Consider the uses and configs available with AWS S3 Storage Gateway, including hints for cloud and on-prem deployments and file and volume gateway demos.
This Amazon Web Services (AWS) Storage Gateway Revisited series is a follow-up to the AWS Storage Gateway test drive and review I did a few years ago (thus why it’s called revisited) . As part of a two-part series, the first post looks at what AWS Storage Gateway is, how it has improved since my last review of AWS Storage Gateway along with deployment options. The second post in the series looks at a sample test drive deployment and use.
Costs vary by region, type of storage being used (files stored in S3, Volume Storage, EBS Snapshots, Virtual Tape storage, Virtual Tape storage archive) , as well as the type of gateway host, along with how it is accessed and used. Request pricing varies including data written to AWS storage by gateway (up to a maximum of $125.00 per month) , snapshot/volume delete, virtual tape delete, (prorated fee for deletes within 90 days of being archived) , virtual tape archival, virtual tape retrieval. Note that there are also various data transfer fees that also vary by region and gateway host. Learn more about pricing here.
AWS and S3 storage gateway access alternatives include those from various third parties (including those that are in the AWS Marketplace) , as well as via data protection tools (e.g. backup/restore, archive, snapshot, replication) and more commonly storage systems. Some tools include Cloudberry, S3FS, S3 motion, S3 Browser, among many others.
A tip is when a vendor says they support S3, ask them if that is for their back end (e.g. they can access and store data in S3) , or front end (e.g. they can be accessed by applications that speak S3 API) . Also explore what format the application, tool, or storage system stores data in AWS storage. For example, are files mapped one-to-one to S3 objects along with corresponding directory hierarchy, or are they stored in a save set or other entity?
Once you have created your AWS account (if you did not already have one) and logged into the AWS console (note the link defaults to the US East 1 region) , go to the AWS Services Dashboard and select Storage Gateway (or click here, which goes to US East 1) . You will be presented with three options (File, Volume or VTL) modes.
The following is what installing an AWS Storage Gateway for file and then volume looks like. First, access the AWS Storage Gateway main landing page (it might change by the time you read this) to get started. Scroll down and click on the Get Started with AWS Storage Gateway button or click here.
Select the type of gateway to create — in the following example, File is chosen.
Next, select the type of file gateway host (EC2 cloud hosted or on-premise VMware) . If you choose VMware, an OVA will be downloaded (follow the onscreen instructions) that you deploy on your ESXi system or with vCenter. Note that there is a different VMware VM gateway OAV for File Gateway and another for Volume Gateway. In the following example, VMware ESXi OVA is selected and downloaded, then accessed via VMware tools such as vSphere Web Client for deployment.
Once your VMware OVA file is downloaded from AWS, install using your preferred VMware tool. In this case, I used the vSphere Web Client.
Once you have deployed the VMware VM for File Storage Gateway, it is time to connect to the gateway using the IP address assigned (static or DHCP) for the VM. Note that you may need to allocate some extra VMware storage to the VM if prompted (this mainly applies to Volume Gateway) . Also follow directions about setting NTP time, using paravirtual adapters, thick vs. thin provisioning, along with IP settings. Also, double-check to make sure your VM and host are set to the high-performance power setting. Note that the default username is sguser and password is sgpassword for the gateway.
Once you successfully connect to the gateway, the next step will be to configure file share settings.
Configure file share by selecting which gateway to use (in case you have more than one) , the name of an S3 bucket name to create, type of storage (S3 Standard or IA) , along with Access Management security controls.
The next step is to complete file share creation. Note the commands provided for Linux and Windows for accessing the file share.
Review file share settings:
Now let’s use file sharing by accessing and mounting to a Windows system, then copying some files to the file share.
Now let’s go to the AWS console (or, in our example, use S3 Browser or your favorite tool) and look at the S3 bucket for the file share and see what is there. Note that each file is an object, and the objects simply appear as a file. If there were sub-directory, those would also exist. Note that there are other buckets that I have masked out as we are only interested in the one named awsgwydemo that is configured using S3 Standard Storage.
Now let’s look at using the S3 Storage Gateway for Volumes. Similar to deploying for File Gateway, start out at the AWS Storage Gateway page and select Volume Gateway, then select what type of host (EC2 cloud, VMware, or Hyper-V (2008 R2 or 2012) for on-premise deployment) . Let’s use the VMware Gateway, but as mentioned above, this is a different OVA/OVF than the File Gateway.
Download the VMware OVA/OVF from AWS, and then install using your preferred VMware tools, making sure to configure the gateway per instructions. Note that the Volume Gateway needs a couple of storage devices allocated to it. This means you will need to make sure that a SCSI adapter exists (or add one) to the VM, along with the disks (HDD or SSD) for local storage. Refer to AWS documentation about how to size it. For my deployment, I added a couple of small 80GB drives (you can choose to put on an HDD or SSD including NVMe) . Note that when connecting to the gateway, if you get an error similar to the one below, make sure that you are in fact using the Volume Gateway and not mistakenly using the File Gateway OVA (VM) . Note that the default username is sguser and password is sgpassword for the gateway.
Now connect to the local Volume Storage Gateway and notice the two local disks allocated to it.
Next, it’s time to create the Gateway to deploy a Volume cached below.
Next up is creating a volume, along with its security and access information.
Volume configuration continued.
And now some additional configuration of the volume, including iSCSI CHAP security.
Which leads us up to some Windows-related volume access and configuration.
Now, let’s use the new iSCSI-based AWS Storage Gateway Volume. On the left, you can see various Windows command line activities, along with corresponding configuration information on the right.
And there you have it, a quick tour of AWS Storage Gateway. Granted, there are more options that you can try yourself.
Overall, I like the improvements that AWS has made to the Storage Gateway along with the different options it provides.
