Glacier is the archiving tier of S3 in AWS; however, you can use Glacier directly through the API as well. Many different backup tools allow you to store data onto Glacier directly. When using Glacier, be mindful of the RTO because the retrieval times in Glacier fall into three categories:
Expedited retrieval: Retrieval of archives up to 250 MB takes 1–5 minutes.
Standard retrieval: Retrieval of archives takes 3–5 hours.
Bulk retrieval: Retrieval of large numbers of archives takes 5–12 hours.
Glacier Deep Archive is the cheapest AWS storage option; it allows you to store data at less than $1 per terabyte per month. Glacier Deep Archive supports only the following two retrieval options:
Standard retrieval: Default option for retrieval of archives takes 12 hours.
Bulk retrieval: Retrieval of large amounts of archives occurs within 48 hours.
When using S3 as a backup option, or when you require the same objects to be retrieved multiple times and quickly from more than one region, you can also replicate any data in S3 to another bucket in another S3 region easily by enabling cross-region replication.
To enable replication, you need to set up the replication configuration to the source bucket. You need to specify the destination bucket and which files to replicate. The ability to filter files to be replicated is great because you can specifically choose the prefix that is to be replicated. You can also select the storage class to be replicated to. This is a great solution when you want to replicate any objects in an S3 bucket to another region for disaster recovery. You simply select the secondary region’s storage tier as Glacier or even Glacier Deep Archive (depending on the RTO). You can also manage ownership of copies when replicating, meaning you can define that the files, once replicated, will have ownership by the account that owns the bucket. Cross-region replication is also fairly quick and has an SLA of replicating 99.99 percent of the objects in the source bucket to the destination bucket within 15 minutes.
Answer these questions. The answers follow the last question. If you cannot answer these questions correctly, consider reading this section again until you can.
1. You are an employee of an insurance company. You have been tasked with selecting a storage solution for scans of legal documents like contracts, terms and conditions, and signature pages that are a required part of any insurance agreement. The documents must be stored with the highest possible durability and must be retained for 10 years. The documents need to be made available within 72 hours for a yearly compliance evaluation and in case of legal proceedings requiring these documents. Which datastore would you choose?
A. S3 Infrequent Access
B. Glacier
C. Glacier Deep Archive
D. S3 Infrequent Access—One Zone
2. You manage an application that creates an output file every second with UNIX date stamp as its name. You have been asked to write a script that will ensure these files are sent to S3 in the order that they were created within 5 seconds of their creation. You have decided to try S3 sync, but it seems S3 sync is not suitable for this task. What is the reason?
A. S3 sync takes longer than 5 seconds to synchronize the files to S3.
B. S3 sync is not suitable for large numbers of unique files.
C. S3 sync uploads files in a random manner.
D. S3 sync changes the filename of the uploaded files.
1. Answer: B is correct. Because these documents will only be recovered very rarely, Glacier Deep Archive is the best and most cost-effective solution for storing documents that need to be recovered within 12 hours or more.
2. Answer: C is correct. S3 sync uploads files in a random manner. Because the preservation of order needs to be retained, creating a custom script that will upload files in order is required.
If you want more practice on this chapter’s exam objectives before you move on, remember that you can access all of the Cram Quiz questions on the Pearson Test Prep software online. You can also create a custom exam by objective with the Online Practice Test. Note any objective you struggle with and go to that objective’s material in this chapter.
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