Storage zones controller

Configure multitenant storage zones

A multitenant storage zone is a ShareFile storage zones controller feature that enables Citrix Service Providers (CSPs) to create and manage a single storage zone that is shared by all tenants.

If you are a CSP with a partner account provisioned by ShareFile, you can host one multitenant standard storage zone on your domain that supports an unlimited number of tenants. Using a multitenant zone enables you to:

  • Provide each tenant with a unique ShareFile account and leverage all the great ShareFile features, such as custom branding, file retention preferences, and security settings.
  • Maintain a single storage repository for all of your tenants.
  • Onboard new customers faster and reduce the cost and management complexity of creating a separate storage zone for each customer account.

Create a partner account

You must have a partner account before you can register a multitenant storage zone.

To create a partner account, you must register with the CSP program and order a stocking SKU with your preferred distributor that entitles you to offer ShareFile as a service.

If you are already registered as a CSP and have ordered the appropriate ShareFile for CSPs stocking SKU a partner account has already been created for you. If you are unable to locate this new partner account, please contact ShareFile Account Services at acctsvcs@sharefile.com.

As you begin to provision customer accounts under your CSP ShareFile offering, we recommend creating a generic service account admin user on your partner account. In this way, the admin user can be the official partner admin of all of your customer accounts. Ensure that this service account admin user has the Manage Tenants permission turned on. With that, we encourage partners to create this partner admin now before filling out the CSP customer account request form (in step 4).

Install and set up a Multi-Tenant storage zone

  • Create a new multitenant storage zone and associate it with your partner account. For details, see Install storage zones controller and create a storage zone.

  • Install the storage zone controller in multitenant mode. Be sure to run the following specified command prompt in the Install article mentioned in the preceding step.

msiexec /i StorageCenter\_5.0.1.msi MULTITENANT=1

Note:

In the preceding command, you might need to update the version number (5.0.1 in the example) to match the number of the msi you are trying to install.

Configure the new storage zone and associate it with your partner account

For details, see step 10 in Install storage zones controller and create a storage zone.

Log into your partner account where you want to register the new zone.

Important:

This account must have the following ShareFile permissions: Manage Tenants and Create and Manage Zones.

You can now log in to your partner account and see the new multitenant storage zone. Click the Admin settings > Storage zones > Partner-managed tab.

Request Tenant Accounts for the multitenant zone

To request tenant accounts, fill out the CSP Customer Account Request form.

When you request a tenant account, you must also specify a Partner Admin user. This partner admin must be an admin user on your partner account with the Manage Tenants permission enabled. When a tenant account is created, this partner admin user will be automatically provisioned on the account as an Admin user and will be to able to sign in and manage the tenant account. Since there cannot be two users on an account with the same email address, the partner admin email specified on the form cannot be the same as the customer admin on the same form.

To ensure the quickest turnaround, ensure that you provide the correct Org ID and the multitenant zone name that you want to use as the storage zone for the tenant account.

You will receive an email after Citrix provisions the requested accounts. The email will include details on the tenant subdomain and an activation link to set up access. ShareFile will send you and your customers’ administrative users separate emails.

Your customers can then begin using ShareFile. Any new users provisioned to a tenant’s account will use the multitenant zone you specified as the default location for the user’s files.

Previewing Office files and PDFs with an Office Online Server

This functionality is supported with supported Office Online Server environments. Click here for setup information.

Connector sharing

This functionality is supported with multitenant zones.

Manage tenants

Within the partner account, there is a Tenant Management dashboard located under Admin Settings > Advanced Preferences. This centralized dashboard allows you to check the status of all tenants linked to your partner account. The dashboard includes the license consumption, default storage zone, storage consumption, and account status (Paid or Trial) for each tenant.

Note:

The dashboard is only available to users in your partner account that have the Manage Tenants user permission enabled.

Multitenant limitations

The ShareFile Information Rights Management feature (IRM) is not supported for multitenant storage zones.

Troubleshooting

Failed to create zone: Forbidden

Upon storage zone registration, if you receive the following error: “Failed to create zone: forbidden”, check that your user permissions include the “Manage Tenants” permission.

Configure multitenant storage zones