Swift getting started

A guide to get started with Swift object storage

Overview

Swift is Elastx object storage in OpenStack. Swift provides high availability by utilizing all availability zones and is encrypted at rest. This guide will help you get started with the basics surrounding Swift object storage.

Swift/S3 Compatibility

Swift has an s3 compatible API for applications that don’t natively support the Swift API. You can find a S3/Swift support matrix here.
To get started with Swift/S3, See our guide here for more information.

Getting started with Swift CLI

To use swift cli you’ll need either an application credential or openstack rc file.

Prerequisites

python-swiftclient installed.
Application credential. See here on how to get started with application crendentials.
This is required if your account has enabled MFA.
OpenStack rc. Get your rc file by logging into your project, click on your user at the top right and select OpenStack RC File.
This can only be used if your account does not have MFA.

Swift-cli

Start by sourcing your application credential or openstack rc file.

Creating containers and uploading objects

Start by creating a new container:

$ swift post my_container

Upload a file to your container:

$ swift upload my_container ./file1.txt

List containers and objects

To list all containers in your project:

$ swift list
my_container
my_container2

List all objects from a specific container:

$ swift list my_container
file1.txt

Show statistics of your containers and objects

With the stat option, you can get statistics ranging from specific objects to your entire account. To list statistics of a container:

$ swift stat my_container
Account: AUTH_7bf53f20d4a2523a8045c42ae505acx
             Container: my_container
               Objects: 1
                 Bytes: 7
              Read ACL:
             Write ACL:
               Sync To:
              Sync Key:
          Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
           X-Timestamp: 1675242117.33639
         Last-Modified: Wed, 01 Feb 2023 09:15:39 GMT
         Accept-Ranges: bytes
      X-Storage-Policy: hdd3
            X-Trans-Id: tx2f1e73d3b29a4aba99c1b-0063da2e2b
X-Openstack-Request-Id: tx2f1e73d3b29a4aba99c1b-0063da2e2b
            Connection: close

Download objects

You can download single objects or all objects from a specific container or account.

Download a specific object:

$ swift download my_container file1.txt -o ./file1.txt

Download all objects from a specific container:

$ swift download my_container -D </path/to/directory/>

Download all objects from your account:

Beware: If you have a large amounts of objects, this can take some time.

$ swift download --all -D </path/to/directory/>

Delete containers and objects

WARNING: The delete option will execute immediately without any confirmation. This action is irreversible.

Delete specific object from a specified container.

$ swift delete my_container file1.txt

Delete a container with all of its objects.

$ swift delete my_container

Getting started with Swift in Horizon

With Openstacks Horizon you can get a good overview over your object storage. There are limitations in Swifts functionality when using Horizon, to fully take advantage of Swifts functions we recommend you to use the swift cli.
This guide will show you the basics with using Swift object storage in Horizon.

Create your first container

Navigate to “Project” → “Object Store” → “Containers” Here you will see all the containers in your object storage.
Choose +Container to create a new container:

Create-container

Choose a name for your new container:

Name-container

You will se that a new container has been added, which date it was created and that it is empty.

Show-container

Upload your first file

To upload your first file, press the up arrow next to +Folder:

Upload-file

Select the the file you want to upload:

Choose-file

Download file

To download a file, select your container and press Download next to the object.

Download-file

View details of an object

You can view details of an object such as Name, Hash, Content Type, Timestamp and Size.
Select the down arrow next to Download for the object you want to inspect and choose View Details:

Show-Details

View-Details