Introduction to Amazon S3
S3 stands for Simple Storage Service. S3 is like a virtual drive to store and retrieve data. According to the AWS definition, “You can use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time, from anywhere on the web.”
- Files in S3 are stored in buckets ( Buckets are like folders )
- S3 is object-based storage (Like Images, videos, documents etc)
- Buckets names should be unique globally because when we create a bucket in S3 it will have a unique URL.
- Its a good practice create buckets in the nearest region to you or for your customers.
Creating an S3 bucket :
Now let us create an S3 bucket and store some files in that bucket. Login to AWS console and navigate to S3 under Storage services.
Once you open your S3 this is how your S3 Dashboard looks like and let us create a new bucket here. Remember bucket creation is not limited to any region it is a global service but you choose the region where you want to store your data.
After we click on Create a bucket option it opens up a new window where we have to enter the bucket name, choose a region to store our data or even we can copy setting from our previous buckets if we have any.
The next step is to configure options like versioning, server access logging but for now, let's keep them default and move on to the next step to set permission. We will learn about these advanced options in coming articles.
The next step is to give permissions to the bucket. By default, the bucket blocks all the public access. We have to unblock and give public permissions explicitly.
The next step is to review all the setting and create a bucket. If a bucket is created we can see it the S3 dashboard. Now open the bucket you created to add objects.
Now upload files to the bucket or you can create a folder and upload your files into that folder.
After uploading your files to the bucket. Now we have to give permission to the files. When you upload file it has no public access. We have to give public access.
The next step is to select properties. We have to select different types of storage options. We haven’t discussed different types of storage options yet, for now, let us go with standard storage.
After choosing the properties review all the information and upload data. Once the data is uploaded we can see the data in our s3 bucket. If we select the created object it gives overall properties of the file including its public URL. If you face any problem accessing the URL go back and check the public permissions for the objects. We have successfully created a bucket and uploaded objects into it.
We will discuss more about S3 in upcoming articles. In tomorrow articles we will discuss different s3 storage options and pricing.
