AWS S3 Replication: Step-by-Step Guide From Data Engineers

Most businesses rely on cloud storage platforms for their unparalleled scalability, availability, and flexibility in storing and processing data. Among these platforms, Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 storage solution offers exceptional durability and robust security for businesses of all sizes. However, businesses often encounter challenges when configuring or managing AWS S3 replication within S3 or from external sources. Common issues include the complexity of setting up replication rules or the lack of built-in transformation capabilities.

Live replication is a method of automatically replicating new and updated objects as they are created in the source bucket to a destination bucket, enhancing data durability and availability. Different forms of live replication, such as Cross-Region Replication and Same-Region Replication, cater to various data compliance and access needs. Additionally, the frequency of data access impacts storage costs, and low-latency data access is crucial for applications requiring immediate data availability, particularly in the case of Same-Region Replication.

This article provides a step-by-step guide on performing an AWS S3 replication, giving businesses the confidence to replicate their data effectively.

Introduction to Amazon S3

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is a popular cloud storage solution offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It provides a highly durable, scalable, and secure way to store and retrieve data from anywhere on the web. With Amazon S3, users can store and serve large amounts of data, including videos, images, and other types of files. S3 is known for its security, durability, and scalability, making it a reliable choice for businesses and individuals alike.

Amazon S3 is designed to deliver 99.999999999% (11 9’s) of durability, ensuring that your data is safe and protected against data loss. It achieves this by automatically creating and storing copies of all S3 objects across multiple systems within an AWS Region. This high level of durability makes Amazon S3 an ideal solution for storing critical data that must be preserved over long periods.

In addition to its durability, Amazon S3 offers unmatched scalability. Whether you need to store a few gigabytes or petabytes of data, S3 can seamlessly scale to meet your storage needs. This scalability is particularly beneficial for businesses experiencing rapid growth or fluctuating storage demands.

Security is another cornerstone of Amazon S3. It provides robust security features, including encryption at rest and in transit, access control policies, and integration with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to manage user permissions. These features ensure that your data is protected against unauthorized access and breaches.

Overall, Amazon S3’s combination of security, durability, and scalability makes it a trusted and reliable storage solution for a wide range of applications, from backup and disaster recovery to content distribution and big data analytics.

What is AWS S3 Replication?

Amazon S3 replication is a robust, fully managed feature designed to facilitate the automatic and asynchronous copying of objects between S3 buckets. This feature can be utilized within the same AWS Region or across different Regions, offering flexibility depending on the business’s geographical and operational needs. Object tags can be used to manage replication of individual objects and maintain synchronization of metadata changes, ensuring data integrity and compliance during replication processes.

S3 Replication works by enabling the replication of data from a source bucket to one or more destination buckets. These buckets can be within the same region (Same-Region Replication, SRR) or across different regions (Cross-Region Replication, CRR). The replication process is asynchronous, meaning it is independent and does not interfere with the normal use of the source bucket. Data sovereignty laws necessitate the storage of data within specific geographic boundaries to ensure compliance, particularly when using replication methods such as Same-Region Replication. This highlights the critical role that data sovereignty plays in configuring data management strategies for users.

Type of S3 Replication

There are two types of replication based on the location of the destination bucket.

To manage environments that require consistent data access, it is crucial to configure live replication. This enables data replication across production and test accounts within the same AWS Region, maintaining metadata and ensuring synchronized data management across different accounts.

Asynchronous replication delays the copying of objects to a remote destination until after the original write operation is completed. This helps to prevent performance issues during the replication process.

Cross-Region Replication (CRR)

S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) allows data to be replicated across multiple AWS regions (ARs), which are geographically separate data centers. It is a critical feature for disaster recovery and data protection, ensuring that data is available in a geographically distant location in case of a regional failure. The feature provides higher levels of data protection and ensures data durability.

Live replication automatically copies new and updated objects from a source bucket to a destination bucket as they are written, ensuring immediate data availability.

Same Region Replication (SRR)

SRR focuses on maintaining multiple copies of data within the same AWS region but in different availability zones. Availability zones are separate, isolated data centers within the same AWS region. This provides additional protection against localized failures and accidental deletions.

Using SRR to replicate objects between test accounts and production accounts while maintaining metadata ensures consistency across different environments.

Additionally, it is also useful for creating distinct copies of data for development or testing purposes without affecting the primary production dataset. SRR allows users to copy objects within the same region for enhanced data availability and compliance. SRR is a smart choice when the high data availability within a specific region is the highest priority.

Method 1: AWS S3 Replication Using AWS Management Console

Before initiating Amazon S3 Replication, it is essential to ensure the below prerequisites are correctly configured.‍

Prerequisites:

• Amazon S3 requires the necessary permissions to replicate objects from the source bucket to the designated destination bucket(s). These permissions ensure that S3 can act on your behalf during the replication process. Refer to the documentation on Setting up permissions for more details.
• Versioning must be enabled on both source and destination buckets. This is because S3 relies on versioning to track changes and manage object replicas. You can refer to the Using Versioning in S3 buckets documentation for more information.
• If the source bucket owner doesn’t own the objects in the S3 bucket, the object owner must provide the bucket owner with READ and READ_ACP permissions through the object access control list (ACL). This ensures that the bucket owner has the necessary access to replicate those objects. For more information, refer to the Access Control List (ACL) overview documentation.
• If the source bucket has S3 Object Lock enabled, then the destination buckets must also have S3 Object Lock enabled. To enable replication on buckets with S3 Object Lock, you can use the AWS Command Line Interface, REST API, or AWS SDKs. Refer to the Using S3 Object Lock documentation for more information.

The replication process replicates objects automatically from the source bucket to the destination bucket, enhancing data durability and availability.

After properly configuring your AWS with the required roles and permissions for replication, follow these steps to replicate AWS S3 data.

• Step 1: Navigate to the AWS S3 management console, authenticate your account credentials, and select the source bucket you wish to replicate.
• ‍Step 2: Proceed to the Management tab within the menu, and choose Replication >> Add rule.

• Step 3: In the Replication Rule dialogue box, select Entire Bucket >> Next. This indicates that you want to replicate all objects within the source bucket. If your bucket is encrypted with AWS Key Management Service (KMS), ensure you select the appropriate encryption key during this step.

• Step 4: In the Set Destination configuration option, if you wish to replicate within the same account, choose the Bucket in this account option. Alternatively, if you want to replicate to a different account, select the corresponding option and specify the necessary bucket policies for the destination. Managing AWS accounts is crucial here to ensure the correct account owns the replicated objects and complies with data sovereignty laws.

• Step 5: To change the storage class of the replicated objects, go to the Destination options configuration and select a new storage class for the destination objects.

• Step 7: Next, in the Configure Options section, you have the option to create a new AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role. However, if you already have an existing role that has the required replication permissions, you can use it instead.
• Step 6: To configure the Replication time, navigate to the Replication time control settings and enable the Replication time control option. This configuration ensures the system replicates new objects within 15 minutes with a 99.99% guarantee. However, choosing this service level agreement (SLA) will incur additional costs.

• Step 8: Finally, navigate to the Status configuration and choose the Enabled option. Click on Next to start the replication process. You can verify this by waiting a few minutes and checking the destination bucket.

Best Practices and Guidelines For AWS S3 Replication

Efficient and reliable data replication is vital for many applications. Proper replication configuration enables batch replication, server-side and client-side operations, and effective synchronization between source and destination buckets. On-demand replication is useful for one-time migrations and compliance. To maximize S3 replication’s benefits and avoid bottlenecks, follow these best practices.

1. Request Rate Performance

With Amazon S3 Replication Time Control (S3 RTC), each prefix can handle at least 3,500 PUT/COPY/POST/DELETE or 5,500 GET/HEAD requests per second, including replication requests. Consolidate logs into a single bucket to aggregate logs and simplify compliance. Creating multiple prefixes can increase read performance; for example, ten prefixes can scale reads to 55,000 requests per second.

2. Estimating Replication Request Rates

For each replicated object, S3 replication issues up to five GET/HEAD and one PUT request to the source, plus one PUT to each destination bucket. When replicating across accounts, accurately estimate request rates to avoid bottlenecks. For 100 objects per second, expect 100 PUT and 500 GET/HEAD requests.

3. Exceeding Data Transfer Limits

If your S3 RTC data transfer exceeds the default 1 Gbps, request a limit increase via Service Quotas or AWS Support. Optimizing replication between MinIO deployments helps manage transfer rates and maintain performance.

4. AWS KMS Encrypted Object Replication

Replicating AWS KMS-encrypted objects consumes AWS KMS request limits, as each object requires encryption and decryption operations. Exceeding limits causes throttling errors (ThrottlingException). For example, replicating 1000 objects per second may consume 2000 KMS requests.

Limitation of AWS S3 Replication

AWS S3 replication simplifies data copying but has limitations:

• Setup is straightforward within S3 but complex for external sources or multiple accounts, requiring custom solutions and adherence to data sovereignty laws.
• No built-in data transformation before replication; handling pre-existing data can be challenging.
• Replication pricing can be complex due to its scalable nature.

Step 1: Configure AWS S3 as the Source

• Login or register for Airbyte.
• On the dashboard, select Sources and find the S3 connector.
• Enter a unique Source name and the S3 Bucket name. Proper configuration ensures efficient data storage and compliance.
• Add a Stream by choosing the file format (CSV, Parquet, Avro, JSON) and naming it.
• Click Set up source to complete setup.

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Step 2: Configure Your Destination System

Now, navigate back to the dashboard and click on Destinations.

Search for the required destination connector in the Search box and select it as your destination.

Fill in the mandatory fields, such as the Destination name, etc., and click on the Set up Destination button to complete the setup. Ensure you specify the correct AWS account when configuring the destination system to control object ownership and enhance security.

Step 3: Create a Connection

Now that you have configured the source and destination, the final step is creating a connection within Airbyte.

Navigate to the dashboard and click on Connections.

Fill in the required details, such as Connection Name, Replication Frequency, Schedule type, and other configuration options.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) plays a crucial role in this process by providing reliable data management and compliance through its replication feature, which ensures timely object replication and cost reduction.

Set the sync mode as per your convenience. Airbyte supports four sync modes—Full Refresh - Overwrite, Full Refresh - Append, Incremental Sync - Append, and Incremental Sync - Append + Deduped.

Click on Set up connection to start the replication process.

That’s it! With these 3 straightforward steps, you have successfully configured your AWS S3 replication with Airbyte.

Why Choose Airbyte for AWS S3 Replication?

• User-friendly Interface: Airbyte’s no-code, intuitive interface makes setting up and managing data replication simple, even without technical expertise.
• CDC Support: Airbyte’s log-based Change Data Capture (CDC) efficiently detects and replicates source database changes with minimal latency.
• Developer-friendly: The PyAirbyte Python library allows programmatic interaction with Airbyte connectors for automation.
• Security: Airbyte ensures secure authentication, role-based access control, and compliance with SOC 2, GDPR, ISO, and HIPAA standards.
• Data Monitoring & Management: Integrates with tools like Datadog, Airflow, Prefect, and Dagster, and supports batch operations to improve replication efficiency and reduce costs.

Scale Replication, Not Complexity

AWS S3 replication helps teams boost availability, resilience, and regional performance — but when your data lives outside of S3 or needs transformation mid-flight, native replication falls short.

Airbyte fills the gaps.
With 600+ pre-built connectors, CDC support, and a low-code interface, Airbyte makes it easy to replicate data into or out of S3 from virtually any source. Whether you're syncing cloud apps, databases, or external platforms, you get flexible pipelines without writing custom scripts.

Build reliable, scalable S3 replication —
Start integrating with Airbyte today.

FAQs

Q. What is AWS S3 replication?

AWS S3 replication is a fully managed feature that enables the replication of objects between S3 buckets, either in the same AWS Region (Same-Region Replication) or across different AWS Regions (Cross-Region Replication). This flexibility allows for the replication of data across separate AWS accounts, which is beneficial for compliance with regulations and efficient data management.

Benefits of S3 Replication

S3 Replication is a feature that enables the automatic replication of objects across multiple S3 buckets in different AWS Regions. The benefits of S3 Replication include improved data durability, availability, and disaster recovery. By maintaining multiple copies of data in different locations, businesses can ensure that their critical data is always available and can be quickly recovered in the event of a disaster. S3 Replication also helps to reduce latency and improve performance by allowing users to access data from a location that is closer to them. Additionally, S3 Replication can help businesses meet compliance requirements by storing data in multiple locations.

Q. Does S3 replicate existing objects?

Yes. You can use the S3 Batch Replication feature to replicate existing objects in your S3 bucket. Additionally, S3 replication also handles updated objects to ensure immediate data availability, automatically replicating new and modified data as it is written to the source bucket.

Q. Is replication better than backup?

Though similar, replication and backup serve entirely different purposes. Backup is mainly used for long-term data retention, while replication focuses on continuously synchronizing data with the primary source. Replication across different geographic locations enhances data availability and compliance by ensuring data is stored in multiple AWS Regions, minimizing latency and improving access speed for users in various areas.

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