S3 storage classes (Standard, IA, Glacier) in AWS - Mini Project: Build & Apply

S3 Storage Classes Setup

📖 Scenario: You work for a company that needs to store files in Amazon S3. Different files have different access needs. Some files are used often, some are accessed less, and some are archived for long-term storage.You will create an S3 bucket and configure three folders with different storage classes: Standard, Infrequent Access (IA), and Glacier.

🎯 Goal: Create an S3 bucket named company-files. Inside it, create three folders named standard/, infrequent-access/, and glacier/. Configure lifecycle rules so that files in infrequent-access/ move to the IA storage class after 30 days, and files in glacier/ move to Glacier storage class after 60 days.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an S3 bucket named company-files

Create three folders: standard/, infrequent-access/, glacier/

Add a lifecycle rule to transition files in infrequent-access/ to IA after 30 days

Add a lifecycle rule to transition files in glacier/ to Glacier after 60 days

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Companies use different S3 storage classes to save money by storing less-used files in cheaper storage and frequently accessed files in faster storage.

💼 Career

Cloud engineers and DevOps professionals often configure S3 lifecycle policies to optimize storage costs and data management.

1

Create the S3 bucket and folders

Create an S3 bucket named company-files. Inside the bucket, create three folders named standard/, infrequent-access/, and glacier/.

AWS

# Create the S3 bucket and folders
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use aws_s3_bucket to create the bucket. Use aws_s3_bucket_object with empty content to create folders by specifying keys ending with a slash.

2

Add lifecycle configuration variable

Create a variable called lifecycle_rules that will hold the lifecycle rules for the bucket. Initialize it as an empty list for now.

AWS

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "company_files" {
  bucket = "company-files"
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_object" "standard_folder" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.company_files.bucket
  key    = "standard/"
  acl    = "private"
  content = ""
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_object" "infrequent_access_folder" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.company_files.bucket
  key    = "infrequent-access/"
  acl    = "private"
  content = ""
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_object" "glacier_folder" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.company_files.bucket
  key    = "glacier/"
  acl    = "private"
  content = ""
}

# Create lifecycle_rules variable as empty list
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a Terraform variable block named lifecycle_rules with type list and default empty list.

3

Add lifecycle rules for IA and Glacier folders

Update the lifecycle_rules variable to include two rules: one that transitions objects with prefix infrequent-access/ to storage class STANDARD_IA after 30 days, and another that transitions objects with prefix glacier/ to storage class GLACIER after 60 days.

AWS

  type = list
  default = [
    {
      id      = "Move to IA after 30 days"
      enabled = true
      prefix  = "infrequent-access/"
      transition = {
        days          = 30
        storage_class = "STANDARD_IA"
      }
    },
    {
      id      = "Move to Glacier after 60 days"
      enabled = true
      prefix  = "glacier/"
      transition = {
        days          = 60
        storage_class = "GLACIER"
      }
    }
  ]
# Add lifecycle_rule blocks inside aws_s3_bucket using for_each

Need a hint?

Use a list of maps with keys id, enabled, prefix, and transition containing days and storage_class.

4

Attach lifecycle rules to the S3 bucket

Add a lifecycle_rule block inside the aws_s3_bucket resource named company_files. Use a for_each to loop over the var.lifecycle_rules variable and create lifecycle rules accordingly.

AWS

Need a hint?

Use for_each inside lifecycle_rule to loop over var.lifecycle_rules. Use each.value to access rule properties.