Managing S3 Replication Peers

Creating an S3 replication peer on a VAST Cluster enables you to:

Configure replication of the VAST Cluster's data to an AWS S3 or custom S3 bucket.
Access data that was already replicated to the peer from a client mount of the VAST Cluster's file system.

You can have multiple S3 replication peers configured in parallel on a VAST Cluster.

One active protected path can replicate the cluster's data to any one of the active peers. All restore points on all active peers are exposed to clients via the NFS export of the root directory of the file system.

Viewing S3 Replication Peers via the VAST Web UI

From the left navigation menu, select Data Protection and then S3 Replication Peers.

The following information is displayed:

Field	Description
Name	The name of the S3 replication peer.
State	The state of the S3 replication peer. Possible values: Active. The cluster is successfully connected to the peer. Error. There is either an error connecting to the peer, either due to an authentication issue or a network issue. Check alarms for more detail. Count. The peer is being initialized.
Bucket Name	The name of the bucket.
Protocol	The protocol through which the peer is accessed.
Proxies	Proxies through which replication traffic is routed, if any.

Creating an S3 Replication Peer via the VAST Web UI

This procedure configures an AWS S3 bucket as an S3 replication peer. The bucket can either be an AWS-hosted bucket or a bucket on a custom server that supports S3 object storage functionality.

Create the bucket that you want to replicate to. This can be either an AWS S3 bucket or a custom S3 bucket.

For an AWS S3 bucket, prepare the following credentials:
- Bucket name
- AWS region
- Access key pair
For a custom S3 bucket, prepare the following credentials:
- Bucket name
- Access URL for the bucket
- Access key pair
From the left navigation menu, select Data Protection and then S3 Replication Peers.
Click Create S3 Replication Peer.

Complete the fields:

Field	Description
Peer Name	Enter a name for the S3 replication peer.
Bucket Name	Enter the name of the bucket.
HTTP Protocol	If Target Type is Custom S3, select the HTTP protocol over which to access the target: HTTP HTTPS (Default)
Peer Type	Select one of the following: AWS S3. The peer is an AWS S3 bucket. Custom S3. The peer is a custom S3 bucket.
Custom Bucket URL	If you selected Custom S3 for Peer Type, enter the DNS name or IP address for the custom S3 service's store where the named bucket resides. A port number may be appended if required by the service. Do not include the bucket name or the access protocol here. Examples: 198.51.100.0:9000. storage.googleapis.com
Aws Region	If you selected AWS S3 for Peer Type, enter the name of the AWS region where the bucket resides. For example: us-east-1.
Secret Key	Enter the secret key of a key pair for accessing the bucket.
Access Key	Enter the access key of the same key pair as the secret key.
Proxies	Optionally configure proxies here. If proxies are configured, replication traffic is routed via the proxies to and from the replication peer. Proxies can either be external to the cluster or they can run on a subset of the cluster's CNodes. To use a CNode as a proxy, first install third party proxy software on the CNode and then enter the proxy here. You can specify up to eight proxies. Traffic is load balanced between the specified proxies, excluding any inactive proxies if applicable. Enter each proxy in the format `http://<username>:<password>@<proxy IP>:<proxy port>`, in which `<username>` and `<password>` or the user name and password for authenticating to the proxy, `<proxy IP>` is the proxy's IP address and `<proxy port>` is the proxy port. For example: `http://admin:admin@192.0.2.0:8080,http://admin:admin@192.0.2.1:8080,http://admin:admin@192.0.2.2:8080`

Click Create.

The replication peer is created and its details are displayed in the S3 Replication Peers page. Assuming the cluster can successfully access the target using the credentials you provided, the state will be displayed as ACTIVE.

Modifying an S3 Replication Peer via the VAST Web UI

To modify the configuration of a peer, click to open the Actions menu for the peer and select Edit. Make your changes and then click Update.

Removing an S3 Replication Peer via the VAST Web UI

To remove a peer, click to open the Actions menu for the peer and select Remove. Click Yes to confirm the removal.