Mountpoint for the Amazon S3 <\/h2>\n
Mountpoint for Amazon S3<\/strong><\/a> is a high-throughput, open-source file client that allows your applications to connect to Amazon S3 buckets and access S3 objects as if they were files in a local file system.<\/p>\n In short, here is what it does.<\/p>\n It acts as an intermediary, translating standard file system operations (like open, read, write, list directory) from your applications into S3 API calls (like GET, PUT, LIST \u2192 REST <\/strong>based API over HTTPS).<\/p>\n Here is a sample ec2 s3 mount workflow.<\/p>\n Below are the prerequisites for this setup.<\/p>\n Now, lets get started with the setup.<\/p>\n Follow the steps below to install Mountpoint for Amazon S3.<\/p>\n The following steps are for Ubuntu. For other Linux distributions, refer to the official documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Run the following command to download the Mountpoint package.<\/p>\n Run the following command to install Mountpoint.<\/p>\n To verify if the Mountpoint for Amazon S3 is installed, run the following command.<\/p>\n You will get an output as follows:<\/p>\n To allow EC2 to access the S3 bucket, we need to create an IAM role<\/a> with the necessary permissions. This role will then be attached to the EC2 instance.<\/p>\n We will be creating a role for the bucket mounts through the AWS CLI. Follow the steps given below.<\/p>\n Run the following command to create a Then, run the following command to create a policy with the JSON file.<\/p>\n After running this command, you will get the ARN of the newly created policy in the output. Note the ARN<\/a>, you will need it in another step.<\/p>\n Run the following command to create a Since we will be attaching it to an EC2 instance<\/a>, let’s create trustpolicy based on it.<\/p>\n Then, run the following command to create a role with the JSON file.<\/p>\n This will create and give the ARN of the newly created role in the output.<\/p>\n The policy and the role have been created, let’s attach the policy to the role.<\/p>\n And the final step is to create an instance profile, so that your can attach the role to the EC2 instance.<\/p>\n Run the following command to create an instance profile.<\/p>\n Now, attach the role to the instance profile using the following command.<\/p>\n In the following steps, I will show you how to mount an S3 bucket on the EC2 instance.<\/p>\n Execute all the steps from within the ec2 instance.<\/p>\n To create a mount directory, run the following command.<\/p>\n You can choose any directory name you want.<\/p>\n Once the directory is created, mount the S3 bucket to the directory we created in the previous step.<\/p>\n Once it’s mounted and the bucket is not empty, you can view the files and folders in the bucket within the mount directory.<\/p>\n Let’s test the mount by creating a folder inside the mounted directory and creating a file inside that folder.<\/p>\n To create a new folder, run the following command.<\/p>\n Now, create a file inside the newly created folder.<\/p>\n Check the S3 bucket, you can find a new folder and a file inside it as shown below.<\/p>\n If you no longer want the mount, run the following command.<\/p>\n But first, what is The fstab (short for file systems table) is a file in Linux and Unix systems that tells the system which storage devices or filesystems to mount automatically when the server starts up. <\/p>\n It is the common method used to mount volumes in EC2 to persist EBS<\/a> or EFS volume mounts during reboots. It\u2019s located at Mountpoint for Amazon S3 now supports automatic mounting of S3 buckets using the standard Linux fstab file.<\/p>\n This makes it easier to set up persistent mounts for your S3 buckets on EC2 instances.<\/p>\n By adding a simple entry to fstab, your S3 buckets will mount automatically<\/strong> whenever the instance boots, just like local drives or network file systems like EBS or NFS.<\/p>\n The best part is that this approach follows familiar Linux system admin practices, making mount management more consistent and centralized.<\/p>\n You can follow the steps below to test it yourself.<\/p>\n Open the fstab file:<\/p>\n Create a mount directory for the bucket using the following command:<\/p>\n Add the following line to the fstab file and save it. In this example, Now test the mount using the following command:<\/p>\n On a successful mount, you will get the following message.<\/p>\n![\"S3](\"https:\/\/storage.ghost.io\/c\/5f\/2f\/5f2f4d20-2abf-4534-8d40-7aa233aedd43\/content\/images\/2025\/06\/image-1.png\")
<\/figure>\nPrerequisites<\/h2>\n
\n
Install Mountpoint for Amazon S3<\/h2>\n
Step 1: Download the Mountpoint Package<\/h3>\n
wget https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/mountpoint-s3-release\/latest\/x86_64\/mount-s3.deb\n<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 2: Install Mountpoint<\/h3>\n
sudo apt-get install -y .\/mount-s3.deb\n<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 3: Verify the Installation<\/h3>\n
mount-s3 --version<\/code><\/pre>\n![\"checking](\"https:\/\/storage.ghost.io\/c\/5f\/2f\/5f2f4d20-2abf-4534-8d40-7aa233aedd43\/content\/images\/2025\/06\/image-4.png\")
<\/figure>\nCreate IAM Role and Attach to EC2<\/h2>\n
Step 1: Create Policy<\/h3>\n
mountpoint-s3-policy.json<\/code> file with the permission to read, write, and delete.<\/p>\ncat <<EOF > mountpoint-s3-policy.json\n{\n \"Version\": \"2012-10-17\",\n \"Statement\": [\n {\n \"Effect\": \"Allow\",\n \"Action\": [\n \"s3:ListBucket\"\n ],\n \"Resource\": \"arn:aws:s3:::<bucket-name>\"\n },\n {\n \"Effect\": \"Allow\",\n \"Action\": [\n \"s3:GetObject\",\n \"s3:PutObject\",\n \"s3:DeleteObject\"\n ],\n \"Resource\": \"arn:aws:s3:::<bucket-name>\/*\"\n }\n ]\n}\nEOF<\/code><\/pre>\naws iam create-policy \\\n --policy-name s3-mount-policy \\\n --policy-document file:\/\/mountpoint-s3-policy.json<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 2:Create Role<\/h3>\n
mountpoint-s3-trustpolicy.json<\/code> <\/p>\ncat <<EOF > mountpoint-s3-trustpolicy.json\n{\n \"Version\": \"2012-10-17\",\n \"Statement\": [\n {\n \"Effect\": \"Allow\",\n \"Principal\": {\n \"Service\": \"ec2.amazonaws.com\"\n },\n \"Action\": \"sts:AssumeRole\"\n }\n ]\n}\nEOF<\/code><\/pre>\naws iam create-role \\\n --role-name s3-mount-role \\\n --assume-role-policy-document file:\/\/mountpoint-s3-trustpolicy.json<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 3: Attach the Policy to the Role<\/h3>\n
aws iam attach-role-policy \\\n --role-name s3-mount-role \\\n --policy-arn <YOUR_POLICY_ARN><\/code><\/pre>\nStep 4: Create an Instance Profile<\/h3>\n
aws iam create-instance-profile \\\n --instance-profile-name s3-mount-instance-profile<\/code><\/pre>\naws iam add-role-to-instance-profile \\\n --instance-profile-name s3-mount-instance-profile \\\n --role-name s3-mount-role<\/code><\/pre>\nMount S3 Bucket on EC2 Instance<\/h2>\n
Step 1: Create a Mount Directory<\/h3>\n
sudo mkdir \/mnt\/dcmount<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 2: Mount the S3 Bucket<\/h3>\n
sudo mount-s3 <bucket-name> \/mnt\/dcmount<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 3: Test the s3 Mount<\/h3>\n
sudo mkdir \/mnt\/dcmount\/mount<\/code><\/pre>\nsudo touch \/mnt\/dcmount\/mount\/hello.txt<\/code><\/pre>\n![\"objects](\"https:\/\/storage.ghost.io\/c\/5f\/2f\/5f2f4d20-2abf-4534-8d40-7aa233aedd43\/content\/images\/2025\/06\/image-6.png\")
<\/figure>\nsudo umount \/mnt\/dcmount<\/code><\/pre>\nMount S3 with EC2 fstab (Persistent Mounts)<\/h2>\n
fstab<\/code>?<\/p>\n\/etc\/fstab<\/code><\/strong><\/p>\nsudo vi \/etc\/fstab<\/code><\/pre>\nsudo mkdir -p \/mnt\/s3-bucket<\/code><\/pre>\ndcmount<\/code> is the S3 bucket name, and \/mnt\/s3-bucket<\/code> is the local mount path. Make sure to replace these with your actual bucket name and desired mount location:<\/p>\ns3:\/\/dcmount\/ \/mnt\/s3-bucket mount-s3 _netdev,nosuid,nodev,nofail,rw 0 0<\/code><\/pre>\nsudo mount -a<\/code><\/pre>\nbucket dcmount is mounted at \/mnt\/s3-bucket<\/code><\/pre>\nAutomating with EC2 User Data Script<\/h2>\n