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S3Express: Amazon S3 Command Line Utility Amazon S3 command line utility for Windows. Copy, query, backup multiple files to S3 using the Windows command line.  |
S3Express FAQ and Knowledge Base |
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FAQ |
| How Do I Backup to Amazon S3 with S3Express? |
Backing up your files to Amazon S3 using S3Express command line utility is very simple!
- The first step is to enter your Amazon S3 credentials in S3Express using the command saveauth. This needs to be done only once: S3Express will then remember your credentials each time.
- Next you execute the put command. This will upload all files, or just selected files, in any local or network directory you specify, to a bucket in your Amazon S3 account. Files can be selected based on folder, extension, size, age, etc. You can memorize the command you execute in a shortcut, so next time the command can be issued in no time.
- The first time the put command is executed, S3Express will upload all files that are not already present on Amazon S3. However the next time, you can instruct S3Express to only upload files that have changed since last upload and new files. This will make the backup very fast!
- The upload operation can be stopped and restarted at any time. It will run silently in the background and report at the end if there were any errors. If stopped, it will the restart from where it left.
- There's many options that can be used to optimize your backup to S3: you can use encryption (local or server-side based), you can limit the Bandwidth used by S3Express, so the backup will not interfere with other programs that need to use the network, you can instruct S3Express to automatically retry a file upload after X seconds and X times in case of a network error, you can use multiple threads to achieve maximum speed, you can use Amazon S3 multipart uploads to upload large files, you can keep the existing metadata and/or ACL when overwriting files, and even simulate the upload before actually starting the upload.
- And once S3Express has finished uploading all files, you can be reassured that all your files are securely and reliably backed up to Amazon S3. Amazon S3 guarantees up to 99.999999999% durability, with 99.99% availability!
The following is an example of put commands used to upload / backup files to S3:
put c:\myfolder\ mybucketname -s -onlydiff -e
This uploads only changed or new files from c:\folder\ to <mybucketname> and encrypts the files as they arrive to Amazon S3 (option -e). Changed files are files whose content that changed since last backup, while new files are files that are not yet present in the Amazon S3 bucket. Options -s instructs S3Express to also upload files that are in subfolders of c:\myfolder\. -onlynew (upload only new files), -onlynewer (upload only files that have a newer timestamp) and -onlyexisting (re-upload only files that are already present on S3) are also available.
More details in the PDF tutorial 'Backup Files to Amazon S3 with S3Express'.
| How Do I Install S3Express? |
S3Express is very easy to install and it will work out of the box.
Just download one the installers (32-bit or 64-bit) and then run the installer. S3Express will be installed in its own folder, under "Program Files", unless otherwise specified. Then click on the S3Express icon to start the command line utility. That's it! The entire installation is less than 8MB in size.
S3Express is a self-contained program. It's compatible with all Windows versions, including Windows Servers. It does not require any additional libraries or software to run.
S3Express does not modify any general Windows settings or any other program settings. It does not install any Windows services or Windows drivers. It can be cleanly uninstalled if needed (instructions), without leaving any traces, and by default it runs without administrative privileges (non-admin).
The S3Express installer and the S3Express.exe executable are digitally signed by TGRMN Software.
| How Do I Uninstall S3Express? |
You can remove S3Express like any other Windows program. The uninstall procedure will completely and cleanly remove S3Express from your computer.
Follow these steps:
Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008
- Close S3Express.
- Go to the Start menu > Control Panel.
- Click Programs and Features.
- Double-click S3Express.
- Click Yes when asked to confirm that you want to uninstall S3Express.
- The uninstall procedure will completely and cleanly remove S3Express from your system.
Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000
- Close S3Express.
- Go to the Start menu > Control Panel.
- Click Add or Remove Programs.
- Double-click S3Express.
- Click Yes when asked to confirm that you want to uninstall S3Express.
- The uninstall procedure will completely and cleanly remove S3Express from your system.
| Is a Manual Avaliable for S3Express? |
Yes, the S3Express manual is available in HTML format and PDF format.
| Is S3Express multithreaded? |
Yes, S3Express is a multithreaded application.
S3Express supports multithreaded operations to upload and query multiple S3 items concurrently. This can speed up S3 operations considerably.
Multithreading helps speed things as you can make full use of all the available bandwidth, especially when uploading, deleting or listing a large amount of files that are relatively small.
The number of concurrent file uploads to perform can be set using the -t flag of the PUT command: www.s3express.com/help/vv_put.html
The number of concurrent threads to be used by S3Express during deleting, listing or querying of S3 objects can be set using the option -qmaxthreads : www.s3express.com/help/vv_options.html
| Why Use Amazon S3 for Cloud Storage? |
Amazon Simple Storage Service, also known as Amazon S3 is an online storage facility. It is inexpensive, fast and easy to setup. It’s a service provided by e-commerce giant Amazon, so you can be rest-assured whatever you stored at S3 is secured. Even large file services like Dropbox use Amazon S3 as their back-end storage.
Inexpensive
In Amazon S3, there’s no initial charges or setup cost. You only pay for what you utilize, how much data you store and how much data you move in and out from the Amazon servers. Plus, upon sign-up, new Amazon customers receive 5 GB of Amazon S3 standard storage, 20,000 Get Requests, 2,000 Put Requests, and 15GB of data transfer out each month for one year. More details on Amazon S3 pricing can be found here.
Secure
Amazon S3 is built to provide infrastructure that allows the customer to maintain full control over who has access to their data. Customers are also able to easily secure their data in transit and at rest.
Reliable
Store data with up to 99.999999999% durability, with 99.99% availability. There are no single points of failure. All failures are tolerated or repaired by the system without any downtime.
Scalable
Amazon S3 can scale in terms of storage, request rate, and users to support an unlimited number of web-scale applications. It uses scale as an advantage: adding nodes to the system increases, not decreases, its availability, speed, throughput, capacity, and robustness.
Fast
Amazon S3 is fast enough to support high-performance applications. Server-side latency is insignificant relative to Internet latency.
The S3Express command line utility provides a simple way for you to upload, query, backup files and folders to Amazon S3 storage, based upon flexible criteria. Quickly upload only new or changed files for backup purposes using multipart uploads and concurrent threads, create custom batch scripts, list Amazon S3 files or entire folders, filter files with conditions, query, change object metadata and ACLs and more.