Transferring files using the Amazon S3 adapter for data migration to or from Snowball Edge

Following is an overview of the Amazon S3 adapter, which you can use to transfer data programmatically to and from S3 buckets already on the AWS Snowball Edge device using Amazon S3 REST API actions. This Amazon S3 REST API support is limited to a subset of actions. You can use this subset of actions with one of the AWS SDKs to transfer data programmatically. You can also use the subset of supported AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands for Amazon S3 to transfer data programmatically.

If your solution uses the AWS SDK for Java version 1.11.0 or newer, you must use the following S3ClientOptions:

For more information, see Class S3ClientOptions.Builder in the Amazon AppStream SDK for Java.

Downloading and installing the AWS CLI version 1.16.14 for use with the Amazon S3 adapter

Currently, Snowball Edge devices support only version 1.16.14 and earlier of the AWS CLI for use with the Amazon S3 adapter. Newer versions of the AWS CLI are not compatible with the Amazon S3 adapter because they do not support all of the functionality of the S3 adapter.

Install the AWS CLI on Linux operating systems

Run this chained command:

curl "https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-cli/awscli-bundle-1.16.14.zip" -o "awscli-bundle.zip";unzip awscli-bundle.zip;sudo ./awscli-bundle/install -i /usr/local/aws -b /usr/local/bin/aws;/usr/local/bin/aws --version;
           

Install the AWS CLI on Windows operating systems

Download and run the installer file for your operating system:

Using the AWS CLI and API operations on Snowball Edge devices

When using the AWS CLI or API operations to issue IAM, Amazon S3, and Amazon EC2 commands on Snowball Edge, you must specify the Region as "snow." You can do this using AWS configure or within the command itself, as in the following examples.

aws configure --profile abc
AWS Access Key ID [None]: AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: 1234567
Default region name [None]: snow
Default output format [None]: json       

Or

aws s3 ls --profile snowballEdge --endpoint http://192.0.2.0:8080 --region snow         

Authorization with the Amazon S3 API interface for AWS Snowball

When you use the Amazon S3 adapter, every interaction is signed with the AWS Signature Version 4 algorithm by default. This authorization is used only to verify the data traveling from its source to the interface. All encryption and decryption happens on the device. Unencrypted data is never stored on the device.

When using the interface, keep the following in mind:

Getting and using local Amazon S3 credentials on Snowball Edge

Every interaction with a Snowball Edge is signed with the AWS Signature Version 4 algorithm. For more information about the algorithm, see Signature Version 4 Signing Process in the AWS General Reference.

You can get the local Amazon S3 credentials to sign your requests to the Snowball Edge client Edge device by running the snowballEdge list-access-keys and snowballEdge get-secret-access-key Snowball Edge client information, see Getting credentials for a Snowball Edge. These local Amazon S3 credentials include a pair of keys: an access key ID and a secret key. These credentials are only valid for the devices that are associated with your job. They can't be used in the AWS Cloud because they have no IAM counterpart.

You can add these credentials to the AWS credentials file on your server. The default credential profiles file is typically located at ~/.aws/credentials, but the location can vary per platform. This file is shared by many of the AWS SDKs and by the AWS CLI. You can save local credentials with a profile name as in the following example.

[snowballEdge]
aws_access_key_id = AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key = wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

Configuring the AWS CLI to use the S3 adapter on a Snowball Edge as the endpoint

When you use the AWS CLI to issue a command to the AWS Snowball Edge device, you specify that the endpoint is the Amazon S3 adapter. You have the choice of using the HTTPS endpoint, or an unsecured HTTP endpoint, as shown following.

HTTPS secured endpoint

aws s3 ls --profile snowballEdge --endpoint https://192.0.2.0:8443 --ca-bundle path/to/certificate

HTTP unsecured endpoint

aws s3 ls --profile snowballEdge --endpoint http://192.0.2.0:8080

If you use the HTTPS endpoint of 8443, your data is securely transferred from your server to the Snowball Edge. This encryption is ensured with a certificate that's generated by the Snowball Edge when it gets a new IP address. After you have your certificate, you can save it to a local ca-bundle.pem file. Then you can configure your AWS CLI profile to include the path to your certificate, as described following.

After you complete the procedure, you can run CLI commands with these local credentials, your certificate, and your specified endpoint, as in the following example.

aws s3 ls --profile snowballEdge --endpoint https://192.0.2.0:8443

Unsupported Amazon S3 features for the Amazon S3 adapter on Snowball Edge

Using the Amazon S3 adapter, you can programmatically transfer data to and from a Snowball Edge with Amazon S3 API actions. However, not all Amazon S3 transfer features and API actions are supported for use with a Snowball Edge device when using the Amazon S3 adapter. For example, the following features and actions are not supported for use with Snowball Edge: