Working with locations - AWS DataSync

Working with locations

In this section, you can find information about how to create and configure locations. A location defines the storage system or service that you want to read data from or write data to. AWS DataSync supports the following location types:

  • Network File System (NFS)

  • Server Message Block (SMB)

  • Self-managed object storage

  • Amazon EFS

  • Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

  • Amazon S3

When you create a task that transfers data between AWS services in different AWS Regions, one of the two locations you specify must reside in the Region where DataSync is being used. The other location must be specified in a different Region.

You can transfer data between AWS Regions except for China, or between AWS GovCloud (US-East and US-West) Regions.

Note

DataSync only copies your storage contents, and does not copy the configuration of the storage itself. For example, when copying objects between Amazon S3 buckets, DataSync does not copy any bucket-level settings or permissions. Likewise, when copying between SMB or NFS shares, DataSync does not copy any file system level settings or permissions.

DataSync supports the following source and destination location combinations.

Source (from) Destination (to)

Self-managed storage (including NFS shares, SMB shares, object storage, or NFS on your AWS Snowcone device)

Amazon S3 (in AWS Regions), Amazon EFS, or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Amazon S3 (in AWS Regions), Amazon EFS, or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Self-managed storage (including NFS shares, SMB shares, object storage, or NFS on your AWS Snowcone device)

Amazon S3 (in AWS Regions), Amazon EFS, or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Amazon S3 (in AWS Regions), Amazon EFS, or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Amazon S3 (in AWS Regions)

Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts

Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts

Amazon S3 (in AWS Regions)

In addition, you can use the following combinations to transfer data between managed file systems and Amazon S3 buckets in different accounts.

Source (from) Destination (to)

Amazon EFS (configured as an NFS location) or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server (configured as an SMB location)

Amazon S3 (in AWS Regions), Amazon EFS, or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Amazon S3 (in AWS Regions)

Amazon EFS (configured as an NFS location) or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server (configured as an SMB location)

Important

When you use DataSync to copy files or objects between AWS Regions, you pay for data transfer between Regions. This is billed as data transfer OUT from your source Region to your destination Region. For more information, see Data transfer pricing.

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