S3

TrueNAS can serve object storage over the Simple Storage Service (S3) protocol. S3 is the application programming interface (API) that Amazon Web Services created for its object storage service. Many storage products and applications now use the S3 API as a standard way to store and retrieve data, and products that support it are often called S3-compatible. TrueNAS provides S3-compatible object storage on the local system and does not use Amazon services.

Clients such as backup applications, media tools, and other applications that use the S3 API store and retrieve data in S3 buckets hosted on the TrueNAS system.

Object storage presents data to clients as objects in a container called a bucket. TrueNAS stores each object as a file in a folder hierarchy. Clients upload and download complete objects over HTTP or HTTPS and sign each request with an access key.

TrueNAS creates a dedicated dataset for each S3 bucket. Objects are stored in the s3data directory of the bucket dataset, so ZFS features such as snapshots, replication, quotas, and encryption apply to the bucket.

S3 access does not descend into child datasets. Child datasets of a bucket dataset do not appear in the bucket.

The S3 feature displays an Experimental label in the TrueNAS UI.

S3 object storage in TrueNAS has three parts:

• The S3 service, which listens for client requests. Configure it from the Object Storage (S3) Buckets card on the Shares screen.
• S3 access keys, which clients use to sign requests. Each access key belongs to a TrueNAS user account. Manage access keys on the Credentials > S3 Access Keys screen.
• S3 buckets, which hold the stored objects. Manage buckets on the Shares screen.

S3 object storage and cloud sync tasks both use the S3 protocol, but they move data in opposite directions. S3 object storage makes TrueNAS an S3 server that other systems send data to. A cloud sync task makes TrueNAS an S3 client that sends data to, or pulls data from, an external provider such as Amazon S3 or Storj. See Cloud Sync Tasks to back up TrueNAS data to an external S3 provider.

Basic S3 buckets are available on all TrueNAS systems. Bucket versioning, object lock, and S3 auditing are premium features. The UI shows a Premium tag on these settings when the system license does not include them.

Basic buckets can still serve previous versions of objects from ZFS snapshots of the bucket dataset, without a license. Clients list and read these snapshot versions through the standard S3 versioning requests, the same way they read versions from a bucket with versioning suspended. The licensed versioning feature is S3 protocol versioning, where the S3 service creates a new version of an object each time a client uploads or deletes it and keeps the previous versions. See ZFS Snapshots Settings to select the snapshots a bucket serves as versions.

Premium features are available with TrueNAS Connect memberships, or on TrueNAS Enterprise appliances with a license that includes the S3 features.

TrueNAS Enterprise

TrueNAS Enterprise systems licensed before the S3 features became available do not include versioning, object lock, or auditing. Contact TrueNAS Enterprise Support to update the system license.

Contacting Support

Customers who purchase TrueNAS hardware or that want additional support must have a support contract to use TrueNAS Support Services. The TrueNAS Community forums provides free support for users without a TrueNAS Support contract.

TrueNAS Customer Support
Support Portal	https://support.ixsystems.com
Email	support@ixsystems.com
Telephone and Other Resources	https://www.ixsystems.com/support/