CTERA Provisioning
Provisioning is the process of assigning services and quotas to users or tenants.
CTERA includes two levels of provisioning:
Portal-level provisioningThe CTERA Portal owner provisions each virtual portal owner with services and quotas. For example, it is possible to limit a virtual portal to use a total of up to 100GB of storage space and 50 workstation agents.
Portal-level provisioning is performed by global administrators.
End-user provisioningThe virtual portal owner provisions end users with services and quotas, such as storage space and the number of agents.
In team portals, end-user provisioning is optional and is performed by team or global administrators.
In reseller portals, end-user provisioning is performed by staff or global administrators.
Portal-level Provisioning
The following provisioning methods are available for portal-level provisioning:
Global plansIn order to obtain services, virtual portals are assigned to a global plan which defines a set of services that the portal will receive, and which will subsequently be used by the portal's end users. Further, the plan can specify a maximum snapshot retention policy for the portal. See Managing Portal Snapshots (Backups).
Note: For team portals, the global plan limits the total amount of resources used by end users. Portal Licenses are consumed immediately, when the team portal is provisioned.
For reseller portals, the global plan limits the total amount of storage space (and other resources, such as server agents and workstation agents) allocated to a reseller portal's end users. That is, if a reseller provisions a 10GB storage quota to an end user, then 10GB of the reseller's storage space quota is consumed immediately, regardless of whether the end user actually uses the entire 10GB of storage space. Likewise, Portal Licenses are consumed when the resources are provisioned to the end user.
Global add-onsIn addition to the global plan, one or more global add-ons can be added to portals. Each global add-on defines a set of services that portals will receive in addition to the services specified in the global plan. For example, an add-on may include an additional 10 GB of storage space for the number of devices specified in the global plan. Add-ons can be set to expire after a specified time period and can be stacked as desired. For example, a portal may have a subscription plan for 100 GB of storage, as well as two add-ons for 10GB of storage and one add-on for 5GB of storage. While the add-ons are valid, the portal will be entitled to allocate up to 125GB of cloud storage to end users.
End-user Provisioning for Team Portals
In team portals, end users must be subscribed to a subscription plan in order to obtain services. The subscription plan includes the list of services provided to the user and the quota for each service.
End-user Provisioning for Reseller Portals
In reseller portals a quota must be specified for each service, in team portals, specific quotas can be unlimited, in which case the user account will only be limited by the quotas of the team portal itself. User accounts need to be provisioned in order for end users to obtain services. This is done by setting the subscription plan, or adding add-ons to the user account.
If a subscription plan or add-on is modified, all user accounts assigned to the plan or add-on is automatically updated with the changes.
The following provisioning methods are available end-user provisioning in reseller portals:
Subscription plansIn order to obtain services, end users can be subscribed to a subscription plan. The subscription plan includes the list of services provided to the user and the quota for each service.
The subscription plan also specifies a snapshot retention policy for the user's folders.
Add-onsIn reseller portals, end users can subscribe to more services in addition to their subscription plan, by adding add-ons to the account. Each add-on defines a set of services that subscribed users will receive in addition to the services specified in the subscription plan. For example, an add-on may include an additional 10 GB of storage space for the number of devices specified in the subscription plan.
Add-ons can be stacked as desired. For example, a user may have a subscription plan for 100 GB of storage, as well as two add-ons for 10GB of storage and one add-on for 5GB of storage. While the add-ons are valid, the user will be entitled to 125GB of cloud storage.
VouchersA reseller portal allows creating vouchers, which are prepaid coupons that encapsulate specific add-ons and plans. When a device owner redeems a voucher encoding an add-on, the add-on is added to the user’s account. When a device owner redeems a voucher encoding a plan, they are assigned to the subscription plan.
Note: Vouchers can also contain a hidden plan that is not exposed to end users.
CTERA Portal allows you to mix and match these provisioning methods in order to obtain the combination that best suits your company's business model and your customer's needs.