How do I use Akamai CDN with Wasabi?

Akamai's Adaptive media delivery product has been validated for use with Wasabi. Follow the steps outlined below to activate Wasabi cloud storage with Akamai's CDN network.

Prerequisites:

• Active Akamai account
• Active Wasabi account
• Active public domain
• Administrator access to domain provider

Note:

• All information provided below is using my test domain "www.wasabi-support.com", this will be associated with Akamai's CDN network
• The test domain is owned and managed by godaddy.com & i have admin rights to edit domain information such as DNS values to associate my domain with Akamai.

Table of Contents:

1. Upload data to Wasabi storage
2. Configure Akamai
3. Staging & Activation of Akamai property
4. Configuration of hosting provider
5. Enable HTTPS
6. Access Hosted Content via Akamai CDN
7. Adding Different Wasabi regions to the same property

1) Upload data to Wasabi storage

Wasabi has verified many S3, FTP, FTPS clients for uploading data. Refer to our KBs for specific information on products/vendors Wasabi has been verified for use with. In order for the uploaded data to be delivered to a CDN vendor as Akamai, data stored on wasabi needs to be enabled for public access. Here is how. 

1. Enabling public access to specific objects - Refer to information here
2. Enabling public access to all objects in a bucket - Refer to information here
3. Enabling public access to all objects in a folder - Refer to information here

2) Configure Akamai

Login to your Akamai Control Center portal:

3) Click on Properties and click "Create property"

4) Provide a "Property Name" and click "Create Property"

Note: Property name is only for internal Akamai use, Please contact Akamai for recommendations 

5) Under "Property Hostnames" click "Add"

6) Once you click "Add" a pop-up window will appear and request you to provide the following:

• Hostname - in the test outline here, we are using the hostname - akamaitest.wasabi-support.com where wasabi-support.com is the top-level domain and akamaitest is a sub-domain and click "Next"
• Choose "IPv4 only" and click "Next"
• Choose mapping solution, in this integration we are choosing VOD content and click "Next"
• Confirm "Edge Hostnames" and click "Submit"
• Confirmation on providing a property hostname:

 

7) In Property Configuration Settings section -> Behaviors -> Orgin Server click "Origin Type" and choose "Your Origin"

8) Provide the following info:

• Origin Type - Your Origin
• Origin Server Hostname - s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com
• Forward host header - Origin Hostname
• Cache key Hostname - Origin Hostname

Note that this example discusses the use of Wasabi's us-west-1 storage region. To use other Wasabi storage regions, please use the appropriate Wasabi service URL as described in this article. 

Note: Additional info provided below on to setup Akamai for using different Wasabi regions as part of the same property. 

9) Leave default values for SSL & ports as shown below. Under the "Content Provider Code" click "Create New"

Note: Content provider code is used for Akamai's billing & reporting purposes. Please contact Akamai for additional details

10) A pop-up window will default to a "Content Provider Code name" Click "Create"

11) Leave defaults for rest of the configuration elements. 

12) Scroll all the way down to the end of the page and click "Add Behavior"

13) In "Add a Behavior for this rule" pop-up search for "Origin Base Path"

14) Click "Insert Behavior"

15) Provide the base Path value to match your cloud storage account, for example, my Wasabi account has a bucket named "akamawasabitest", i created a folder called "Videos" and inside this folder i have a video asset named "Why Wasabi is Different_Wasabi.mp4" as shown below. In this case the base path provided in Akamai control center would be "/akamaiwasabitest/Videos/"

Akamai Origin Base Path and click "Save"

 

Staging & Activation of Akamai Property

15) Once save completes, Navigate to "Activate" tab 

16) Click "Activate v1 on Staging" - the configuration created above will be verified

17) Click "Activating v1 on Staging"

18) Activation process takes several mins to complete:

19) Once staging activation completes successfully, Click "Activate on Production"

20) Provide email address to be notified and Confirm activation 

21) Activation on production takes about an hour

Changes required at DNS Hosting provider

wasabi-support.com domain is held by GoDaddy hosting provider. Login into your hosting provider's portal and add a CNAME entry as shown below:

• host -  akamaitest
• Points to - akamaitest.wasabi-support.com
• TTL - 60 mins (can be different)

Enable HTTPS access

22) Click "Create" and choose "Certificate"

23) Click "Create New Certificate"

24) Choose the best option to validate website's identity. As an example, i will be choosing Domain Validation (DV) and click "Next"

25) Choose "SAN" and click "Next"

26) Provide following and click "Next"

• common-name for the certificate
• company info such as address, contact info etc

27) Provide contact details:

28) Choose "Standard TLS" and click "Review"

29) Click "Submit"

30) A pop-up will appear requesting to validate the domain

31) Validate the domain, in the following example, validating the domain via DNS Token, a TXT value, Take the appropriate steps with the website hosting vendor to validate the domain. 

Access Hosted Content via Akamai CDN

32) Using a browser navigate to "https://akamaitest.wasabi-support.com/Why%20Wasabi%20is%20Different%20_%20Wasabi.mp4"

Note:

• URL is HTTPS based
• Top level URL contains akamaitest.wasabi-support.com
• Since we offered base path to be "akamaiwasabitest/Videos" - the asset needs to be called out after the URL

Adding Different Wasabi regions to the same property

33) Under "Property Configuration Settings" click "Add Rule"

34) Choose "Blank Rule Template" and click "Insert Rule"

35) Hover over to right of the newly created rule "New Rule" and click the gear icon, choose "Edit Name"

36) Provide a name "East2 Rule", then click "Add Match", opt for "Path" in the first drop down option and set "matches one of" in the second drop down option and provide bucket/folder path.

37) Click "Add Behavior", in the pop-up search for "Origin Server" and click "Insert Behavior"

38) Provide the following info and click "Save"

• Origin Type - Your Origin
• Origin Server Hostname - s3.us-east-2.wasabisys.com
• Forward Host Header - Origin Hostname
• Cache Key Hostname - Origin Hostname

39) Following steps outlined from 33 thru 38 - additional Wasabi regions can be added to your Akamai property.