Connecting to S3 storage using AWS CLI

S3 storage is an object storage service for storing any kind of digital data — documents, images, videos, archives, and more. Data is accessed via an HTTP/HTTPS API using unique URLs. Unlike traditional file systems, data is stored as independent objects with unique keys and metadata, rather than as files in a folder hierarchy.

Installing AWS CLI

To install on Linux, run:

curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install

Verify the installation:

aws --version

Expected output:

aws-cli/2.27.45 Python/3.13.4 Linux/5.15.0-140-generic exe/x86_64.ubuntu.22

For installation instructions on Windows and macOS, see the official documentation.

Configuring the connection

Your storage access keys are available in the dashboard of your order.

Access keys in dashboard

Run the configuration wizard:

aws configure

Enter the following:

• AWS Access Key ID — your access key ID.
• AWS Secret Access Key — your secret key.
• Default region name — the region where your bucket is located, e.g. us-east-1 (optional).
• Default output format — json is recommended, or leave blank for the default.

Credentials are saved to ~/.aws/credentials, configuration to ~/.aws/config.

Add the storage endpoint to ~/.aws/config:

# replace s3-storage-host with the server name from your order dashboard
[default]
endpoint_url = https://s3-storage-host
s3 =
  addressing_type = virtual

The connection is now configured.

Common commands

List objects in a bucket:

aws s3 ls s3://bucket-name

Copy a local file to a bucket:

aws s3 cp local_file s3://bucket-name

Download a file from storage to your local machine:

aws s3 cp s3://bucket-name/file /path/to/local/directory

Sync a local directory with a bucket:

aws s3 sync local_directory/ s3://bucket-name

Delete an object from storage:

aws s3 rm s3://bucket-name/file

Generate a temporary public link to a file:

aws s3 presign s3://bucket-name/file --expires-in time_in_seconds

For command reference, use aws s3 help.