Getting Started with Amazon S3 Glacier - Amazon 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, security features including multiple encryption options, and more.

Getting Started with Amazon S3 Glacier

You can get started with Amazon S3 Glacier (S3 Glacier) by working with vaults and archives. A vault is a container for storing archives, and an archive is any object, such as a photo, video, or document, that you store in a vault. An archive is the base unit of storage in S3 Glacier. This getting started exercise provides instructions for you to explore basic S3 Glacier operations on vaults and archives. For more information about these resources, see the Amazon S3 Glacier Data Model section.

In the getting started exercise, you will create a vault, upload and download an archive, and then delete the archive and the vault. You can do all these operations programmatically. However, the getting started exercise uses the S3 Glacier management console to create and delete a vault. For uploading and downloading an archive, this getting started section uses the high-level API for the AWS SDK for Java and the AWS SDK for .NET. The high-level API provides a simplified programming experience when working with S3 Glacier. For more information about using the high-level API with the AWS SDKs, see Using the AWS SDKs with Amazon S3 Glacier.

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 (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.

This getting started exercise provides code examples in Java and C# for you to upload and download an archive. The last section of the getting started exercise provides steps where you can learn more about the developer experience with S3 Glacier.

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