AWS DataSync Now Supports EFS-to-EFS Transfer

Posted on: May 29, 2019

You can now use AWS DataSync to automatically, efficiently, and securely copy files between two Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) resources, including file systems in different AWS Regions and ones owned by different AWS accounts.  Using DataSync to copy data between EFS file systems, you can perform one-time migrations, periodic ingest for distributed workloads, or automate replication for data protection and recovery, at speeds up to 10 times faster than open-source tools.

AWS DataSync is an online data transfer service that simplifies, automates, and accelerates copying data between NFS file shares, S3 buckets, and EFS file systems.  DataSync uses a software agent to connect to your EFS file systems and automates scaling and validating transfers, so you don’t have write scripts, modify your applications, or manage infrastructure.

Amazon EFS provides a simple, scalable, elastic file system for Linux-based workloads for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. It is built to scale on demand to petabytes without disrupting applications, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, so your applications have the storage they need – when they need it. It is designed to provide massively parallel shared access to thousands of Amazon EC2 instances, enabling your applications to achieve high levels of aggregate throughput and IOPS with consistent low latencies. Amazon EFS is a fully managed service that requires no changes to your existing applications and tools, providing access through a standard file system interface for seamless integration.

To get started copying data between Amazon EFS file systems using AWS DataSync, first deploy the DataSync agent as an Amazon EC2 instance inside a VPC with access to your source file system.  Once you activate the AWS DataSync agent using a web browser, you select Amazon EFS as your destination AWS storage, enter your file system details, and start moving data. To simplify deployment and configuration of the AWS DataSync agent, you can also use the AWS DataSync In-cloud Transfer Quick Start and Scheduler.

Using DataSync to copy data between EFS file systems, you pay for the amount of data copied in addition to the EC2 instance cost for running the DataSync agent. For AWS DataSync and Amazon EFS regional availability, see the AWS Region Table. Learn more about AWS DataSync here, and try it out in the AWS Console.