Starting your AWS DataSync task - AWS DataSync
Queueing your taskStarting your task

Starting your AWS DataSync task

Once you create a AWS DataSync task, you can start moving data. Each run of a task is a task execution. A task can have only one running task execution at a time.

When a task starts, DataSync performs a recursive directory listing to discover all files, objects, and associated metadata in the source and destination locations. DataSync identifies differences between the locations and determines what to copy, a process that usually takes between a few minutes and a few hours.

Important

If you're planning to transfer data to or from an Amazon S3 location, review how DataSync can affect your S3 request charges and the DataSync pricing page before you begin.

Queueing your task

A DataSync agent can execute a single task at a time. When you use the same agent for multiple tasks, you can queue one task execution for each task. With queueing, tasks run in series (first in, first out) even if the agent is already running other tasks.

You can queue multiple executions of the same task by using different filter settings for each task execution. For more information about filters, see Filtering data transferred by AWS DataSync.

Task queuing is enabled by default. If you enable queueing and the agent is running an execution from another task or an execution using different filters, the current task's execution is automatically queued. After a task execution finishes, DataSync runs the next queued execution. If you want to remove a task execution from the queue yourself, cancel the execution.

If you need to configure task queueing, you can do this in the DataSync console when creating or updating a task. You also can do this by using the TaskQueueing parameter with any of the following DataSync API operations:

Starting your task

Once you've created your task, you can begin moving data right away.

  1. Open the AWS DataSync console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/datasync/.

  2. In the left navigation page, choose Tasks.

  3. Select the task that you want to run.

    Make sure that the task has an Available status. You also can select multiple tasks.

  4. Choose Actions and then choose one of the following options:

    • Start – Runs the task (or tasks if you selected more than one).

    • Start with overriding options – Allows you to modify some of your task settings before you begin moving data. When you're ready, choose Start.

  5. Choose See execution details to view details about the running task execution.

You can start your task by using the StartTaskExecution operation. Use the DescribeTaskExecution operation to get details about the running task execution.

Once started, you can check the task execution's status as DataSync moves your data. You also can throttle the task execution's bandwidth if needed.