AWS snowball as temporary S3 endpoint for S3 AUX COPY to catch up delay on Aux copy

I did this same exact scenario about 5-6 years ago and seeded a locally racked snowball unit to then copy to an AWS s3 bucket. Here are the steps i used now updated with today’s newer processes.
 

Step-by-Step: NAS to Amazon S3 Cold Storage via Snowball

1. Order the Snowball Device

• Go to the AWS Snowball console and create a job.
• Choose Snowball Edge Storage Optimized for large-scale data transfer.
• Specify your destination S3 bucket (you can later transition objects to Glacier tiers via lifecycle policies).

2. Receive and Set Up Snowball

• AWS ships the encrypted Snowball device to your location.
• Connect it to your local network (same subnet as your NAS).
• Use the Snowball client or AWS OpsHub to manage the transfer.

3. Copy Data from NAS to Snowball

• Mount your NAS shares (e.g., via SMB or NFS).
• Use the Snowball client or standard copy tools (e.g., robocopy, rsync, or PowerShell) to transfer files.
• Snowball encrypts data on-device using AWS KMS-managed keys.

4. Finalize and Ship Back

• Once the copy is complete, use the client to mark the job as complete.
• AWS provides prepaid shipping labels — send the device back.

5. AWS Imports Your Data

• At the AWS data center, your data is decrypted and copied into the specified S3 bucket.
• You’ll get notifications once the import is complete.

6. Transition to Cold Storage

• Use S3 Lifecycle Policies to automatically move data to:
  • S3 Glacier (low-cost archival)
  • S3 Glacier Deep Archive (lowest-cost, long-term storage)

🔐 Security & Integrity

• Data is encrypted end-to-end.
• Snowball has tamper detection and logs all activity.
• You can verify file integrity using checksums or hash comparisons.

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