Simulation: Getting Started with

Amazon S3
Simulation overview and objectives
In this simulation, you use some of the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
features that you just learned about to create a static website.

Static websites can contain HTML pages, images, style sheets, and all files that are
needed to render a website. Static websites do not use server-side scripting or a
database. However, they might contain client-side scripts that run in a user's web
browser.

You can host a static website on Amazon S3 by uploading the content and making it
readable by users. No servers are needed, and you can use Amazon S3 to store and
retrieve any amount of data anytime from anywhere on the web.

Objectives
After completing this simulation, you will know how to do the following:

• Create a bucket in Amazon S3.

• Configure a bucket to host a static website.
• Upload content to a bucket.
• Turn on public access to bucket objects.
• Securely share a bucket object by using a presigned URL.
• Secure a bucket by using a bucket policy.
• Update the website.
• View object versions in the Amazon S3 console.

Duration
This simulation requires approximately 30 minutes to complete. You can take as long
as you need.

Prerequisites
Before you begin this simulation, you should complete the Getting Started with
Storage course content.
 Amazon Web Services (AWS) service restrictions
In this simulation environment, you will be guided on which actions to perform.
Because this environment is not live, you can only perform the actions that you are
instructed to perform. If you choose any other actions, an error message will prompt
you to the right actions. It is highly recommended that you review How to use this
simulation in the introduction of the simulation.

Task 1: Creating a bucket in Amazon S3

In this task, you create an S3 bucket that you will use for static website hosting.

1. In the AWS Management Console, choose the search bar and enter S3.

Note: To record your entry, press Enter on your keyboard or choose any place outside
the entry field.

2. Then choose S3 from the search results.

3. Choose Create bucket.

An S3 bucket name is globally unique, and all AWS accounts share the namespace.
After you create a bucket, no other AWS accounts in any AWS Regions can use the
name of that bucket unless you delete the bucket.

4. For Bucket name, enter sim-website .

Note: To record your entry, press Enter on your keyboard or choose any place outside
the entry field.

5. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down to Object Ownership.

6. For Object Ownership, choose ACLs enabled. Keep the default Bucket owner
preferred selected.
7. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down to Block Public Access settings for this bucket.

Public access to buckets is blocked by default. Because the files in your static website
must be accessible through the internet, you must permit public access.

8. For Block Public Access settings for this bucket, clear the checkbox for Block all
public access. Then, select the box that states I acknowledge that the current
settings might result in this bucket and the objects within becoming public.
9. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down to Bucket Versioning.
10. For Bucket Versioning, choose Enable.

Note: As soon as you turn on (enable) bucket versioning, you can't turn it off.

11. For Tags, choose Add tag, and enter the following:

o Key: Department
o Value: Marketing

Note: To record your entry, press Enter on your keyboard or choose any place outside
the entry field.

You can use tags to add additional information to a bucket, such as a project code,
cost center, or owner.

12. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down.

13. Choose Create bucket.

Your bucket appears in the list of buckets for your AWS account.

Task 2: Configuring a static website on Amazon

S3
You will now configure the bucket for static website hosting.

17. In the list of your buckets, choose the name of the bucket that you just created, sim-
website.
18. Choose the Properties tab.
19. Choose the scroll bar to scroll to the Static website hosting panel.
20. Choose Edit to the Static website hosting panel.
21. Choose Enable.
22. For Hosting type, keep the default setting Host a static website.
23. Configure the following settings:
o Index document: Enter index.html
o Error document: Enter error.html

Note: To record your entry, press Enter on your keyboard or choose any place outside
the entry field.
 Note: You must enter index.html and error.html even though they are already
displayed. The display that you see is only an example of what the field is expecting.

24. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down.

25. Choose Save changes.
26. Choose the scroll bar to scroll to the Static website hosting panel.
27. In the Static website hosting panel under Bucket website endpoint, choose the link.

A new tab opens where you receive a 403 Forbidden message because you have not
yet configured the bucket permissions. You can return to it later.

28. Choose the AWS Management Console tab on your browser.

You have configured your bucket to host a static website.

Task 3: Uploading content to your bucket

In this task, you upload the static files to your bucket.

22. Choose the scroll bar to scroll to the top of the page, and choose the Objects tab.
23. Choose Upload.
24. Choose Add files.
25. Choose the Website files folder, and choose Open to open the folder.
26. Use your mouse to choose each of the following files: index.html, script.js, and
style.css (order does not matter). Then choose Open.
27. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down.
28. Choose Upload.

Your files are uploaded to the bucket.

27. Choose Close.

You have successfully uploaded your website file to your sim-website bucket.

Task 4: Turning on public access to the objects

Objects that are stored in Amazon S3 are private by default. This setting helps keep
your organization's data secure.
 In this task, you make the uploaded objects publicly accessible so users can view your
website.

First, confirm that the objects are currently private.

28. Return to the browser tab that showed the 403 Forbidden message.
29. Choose the Refresh button for the webpage.

You should still see a 403 Forbidden message. This response is expected. This
message indicates that your static website is being hosted by Amazon S3 but that the
content is private.

You can make Amazon S3 objects public in two different ways:

• To make either a whole bucket public or a specific directory in a bucket public, use a
bucket policy.
• To make individual objects in a bucket public, use an access control list (ACL).

It is normally safer to make individual objects public because doing so avoids

accidentally making other objects public. However, if you know that the entire bucket
contains no sensitive information, you can use a bucket policy.

You now configure the individual objects to be publicly accessible.

30. Keep the website tab open, and return to the web browser tab with the Amazon S3
console.
31. Choose the Name checkbox to select all three objects.
32. In the Actions menu, choose Make public using ACL.

A list of the three objects is displayed.

33. Choose Make public.

Your static website is now publicly accessible.

34. Choose Close.

35. Return to the web browser tab that has the 403 Forbidden message.
36. Refresh the webpage.

You should now see the static website that Amazon S3 is hosting.

37. On your browser, choose the x on the My Static Website tab.

Now you know how to share objects with everyone by making them public. However,
at times, you might need to share an individual object for a limited amount of time. In
the next task, you learn how to temporarily share an object.
 Task 5: Securely sharing an object by using a
presigned URL
When you must temporarily and securely share an object with a person or group of
people, you can create a presigned URL. When you create the URL, you must
configure how long the URL will be valid. Then, you can share this URL with the users
who should have access to the object.

If the presigned URL is valid, anyone who has it can get to the object. Avoid keeping
the URL active longer than necessary, and only share the URL with people you trust.

38. Choose Upload.

39. Choose Add files.
40. Choose the file new-report file and choose Open.
41. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down.
42. Choose Upload.

You have uploaded your file to the bucket.

43. Choose Close.

Like when you first uploaded the website files, the new-report.png file is private by
default. This time, instead of making the object public, you create a presigned URL to
access the file.

44. In the Objects tab, choose new-report.png.

45. From the Actions menu, select Share with a presigned URL.
46. In the pop-up window, keep the default Minutes selected for the Time interval until
the presigned URL expires.
47. For Number of minutes, enter 2 .

Note: To record your entry, press Enter on your keyboard or choose any place outside
the entry field.

48. Choose Create presigned URL.

49. From the banner at the top of the page, choose Copy presigned URL.
50. Open a new browser tab.
51. Paste the URL that you copied into the address bar. Use these specific steps to paste
and launch the URL:
o Choose the browser URL search bar.
o Press Ctrl + v on your keyboard.
 • Note: Mac users should also press Ctrl + v on their keyboard. This
command is not the pasting command for Mac keyboards, but
this simulation requires you to use your keyboard as a Windows
keyboard.
o Press Enter to load the page.

A report is displayed in the web browser.

If you wait 2 minutes and use the link again, you will find that the URL has expired
and no longer works. Note: for the sake of the simulation, you do not need to wait 2
minutes.

52. Choose the Refresh icon on the browser.

Now that the presigned URL is expired, you get an Access denied page.

53. Choose x to close the Access denied tab.

Task 6: Using a bucket policy to secure your

bucket
You want to protect your website files and make sure that no one can delete them. To
do so, you apply a bucket policy that denies delete privileges on your website files.

50. Choose the Permissions tab.

51. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down to the Bucket policy panel.
52. In the Bucket policy panel, choose Edit.
53. Copy the following policy text and paste it in the Policy text editor field. To do so,
follow these specific steps:
o Open the context (right-click) menu for the Policy text editor field.
o Choose Paste.

{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Id": "MyBucketPolicy",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "BucketPutDelete",
 "Effect": "Deny",
"Principal": "*",
"Action": "s3:DeleteObject",
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::sim-website/index.html",
"arn:aws:s3:::sim-website/script.js",
"arn:aws:s3:::sim-website/style.css"
]
}
]
}

This policy prevents everyone from deleting the three files that make your website
work.

Note: If you use this code in your own AWS account, you must use the name of your
bucket in place of this simulation’s sim-website bucket.

53. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down.

54. Choose Save changes.
55. Return to the Objects tab.
56. Select index.html.
57. Choose Delete.
58. In the Delete objects panel, enter delete to confirm that you want to remove this file.

Note: To record your entry, press Enter on your keyboard or choose any place outside
the entry field.

59. Choose Delete objects.

60. Notice that the index.html file is listed in the Failed to delete pane.

This entry confirms that your policy is working and preventing the website's files from
being deleted.

61. Choose Close to return to the Objects tab.

Your bucket policy is now protecting your website files from being deleted.

Task 7: Updating the website

Although you have configured a policy to prevent deletion of website files, you can
still update the website. You can do so by editing the HTML file and uploading it to
the S3 bucket again.
 Amazon S3 is an object storage service, so you must upload the whole file. This action
replaces the existing object in your bucket. You cannot edit the contents of an object;
instead, you must replace the whole object.

Next you edit the existing index.html file.

62. On your computer, load the index.html file into a text editor (in this simulation, you
use Notepad). Follow these specific steps:
1. Open the context (right-click) menu for the index.html file.
2. Choose Open with.
3. Choose Notepad.
63. Find the text Served from Amazon S3, and replace it with Created by Jane . Follow
these specific steps:
1. Choose the text Served from Amazon S3.
2. Enter Created by Jane .

Note: To record your entry, press Enter on your keyboard or choose any place outside
the entry field.

64. Save the file. Follow these specific steps:

1. Choose File from the Notepad menu.
2. Choose Save.
65. Return to the Amazon S3 console by selecting the Amazon S3 console window in the
background.

Now you review the current website version.

66. Choose the index.html file name (choose the link, not the checkbox).
67. Choose the Object URL link.

Served from Amazon S3 should still be visible on your website page because you have
not yet uploaded the new version and made it public. Next, you will upload the
index.html file that you edited and make it public.

68. Choose the Back arrow on your browser to return to the Amazon S3 console.
69. Choose the sim-website link from the navigation at the top of the page.
70. Upload the index.html file that you just edited. Follow these specific steps:
1. Choose Upload.
2. Choose Add files.
3. Choose the Website files folder, and choose Open.
4. Choose the index file and choose Open.
5. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down.
6. Choose Upload.
7. Choose Close.
71. Select the index.html checkbox, and in the Actions menu, choose the Make public
using ACL option again.
72. Choose Make public, and choose Close.

Now you verify that your website is updated with your edits.

73. Choose the index.html file name (choose the link, not the checkbox).
74. Choose the Object URL link.

Created by Jane should now be on the page in place of Served from Amazon S3.
Your static website is now accessible on the internet. Because it is hosted on Amazon
S3, the website has high availability and can serve high volumes of traffic without
using any servers.

75. Choose the Back arrow on your browser to return to the Amazon S3 console.
76. Choose the sim-website link from the navigation at the top of the page.

Task 8: Exploring file versions

Bucket versioning is turned off by default. When versioning is turned off, changes to
objects can't be undone. For example, if you upload a new version of a file, the old file
is replaced with the new one. The original file is lost. If you delete a file, it is
permanently deleted, and you can't get it back.

However, when versioning is turned on, changed and deleted versions of files are
saved. Previous versions of objects are not presented by default, but you can access
them by using the console or programmatically. Because you are keeping earlier
versions of objects, you can recover them if you need to.

It is important to remember that as soon as you turn on versioning, you cannot turn it
off. However, you can suspend versioning. For more information about bucket
versioning, see “Using versioning in S3 buckets” in the Amazon Simple Storage
Service Users Guide at
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/Versioning.html.

Recall that when you created your bucket, you turned on versioning. In this task, you
view the object versions available in your bucket.

77. Choose Show versions to see which files have multiple versions.
78. Choose the scroll bar to scroll down.
79. Review the list of objects in the bucket.
o Notice that each file has a Version ID. Amazon S3 automatically generates these
IDs when versioning is turned on.
o You should also find two versions of the index.html file because you uploaded a
new version of the file. The current version is the file that you uploaded when you
updated your website.

Summary
In this simulation, you created a personalized, publicly accessible, static website. You
learned how to use a presigned URL to temporarily share objects in your bucket. You
also protected your work with a bucket policy that prevents file deletion, and you
turned on bucket versioning to recover previous versions of files. Excellent work!

Simulation complete
Congratulations! You have completed the simulation.

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