This guide is in the process of being deprecated and will no longer be updated.
The first-generation 80 TB Snowball device is no longer available. Use the Snowball Edge storage optimized devices for all data transfer jobs. For Snowball Edge documentation, see the AWS Snowball Edge Developer Guide.
Commands for the Snowball Client
Following, you can find information on Snowball client commands that help you manage your data transfer into Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). You can have multiple instances of the Snowball client in different terminal windows connected to a single Snowball.
Topics
- Copy Command for the Snowball Client
- List Command for the Snowball Client
- Make Directory Command for the Snowball Client
- Retry Command for the Snowball Client
- Remove Command for the Snowball Client
- Start Command for the Snowball Client
- Status Command for the Snowball Client
- Stop Command for the Snowball Client
- Test Command for the Snowball Client
- Validate Command for the Snowball Client
- Version Command for the Snowball Client
- Using the Verbose Option
During data transfer, at least one folder appears at the root level of the Snowball. This folder and any others at this level have the same names as the Amazon S3 buckets that you chose when this job was created. You can't write data to the root level of the Snowball. All data must be written into one of the bucket folders or into their subfolders.
You can work with files or folders with spaces in their names, like my
photo.jpg
or My Documents
. However, make sure that you handle the
spaces properly in the client commands. For more information, see the following
examples:
-
Linux and Mac version of the client –
snowball ls s3://mybucket/My\ Folder/my\ photo.jpg
-
Windows version of the client –
snowball ls "s3://mybucket/My Documents/my photo.jpg"
Before transferring data into Amazon S3 using Snowball, you should make sure that the files and folders that you're going to transfer are named according to the Object Key Naming Guidelines for Amazon S3.
If you're having trouble using the Snowball client, see Troubleshooting for a Standard Snowball.
Copy Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball cp
command copies files and folders between the Snowball
and your data source. For details on options for the Snowball copy command
(snowball cp
), see Options for the snowball cp Command. In addition to supporting command options,
transferring data with the Snowball client supports schemas to define what type of data is being
transferred. For more information on schemas, see Schemas for Snowball Client.
Usage
snowball cp [OPTION...] SRC... s3://
DEST
Import examples
snowball cp --recursive /Logs/April s3://MyBucket/Logs
snowball cp -r /Logs/April s3://MyBucket/Logs
Export examples
snowball cp --recursive s3://MyBucket/Logs/ /Logs/April
snowball cp -r s3://MyBucket/Logs/ /Logs/April
For details on options for the Snowball copy command (snowball cp
), see
Options for the snowball cp Command.
List Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball ls
command lists the Snowball contents in the specified
path. You can't use this command to list the contents on your workstation, your data
source, or other network locations outside of the Snowball.
Usage
snowball ls [OPTION...] s3://
DEST
Example
snowball ls s3://MyBucket/Logs/April
Make Directory Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball mkdir
command creates a new subfolder on the Snowball. You
can't create a new folder at the root level. The root level is reserved for bucket
folders.
Usage
snowball mkdir [OPTION...] s3://
DEST
Example
snowball mkdir s3://MyBucket/Logs/April/ExpenseReports
Retry Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball retry
command retries the snowball cp
command
for all the files that didn't copy the last time snowball cp
was executed.
The list of files that weren't copied is saved in a plaintext log in your workstation's
temporary directory. The exact path to that log is printed to the terminal if the
snowball cp
command fails to copy a file.
Example Usage
snowball retry
Remove Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball rm
command deletes files and folders on the Snowball. This
operation can take some time to complete if it removes a large number of files or
directories, such as with snowball rm -r
, which deletes everything on the
device. If you run the snowball ls
command afterwards, it shows you the state
of the device when the deletion is completed.
However, the amount of storage reported by the snowball status
command
may show you the amount of storage remaining before the snowball rm
command
was issued. If this happens, try the snowball status
command in an hour or so
to see the new remaining storage value.
Usage
snowball rm [OPTION...] s3://
DEST
Examples
snowball rm --recursive s3://MyBucket/Logs/April
snowball rm -r s3://MyBucket/Logs/April
Start Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball start
command authenticates your access to the Snowball
with the Snowball's IP address and your credentials. After you run a snowball
start
command, you can execute any number of snowball cp
commands.
Usage
snowball start -i
IP Address
-mPath/to/manifest/file
-u29 character unlock code
Example
snowball start -i 192.0.2.0 -m /user/tmp/manifest -u 01234-abcde-01234-ABCDE-01234
Status Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball status
command returns the status of the Snowball.
Example Usage
snowball status
Example Output
Snowball Status: SUCCESS S3 Endpoint running at: http://192.0.2.0:8080 Total Size: 72 TB Free Space: 64 TB
Stop Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball stop
command stops communication from the current instance
of the Snowball client to the Snowball.
You can use this command to make sure that all other commands are stopped between the data source server and the Snowball. If you have multiple instances of the client connected to a single Snowball, you use this command for each instance when you’re ready to stop transferring data. You can run this command to stop one instance of the client while still copying data with another instance.
Example Usage
snowball stop
Test Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball test
command tests your data transfer before it begins. For
more information, see Testing Your Data Transfer with the Snowball
Client.
Example Usage
snowball test
Validate Command for the Snowball Client
Unless you specify a path, the snowball validate
command validates all
the metadata and transfer statuses for the objects on the Snowball. If you specify a
path, then this command validates the content pointed to by that path and its
subdirectories. This command lists files that are currently in the process of being
transferred as incomplete for their transfer status.
Doing this for import jobs helps ensure that your content can be imported into AWS without issue.
This command might take some time to complete, and might appear to be stuck from time
to time. This effect is common when there are lots of files, and even more so when files
are nested within many subfolders. We recommend that you run this command with the
verbose
option.
Example Usage
snowball -v validate
Version Command for the Snowball Client
The snowball version
command displays the Snowball client version on the
terminal.
Example Usage
snowball version
Using the Verbose Option
Whenever you execute a Snowball client command, you can use the verbose
option
for additional information. This additional information is printed to the terminal while
the command is running.
Using the verbose
option helps you to better understand what each command
is doing. It also helps you troubleshoot issues you might encounter with the Snowball client.
The verbose option is off by default. You can turn it on by specifying the option while running a command, as in the following examples.
snowball -v cp /Logs/April/logs1.csv s3://MyBucket/Logs/April/logs1.csv
snowball --verbose ls s3://MyBucket/Logs/April/