With this behavior enabled, you can specify details about the Origin Server to apply related optimizations to the property configuration.

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If you're using Adaptive Media Delivery (AMD), Download Delivery, or Object Delivery, this behavior is required in the Default Rule. What you set here defines how various preset best practices are applied and optimized.

Origin Location

Select the location of the origin server, based on its Origin Type:

• NetStorage. Select Unknown if you're using ​Akamai​ NetStorage as your origin.

• Your Own Origin. Select the geographical location of your origin server. If you aren't sure about your server location, select Unknown.

Authentication Method

Select the authentication method to use. The options available, and the appropriate settings, depend on the product in use:

• Akamai Origins - Auto, Others - None. This is the default and applies to you if your origin doesn't have any external authentication requirements, or if you're using NetStorage as your origin.

• Akamai Signature Authentication (AMD, only). Select this if your AMD property has been set up to use our shared certificate hostname for secure delivery to your custom origin.

• Akamai Media Services Live (AMD, only). Select this if you're using this AMD property in association with the Media Services Live product to deliver live-streaming media. This case is covered in the Media Services Live user documentation.

• Interoperability Google Cloud Storage. Select this if you're authenticating with Google Cloud Storage (GCS) as your origin. Note that edge servers use the signature version 4 signing process to authenticate your requests to this cloud provider. See V4 signing process in Google Cloud Storage. Once selected, provide the following details:

  • Access ID. Enter the identifier of the access key used to authenticate requests to your GCS service.

  • Secret. Enter the secret key used to compute the signature.

• Amazon Web Services. Select this if you're authenticating with this third-party cloud provider as your origin. Note that edge servers use the signature version 4 signing process to authenticate your requests to this cloud provider. See V4 signing process in AWS. Once selected, provide the following details:

  • Access Key ID. Enter the identifier of the access key used to authenticate requests to your AWS service.

  • Secret Access Key. Enter the secret key used to compute the signature.

  • Region. Enter the AWS specific region that houses your AWS service.

  • Endpoint Service. Enter the code of your AWS service. This is the segment or part of the segment that precedes amazonaws.comor the region code in the AWS hostname. For example, s3 is the endpoint service for both https://<account-id>.s3-control.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com and https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com hostnames. See Service endpoints and quotas in AWS.

Additional considerations for cloud provider-based origins

Pay attention to these points when using GCS or AWS:

• You can check your authentication details in the file you saved when creating your access key. If you didn't download the file, or if you lost it, you may need to delete the existing access key and add a new one. See Managing HMAC keys in GCS or Managing Access Keys (console) in AWS.

• You may be eligible to streamline client authentication by using Cloud Access Manager. See Client access keys for cloud provider-based origins for details.

• Use a property with an akamaized hostname. This lets you either retrieve objects from the origin, or for read-only bucket operations. This is because we're currently limited to storing cloud provider access keys in clear text. This doesn't carry the level of protection you might expect for the transmission of personally identifiable information (PII).

• Consider using two separate sets of cloud provider access keys. Dedicate one to GET operations and another for POST, PUT, or DELETE operations. For all GET operations, set them up to use a property via Property Manager; for POST, PUT, and DELETE operations, you should use the APIs or SDKs offered by the associated cloud provider.

• Regularly rotate the cloud provider access keys. This reduces the likelihood of unauthorized diversion of confidential information.

• Only the Authorization header is supported (AWS, only). If you're using query string parameters with this authentication, each query parameter in the incoming client request must be sorted alphabetically, and URL encoded.

Client access keys for cloud provider-based origins

If you're using a third-party cloud provider for your origin - GCS or AWS, consider using Cloud Access Manager to streamline client authentication.

In a typical transaction, you need to include a signature in the request so that your cloud provider recognizes the client. The signature contains an access key supplied by your cloud provider. That key consists of a unique access identifier and a secret access key. You include both of these values when setting up your property in ​Control Center​. When receiving the request, a cloud provider calculates the signature and compares it to the one sent in the client request. If they match, the request is considered authentic. If they don't match, the request is denied. While this standard method works, it has some drawbacks:

• You need to set up the mechanism to inject the signature into a client request.

• This requires that you proxy through your origin, which can delay the request.

• The access identifier and secret access key are openly visible to anyone that can see your property in ​Akamai Control Center​.

With Cloud Access Manager you can privately create your access keys and protect them. You add them to your property using a name you define, and the access identifier and secret key are hidden. Cloud Access Manager uses the ​Akamai​ Intelligent Platform to route origin requests directly to your cloud provider. ​Akamai​ edge servers inject access key authentication on the forward origin path for you. This can decrease cost, bandwidth requirements, and the number of hits to your origin during peak times.

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Once Cloud Access Manager is enabled, the secret access key is encrypted and isn't visible to anyone, including ​Akamai​. This may affect the way ​Akamai​ works with you to troubleshoot issues.

How do I use Cloud Access Manager?

1. Start by getting authentication details from your cloud provider.

2. Use Cloud Access Manager to create an access key.

3. Configure settings here in the Origin Characteristics behavior to sign requests with your access key:

• Origin Location. Select the geographical location of your origin server to optimize access to it. If you aren't sure about your server location, you can leave it as Unknown.

• Authentication Method. Select the third-party cloud provider that you use as your origin, either Amazon Web Services or Interoperability Google Cloud Storage.

• Encrypted Storage. With this option set to Yes, you can refer to access keys you created that are securely stored in Cloud Access Manager. If you disable this option, the Origin Characteristics behavior stores the authentication details unencrypted.

• Access Key. Select the access key that you want to use to sign requests to a cloud origin. This field lists only active access keys that you created in Cloud Access Manager that match your property's authentication method selected in the Origin Characteristics behavior.

• Region (Amazon Web Services, only). Enter the code of the AWS region that houses your AWS service.

• Service Endpoint (Amazon Web Services, only). Enter the code of your AWS service. This is the segment or its part that precedes amazonaws.com or a region code in your the AWS service endpoint. For example, s3 is the service code for this service endpoint: https:// account-id.s3-control.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com. See AWS Service Endpoints and Service Endpoints and Quotas.

For complete details on Cloud Access Manager, see the Cloud Access Manager User Guide.

Multiple instances of Origin Characteristics

You can define the Origin Characteristics behavior for different use cases within a single property to simplify the configuration process. Apart from applying the Origin Characteristics behavior to all requests in the Default Rule, you can also include it in another rule and apply different match criteria to have separate requests use different origin characteristics optimizations.

For example, you can configure a single property to connect to separate origins that use different authentication methods.