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Powered By Backblaze Quick-Start Guide
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    Powered By Backblaze Quick-Start Guide

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      Use the Powered By Backblaze program to integrate Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage solutions into your products using your branded user experience. This guide walks you through the available Powered By Backblaze services and the necessary steps to get started. 

      Overview

      The Powered By Backblaze program allows platform providers can provision Backblaze B2 using the Backblaze Partner API and Custom Domains.

      Use the Partner API to programmatically provision accounts, run reports, and create solutions or services within your applications that employ Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage on the backend.

      Custom Domains use CNAME records and Backblaze object storage to assign your preferred domain to your files and URLs rather than using the domain name that Backblaze automatically creates by default.

      Before you begin: 
      You must have a Backblaze B2 account. If you already have a Backblaze account and the left navigation menu contains a Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage section, then your account is already enabled for Backblaze B2.

      Partner API

      The Partner API automates the following processes that are related to the creation and management of the Backblaze B2 accounts within your application:

      • Account creation (adding Group members)
      • Organizing accounts in Groups
      • Listing Groups
      • Listing Group members
      • Ejecting Group members

      Create a Partner API Account

      After creating a Backblaze account, you can request access to a Partner API account with the following steps:

      1. Sign in to the Backblaze web console.
      2. In the user menu in the upper-right corner of the page, select My Settings.
      3. Under Enabled Products, select the checkbox to enable Business Groups.
      4. Click OK.
      5. If you completed email verification when you created your account, click Verify Email.
      6. After your email is verified, contact the Backblaze sales team for access to the Partner API and include “Partner API access” in the subject line of the email to expedite the approval process.

      Create a Group

      The Groups feature lets you manage, pay for, and administrate several users. Group administrators can manage user's accounts, create restores, and perform any action a user can typically perform on their account. 

      1. Sign in to the Backblaze web console.
      2. In the left navigation menu under Business Groups, click Group Management.
      3. Click Create a New Group, and enter a name for your group.
        Backblaze recommends that you use a naming convention that identifies the Group members who are in a specific Group, for example, “Initech Staff."
      4. Select Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage as the product.
        You can add products to a Group at any time, but after you add them, you cannot remove them.
      5. Select your administrative privileges.
        After you create a Group, you cannot change this setting.
        1. Select On to enable managing rights including accessing Backblaze B2 content, creating restores, and changing account settings.
        2. Select Off to enable Group administrators to pay for Backblaze services, but they cannot view or restore files, delete a backup, or change account settings on a Group member's behalf.
      6. Click Create Group.
      7. Enter your payment information and click Purchase, or click Skip Payment & Try for Free and continue with the 10 GB of free storage that comes with your account.
        You do not need to enter any information to skip this step.
      8. To finish creating your Group, click I'll Invite Later.

      Your new Group is displayed on the Group Management page.

      Note
      For accounts with Computer Backup enabled, Backblaze can trigger emails to Group admins including regular summaries of all of the backups in their Group. You can choose to have the User Stats CSV report attached to this automatic email. This report can be accessed and downloaded at any time by visiting the Users/Computers page within the “Business Groups” menu on your Account Overview page.

      If you are interested in being charged via invoice or other methods, contact the Backblaze Sales team for more information.

      See the complete guide on creating Backblaze Groups here.

      Use the Partner API

      After creating your group, you can use the Partner API b2_create_group_member operation to add Group members. 

      To get started with the Partner API, you must first generate a master app key. The master app key is necessary to create an authorization token for Partner API calls.

      Generate a Master App Key

      1. Sign in to the Backblaze web console.
      2. In the left navigation menu under B2 Cloud Storage, click Application Keys.
      3. In the Master Application Key section, click Generate New Master Application Key.
      4. Click Yes! Generate Master Key.
      Notes
      Because your master app key is shown only when you generate it, save your master app key in a secure location if you plan to use it more than once.

      The term "master application key ID" was formerly called an "account ID." If you use an integration in which the terminology was not updated to reflect this change, the master application key ID works in place of your account ID. For a standard app key, you can use that key's keyID in place of an account ID.

      You can find your master app key ID on the Application Keys page.

      For more detailed guidance about using the Partner API, see these user guides or the Partner API documentation for an overview of each operation.

      Use the Partner API Reports

      Detailed reports that contain information on Backblaze B2 usage for each Group member are generated daily. These reports are useful for calculating customer fees that are related to the amount of stored data, as well as other transaction costs.

      These reports are provided as three different CSV files:

      • Usage
      • Groups
      • Locations

      The “Usage” file contains the amount of storage used and other usage data. The “Groups” and “Locations” files provide lists of files that are created each day.

      See the Partner API Reports Guide for a complete overview.

      Enable Custom Domains

      To get started using Custom Domains, you must first contact the Backblaze sales team so that your request can be evaluated for eligibility. The qualifications and legitimacy of the custom domain request are typically determined during a Zoom meeting. 

      When approved, there is a one-time fee for each custom domain during the initial setup.

      1. Backblaze sends an email requesting the target group and region for the custom domain installation.
      2. Backblaze sends the necessary DNS records to the email account that is associated with the custom domain. These DNS records must be installed by the custom domain user. For example, if the target region is "us-west-000", add three canonical name (CNAME) records to point the custom domain to the Backblaze servers: 
        • CNAME: s3.us-west-000, s3.us-west-000.backblazeb2.com
        • CNAME wildcard: *.s3.us-west-000, s3.us-west-000.backblazeb2.com
        • CNAME acme challenge: _acme-challenge.s3.us-west-000, _acme-challenge-s3-us-west-000-example-com.b2dcv.com.
      3. A Backblaze Solutions team liaison requests a point of contact (preferably a site reliability engineer) from the partner or customer. The point of contact is notified after the custom domain installation is complete.
      4. After verifying the DNS pointers, Backblaze requests an SSL Certificate on behalf of the partner or customer. This request may be observed as a Certificate Transparency event from LetsEncrypt, Backblaze's primary Certificate Authority.

      If you have any questions or concerns about Powered By Backblaze, contact your Backblaze Solutions team member.

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