Examples of S3 Lifecycle configurations - Amazon Simple Storage Service
Archiving all objects within one day after creationDisabling Lifecycle rules temporarilyTiering down the storage class over an object's lifetime Specifying multiple rulesSpecifying a lifecycle rule for a versioning-enabled bucketRemoving expired object delete markers in a versioning-enabled bucketLifecycle configuration to abort multipart uploadsExpiring noncurrent objects that have no dataExample: Allowing objects smaller than 128 KB to be transitioned

Examples of S3 Lifecycle configurations

This section provides examples of S3 Lifecycle configuration. Each example shows how you can specify the XML in each of the example scenarios.

Archiving all objects within one day after creation

Each S3 Lifecycle rule includes a filter that you can use to identify a subset of objects in your bucket to which the S3 Lifecycle rule applies. The following S3 Lifecycle configurations show examples of how you can specify a filter.

  • In this S3 Lifecycle configuration rule, the filter specifies a key prefix (tax/). Therefore, the rule applies to objects with the key name prefix tax/, such as tax/doc1.txt and tax/doc2.txt.

    The rule specifies two actions that direct Amazon S3 to do the following:

    • Transition objects to the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class 365 days (one year) after creation.

    • Delete objects (the Expiration action) 3,650 days (10 years) after creation.

    <LifecycleConfiguration>
  <Rule>
    <ID>Transition and Expiration Rule</ID>
    <Filter>
       <Prefix>tax/</Prefix>
    </Filter>
    <Status>Enabled</Status>
    <Transition>
      <Days>365</Days>
      <StorageClass>GLACIER</StorageClass>
    </Transition>
    <Expiration>
      <Days>3650</Days>
    </Expiration>
  </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

    Instead of specifying the object age in terms of days after creation, you can specify a date for each action. However, you can't use both Date and Days in the same rule.

  • If you want the S3 Lifecycle rule to apply to all objects in the bucket, specify an empty prefix. In the following configuration, the rule specifies a Transition action that directs Amazon S3 to transition objects to the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class 0 days after creation. This rule means that the objects are eligible for archival to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval at midnight UTC following creation. For more information about lifecycle constraints, see Constraints and considerations for transitions.

    <LifecycleConfiguration>
  <Rule>
    <ID>Archive all object same-day upon creation</ID>
    <Filter>
      <Prefix></Prefix>
    </Filter>
    <Status>Enabled</Status>
    <Transition>
      <Days>0</Days>
      <StorageClass>GLACIER</StorageClass>
    </Transition>
  </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

  • You can specify zero or one key name prefix and zero or more object tags in a filter. The following example code applies the S3 Lifecycle rule to a subset of objects with the tax/ key prefix and to objects that have two tags with specific key and value. When you specify more than one filter, you must include the <And> element as shown (Amazon S3 applies a logical AND to combine the specified filter conditions).

    ...
<Filter>
   <And>
      <Prefix>tax/</Prefix>
      <Tag>
         <Key>key1</Key>
         <Value>value1</Value>
      </Tag>
      <Tag>
         <Key>key2</Key>
         <Value>value2</Value>
      </Tag>
    </And>
</Filter>
...

  • You can filter objects based only on tags. For example, the following S3 Lifecycle rule applies to objects that have the two specified tags (it does not specify any prefix).

    ...
<Filter>
   <And>
      <Tag>
         <Key>key1</Key>
         <Value>value1</Value>
      </Tag>
      <Tag>
         <Key>key2</Key>
         <Value>value2</Value>
      </Tag>
    </And>
</Filter>
...

Important

When you have multiple rules in an S3 Lifecycle configuration, an object can become eligible for multiple S3 Lifecycle actions on the same day. In such cases, Amazon S3 follows these general rules:

  • Permanent deletion takes precedence over transition.

  • Transition takes precedence over creation of delete markers.

  • When an object is eligible for both an S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and S3 Standard-IA (or S3 One Zone-IA) transition, Amazon S3 chooses the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval transition.

For examples, see Examples of overlapping filters and conflicting lifecycle actions.

Disabling Lifecycle rules temporarily

You can temporarily disable an S3 Lifecycle rule using the status element. This can be useful if you want to test new rules or troubleshoot issues with your configuration, without overwriting your existing rules. The following S3 Lifecycle configuration specifies two rules:

  • Rule 1 directs Amazon S3 to transition objects with the logs/ prefix to the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class soon after creation.

  • Rule 2 directs Amazon S3 to transition objects with the documents/ prefix to the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class soon after creation.

In the configuration, Rule 1 is enabled and Rule 2 is disabled. Amazon S3 ignores the disabled rule.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
  <Rule>
    <ID>Rule1</ID>
    <Filter>
      <Prefix>logs/</Prefix>
    </Filter>
    <Status>Enabled</Status>
    <Transition>
      <Days>0</Days>
      <StorageClass>GLACIER</StorageClass>
    </Transition>
  </Rule>
  <Rule>
    <ID>Rule2</ID>
    <Filter>
      <Prefix>documents/</Prefix>
    </Filter>
    <Status>Disabled</Status>
    <Transition>
      <Days>0</Days>
      <StorageClass>GLACIER</StorageClass>
    </Transition>
  </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

Tiering down the storage class over an object's lifetime

In this example, you use S3 Lifecycle configuration to tier down the storage class of objects over their lifetime. Tiering down can help reduce storage costs. For more information about pricing, see Amazon S3 pricing.

The following S3 Lifecycle configuration specifies a rule that applies to objects with the key name prefix logs/. The rule specifies the following actions:

  • Two transition actions:

    • Transition objects to the S3 Standard-IA storage class 30 days after creation.

    • Transition objects to the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class 90 days after creation.

  • One expiration action that directs Amazon S3 to delete objects a year after creation.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
  <Rule>
    <ID>example-id</ID>
    <Filter>
       <Prefix>logs/</Prefix>
    </Filter>
    <Status>Enabled</Status>
    <Transition>
      <Days>30</Days>
      <StorageClass>STANDARD_IA</StorageClass>
    </Transition>
    <Transition>
      <Days>90</Days>
      <StorageClass>GLACIER</StorageClass>
    </Transition>
    <Expiration>
      <Days>365</Days>
    </Expiration>
  </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>
Note

You can use one rule to describe all S3 Lifecycle actions if all actions apply to the same set of objects (identified by the filter). Otherwise, you can add multiple rules with each specifying a different filter.

Important

When you have multiple rules in an S3 Lifecycle configuration, an object can become eligible for multiple S3 Lifecycle actions on the same day. In such cases, Amazon S3 follows these general rules:

  • Permanent deletion takes precedence over transition.

  • Transition takes precedence over creation of delete markers.

  • When an object is eligible for both an S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and S3 Standard-IA (or S3 One Zone-IA) transition, Amazon S3 chooses the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval transition.

For examples, see Examples of overlapping filters and conflicting lifecycle actions.

Specifying multiple rules

You can specify multiple rules if you want different S3 Lifecycle actions of different objects. The following S3 Lifecycle configuration has two rules:

  • Rule 1 applies to objects with the key name prefix classA/. It directs Amazon S3 to transition objects to the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class one year after creation and expire these objects 10 years after creation.

  • Rule 2 applies to objects with key name prefix classB/. It directs Amazon S3 to transition objects to the S3 Standard-IA storage class 90 days after creation and delete them one year after creation.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
    <Rule>
        <ID>ClassADocRule</ID>
        <Filter>
           <Prefix>classA/</Prefix>        
        </Filter>
        <Status>Enabled</Status>
        <Transition>        
           <Days>365</Days>        
           <StorageClass>GLACIER</StorageClass>       
        </Transition>    
        <Expiration>
             <Days>3650</Days>
        </Expiration>
    </Rule>
    <Rule>
        <ID>ClassBDocRule</ID>
        <Filter>
            <Prefix>classB/</Prefix>
        </Filter>
        <Status>Enabled</Status>
        <Transition>        
           <Days>90</Days>        
           <StorageClass>STANDARD_IA</StorageClass>       
        </Transition>    
        <Expiration>
             <Days>365</Days>
        </Expiration>
    </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>
Important

When you have multiple rules in an S3 Lifecycle configuration, an object can become eligible for multiple S3 Lifecycle actions on the same day. In such cases, Amazon S3 follows these general rules:

  • Permanent deletion takes precedence over transition.

  • Transition takes precedence over creation of delete markers.

  • When an object is eligible for both an S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and S3 Standard-IA (or S3 One Zone-IA) transition, Amazon S3 chooses the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval transition.

For examples, see Examples of overlapping filters and conflicting lifecycle actions.

Specifying a lifecycle rule for a versioning-enabled bucket

Suppose that you have a versioning-enabled bucket, which means that for each object, you have a current version and zero or more noncurrent versions. (For more information about S3 Versioning, see Retaining multiple versions of objects with S3 Versioning.) In this example, you want to maintain one year's worth of history, and delete the noncurrent versions. S3 Lifecycle configurations support keeping 1 to 100 versions of any object.

To save storage costs, you want to move noncurrent versions to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval 30 days after they become noncurrent (assuming that these noncurrent objects are cold data for which you don't need real-time access). In addition, you expect the frequency of access of the current versions to diminish 90 days after creation, so you might choose to move these objects to the S3 Standard-IA storage class.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
    <Rule>
        <ID>sample-rule</ID>
        <Filter>
           <Prefix></Prefix>
        </Filter>
        <Status>Enabled</Status>
        <Transition>
           <Days>90</Days>
           <StorageClass>STANDARD_IA</StorageClass>
        </Transition>
        <NoncurrentVersionTransition>      
            <NoncurrentDays>30</NoncurrentDays>      
            <StorageClass>GLACIER</StorageClass>   
        </NoncurrentVersionTransition>    
       <NoncurrentVersionExpiration>     
            <NewerNoncurrentVersions>5</NewerNoncurrentVersions>
            <NoncurrentDays>365</NoncurrentDays>    
       </NoncurrentVersionExpiration> 
    </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

Removing expired object delete markers in a versioning-enabled bucket

A versioning-enabled bucket has one current version and zero or more noncurrent versions for each object. When you delete an object, note the following:

  • If you don't specify a version ID in your delete request, Amazon S3 adds a delete marker instead of deleting the object. The current object version becomes noncurrent, and the delete marker becomes the current version.

  • If you specify a version ID in your delete request, Amazon S3 deletes the object version permanently (a delete marker is not created).

  • A delete marker with zero noncurrent versions is referred to as an expired object delete marker.

This example shows a scenario that can create expired object delete markers in your bucket, and how you can use S3 Lifecycle configuration to direct Amazon S3 to remove the expired object delete markers.

Suppose that you write an S3 Lifecycle configuration that uses the NoncurrentVersionExpiration action to remove the noncurrent versions 30 days after they become noncurrent and retains at most 10 noncurrent versions, as shown in the following example.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
    <Rule>
        ...
        <NoncurrentVersionExpiration>     
            <NewerNoncurrentVersions>10</NewerNoncurrentVersions>
            <NoncurrentDays>30</NoncurrentDays>    
        </NoncurrentVersionExpiration>
    </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

The NoncurrentVersionExpiration action does not apply to the current object versions. It removes only the noncurrent versions.

For current object versions, you have the following options to manage their lifetime, depending on whether the current object versions follow a well-defined lifecycle:

  • The current object versions follow a well-defined lifecycle.

    In this case, you can use an S3 Lifecycle configuration with the Expiration action to direct Amazon S3 to remove the current versions, as shown in the following example.

    <LifecycleConfiguration>
    <Rule>
        ...
        <Expiration>
           <Days>60</Days>
        </Expiration>
        <NoncurrentVersionExpiration>     
            <NewerNoncurrentVersions>10</NewerNoncurrentVersions>
            <NoncurrentDays>30</NoncurrentDays>    
        </NoncurrentVersionExpiration>
    </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

    In this example, Amazon S3 removes current versions 60 days after they are created by adding a delete marker for each of the current object versions. This process makes the current version noncurrent, and the delete marker becomes the current version. For more information, see Retaining multiple versions of objects with S3 Versioning.

    Note

    You cannot specify both a Days and an ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker tag on the same rule. When you specify the Days tag, Amazon S3 automatically performs ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker cleanup when the delete markers are old enough to satisfy the age criteria. To clean up delete markers as soon as they become the only version, create a separate rule with only the ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker tag.

    The NoncurrentVersionExpiration action in the same S3 Lifecycle configuration removes noncurrent objects 30 days after they become noncurrent. Thus, in this example, all object versions are permanently removed 90 days after object creation. Although expired object delete markers are created during this process, Amazon S3 detects and removes the expired object delete markers for you.

  • The current object versions don't have a well-defined lifecycle.

    In this case, you might remove the objects manually when you don't need them, creating a delete marker with one or more noncurrent versions. If your S3 Lifecycle configuration with the NoncurrentVersionExpiration action removes all the noncurrent versions, you now have expired object delete markers.

    Specifically for this scenario, S3 Lifecycle configuration provides an Expiration action that you can use to remove the expired object delete markers.

    <LifecycleConfiguration>
    <Rule>
       <ID>Rule 1</ID>
        <Filter>
          <Prefix>logs/</Prefix>
        </Filter>
        <Status>Enabled</Status>
        <Expiration>
           <ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker>true</ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker>
        </Expiration>
        <NoncurrentVersionExpiration>     
            <NewerNoncurrentVersions>10</NewerNoncurrentVersions>
            <NoncurrentDays>30</NoncurrentDays>    
        </NoncurrentVersionExpiration>
    </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

By setting the ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker element to true in the Expiration action, you direct Amazon S3 to remove the expired object delete markers.

Note

When you use the ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker S3 Lifecycle action, the rule cannot specify a tag-based filter.

Lifecycle configuration to abort multipart uploads

You can use the Amazon S3 multipart upload REST API operations to upload large objects in parts. For more information about multipart uploads, see Uploading and copying objects using multipart upload in Amazon S3.

By using an S3 Lifecycle configuration, you can direct Amazon S3 to stop incomplete multipart uploads (identified by the key name prefix specified in the rule) if they aren't completed within a specified number of days after initiation. When Amazon S3 aborts a multipart upload, it deletes all the parts associated with the multipart upload. This process helps control your storage costs by ensuring that you don't have incomplete multipart uploads with parts that are stored in Amazon S3.

Note

When you use the AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload S3 Lifecycle action, the rule cannot specify a tag-based filter.

The following is an example S3 Lifecycle configuration that specifies a rule with the AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload action. This action directs Amazon S3 to stop incomplete multipart uploads seven days after initiation.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
    <Rule>
        <ID>sample-rule</ID>
        <Filter>
           <Prefix>SomeKeyPrefix/</Prefix>
        </Filter>
        <Status>rule-status</Status>
        <AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload>
          <DaysAfterInitiation>7</DaysAfterInitiation>
        </AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload>
    </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

Expiring noncurrent objects that have no data

You can create rules that transition objects based only on their size. You can specify a minimum size (ObjectSizeGreaterThan) or a maximum size (ObjectSizeLessThan), or you can specify a range of object sizes in bytes. When using more than one filter, such as a prefix and size rule, you must wrap the filters in an <And> element.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
  <Rule>
    <ID>Transition with a prefix and based on size</ID>
    <Filter>
       <And>
          <Prefix>tax/</Prefix>
          <ObjectSizeGreaterThan>500</ObjectSizeGreaterThan>
       </And>   
    </Filter>
    <Status>Enabled</Status>
    <Transition>
      <Days>365</Days>
      <StorageClass>GLACIER</StorageClass>
    </Transition>
  </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

If you're specifying a range by using both the ObjectSizeGreaterThan and ObjectSizeLessThan elements, the maximum object size must be larger than the minimum object size. When using more than one filter, you must wrap the filters in an <And> element. The following example shows how to specify objects in a range between 500 bytes and 64,000 bytes. When you're specifying a range, the ObjectSizeGreaterThan and ObjectSizeLessThan filters exclude the specified values. For more information, see Filter element.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
    <Rule>
        ...
          <And>
             <ObjectSizeGreaterThan>500</ObjectSizeGreaterThan>
             <ObjectSizeLessThan>64000</ObjectSizeLessThan>
          </And>
    </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

You can also create rules to specifically expire noncurrent objects that have no data, including noncurrent delete marker objects created in a versioning-enabled bucket. The following example uses the NoncurrentVersionExpiration action to remove noncurrent versions 30 days after they become noncurrent and retain at most 10 noncurrent versions of objects. It also uses the ObjectSizeLessThan element to filter only objects with no data.

<LifecycleConfiguration>
  <Rule>
    <ID>Expire noncurrent with size less than 1 byte</ID>
    <Filter>
       <ObjectSizeLessThan>1</ObjectSizeLessThan>
    </Filter>
    <Status>Enabled</Status>
    <NoncurrentVersionExpiration>     
       <NewerNoncurrentVersions>10</NewerNoncurrentVersions>
       <NoncurrentDays>30</NoncurrentDays>
    </NoncurrentVersionExpiration>
  </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

Example: Allowing objects smaller than 128 KB to be transitioned

Amazon S3 applies a default behavior to your Lifecycle configuration that prevents objects smaller than 128 KB from being transitioned to any storage class. You can allow smaller objects to transition by adding a minimum size (ObjectSizeGreaterThan) or a maximum size (ObjectSizeLessThan) filter that specifies a smaller size to the configuration. The following example allows any object smaller than 128 KB to transition to the S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class:

<LifecycleConfiguration>
  <Rule>
    <ID>Allow small object transitions</ID>
    <Filter>
          <ObjectSizeGreaterThan>1</ObjectSizeGreaterThan>
    </Filter>
    <Status>Enabled</Status>
    <Transition>
      <Days>365</Days>
      <StorageClass>GLACIER_IR</StorageClass>
    </Transition>
  </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>
Note

In September 2024 Amazon S3 updated the default transition behavior for small objects, as follows:

  • Updated default transition behavior — Starting September 2024, the default behavior prevents objects smaller than 128 KB from being transitioned to any storage class.

  • Previous default transition behavior — Before September 2024, the default behavior allowed objects smaller than 128 KB to be transitioned only to the S3 Glacier and S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage classes.

Configurations created before September 2024 retain the previous transition behavior unless you modify them. That is, if you create, edit, or delete rules, the default transition behavior for your configuration changes to the updated behavior. If your use case requires, you can change the default transition behavior so that objects smaller than 128KB will transition to S3 Glacier and S3 Glacier Deep Archive. To do this, use the optional x-amz-transition-object-size-minimum-default header in a PutBucketLifecycleConfiguration request.

The following example shows how to use the x-amz-transition-object-size-minimum-default header in a PutBucketLifecycleConfiguration request to apply the varies_by_storage_class default transition behavior to a Lifecycle configuration. This behavior allows object smaller than 128 KB to transition to S3 Glacier or S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage classes. By default, all other storage classes will prevent transitions smaller than 128 KB. You can still use custom filters to change the minimum transition size for any storage class. Custom filters always take precedence over the default transition behavior:

HTTP/1.1 200
x-amz-transition-object-size-minimum-default: varies_by_storage_class
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
...