Replicating metadata changes with replica modification sync

Amazon S3 replica modification sync can help you keep object metadata such as tags, access control lists (ACLs), and Object Lock settings replicated between replicas and source objects. By default, Amazon S3 replicates metadata from the source objects to the replicas only. When replica modification sync is enabled, Amazon S3 replicates metadata changes made to the replica copies back to the source object, making the replication bidirectional (two-way replication).

Enabling replica modification sync

You can use Amazon S3 replica modification sync with new or existing replication rules. You can apply it to an entire bucket or to objects that have a specific prefix.

To enable replica modification sync by using the Amazon S3 console, see Examples for configuring live replication. This topic provides instructions for enabling replica modification sync in your replication configuration when the source and destination buckets are owned by the same or different AWS accounts.

To enable replica modification sync by using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), you must add a replication configuration to the bucket containing the replicas with ReplicaModifications enabled. To set up two-way replication, create a replication rule from the source bucket (amzn-s3-demo-source-bucket) to the bucket containing the replicas (amzn-s3-demo-destination-bucket). Then, create a second replication rule from the bucket containing the replicas (amzn-s3-demo-destination-bucket) to the source bucket (amzn-s3-demo-source-bucket). The source and destination buckets can be in the same or different AWS Regions.

Note

You must enable replica modification sync on both the source and destination buckets to replicate replica metadata changes like object access control lists (ACLs), object tags, or Object Lock settings on the replicated objects. Like all replication rules, you can apply these rules to the entire bucket or to a subset of objects filtered by prefix or object tags.

In the following example configuration, Amazon S3 replicates metadata changes under the prefix Tax to the bucket amzn-s3-demo-source-bucket, which contains the source objects.

{
    "Rules": [
        {
            "Status": "Enabled",
            "Filter": {
                "Prefix": "Tax"
            },
            "SourceSelectionCriteria": {
                "ReplicaModifications":{
                    "Status": "Enabled"
                }
            },
            "Destination": {
                "Bucket": "arn:aws:s3:::amzn-s3-demo-source-bucket"
            },
            "Priority": 1
        }
    ],
    "Role": "IAM-Role-ARN"
}

For full instructions on creating replication rules by using the AWS CLI, see Configuring replication for buckets in the same account.