How To Mount S3 Bucket On CentOS And Ubuntu Using S3FS

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is a highly scalable and durable object storage service for data storage and retrieval. Integrating Amazon S3 with local file systems can simplify the workflow by allowing direct access to S3 buckets from your local machine.

S3FS (S3 File System) is a FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) solution that enables mounting an S3 bucket as a local file system on Linux distributions such as CentOS and Ubuntu.

Here in this article we will discuss a step by step process on how to mount an S3 bucket using S3FS on CentOS and Ubuntu.

Contents

Terminologies to Understand
Mount an S3 Bucket using S3FS on CentOS and Ubuntu – Step-by-Step
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Terminologies to Understand

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service): Amazon S3 is a cloud storage service provided by AWS. It offers secure, durable, and scalable object storage infrastructure for any amount of data.
S3 Bucket: An S3 bucket is a container for objects stored in Amazon S3. Each bucket has a globally unique name and can contain an unlimited number of objects.
S3FS (S3 File System): S3FS is a FUSE-based file system that allows you to mount an Amazon S3 bucket as a local file system on your Linux machine. It enables you to interact with your S3 storage using standard file system commands.
FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace): FUSE is a software interface for Unix-like operating systems that lets non-privileged users create their own file systems without modifying the kernel code.

Mount an S3 Bucket using S3FS on CentOS and Ubuntu – Step-by-Step

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have the following:

An AWS account with permissions to create and manage S3 buckets.
A running instance of CentOS or Ubuntu.
Basic knowledge of Linux command line operations.

Step 1: Install Required Packages

On CentOS

Start by updating your package list and installing the necessary dependencies:

sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install -y epel-release
sudo yum install -y gcc libstdc++-devel gcc-c++ fuse fuse-devel curl-devel libxml2-devel mailcap automake openssl-devel git

On Ubuntu

Update your package list and install the required dependencies:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y automake autotools-dev fuse g++ git libcurl4-gnutls-dev libfuse-dev libssl-dev libxml2-dev make pkg-config

Step 2: Install S3FS

On CentOS and Ubuntu

Clone the S3FS GitHub repository and install it:

git clone https://github.com/s3fs-fuse/s3fs-fuse.git
cd s3fs-fuse
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr --with-openssl
make
sudo make install

Step 3: Configure AWS Credentials

To authenticate S3FS with AWS, you need to store your AWS credentials in a file:

echo "your_access_key_id:your_secret_access_key" > ${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs
chmod 600 ${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs

Replace ‘your_access_key_id‘ and ‘your_secret_access_key‘ with your actual AWS credentials.

Step 4: Create an S3 Bucket

Log in to the AWS Management Console, navigate to S3, and create a new S3 bucket. Note the bucket name for the next steps.

Step 5: Mount the S3 Bucket

Create a directory where you want to mount the S3 bucket:

sudo mkdir /mnt/s3bucket

Mount the S3 bucket using S3FS:

s3fs your_bucket_name /mnt/s3bucket -o passwd_file=${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs

Replace ‘your_bucket_name‘ with the name of your S3 bucket.

Step 6: Automate the Mounting Process

To ensure the S3 bucket is mounted automatically on boot, add an entry to your /etc/fstab file.

Edit the ‘/etc/fstab‘ file:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add the following line:

s3fs#your_bucket_name /mnt/s3bucket fuse _netdev,passwd_file=/home/your_username/.passwd-s3fs,allow_other 0 0

Replace ‘your_bucket_name‘ with the name of your S3 bucket and ‘your_username‘ with your actual username.

Step 7: Verify the Mount

To verify the mount, you can list the contents of the mounted directory:

ls /mnt/s3bucket

Step 8: Unmount the S3 Bucket

If you need to unmount the S3 bucket, use the following command:

sudo umount /mnt/s3bucket

Examples and Diagrams

Example: Listing Contents of the S3 Bucket

After mounting the S3 bucket, you can list its contents using standard file system commands:

ls /mnt/s3bucket

Example: Uploading a File

To upload a file to the S3 bucket, simply copy it to the mounted directory:

cp /path/to/local/file /mnt/s3bucket/

Diagram: Mounting Process

Here is a simplified diagram illustrating the mounting process:

+--------------------+        +-----------------------+
|                    |        |                       |
| Local File System  +------->|  Mounted S3 Bucket    |
|                    |        |                       |
+--------------------+        +-----------------------+

Diagram: Directory Structure

The following diagram shows the typical directory structure after mounting an S3 bucket:

/mnt
  └── s3bucket
      ├── file1.txt
      ├── file2.jpg
      └── dir1
          └── file3.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: What are the advantages of using S3FS to mount an S3 bucket?

A: Using S3FS to mount an S3 bucket allows for seamless integration of Amazon S3 storage with your local file system. This facilitates easy file management, backups, and ensures that applications can access remote files as if they were local.

Q2: Is it secure to store AWS credentials in a file?

A: While storing AWS credentials in a file is convenient, it poses security risks. Ensure the file permissions are set to restrict access (‘chmod 600‘). For better security, consider using IAM roles with EC2 instances to avoid storing credentials on the filesystem.

Q3: How can I improve the performance of S3FS?

A: To improve the performance of S3FS, you can use options like ‘-o multireq_max‘ to increase the number of parallel requests, and ‘-o use_cache‘ to cache files locally. Adjusting these settings based on your workload can enhance performance.

Q4: Can I mount multiple S3 buckets on the same system?

A: Yes, you can mount multiple S3 buckets on the same system. Create separate directories for each bucket and use the ‘s3fs‘ command to mount them individually.

Q5: What are some alternatives to S3FS for accessing S3 buckets?

A: Alternatives to S3FS include AWS CLI for command-line access, SDKs for various programming languages (e.g., Boto3 for Python), and third-party tools like Rclone, which provides advanced features for syncing and mounting cloud storage.

Conclusion

Mounting an S3 bucket using S3FS on CentOS and Ubuntu helps to integrate cloud storage with your local file system. This setup allows seamless access to your S3 buckets, facilitating easy file management and application integration.

By following the step-by-step process outlined in this guide, you can easily mount and use S3 buckets on your CentOS or Ubuntu system.

Also Read:

How to Mount S3 Bucket on CentOS and Ubuntu using S3FS