Product Overview

Object Storage (US3) provides unstructured data storage services for Internet applications. Compared with traditional hard disk storage, object storage has advantages such as unlimited storage, high concurrent access support, and lower cost. Its data persistence is not less than 99.999999999%, and the availability of standard storage services is not less than 99.95%.

You can easily migrate a large amount of data into or out of US3 using US3’s API, SDK interface or US3 migration tools. After data is stored into US3, you can choose the US3 service of the standard storage type as the main storage method for mobile applications, large websites, picture sharing or hotspot audio and video; you can also choose US3 services for lower-cost, longer-term storage types and archival storage types as backups and archives for infrequently accessed data.

Main Concepts

Object Storage Space (Bucket)

Object storage space (briefly referred to as storage space) is the unit for organizing and managing files, and a file must belong to a certain space. The space name is globally unique and cannot be modified. Each account can create up to 20 storage spaces, and there is no limit to the number of files in the storage space. Users can set the storage space to public or private to control the access rights to the files in the storage space.

Private Space

Access to all files requires the owner’s API key authorization.

Public Space

All files can be directly accessed via URLs for download. However, API key authorization is required for uploads, deletions, and listings.

Object/File (Object)

A file is the logical storage unit of the storage space. For each account, each file stored in it has a unique pair of storage space (Bucket) and key (Key) as its ID.

Filename (Key)

The filename is the name of the corresponding file, which is globally unique in the storage space. Each filename in the storage space identifies a file. When writing a file, users can customize the filename. Uploading a file with the same filename will overwrite the original file. When downloading a file, users only need to know the domain name of the download exit, without knowing where the file will specifically be stored, nor the specific storage form. They only need to enter the corresponding URL in the browser to access it.

Filename Naming Specification

1. Use UTF-8 encoding

2. Must be between 1-1023 bytes

3. It can start with a ”/” character, but ”{}^[]<>#~%” are not allowed.

Access Domain Name (Endpoint)

The Endpoint represents the external service access domain name of US3. US3 provides services in the form of an HTTP RESTful API, which requires different domain names when accessing different regions. The domain names required for accessing the same region through the intranet and the internet are also different. For more details, please refer to Region and Domain Name.

Token Key (API Access)

A Token key is a pair of public and private keys; Users can create Token keys, grant different Token rights to specific buckets, different Tokens can be distributed to different users, implementing fine-grained permission management for Buckets. In addition, Token keys can be set with valid periods, and can be deleted at any time, ensuring the security of accessing your Bucket;

API Key (API Access)

After users register a UCloud Global account, the system will generate an API key for the user to identify the user. The API key is used for identity verification when calling the API, to prevent others from maliciously tampering with your request data, if the key is leaked, please reset it immediately. After resetting, you need to log out of the site and log in again. The API key consists of a public key and a private key. Before an API request, you need to first generate a signature using the public and private keys. To ensure account security, please keep the private key properly, avoid external transmission. Try not to use the API key to directly access US3, there is a greater risk after leakage, it is recommended to use the Token key.

Region (Region)

The region represents the physical location of the US3 data center. You can choose the data storage region based on cost, request origin, and more. For details, please see the US3 opened Region.

Single-region Space Management

The single-region object storage service can solve the file storage problem of the business architecture, create multiple copies of the user-uploaded data and achieve cross-IDC storage.

Multi-region Cross-zone Replication

Users can set cross-zone replication for specified 2 or more buckets, achieve multi-region data upload synchronization function, achieve multiple backups for data; by cooperating with custom domain names and CNAME to cyclic cross-zone replication of multiple buckets, functions such as nearby upload can be achieved;

Storage Type

US3 provides standard, low-frequency, and archival storage types, fully covering various data storage scenarios from hot to cold. Among them, the standard storage type provides highly reliable, available, and performant object storage services, supporting frequent data access; the low-frequency storage type is suitable for long-term storage of infrequently accessed data, with lower unit price than the standard type; and the archival storage type is suitable for long-term storage (advised half a year or longer) of archival data, with the lowest unit price among the three storage types. For more details, please refer to Storage Type Introduction.

Life Cycle

Users can configure lifecycle to delete, can periodically delete specified prefix files, saving user storage space; additionally, the lifecycle’s automatic cooldown function can be used to cool down specified prefix files, automatically converting to low-frequency storage, or converting to archival storage, saving user storage costs.

Related Services

Once you’ve stored your data in US3, you can use other products and services provided by UCloud Global to perform related operations. The following are UCloud Global products and services you’ll frequently use:

Using US3

US3 provides a Web service page to facilitate your management of US3. You can log into the US3 management console to operate storage spaces and objects. For console operations, please refer to the Console User Guide.

US3 also provides a rich set of API interfaces and SDK packages in various languages to facilitate flexible management of US3. Please refer to SDK List.

US3 Pricing

Traditional storage service providers require you to purchase a predetermined amount of storage and network transfer capacity. If you exceed this capacity, they will shut down corresponding services or charge high overcapacity fees; if you do not exceed this capacity, they require you to pay for the entire capacity. US3 only charges based on your actual usage, you don’t need to pre-purchase storage and traffic capacity, with the growth of your business, you will enjoy more cost advantages of the infrastructure.

For US3 pricing, please refer to Metering and Billing.