AWS S3 Management Overview
Amazon S3 provides secure, durable, and highly scalable object storage. Manage buckets with encryption, versioning, access controls, lifecycle policies, and cross-region replication for reliable data storage and retrieval.
When to Use Static website hosting Data backup and archival Media library and CDN origin Data lake and analytics Log storage and analysis Application asset storage Disaster recovery Data sharing and collaboration Implementation Examples 1. S3 Bucket Creation and Configuration with AWS CLI
Create bucket
aws s3api create-bucket \ --bucket my-app-bucket-$(date +%s) \ --region us-east-1
Enable versioning
aws s3api put-bucket-versioning \ --bucket my-app-bucket \ --versioning-configuration Status=Enabled
Block public access
aws s3api put-public-access-block \ --bucket my-app-bucket \ --public-access-block-configuration \ BlockPublicAcls=true,IgnorePublicAcls=true,\ BlockPublicPolicy=true,RestrictPublicBuckets=true
Enable encryption
aws s3api put-bucket-encryption \ --bucket my-app-bucket \ --server-side-encryption-configuration '{ "Rules": [{ "ApplyServerSideEncryptionByDefault": { "SSEAlgorithm": "AES256" } }] }'
Upload file with metadata
aws s3 cp index.html s3://my-app-bucket/ \ --cache-control "max-age=3600" \ --metadata "author=john,version=1"
Sync directory to S3
aws s3 sync ./dist s3://my-app-bucket/ \ --delete \ --exclude "*.map"
List objects with metadata
aws s3api list-objects-v2 \ --bucket my-app-bucket \ --query 'Contents[].{Key:Key,Size:Size,Modified:LastModified}'
- S3 Lifecycle Policy Configuration
Create lifecycle policy
aws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle-configuration \ --bucket my-app-bucket \ --lifecycle-configuration '{ "Rules": [ { "Id": "archive-old-logs", "Status": "Enabled", "Prefix": "logs/", "Transitions": [ { "Days": 30, "StorageClass": "STANDARD_IA" }, { "Days": 90, "StorageClass": "GLACIER" } ], "Expiration": { "Days": 365 } }, { "Id": "cleanup-incomplete-uploads", "Status": "Enabled", "AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload": { "DaysAfterInitiation": 7 } } ] }'
Get bucket lifecycle
aws s3api get-bucket-lifecycle-configuration \ --bucket my-app-bucket
- Terraform S3 Configuration
s3.tf
terraform { required_providers { aws = { source = "hashicorp/aws" version = "~> 5.0" } } }
provider "aws" { region = "us-east-1" }
S3 bucket
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "app_data" { bucket = "my-app-data-${data.aws_caller_identity.current.account_id}" }
Block public access
resource "aws_s3_bucket_public_access_block" "app_data" { bucket = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.id
block_public_acls = true block_public_policy = true ignore_public_acls = true restrict_public_buckets = true }
Enable versioning
resource "aws_s3_bucket_versioning" "app_data" { bucket = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.id
versioning_configuration { status = "Enabled" } }
Server-side encryption
resource "aws_s3_bucket_server_side_encryption_configuration" "app_data" { bucket = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.id
rule { apply_server_side_encryption_by_default { sse_algorithm = "AES256" } } }
Lifecycle policy
resource "aws_s3_bucket_lifecycle_configuration" "app_data" { bucket = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.id
rule { id = "archive-logs" status = "Enabled"
filter {
prefix = "logs/"
}
transition {
days = 30
storage_class = "STANDARD_IA"
}
transition {
days = 90
storage_class = "GLACIER"
}
expiration {
days = 365
}
}
rule { id = "cleanup-incomplete-uploads" status = "Enabled"
abort_incomplete_multipart_upload {
days_after_initiation = 7
}
} }
CORS configuration
resource "aws_s3_bucket_cors_configuration" "app_data" { bucket = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.id
cors_rule { allowed_headers = ["*"] allowed_methods = ["GET", "PUT", "POST"] allowed_origins = ["https://example.com"] expose_headers = ["ETag"] max_age_seconds = 3000 } }
Bucket policy for CloudFront
resource "aws_s3_bucket_policy" "app_data" { bucket = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.id
policy = jsonencode({ Version = "2012-10-17" Statement = [ { Sid = "AllowCloudFront" Effect = "Allow" Principal = { Service = "cloudfront.amazonaws.com" } Action = "s3:GetObject" Resource = "${aws_s3_bucket.app_data.arn}/*" Condition = { StringEquals = { "AWS:SourceArn" = "arn:aws:cloudfront::${data.aws_caller_identity.current.account_id}:distribution/${aws_cloudfront_distribution.app.id}" } } } ] }) }
Enable logging
resource "aws_s3_bucket_logging" "app_data" { bucket = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.id
target_bucket = aws_s3_bucket.logs.id target_prefix = "s3-logs/" }
Replication configuration
resource "aws_s3_bucket_replication_configuration" "app_data" { depends_on = [aws_s3_bucket_versioning.app_data] role = aws_iam_role.s3_replication.arn bucket = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.id
rule { status = "Enabled"
filter {}
destination {
bucket = aws_s3_bucket.replica.arn
storage_class = "STANDARD_IA"
replication_time {
status = "Enabled"
time {
minutes = 15
}
}
metrics {
status = "Enabled"
event_threshold {
minutes = 15
}
}
}
} }
data "aws_caller_identity" "current" {}
Replica bucket
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "replica" { bucket = "my-app-data-replica-${data.aws_caller_identity.current.account_id}" }
resource "aws_s3_bucket_versioning" "replica" { bucket = aws_s3_bucket.replica.id
versioning_configuration { status = "Enabled" } }
Logs bucket
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "logs" { bucket = "my-app-logs-${data.aws_caller_identity.current.account_id}" }
IAM role for replication
resource "aws_iam_role" "s3_replication" { assume_role_policy = jsonencode({ Version = "2012-10-17" Statement = [{ Action = "sts:AssumeRole" Effect = "Allow" Principal = { Service = "s3.amazonaws.com" } }] }) }
resource "aws_iam_role_policy" "s3_replication" { role = aws_iam_role.s3_replication.id
policy = jsonencode({ Version = "2012-10-17" Statement = [ { Effect = "Allow" Action = [ "s3:GetReplicationConfiguration", "s3:ListBucket" ] Resource = aws_s3_bucket.app_data.arn }, { Effect = "Allow" Action = [ "s3:GetObjectVersionForReplication", "s3:GetObjectVersionAcl" ] Resource = "${aws_s3_bucket.app_data.arn}/" }, { Effect = "Allow" Action = [ "s3:ReplicateObject", "s3:ReplicateDelete" ] Resource = "${aws_s3_bucket.replica.arn}/" } ] }) }
- S3 Access with Presigned URLs
Generate presigned URL (1 hour expiration)
aws s3 presign s3://my-app-bucket/private/document.pdf \ --expires-in 3600
Generate presigned URL for PUT (upload)
aws s3 presign s3://my-app-bucket/uploads/file.jpg \ --expires-in 3600 \ --region us-east-1 \ --request-method PUT
Best Practices ✅ DO Enable versioning for important data Use server-side encryption Block public access by default Implement lifecycle policies Enable logging and monitoring Use bucket policies for access control Enable MFA delete for critical buckets Use IAM roles instead of access keys Implement cross-region replication ❌ DON'T Make buckets publicly accessible Store sensitive credentials Ignore CloudTrail logging Use overly permissive policies Forget to set lifecycle rules Ignore encryption requirements Monitoring S3 CloudWatch metrics CloudTrail for API logging CloudWatch Alarms for threshold S3 Inventory for object tracking S3 Access Analyzer for permissions Resources AWS S3 Documentation S3 Security Best Practices