Amazon S3 is one of the most versatile storage services, and it offers powerful features like replication to help ensure data availability, durability, and compliance. Replication allows you to automatically and asynchronously copy objects across S3 buckets. To utilize this feature, you must first enable versioning in both the source and destination buckets. Replication comes in two forms: Cross-Region Replication (CRR) and Same-Region Replication (SRR), each suited for different use cases.
In this article, I will explain the key concepts of S3 replication, use cases for both CRR and SRR, and practical tips for configuring replication in your environment.
S3 Replication Basics
Replication in S3 operates at the bucket level and can work across different AWS accounts. It’s an asynchronous process, meaning that objects are not copied instantly. When configuring replication, proper IAM permissions must be granted to allow S3 to perform the necessary actions on both the source and destination buckets.
It’s important to note that after you enable replication, only new objects are replicated. However, you can replicate existing objects using S3 Batch Replication, which also handles objects that may have failed replication initially.
