Administration¶

Detailed configuration reference for HCP namespaces, protocols, content metadata, and operational concerns. See HCP Concepts for the introductory overview.

Content Properties¶

Content classes group content properties — typed fields extracted from custom metadata XML using XPath expressions. When objects are ingested, HCP reads the custom metadata XML, evaluates the XPath expressions, and indexes the extracted values for fast search.

How Content Indexing Works¶

graph LR
    OBJ["Object with<br/>custom metadata XML"]
    CC["Content Class<br/>defines properties"]
    XPATH["XPath Extraction<br/>evaluate expressions"]
    IDX["Search Index<br/>queryable fields"]

    OBJ --> XPATH
    CC --> XPATH
    XPATH --> IDX

For example, given this custom metadata XML on an ingested medical image:

<dicom_image>
  <doctor>
    <name>Dr. Lindqvist</name>
    <department>Radiology</department>
  </doctor>
  <study_date>2024-03-15</study_date>
</dicom_image>

A content class with properties like doctor_name (XPath: /dicom_image/doctor/name) and study_date (XPath: /dicom_image/study_date) would extract those values and make them searchable via the Metadata Query API.

Property Definition¶

Custom Metadata Indexing Settings¶

Each namespace can configure what custom metadata gets indexed:

Namespace Configuration¶

Namespaces have several settings that are permanent — they cannot be changed after creation. Understanding these decisions upfront prevents surprises later.

Permanent vs Mutable Settings¶

graph TD
    subgraph "Set at creation — PERMANENT"
        OPT["Optimization Mode<br/>CLOUD or ALL"]
        HASH["Hash Scheme<br/>MD5, SHA-256, etc."]
    end

    subgraph "Can change anytime"
        QUOTA["Quotas"]
        ACL["ACL mode"]
        VERS["Versioning"]
        PROTO["Protocol settings"]
    end

    subgraph "One-way switches"
        COMP["Enterprise → Compliance<br/>(cannot go back)"]
        ACL_EN["ACLs disabled → enabled<br/>(cannot disable again)"]
    end

Optimization Mode¶

The optimization mode affects internal storage layout and determines which access protocols are available:

Cannot be changed after namespace creation. Choose based on your access pattern requirements.

Hash Scheme¶

Each namespace uses a cryptographic hash algorithm for object integrity verification. Set at creation time and cannot be changed later:

MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, RIPEMD-160

Values are case-sensitive. SHA-256 is recommended for new namespaces.

Quotas¶

graph LR
    subgraph "50 GB Hard Quota"
        USED["Used: 35 GB"]
        SOFT["Soft Quota (85%): 42.5 GB"]
        HARD["Hard Quota: 50 GB"]
    end

    USED -->|"warning at"| SOFT
    SOFT -->|"blocked at"| HARD

Multipart Upload Auto-Abort¶

multipartUploadAutoAbortDays controls when incomplete multipart uploads are automatically cleaned up (0–180 days, default: 30). Setting to 0 means never auto-abort — incomplete uploads accumulate indefinitely, consuming storage.

ACL Support¶

aclsUsage has three states. The transition between them is restricted — notably, once ACLs are enabled, they can never be disabled.

stateDiagram-v2
    NOT_ENABLED --> ENFORCED: Enable + enforce
    NOT_ENABLED --> NOT_ENFORCED: Enable without enforcing
    ENFORCED --> NOT_ENFORCED: Stop enforcing
    NOT_ENFORCED --> ENFORCED: Start enforcing
    note right of NOT_ENABLED: Cannot return here\nonce ACLs are enabled

Protocol Details¶

HCP supports multiple access protocols, each with its own configuration. All protocols access the same underlying data — an object stored via S3 is immediately visible via NFS, CIFS, and other enabled protocols.

CIFS/SMB¶

CIFS (Common Internet File System) provides Windows file share access to namespace data:

NFS¶

NFS access uses POSIX-style ownership:

SMTP¶

HCP can ingest email directly via SMTP — useful for email archiving:

IP-Based Access Control¶

Each protocol has independent ipSettings that control network-level access:

graph TD
    REQ["Incoming Request<br/>from 10.0.1.5"]
    ALLOW{"In allow list?"}
    DENY{"In deny list?"}
    BOTH{"In both lists?"}
    FLAG{"allowIfInBothLists?"}

    REQ --> ALLOW
    ALLOW -->|"Yes"| DENY
    ALLOW -->|"No"| FLAG
    DENY -->|"No"| GRANT["Access Granted"]
    DENY -->|"Yes"| BOTH
    BOTH --> FLAG
    FLAG -->|"true"| GRANT
    FLAG -->|"false"| BLOCK["Access Denied"]

CORS Configuration¶

HCP supports Cross-Origin Resource Sharing at two levels, with a clear inheritance hierarchy:

graph TD
    TC["Tenant CORS Config<br/>(default for all namespaces)"]
    NS1["Namespace A<br/>(no CORS config)"]
    NS2["Namespace B<br/>(has own CORS config)"]

    TC -->|"inherits"| NS1
    TC -.-x|"overridden"| NS2
    NS2 -->|"uses own config"| NS2_RULES["Namespace B rules"]

Inheritance rules:

1. If a namespace has its own CORS configuration → tenant-level rules are completely ignored for that namespace
2. If a namespace has no CORS configuration → tenant-level rules apply
3. If neither is configured → CORS requests are rejected

CORS Rule Structure¶

CORS rules are configured as XML:

<CORSConfiguration>
  <CORSRule>
    <AllowedOrigin>https://app.example.com</AllowedOrigin>
    <AllowedMethod>GET</AllowedMethod>
    <AllowedMethod>PUT</AllowedMethod>
    <AllowedMethod>POST</AllowedMethod>
    <AllowedHeader>*</AllowedHeader>
  </CORSRule>
</CORSConfiguration>

Chargeback Reporting¶

Chargeback reports provide detailed storage usage metrics per namespace, used for cost allocation across departments or customers.

Report Parameters¶

Metrics¶

The difference between ingestedVolume and storageCapacityUsed is important for billing: ingestedVolume is what the user uploaded, while storageCapacityUsed includes the overhead of keeping multiple copies or fragments for data protection.

HCP retains 180 days of chargeback statistics. Limit chargeback report requests to once per hour — more frequent polling can cause system instability.

HCP Quirks and Gotchas¶

Behaviors that differ from standard S3 or may surprise developers: