AWS S3 is a highly scalable, secure, and cost-effective object storage service. It is often used to store data for web applications, mobile applications, backup and disaster recovery, and data lakes. Amazon EC2 is a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is often used to host web applications, mobile applications, and other types of workloads.
One way to access data stored in S3 from an EC2 instance is to mount the S3 bucket as a file system. This makes it possible to access the data as if it were stored on a local drive. There are a few different ways to mount an S3 bucket on an EC2 instance, but one of the most secure and reliable ways is to use an S3 File Gateway.
An S3 File Gateway is a virtual appliance that provides a private connection between your on-premises network and S3. This allows you to access S3 data without having to expose your data to the public internet.
To mount an S3 bucket on an EC2 instance using an S3 File Gateway, you will need to:
- Create an S3 File Gateway.
- Create a VPC endpoint for the S3 File Gateway.
- Create an NFS file share on the S3 File Gateway.
- Mount the NFS file share on the EC2 instance.
Step 1: Create an S3 File Gateway
To create an S3 File Gateway, go to the AWS Storage Gateway console and click Create gateway. Select S3 File Gateway and click Next.
On the Configure gateway page, enter a name for your S3 File Gateway and select the AWS Region where you want to create it. Click Next.
On the Choose a gateway type page, select Virtual appliance and click Next.
On the Configure gateway page, select the type of storage that you want to use for your S3 File Gateway. You can choose to use EBS volumes or instance storage. Click Next.
On the Review and create gateway page, review your settings and click Create gateway.
Once the S3 File Gateway has been created, it will take a few minutes to start up.
Step 2: Create a VPC endpoint for the S3 File Gateway
To create a VPC endpoint for the S3 File Gateway, go to the Amazon VPC console and click Endpoints.
Click Create endpoint.
Select Gateway endpoint and click Next.
Select S3 File Gateway as the service type and select your S3 File Gateway from the list.
Click Select.
On the Configure endpoint page, enter a name for your VPC endpoint and select the VPC where you want to create it.
Click Next.
On the Review and create endpoint page, review your settings and click Create endpoint.
Once the VPC endpoint has been created, it will take a few minutes to become available.
Step 3: Create an NFS file share on the S3 File Gateway
To create an NFS file share on the S3 File Gateway, go to the AWS Storage Gateway console and click File shares.
Click Create file share.
On the File share settings page, enter a name for your file share and select the S3 bucket that you want to mount on the EC2 instance.
Click Next.
On the Choose a gateway page, select your S3 File Gateway from the list.
Click Next.
On the Review and create file share page, review your settings and click Create file share.
Once the NFS file share has been created, it will take a few minutes to become available.
Step 4: Mount the NFS file share on the EC2 instance
To mount the NFS file share on the EC2 instance, you will need to install the NFS client on the EC2 instance.
On Linux, you can install the NFS client with the following command:
sudo yum install nfs-utils
On Windows, you can install the NFS client with the following command:
choco install nfs-utils
Once the NFS client has been installed, you can mount the NFS file share with the following command:
sudo mount -t nfs <nfs_server_ip>:/<nfs_share_path> /<mount_point>
Replace <nfs_server_ip> with the IP address of the S3 File Gateway and <nfs_share_path> with the path to the NFS file share. Replace <mount_point> with the directory on the EC2 instance where you want to mount the NFS file share.
Once the NFS file share has been mounted, you can access the data in