I am growing to love Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 Storage. The AWS S3 Bucket Lifecycle feature is great for those using S3 buckets for backups. The lifecycle can be applied to the whole bucket or individual folders based on rules then set for auto archival or deletion based on those same rules. This post assumes that the bucket to be used for backups has already been created. For help setting up a new bucket read the AWS Documentation for a walk through of this simple process.

Configuring AWS S3 Bucket Lifecycle Archiving

• Log into the AWS console and click into the S3 console
• Click on the magnifying glass next to the S3 bucket being used for backup
• On the right side of the screen, scroll down the list of properties to the Lifecycle item and expand it
  
• Click on the “Add Rule” next to the green plus symbol
  
• For backups, it is best to choose the whole bucket option in the “Apply this Rule to:” section of the wizard then click “Configure Rule” button
  
• For the “Actions on Object” section choose the “Archive to the Glacier Storage Class” option with the “Days after object’s creation date” set to 7 days to automatically archive to S3 Glacier after a week. Choose the “Permanently Delete” option with the “Days after object’s creation date” set to 120 days to automatically delete from S3 Glacier after 4 months. Click on the “Review” button to continue.
  
• Give the rule a name and click on the “Create and Activate Rule” button to finish the rule creation process
• Make sure to click on the “Save” button to have the newly created rules saved.

Your AWS S3 Bucket Lifecycle has now been setup for automatic archival. If your company is using Amazon Web Services or S3 Storage for backup and need help getting it setup properly, then contact us for assistance. Look for the next post that will show how to setup WHM for backup to S3 Storage.