Introducing Data Retrieval Policies and Audit Logging for Amazon Glacier

Posted on: Dec 11, 2014

Data retrieval policies is a new Amazon Glacier feature that allows you to easily set data retrieval limits and simplify data retrieval cost management. Amazon Glacier provides a free retrieval tier of 5% of your monthly storage (pro-rated daily) and charges for retrievals that exceed the free tier based on how quickly you retrieve data. Previously, if you wanted to set retrieval limits you needed to develop code to manage your data retrieval costs.

Now, with Amazon Glacier data retrieval policies you can define your own data retrieval limits with a few clicks in the AWS Management Console. You can limit retrievals to “Free Tier Only”, or if you wish to retrieve more than the free tier, you can specify a “Max Retrieval Rate” to limit your retrieval speed and establish a retrieval cost ceiling. In both cases, Amazon Glacier will not accept retrieval requests that would exceed the retrieval limits you define.

In addition, Amazon Glacier now supports audit logging with AWS CloudTrail, which records Amazon Glacier API calls for your account and delivers these log files to you. These log files provide visibility into actions performed on your Amazon Glacier assets. For instance, you can determine which users have accessed a vault over the last month or identify who deleted a particular archive and when. Using audit logging can help you implement compliance and governance objectives for your cloud-based archival system.

To learn more, read the blog, and visit Getting Started with Data Retrieval Policies and Using Audit Logging with Amazon Glacier.