If you’re not new to data storage, you must be familiar with Amazon Simple Storage Service, simply known as S3. It enjoys wide popularity among modern users, and for good reason. Not only does it offer unparalleled performance and great scalability but also provides added data security on different levels. What’s more, S3’s features provide you with more tools necessary for efficient data management and optimization.
More and more users decide to mount an S3 bucket on Mac computers to experience the benefits the system offers firsthand. And if you want to do the same on your machine, you may find today’s post particularly helpful. Right now, we’re going to guide you through the process of mounting an Amazon S3 bucket most efficiently.
How to Mount Amazon S3 on Mac Using s3fs
If you’re still unfamiliar with s3fs-FUSE, it’s about time you did that. With the help of this handy tool, you can speed up the mounting process and start using S3 on your Mac computer as soon as possible.
Not all of the applications you’re currently using on your Mac are designed to work with Amazon S3 directly. So, you may experience a hitch when mounting your S3 bucket using the S3FS filesystem, which acts as an efficient interface to S3 cloud storage. So, it can be your best bet if you want to mount it really quick.
For this, you want to install a dedicated file management system, which will make the installation and configuration of s3fs-FUSE on MacOS smoother and easier. Among the most popular file-managing options are Commander One and HomeBrew. That said, you can go with any other suitable manager.
After installing your chosen package manager, get s3fs installed onto your machine as well. Once the installation process is completed, you’ll need to set up the following credentials:
Furthermore, you also need to make sure the passwd-s3fs file can properly access and run your passwd-s3fs file. For this, set the permission as shown below:
You’re almost there! All that remains is to set up a dedicated folder for your S3 bucket. And you can easily do it by inputting the following:
N.B. It’s commonplace to experience lags after using the above command. The point is that once the mounting process is started, your s3fs attempts to access S3, which might take a while. If this process goes as intended, the bucket gets mounted on your ~/s3-drive folder. Anyway, you want to double-check by inputting ‘mount’ on the terminal and reviewing your last entry.
Upon successfully mounting the S3 bucket on its right folder, try to access it as you normally would any local folder.
Alternative Options
Arguably one of the best solutions out there, s3fss isn’t the only filesystem that can help you mount an S3 bucket on your MacOS. Should you find yourself tinkering with installation or experiencing any permission or performance issues when working with s3fss, don’t hesitate to explore other options. To mount an S3 bucket as a local filesystem, consider trying Amazon AWS SDKs for Python or AWS CLI to see which one works best for you!
