What Is Amazon S3 Glacier? - Amazon S3 Glacier
Do You Currently Use S3 Glacier?

This page is only for existing customers of the S3 Glacier service using Vaults and the original REST API from 2012.

If you're looking for archival storage solutions we suggest using the S3 Glacier storage classes in Amazon S3, S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and S3 Glacier Deep Archive. To learn more about these storage options, see S3 Glacier storage classes and Long-term data storage using S3 Glacier storage classes in the Amazon S3 User Guide. These storage classes use the Amazon S3 API, are available in all regions, and can be managed within the Amazon S3 console. They offer features like Storage Cost Analysis, Storage Lens, advanced optional encryption features, and more.

What Is Amazon S3 Glacier?

If you're currently using the Amazon S3 Glacier (S3 Glacier) service and want to learn more, you'll find the information that you need in this guide. S3 Glacier is a secure and durable service for low-cost data archiving and long-term backup using vaults. For more information about S3 Glacier service pricing, see S3 Glacier pricing.

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Do You Currently Use S3 Glacier?

Note

This section is about the S3 Glacier service. If you currently use the S3 Glacier storage classes (S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and S3 Glacier Deep Archive), see Storage classes for archiving objects in the Amazon S3 User Guide.

If you currently use the S3 Glacier service and want to learn more, we recommend that you begin by reading the following sections:

  • What is Amazon S3 Glacier – The rest of this section describes the underlying data model, the operations it supports, and the AWS SDKs that you can use to interact with the service.

  • Getting Started – The Getting Started with Amazon S3 Glacier section walks you through the process of creating a vault, uploading archives, creating jobs to download archives, retrieving the job output, and deleting archives.

    Important

    S3 Glacier does provide a console. However, any archive operation, such as upload, download, or deletion, requires you to use the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) or write code. There is no console support for archive operations. For example, to upload data, such as photos, videos, and other documents, you must either use the AWS CLI or write code to make requests, by using either the REST API directly or by using the AWS SDKs.

    To install the AWS CLI, see AWS Command Line Interface. For more information about using S3 Glacier with the AWS CLI, see the AWS CLI Reference for S3 Glacier. For examples of using the AWS CLI to upload archives to S3 Glacier, see Using S3 Glacier with the AWS Command Line Interface.

Beyond the getting started section, you'll probably want to learn more about S3 Glacier operations. The following sections provide detailed information about working with S3 Glacier by using the REST API and the AWS SDKs for Java and Microsoft .NET:

  • Using the AWS SDKs with Amazon S3 Glacier

    This section provides an overview of the AWS SDKs used in various code examples in this guide. A review of this section will help when reading the following sections. It includes an overview of the high-level and the low-level APIs that these SDKs offer, when to use them, and common steps for running the code examples provided in this guide.

  • Working with Vaults in Amazon S3 Glacier

    This section provides details of various vault operations, such as creating a vault, retrieving vault metadata, using jobs to retrieve vault inventory, and configuring vault notifications. In addition to using the S3 Glacier console, you can use the AWS SDKs for various vault operations. This section describes the API and provides working samples by using the AWS SDK for Java and the AWS SDK for .NET.

  • Working with Archives in Amazon S3 Glacier

    This section provides details of archive operations, such as uploading an archive in a single request or using a multipart upload operation to upload large archives in parts. The section also explains how to create jobs to download archives asynchronously. The section provides examples by using the AWS SDK for Java and the AWS SDK for .NET.

  • API Reference for Amazon S3 Glacier

    S3 Glacier is a RESTful service. This section describes the REST operations, including the syntax, and example requests and responses for all the operations. The AWS SDK libraries wrap this API, simplifying your programming tasks.