Using Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) in S3

This is just a quick blog post to provide a few examples of using the new Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) feature of S3 in boto.  This new storage class in S3 gives you the option to tradeoff redundancy for cost.  The normal S3 service (and corresponding pricing) is based on a 12-nines 11 nines (yes, that's 99.999999999% - Thanks to Jeff Barr for correction in comments below) level of durability.  In order to achieve this extremely highly level of reliability, the S3 service must incorporate a high-level of redundancy.  In other words, it keeps many copies of your data in many different locations so that even if multiple locations encounter failures, your data will still be safe.

That's a great feature but not everyone needs that level of redundancy.  If you already have copies of your data locally and are just using S3 as a convenient place to store data that is actively being accessed by services within the AWS infrastructure, RRS may be for you.  It provides a much lower level of durability (99.99%) at a significantly lower cost.  If that fits the bill for you, the next three code snippets will provide you with the basics you need to start using RRS in boto.

Create a New S3 Key Using the RRS Storage Class

	# Create a new key in an S3 bucket and specify you want to use
	# the Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) option of S3
	import boto
	# create connection to S3 service
	s3 = boto.connect_s3()
	# lookup my existing bucket
	bucket = s3.lookup('mybucket')
	# create a new, empty Key object in that bucket
	key = bucket.new_key('rrskey')
	# store the content of the key and specify you want to use RRS
	key.set_contents_from_filename('/home/mitch/mylocalfile.txt', reduced_redundancy=True)

view raw create_rrs_key.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Convert An Existing S3 Key from Standard Storage Class to RRS

	# Convert an existing key in an S3 bucket that uses the STANDARD storage class
	# to one using the REDUCED_REDUNDANCY storage class. This uses the S3 COPY
	# command to copy the key back to the same bucket. The ACL is preserved.
	import boto
	# create connection to S3 service
	s3 = boto.connect_s3()
	# lookup my existing bucket
	bucket = s3.lookup('mybucket')
	# lookup the Key you want to copy in the bucket
	key = bucket.lookup('myoldkey')
	# change the storage_class of the key from STANDARD to REDUCED_REDUNDANCY
	key.change_storage_class('REDUCED_REDUNDANCY')

view raw convert_key_to_rrs.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Create a Copy of an Existing S3 Key Using RRS

	# Copy an existing key in an S3 bucket and specify you want to use
	# the Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) option of S3 for the new copy
	import boto
	# create connection to S3 service
	s3 = boto.connect_s3()
	# lookup my existing bucket
	bucket = s3.lookup('mybucket')
	# lookup the Key you want to copy in the bucket
	key = bucket.lookup('nonrrskey')
	# create a copy of the key in the same bucket and specify you want to use RRS
	key.copy(key.bucket.name, 'rsskey', reduced_redundancy=True)

view raw copy_to_rrs_key.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub