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Fabric Reseller Account Model

With the Reseller/Sub-account model resellers can enable some or all of their end customers for self-service on Equinix Fabric. Resellers must follow steps in the Portal User Guide section for sub-account setup. Once set up, resellers can share Fabric ports and set up user access for their end customer users so that they can manage their own connections on Equinix Fabric. Users of Sub-accounts that represent end-customers can self-serve on the Fabric portal and contact the Equinix NOC on their own. This model is good for resellers or accounts that want to wholly separate their customers and/or lines of business into separate entities in Equinix systems.

Note:

Equinix Fabric resellers with access to sub-accounts will have access to the end-customer's organization & projects. Reseller users can use the Context Switcher to set or change the project they work with in Fabric. Only assets within the selected project/end-customer organization are shown.

For more information, see Organization / Project Switcher.

Becoming a Reseller​

Once your account is designated as a reseller account, you will be able to set up sub-accounts. However, current Equinix customer accounts can't become sub-accounts. No Reseller Partner agreement is required to take advantage of the basic Equinix Fabric reseller capabilities.

Adding sub-accounts​

Resellers must follow steps on sub-account setup in the Equinix Customer Portal (ECP) User Guide to designate their end customers as sub-accounts. Once created, reseller users can share assets such as Fabric ports and set up user access for sub-accounts so that end customer users are able to manage their own connections with Equinix Fabric.

Once an account becomes a reseller, a Reseller Primary Administrator will be assigned. The Reseller Primary Admin is responsible for creating sub-accounts using ECP and assigning users and permissions in IAM. This must be done before sub-account users can create, view, and delete connections in the Equinix Customer portal.

Eligible sub-account user types are:

  • User
  • IBX Admin
  • Primary Admin

IBX Admin is not applicable to Equinix Fabric functionality

These user types affect which ports and connections a sub-account can view.

If a sub-account is represented by more than one reseller, they must maintain fully separate accounts with each reseller, no overlap in visibility or permissions is permitted.

Ordering, Viewing, Sharing And Deleting Equinix Fabric Ports​

Equinix Fabric ports are ordered by a reseller on Fabric & once the port is provisioned - resellers can share the port with a end-customer using the Resource Management portal. Once the port is shared, end-customer users who have permissions will be able to view the shared instance of the port using which they can create, view, and delete connections on the port. Multiple sub-accounts can be assigned to a single port or each sub-account can have a dedicated port. Port-level permissions enable all resellers to share a single port with multiple sub-accounts - while being able to view the connections created (from the shared port) by the end-customer.

Resellers, but not sub-accounts, can set port threshold notification preferences that will trigger a notification to the reseller if the sold port capacity reaches a specified percentage (ex. 80%). Similarly, resellers receive outage notification but they are responsible for communicating this information to the sub-account.

Sharing Fabric Ports with End Customers​

Fabric resellers can now share Fabric ports with sub-customers using the Resource Management portal.

To share a Fabric port with sub-customers:

  • Log in to the Equinix Fabric Portal.
  • Navigate to the Resource Management section from the account menu.
  • Under your reseller organization, select the project that owns the Fabric port that needs to be shared.
  • In the resource list, locate the Fabric port you want to share.
  • Click on the more menu (...) against the asset & select Share Asset option.
  • In the sharing dialog, search for and select the sub-customer organization(s) you want to share the port with.
  • You can select up to three organizations per transaction. If you need to share with more, you can repeat the process in a separate transaction.
  • Click Submit to complete the sharing process.
note

Note: This action grants the selected sub-customers visibility and access to the shared port for use in creating Virtual Connections.

To stop sharing a Fabric port:

  • In the Resource Management view, locate the port you wish to update.
  • Click Share Asset to open the sharing dialog.
  • Deselect the organizations or projects you no longer want to share with.
  • Click Submit to update the sharing settings.
note

Note: This action revokes access to the shared port for the sub-customer. Restricting visibility / access to the shared port & Virtual Connections associated with that port.

Using Equinix Platform (IAM)​

Equinix Fabric users in Equinix Platform (IAM) assigned the role Fabric Partner Resource Manager can use the Resources page to select the port and assign the port to selected end customers (sub customers).

Viewing and Creating Connections​

What is a Service Profile?​

A service profile defines how others can connect to a port or set of ports. Service profiles can be:

  • Public – Available for anyone on the Equinix Fabric platform to connect to (for example, AWS Direct Connect or Azure Express Route), or
  • Private – In this case, the service profile owner must give permissions for other accounts to connect (such as, Joe's Physician’s Network)

Creating Connections To Public Or Private Service Profiles​

Any user type (User or Primary Admin) can be assigned to view some or all the ports assigned to the sub-account. Any user can be assigned to create connections from a port to which they have been granted visibility. The reseller will need to grant permission for the sub-account to create a connection to a private profile, but anyone can create a connection to a public profile.

The ability to create connections within a sub-account can be assigned to sub-account users, however, at the reseller level, only a reseller admin can create and delete connections inside a sub-account.

Creating A Connection To Self As A sub-account​

Customers often use the Equinix Fabric to connect their assets together, particularly where these assets reside in different metros. To do this, the Z-Side port of the self-connection needs a service profile created so that port will be visible to the A-Side for connection creation.

sub-accounts can't create service profiles, only the reseller can create service profiles. Therefore, any sub-account who wishes to create a connection between two of their ports in different metros will need to work with the reseller to create a private service profile for their Z-Side port. The reseller will then need to grant permission for the sub-account to create a connection to a private profile.

In either case, connections will not be provisioned unless they have been approved by the service profile owner(s).

Remote (Inter-Metro Or Inter-Region) Connections​

Equinix Fabric resellers and sub-accounts can create local connections in a metro and remote connections to any public or private service profile that has remote connections enabled. Remote connections span metros (ex. Seattle to Ashburn) and even regions (ex. Los Angeles to London). Remote connections always incur an additional charge, even if the sub-account has unlimited connections ports. Pricing for inter-region connections varies by region but is static within the same region.

Pricing and Billing for Resellers and sub-accounts​

The capability to see associated pricing during connection creation has been added to the Equinix Customer portal. However, sub-accounts of resellers can't see pricing in the portal since the reseller is responsible for billing the sub-account and might alter the price points presented to their customers. sub-account status is determined by ECP at the time of Equinix Fabric login.

note

A sub-account is a non-billable customer. Therefore, all connections created by a sub-account are billed to the reseller.

Accessing End-customer Projects​

In the Equinix Fabric Portal, the Reseller Admin can view the ports shared with the end-customer and connections created by the end-customer by simply switching to the end-customer project using the project switcher. In addition, a reseller can view, order and manage the connections for the end-customer by switching into the end-customer project. Admin and reseller users can view the Inventory and My Company pages of end-customer organizations under their preview.

By simply switching between reseller & sub-account projects, reseller admins can get an overview of all the assets that belong to the reseller vs what belongs to the sub-customer.

Organization / Project Switcher​

Located on the title section of the portal, the project switcher enables navigation between organizations or projects. The drop down lets users select the organization/projects that have access to & lets users view Equinix Fabric from the same lens and perspective as the organization/project selected. In the project switcher, users can also click on Search for Customer to display a list of sub accounts. You can also type the first letters of the name to narrow the search results. Sub accounts where the user does not have access may appear in the list but can't be selected.

  • Reseller End Customer Admin – These are reseller admins who can manage end-customer organizations & share assets.

    • Equinix Support Admin and End Customer Admins in Reseller accounts have permission to view, edit, approve, delete, and create for users that are under their end-customer account.

  • Equinix Support Admin – These users are not resellers, but Equinix employees who have accounts.