab, click `Authorize`
  * In the Authorize panel, add the RAM user ID to the `Other accounts` field, set `Any Operation` in the `Authorized Operation` field, and click `OK`

You can learn more about granting access to the bucket in the [Alibaba Cloud documentation](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/oss/user-guide/use-bucket-policy-to-grant-permission-to-access-oss/).

![Authorize Cloudback account](https://2781059148-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FQEI7SjBF2CddqNXZpCoE%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-42cbf8f91d13ef74598ed60fa658f66258be85a7%2Falibaba-add-permissions.png?alt=media)

### Save Bucket Domain Name in storage settings

The `Step 3` requires you to save the bucket domain name in the storage settings.

To have access to the bucket, Cloudback needs to know the bucket domain name. Type your [Bucket Domain Name](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/oss/user-guide/oss-domain-names) to the `Step 3` field on the `New Storage` dialog

* Sample input: `your-bucket-name.oss-me-east-1.aliyuncs.com`

### Save storage

Click on `Save` button to save the new storage. You can also use a `Test` button to check if the storage is configured correctly. After saving the storage, you can use it for storing backups of your repositories.

All storage settings can be changed later in the `Storages` page. To edit the storage settings, click on the `Edit` button next to the storage you want to edit.

## Change the storage for a repository

You can change the storage for a particular repository in the [Repository Details](https://docs.cloudback.it/dashboard/repository-details) page. Also, you can assign it to multiple repositories through the [Bulk Operations](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/bulk-operations).

## Learn More

* [Customer Managed Storages](https://docs.cloudback.it/storage-configuration/customer-managed-storages)
* [Dashboard Overview](https://docs.cloudback.it/dashboard/dashboard-overview)
* [Repository Details](https://docs.cloudback.it/dashboard/repository-details)
* [Bulk Operations](https://docs.cloudback.it/managing-backups/bulk-operations)
* [Replicating Backups](https://docs.cloudback.it/storage-configuration/replicating-backups)