Understanding AWS Snowball Edge Jobs

A job in AWS Snowball is a discrete unit of work, defined when you create it in the console or the job management API. With the AWS Snowball Edge device, there are three different job types, all of which are capable of local storage and compute functionality. This functionality uses the file interface or the Amazon S3 interface to read and write data. It triggers Lambda functions based on Amazon S3 PUT object API actions running locally on the AWS Snowball Edge device.

• Importing Jobs into Amazon S3 – The transfer of 80 TB or less of your local data copied onto a single device, and then moved into Amazon S3. For import jobs, Snowball devices and jobs have a one-to-one relationship. Each job has exactly one device associated with it. If you need to import more data, you can create new import jobs or clone existing ones. When you return a device of this job type, that data on it is imported into Amazon S3.

• Exporting Jobs from Amazon S3 – The transfer of any amount of data (located in Amazon S3), copied onto any number of Snowball Edge devices, and then moved one AWS Snowball Edge device at a time into your on-premises data destination. When you create an export job, it's split into job parts. Each job part is no more than 80 TB in size, and each job part has exactly one AWS Snowball Edge device associated with it. When you return a device of this job type, it's erased.

• Local Compute and Storage Only Jobs – These jobs involve one AWS Snowball Edge device, or multiple devices used in a cluster. These jobs don't start with data in their buckets like an export job, and they can't have data imported into Amazon S3 at the end like an import job. When you return a device of this job type, it's erased. With this job type, you also have the option of creating a cluster of devices. A cluster improves local storage durability and you can scale up or down with local storage capacity.

  In Regions where Lambda is not available, this job type is called Local storage only.

Job Details

Before creating a job, ensure the prerequisites are met. Each job is defined by the details that you specify when it's created. The following table describes all the details of a job.

Console identifier	API identifier	Detail description
Job name	Description	A name for the job, containing alphanumeric characters, spaces, and any Unicode special characters.
Job type	JobType	The type of job, either import, export, or local compute and storage.
Job ID	JobId	A unique 39-character label that identifies your job. The job ID appears at the bottom of the shipping label that appears on the E Ink display, and in the name of a job's manifest file.
Address	AddressId	The address that the device will be shipped to. In the case of the API, this is the ID for the address data type.
Created date	CreationDate	The date that you created this job.
Shipping speed	ShippingOption	Speed options are based on region. For more information, see Shipping speeds.
IAM role ARN	RoleARN	This Amazon Resource Name (ARN) is the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role that is created during job creation with write permissions for your Amazon S3 buckets. The creation process is automatic, and the IAM role that you allow AWS Snowball to assume is only used to copy your data between your S3 buckets and the Snowball. For more information, see Permissions Required to Use the AWS Snowball Console.
AWS KMS key	KmsKeyARN	In AWS Snowball, AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) encrypts the keys on each Snowball. When you create your job, you also choose or create an ARN for an AWS KMS encryption key that you own. For more information, see AWS Key Management Service in AWS Snowball Edge.
Snowball capacity	SnowballCapacityPreference	The storage capacity of the AWS Snowball device ordered in this job. The available size depends on your AWS Region.
Storage service	N/A	The AWS storage service associated with this job, in this case Amazon S3.
Resources	Resources	The AWS storage service resources associated with your job. In this case, these are the Amazon S3 buckets that your data is transferred to or from.
Job type	JobType	The type of job, either import, export, or local compute and storage.
Snowball type	SnowballType	The type of Snow Family device ordered in this job.
Cluster ID	ClusterId	A unique 39-character label that identifies your cluster.