Create S3 Bucket in AWS

As I continue to get into AWS, one theme that is quite consistent. There are many services around AWS that I need to understand. Out of the many, I learned about S3 buckets this week. I will describe what an S3 bucket is as well as how to create one. First, some basic assumptions:

1. You have an AWS account to login with. Preferably not your root account as this is not best practice.
2. Very basic knowledge of AWS and cloud terminology.

S3 is an object storage service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). S3 is an abbreviation for Simple Storage Service. As the name implies, it is a literal “bucket” where you can store files and other objects in your cloud environment. It offers many benefits including being highly scalable, secure and performant based on your needs. AWS even provides management of the S3 buckets you create as well in either the web GUI or the AWS CLI (command line interface to access AWS services).

Now, I will demonstrate via the GUI how to create an S3 bucket. If you are feeling adventurous, you can even do this via the command line.

First, log into your AWS account (non-root). In the GUI, you can type in S3 into the search box and will be presented with the service name. Just click on it and the S3 Management Console will open.

You can click on the star icon to add this service to your favorites upon login. Look at the top left for reference.

Next, on the left side select ‘Buckets.’ then on the far right, select ‘Create Bucket.’

We will enter a name for this bucket. This is the cloud and the names for the objects you create must be unique.

This can happen if you don’t pick a unique name. Click on the link provided for more details on bucket naming

Also select a region. For this example, we will use US East 1. For this example, we will NOT enforce the ACL feature. This will keep the ownership of the bucket and its contents to our currently logged in user ONLY.

Next, we are going to block public access for this bucket. It is best practice to disable public access to prevent any malicious activity. You may have other reasons to have this open, but be mindful of the security implications if you do.

We will disregard bucket versioning at this time. It is a great feature to have especially if this bucket is used to track changes to the data inside it. You can add tags if you want as well to track cost or other details of your bucket:

For this example, we are NOT encrypting the bucket. FYI: if you encrypt the bucket at a later time, anything that you added to it before the encryption enablement date is UNENCRYPTED!

Disregard the Advanced Settings, and click ‘Create Bucket.’ This will take a few moments. The status indicator will reflect that its ready with a green check next to your new bucket!

Now, you can add files or any object that you choose! What you can do with your buckets is now up to you. There are advanced features such as triggering actions using AWS Lambda functions to take actions one an object is uploaded to your bucket and many others. For more details on this subject, please refer to the official AWS documentation. Thank you!

What is Amazon S3?