Select your cookie preferences

We use essential cookies and similar tools that are necessary to provide our site and services. We use performance cookies to collect anonymous statistics, so we can understand how customers use our site and make improvements. Essential cookies cannot be deactivated, but you can choose “Customize” or “Decline” to decline performance cookies.

If you agree, AWS and approved third parties will also use cookies to provide useful site features, remember your preferences, and display relevant content, including relevant advertising. To accept or decline all non-essential cookies, choose “Accept” or “Decline.” To make more detailed choices, choose “Customize.”

Understanding Storage Gateway Resources and Resource IDs

Focus mode
Understanding Storage Gateway Resources and Resource IDs - AWS Storage Gateway

In Storage Gateway, the primary resource is a gateway but other resource types include: volume, virtual tape, iSCSI target, and vtl device. These are referred to as subresources and they don't exist unless they are associated with a gateway.

These resources and subresources have unique Amazon Resource Names (ARNs) associated with them as shown in the following table.

Resource Type ARN Format

Gateway ARN

arn:aws:storagegateway:region:account-id:gateway/gateway-id

Tape ARN

arn:aws:storagegateway:region:account-id:tape/tapebarcode

Target ARN ( iSCSI target)

arn:aws:storagegateway:region:account-id:gateway/gateway-id/target/iSCSItarget

VTL Device ARN

arn:aws:storagegateway:region:account-id:gateway/gateway-id/device/vtldevice

Storage Gateway also supports the use of EC2 instances and EBS volumes and snapshots. These resources are Amazon EC2 resources that are used in Storage Gateway.

Working with Resource IDs

When you create a resource, Storage Gateway assigns the resource a unique resource ID. This resource ID is part of the resource ARN. A resource ID takes the form of a resource identifier, followed by a hyphen, and a unique combination of eight letters and numbers. For example, a gateway ID is of the form sgw-12A3456B where sgw is the resource identifier for gateways. A volume ID takes the form vol-3344CCDD where vol is the resource identifier for volumes.

For virtual tapes, you can prepend a up to a four character prefix to the barcode ID to help you organize your tapes.

Storage Gateway resource IDs are in uppercase. However, when you use these resource IDs with the Amazon EC2 API, Amazon EC2 expects resource IDs in lowercase. You must change your resource ID to lowercase to use it with the EC2 API. For example, in Storage Gateway the ID for a volume might be vol-1122AABB. When you use this ID with the EC2 API, you must change it to vol-1122aabb. Otherwise, the EC2 API might not behave as expected.

On this page

PrivacySite termsCookie preferences
© 2025, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.