Configuring Nutanix Objects Smart Tiering requires establishing a secure, authenticated connection to a remote S3-compatible object store. The primary mechanism for authentication with the S3 API is a key-based system. Therefore, providing a valid Access Key and its corresponding Secret Key is a mandatory criterion. These credentials grant the Nutanix Objects cluster the necessary permissions to access the target bucket and perform tiering operations, such as writing and retrieving data. Without these keys, the connection to the remote tier cannot be authenticated, and the configuration will fail.

A. VPC name: A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a networking construct within a cloud provider and is not a direct configuration parameter for the Smart Tiering endpoint itself.

B. Target URL over HTTP: Secure communication using HTTPS is the standard for connecting to remote object stores. An unencrypted HTTP URL is not a mandatory or recommended configuration.

C. Certificate: A CA certificate is only required if the remote S3-compatible endpoint uses a private or self-signed certificate. It is not mandatory for public cloud targets like AWS S3.

1. Nutanix Objects 4.2 User Guide

Section: Tiering to a Remote (External) Object Store (Smart Tier)

Subsection: Adding a Remote Tier. This section details the configuration wizard for adding a remote tier. For all S3-compatible targets (including AWS S3

Azure Blob

Wasabi

and Generic S3)

the guide explicitly lists Access Key and Secret Key as required fields for authentication.

2. Nutanix Objects 4.2 User Guide

Section: Tiering to a Remote (External) Object Store (Smart Tier)

Subsection: Adding a Remote Tier. The same section clarifies that the CA Certificate field is optional and only needed "if the remote tier uses a certificate that is not signed by a public Certificate Authority." This confirms that a certificate is not a universally mandatory criterion.