How can I transfer my data to my standard Snowball device (50 TB or 80 TB of storage)?

Short description

Note: This article is valid only for Snowball devices in AWS China (Beijing), AWS China (Ningxia), and South America (Sao Paulo) Regions.

For a Snowball device, you can transfer your data using one of these tools:

• Snowball client
• Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) Adapter for Snowball

Note: If you're using a Snowball Edge device, see How can I transfer my data to my AWS Snowball Edge device?

Follow these steps to set up your Snowball device for transferring data:

1.    Get the device's unlock code and manifest file.

2.    Unlock the device.

3.    Transfer data using either the Snowball client or the Amazon S3 Adapter for Snowball.

4.    Validate the transfer and stop the device.

Resolution

Get the device's unlock code and manifest file

To get the device's credentials using the Snowball console, see Get your credentials.

Note: You can use the Snowball console to get the device's credentials only after the device is delivered to you.

To get the device's credentials using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), follow these steps:

Note: You can use the AWS CLI to get the device's credentials after the device has completed its provisioning process

1.    Install and configure the AWS CLI.

2.    Run the list-jobs command to get the Snowball job ID. Replace the value for --region with the AWS Region that your Snowball job is in. Example:

aws snowball list-jobs --region us-east-1

Note: If you receive errors when running AWS CLI commands, make sure that you’re using the most recent version of the AWS CLI.

3.    The command returns output similar to the following:

{
      "JobId": "JIDexample-aaaa-1111-bbbb-222222222222",
      "JobState": "WithCustomer",
      "IsMaster": false,
      "JobType": "IMPORT",
      "SnowballType": "STANDARD",
      "CreationDate": 1532615527.2,
      "Description": "My_First_Snowball_Job"
 }

Copy the JobID. If you have multiple jobs, then all of the jobs are listed. Be sure to copy the JobID for the correct job.

4.    Run the get-job-unlock-code command to get the unlock code:

aws snowball get-job-unlock-code --job-id  JIDexample-aaaa-1111-bbbb-222222222222

5.    The command returns the unlock code, which is 25 alphanumeric characters separated by four dashes. Example:

01234-abcde-01234-ABCDE-01234

6.    Run the get-job-manifest command to get the manifest file:

aws snowball get-job-manifest --job-id JIDexample-aaaa-1111-bbbb-222222222222

7.    The command returns an Amazon S3 presigned URL for the job's manifest file. Store the download path for the manifest file. You need the path for a later step.

Unlock the device

1.    Download and install the Snowball client.

2.    Using the Snowball client, run the start command from your workstation to unlock the device. Replace the following values in the example command: -i: the IP address of the Snowball device
-m: the path to the manifest file -u: the unlock code

snowball start -i 192.0.2.0 -m /Downloads/JID2EXAMPLE-0c40-49a7-9f53-916aEXAMPLE81-manifest.bin -u 01234-abcde-01234-ABCDE-01234

3.    After you run the start command, you get the response "The Snowball is Unlocking." To refresh the status, run the status command:

snowball status

4.    After the status of your device becomes "Snowball Unlocked," you can copy data to the device.

Note: If you have issues unlocking the device, see Troubleshooting connection problems.

Transfer data using the Snowball client

To copy an individual object to the device, run the cp command:

snowball -v cp source/path/example destination/path/example

Note: The -v option (verbose option) isn't required, but it provides additional information to help you understand what the command is doing.

To copy multiple objects to the device, including folders and subfolders, run the cp command with the --recursive option:

snowball cp --recursive -v source/path/example destination/path/example

To remove an object from the device, run the rm command:

snowball rm destination/path/example

To list objects already copied to the device, run the ls command:

snowball ls destination/path/example

Transfer data using the Amazon S3 Adapter for Snowball

Important: In the following commands, the value for --endpoint must be the IP address of the workstation that has the adapter installed on it. Don't use the IP address of the Snowball device.

To copy an individual object to the device, run the s3 cp command using the AWS CLI:

aws s3 cp source/path/example destination/path/example --endpoint http://198.51.100.0:8080

To copy multiple objects to the device, run the s3 cp command with the --recursive option:

aws s3 cp --recursive source/path/example destination/path/example --endpoint http://198.51.100.0:8080

To remove objects from the device, run the s3 rm command:

aws s3 rm destination/path/example --endpoint http://198.51.100.0:8080

To list objects already copied to the device, run the s3 ls command:

aws s3 ls --endpoint http://198.51.100.0:8080

Validate the transfer and stop the device

After you finish transferring data to the Snowball device, run the validate command using the Snowball client to make sure that there are no pending transfers:

snowball validate

Note: For more information on data validation, see Data validation in AWS Snowball.

After you confirm that there are no pending transfers, run the stop command to stop the device:

snowball stop

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Related information

Performance for AWS Snowball