Set Up BYOC – AWS

Overview & Concepts 

Bring Your Own Cloud ( BYOC)  

NetApp Instaclustr BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) is a deployment model where supported open-source technologies are managed by NetApp Instaclustr but run directly inside your own cloud account. NetApp manages the operations, while you retain full ownership and security control of your underlying infrastructure and data. 

Key concepts 

Prerequisites & Requirements – AWS

Before starting, ensure you have: 

• Instaclustr Account Owner role 
• An AWS account with permissions to deploy CloudFormation/Terraform and create IAM roles, S3 buckets, and EC2 key pairs. 

Note: If you do not have these permissions yourself, you can download the CloudFormation or Terraform template from the setup workflow and share it with someone in your organization who can deploy it in your AWS account 

Information you’ll need: 

 API/Terraform users will need Provisioning API key. 

 Setting up a BYOC Provider Account (Console) 

Step 1 — Navigate to BYOC Setup 

Log in to your Instaclustr Console. You can start setup from either: 

• The Set Up BYOC tile on the landing page, or
• Account Settings (gear icon) → BYOC Provider Accounts → Set Up BYOC

Step 2 — Enter Provider Details 

Fill in the following fields: 

Step 3 — Review & Confirm 

Review your details. On the next step, you’ll receive a CloudFormation or Terraform template to download and apply to your AWS account. 

Click Create BYOC Setup to confirm. 

Your provider account is now created with a status of Pending Validation. It cannot be used for cluster creation until validated. 

Step 4 — Download the Templates 

From the BYOC setup page, download either: 

• AWS CloudFormation (JSON template) — recommended for console-driven workflows 
• Terraform (main.tf in a ZIP) — for teams that prefer Infrastructure as Code 

Both templates are functionally equivalent and create the same resources in your AWS account. 

Use “Edit Setup” at this step if you need to modify the provider account details. 

Click here to read what the BYOC Template does in your cloud account. 

Step 5 – Update the Template for Terraform only

Update Placeholders 

The downloaded terraform template contains placeholders for the values you specified during setup. Replace: 

Important: The bucket name and IAM role name in the template must exactly match what you entered during setup. If they differ, validation will fail. 

Step 6 – Deploy in Your AWS Account 

Option A: AWS CloudFormation 

1. Sign in to the AWS CloudFormation console in the same AWS account you registered for BYOC. 
2. Choose Create stack → With new resources (standard). 
3. Under Specify template, choose Upload a template file and select your downloaded JSON file. 
4. Enter a Stack name (e.g. instaclustr-byoc-setup). 
5. On Specify stack details, confirm and click next:
   • BucketName — your backup bucket name from the Console 
   • IAMRoleName — your IAM role name from the Console 
   • Leave other parameters at their defaults unless instructed otherwise. 
6. Tick the check box on Acknowledge IAM capability requirements (the template creates IAM roles and policies) and click next. 
7. Create the stack and wait until the status is CREATE_COMPLETE.  

Option B: Terraform 

1. Unzip the downloaded Terraform template. 
2. Edit main.tf — replace all placeholders as described in Step 2 above. 
3. From the directory containing main.tf, run: 
   • terraform init  
   • terraform plan  
   • terraform apply 
4. Confirm the plan creates the S3 bucket, IAM role, IAM policy, and EC2 key pair, then apply. 

Step 7 – Validating Your Setup 

Validation is where Instaclustr verifies your AWS infrastructure (IAM role, S3 bucket, EC2 key pair, and permissions) and activates the provider account. 

When to Validate 

Only validate after: 

• Your CloudFormation stack status is CREATE_COMPLETE, or 
• Your Terraform apply has completed successfully 

Do not validate while the stack is still creating, updating, or in a failed state. 

How to Validate 

After the template has been applied in your AWS account, click the Validate Setup button. 

You can trigger validation from either: 

• Option A: BYOC Setup Wizard — If you’re still in the setup flow, click Validate Setup in Step 3.
• Option B: Provider Account Detail Page — If you navigated away, go to BYOC Provider Accounts → open your provider account → click Validate Setup.

On Successful Validation 

Your BYOC account has been successfully validated and is ready for use. You can now create a cluster using this provider account by selecting it in the Provider Account drop-down on the Data Centre Options page when creating a cluster. 

Note: On successful validation, Instaclustr creates a default organization (if your account doesn’t already belong to one) and links the BYOC provider account to it. This allows you to share the provider account with other accounts in the organization later if needed. You can view your organization from the Account page or under Organisations in the console. 

If Validation Fails 

• Common fixes: 
  • Ensure you’ve applied the downloaded template (CloudFormation or Terraform) in your AWS account 
  • Check that the AWS Account ID you entered is correct 
  • Verify the stack/deployment completed successfully (not in a failed or rollback state) 
  • Confirm the IAM Role Name matches what was specified during setup 
  • If you applied the template recently, wait a few minutes for IAM propagation and retry 

Retrying After a Failed Validation 

You can fix the issue and retry without creating a new provider account: 

1. Open the provider account detail page (status will show Failed) 
2. Click Edit Setup to update fields such as Backup Bucket Name, AWS Account ID, IAM Role Name, or Data Centre Region if needed 
3. Fix or redeploy the AWS resources as required 
4. Click Validate Setup again 

Still not working? Contact support

Terraform API Note: If you create a BYOC provider account setup via the Instaclustr Terraform provider (rather than the Console), validation is triggered automatically as part of the create request. You do not need to separately click Validate Setup in the Console for Terraform-initiated setups. 

Ready to deploy Clusters?

Creating a Cluster with Your BYOC Provider Account 

BYOC cluster creation uses the standard Instaclustr Create Cluster wizard. The key difference is selecting your BYOC provider account instead of the default Instaclustr provider account — your cluster then runs in your own cloud environment. 

You can now provision a new cluster using this provider account by selecting it in the Provider Account drop-down on the Data Centre Options page when creating a cluster. 

Shared provider accounts: If your Instaclustr account is a member of an organization and has received a shared BYOC provider account, you can create clusters using that shared provider account without deploying your own CloudFormation or Terraform template. 

For detailed instructions, see: 

• Creating a Cassandra Cluster 
• Creating a Kafka Cluster 
• Creating an OpenSearch Cluster 
• Creating a PostgreSQL Cluster 
• Creating a Cadence Cluster 
• Creating a ClickHouse Cluster 
• Creating an MCP Gateway Cluster

Want to add more AWS regions? Contact support to add new data centers to this provider account.