Set Up ObjectiveFS With IBM COS

This document covers the steps to set up your ObjectiveFS filesystem with IBM Cloud Object Storage on the IBM Cloud Platform. For on-premise IBM COS setup, see the on-premise IBM COS setup guide.

What You Need

Your IBM Cloud Object Storage keys (how to get your IBM COS keys)
ObjectiveFS license key from the Filesystem section on your profile page
ObjectiveFS software installed on your machine (see Quick Start)

Steps

Configure Objectivefs

$ sudo mount.objectivefs config ibm://
Creating config for IBM Cloud Platform in /etc/objectivefs.env
Enter ObjectiveFS license: <your ObjectiveFS license>
Enter Access Key: <your access key>
Enter Secret Key: <your secret key>
Enter Region: <your region with storage class, e.g. us-standard>

Create your filesystem (one-time only)
- Choose a unique filesystem name. ObjectiveFS will create a new bucket with this name.
- Choose a strong passphrase, write it down and store it somewhere safe.
  IMPORTANT: Without the passphrase, there is no way to recover any files.
```
$ sudo mount.objectivefs create <your filesystem name>
Passphrase (for <filesystem>): <your passphrase>
Verify passphrase (for <filesystem>): <your passphrase>
```
Mount your filesystem
Mount your filesystem on an existing empty directory, e.g. /ofs. The ObjectiveFS process will run in the background.
```
$ sudo mkdir /ofs
$ sudo mount.objectivefs <your filesystem name> /ofs
Passphrase (for //<filesystem>): <your passphrase>
```
[Optional] ** Multi-server setup**
Mount this filesystem on as many servers as you wish by running steps 1 and 3 on each server after installing ObjectiveFS. Each server can read and write to the same filesystem at the same time.

Useful Links

If you have questions, please email us at support@objectivefs.com.

Last updated by ObjectiveFS staff, June 3, 2025

ObjectiveFS is a shared filesystem for Linux and macOS that automatically scales up and out with high performance. In production use by Fortune 500 companies since 2013.