AWS S3

Manage Amazon S3 object storage with production-grade security, lifecycle policies, replication, and access controls.

When to Use This Skill

• Creating S3 buckets with security hardening (encryption, public access block, versioning)
• Writing bucket policies to enforce HTTPS, restrict IP ranges, or grant cross-account access
• Setting up lifecycle rules to transition objects between storage classes
• Configuring cross-region replication for disaster recovery
• Generating presigned URLs for temporary access to private objects
• Setting up static website hosting or CloudFront origins
• Troubleshooting access denied errors or policy conflicts

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI v2 installed and configured
• IAM permissions: s3:*, s3-object-lambda:*, kms:* (for SSE-KMS)
• For replication: IAM role with replication permissions and destination bucket in target region
• For logging: a separate logging bucket with appropriate ACL

Create and Secure a Bucket

# Create a bucket (us-east-1 does not need LocationConstraint)
aws s3api create-bucket \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --region us-east-1

# Create a bucket in another region
aws s3api create-bucket \
  --bucket my-app-data-dr \
  --region us-west-2 \
  --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=us-west-2

# Block ALL public access (always do this first)
aws s3api put-public-access-block \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --public-access-block-configuration '{
    "BlockPublicAcls": true,
    "IgnorePublicAcls": true,
    "BlockPublicPolicy": true,
    "RestrictPublicBuckets": true
  }'

# Enable versioning
aws s3api put-bucket-versioning \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --versioning-configuration Status=Enabled

# Enable server-side encryption with SSE-KMS
aws s3api put-bucket-encryption \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --server-side-encryption-configuration '{
    "Rules": [{
      "ApplyServerSideEncryptionByDefault": {
        "SSEAlgorithm": "aws:kms",
        "KMSMasterKeyID": "alias/s3-key"
      },
      "BucketKeyEnabled": true
    }]
  }'

# Enable access logging
aws s3api put-bucket-logging \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --bucket-logging-status '{
    "LoggingEnabled": {
      "TargetBucket": "my-access-logs-bucket",
      "TargetPrefix": "s3-logs/my-app-data-prod/"
    }
  }'

# Add tags
aws s3api put-bucket-tagging \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --tagging '{
    "TagSet": [
      {"Key": "Environment", "Value": "production"},
      {"Key": "Team", "Value": "platform"},
      {"Key": "DataClassification", "Value": "confidential"}
    ]
  }'

Bucket Policies

# Apply a bucket policy (enforce HTTPS and restrict to VPC endpoint)
aws s3api put-bucket-policy \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --policy '{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
      {
        "Sid": "DenyInsecureTransport",
        "Effect": "Deny",
        "Principal": "*",
        "Action": "s3:*",
        "Resource": [
          "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-data-prod",
          "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-data-prod/*"
        ],
        "Condition": {
          "Bool": {"aws:SecureTransport": "false"}
        }
      },
      {
        "Sid": "RestrictToVPCEndpoint",
        "Effect": "Deny",
        "Principal": "*",
        "Action": "s3:*",
        "Resource": [
          "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-data-prod",
          "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-data-prod/*"
        ],
        "Condition": {
          "StringNotEquals": {
            "aws:sourceVpce": "vpce-abc123"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

Cross-account access policy:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "CrossAccountRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::987654321098:role/DataAnalystRole"
      },
      "Action": [
        "s3:GetObject",
        "s3:ListBucket"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-data-prod",
        "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-data-prod/shared/*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Lifecycle Rules

# Apply a comprehensive lifecycle configuration
aws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle-configuration \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --lifecycle-configuration '{
    "Rules": [
      {
        "ID": "TierDownOldData",
        "Status": "Enabled",
        "Filter": {"Prefix": "data/"},
        "Transitions": [
          {"Days": 30, "StorageClass": "STANDARD_IA"},
          {"Days": 90, "StorageClass": "GLACIER_IR"},
          {"Days": 180, "StorageClass": "GLACIER"},
          {"Days": 365, "StorageClass": "DEEP_ARCHIVE"}
        ]
      },
      {
        "ID": "ExpireLogs",
        "Status": "Enabled",
        "Filter": {"Prefix": "logs/"},
        "Expiration": {"Days": 90},
        "Transitions": [
          {"Days": 7, "StorageClass": "STANDARD_IA"},
          {"Days": 30, "StorageClass": "GLACIER"}
        ]
      },
      {
        "ID": "CleanupOldVersions",
        "Status": "Enabled",
        "Filter": {"Prefix": ""},
        "NoncurrentVersionTransitions": [
          {"NoncurrentDays": 30, "StorageClass": "STANDARD_IA"},
          {"NoncurrentDays": 90, "StorageClass": "GLACIER"}
        ],
        "NoncurrentVersionExpiration": {"NoncurrentDays": 180}
      },
      {
        "ID": "AbortIncompleteUploads",
        "Status": "Enabled",
        "Filter": {"Prefix": ""},
        "AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload": {"DaysAfterInitiation": 7}
      },
      {
        "ID": "ExpireDeleteMarkers",
        "Status": "Enabled",
        "Filter": {"Prefix": ""},
        "Expiration": {"ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker": true}
      }
    ]
  }'

Cross-Region Replication

# Enable replication (requires versioning on both buckets)
aws s3api put-bucket-replication \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --replication-configuration '{
    "Role": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/S3ReplicationRole",
    "Rules": [
      {
        "ID": "ReplicateAll",
        "Status": "Enabled",
        "Priority": 1,
        "Filter": {"Prefix": ""},
        "Destination": {
          "Bucket": "arn:aws:s3:::my-app-data-dr",
          "StorageClass": "STANDARD_IA",
          "EncryptionConfiguration": {
            "ReplicaKmsKeyID": "arn:aws:kms:us-west-2:123456789012:key/dr-key-id"
          },
          "Metrics": {"Status": "Enabled", "EventThreshold": {"Minutes": 15}},
          "ReplicationTime": {"Status": "Enabled", "Time": {"Minutes": 15}}
        },
        "DeleteMarkerReplication": {"Status": "Enabled"},
        "SourceSelectionCriteria": {
          "SseKmsEncryptedObjects": {"Status": "Enabled"}
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

# Check replication status
aws s3api head-object \
  --bucket my-app-data-prod \
  --key data/important-file.json \
  --query "ReplicationStatus"

Presigned URLs

# Generate a presigned URL for downloading (valid 1 hour)
aws s3 presign s3://my-app-data-prod/reports/quarterly.pdf \
  --expires-in 3600

# Generate a presigned URL for uploading
aws s3 presign s3://my-app-data-prod/uploads/user-file.zip \
  --expires-in 3600

# Presigned URL with specific content type (using the API directly)
aws s3api generate-presigned-url \
  --client-method put_object \
  --params '{"Bucket":"my-app-data-prod","Key":"uploads/photo.jpg","ContentType":"image/jpeg"}' \
  --expires-in 3600

Common S3 Operations

# Sync a local directory to S3
aws s3 sync ./build s3://my-app-data-prod/static/ \
  --delete \
  --exclude "*.tmp" \
  --cache-control "max-age=31536000" \
  --content-encoding "gzip"

# Copy with storage class
aws s3 cp large-archive.tar.gz s3://my-app-data-prod/archives/ \
  --storage-class GLACIER_IR

# List objects with size summary
aws s3 ls s3://my-app-data-prod/ --recursive --summarize --human-readable

# Remove all objects with a prefix
aws s3 rm s3://my-app-data-prod/temp/ --recursive

# Get bucket size via CloudWatch (most efficient for large buckets)
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \
  --namespace AWS/S3 \
  --metric-name BucketSizeBytes \
  --dimensions Name=BucketName,Value=my-app-data-prod Name=StorageType,Value=StandardStorage \
  --start-time "$(date -u -d '2 days ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
  --end-time "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
  --period 86400 \
  --statistics Average \
  --output table

Terraform S3 Bucket

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "main" {
  bucket = "my-app-data-prod"

  tags = {
    Environment        = "production"
    DataClassification = "confidential"
  }
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_versioning" "main" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.main.id
  versioning_configuration {
    status = "Enabled"
  }
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_public_access_block" "main" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.main.id

  block_public_acls       = true
  block_public_policy     = true
  ignore_public_acls      = true
  restrict_public_buckets = true
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_server_side_encryption_configuration" "main" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.main.id

  rule {
    apply_server_side_encryption_by_default {
      sse_algorithm     = "aws:kms"
      kms_master_key_id = aws_kms_key.s3.arn
    }
    bucket_key_enabled = true
  }
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_lifecycle_configuration" "main" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.main.id

  rule {
    id     = "tier-down"
    status = "Enabled"

    transition {
      days          = 30
      storage_class = "STANDARD_IA"
    }

    transition {
      days          = 90
      storage_class = "GLACIER"
    }

    noncurrent_version_transition {
      noncurrent_days = 30
      storage_class   = "GLACIER"
    }

    noncurrent_version_expiration {
      noncurrent_days = 180
    }

    abort_incomplete_multipart_upload {
      days_after_initiation = 7
    }
  }
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_policy" "enforce_https" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.main.id

  policy = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [{
      Sid       = "DenyInsecureTransport"
      Effect    = "Deny"
      Principal = "*"
      Action    = "s3:*"
      Resource  = [
        aws_s3_bucket.main.arn,
        "${aws_s3_bucket.main.arn}/*"
      ]
      Condition = {
        Bool = { "aws:SecureTransport" = "false" }
      }
    }]
  })
}

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Access Denied on GetObject	Bucket policy or IAM denies access	Check bucket policy, IAM policy, and public access block
Access Denied on PutObject	Missing encryption header when required	Add SSE header; check bucket policy encryption conditions
403 on presigned URL	URL expired or wrong region	Regenerate; ensure region matches bucket region
Replication not working	Versioning disabled on source or dest	Enable versioning on both buckets
Lifecycle not transitioning	Rule filter does not match objects	Verify prefix and tag filters; check rule status
Bucket delete fails	Bucket not empty or has versioned objects	Delete all objects and versions first; disable versioning
Slow uploads for large files	Single-part upload	Use aws s3 cp (auto multipart) or set multipart threshold
Cross-account access denied	Both bucket policy AND IAM policy needed	Grant in bucket policy and in caller's IAM policy
Object Lock prevents deletion	Governance or compliance mode active	Use governance bypass (with permission) or wait for retention

Related Skills

• aws-iam (aws-iam) - Bucket and object access policies
• aws-vpc (aws-vpc) - VPC endpoints for private S3 access
• aws-cost-optimization (aws-cost-optimization) - Storage class optimization
• terraform-aws (terraform-aws) - IaC deployment for S3
• cloudformation (cloudformation) - AWS-native S3 templates

Limitations

• Infrastructure commands can disrupt services: confirm target host/scope and have backups/snapshots before mutating state.
• Docs-only import: upstream scripts and templates not bundled.