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Storing Container Data in AWS S3

Using Docker volumes is the preferred method of storing container data locally. Volume support is built directly into Docker, making it an easy tool to use for storage, as well as more portable. However, storing container data in Docker volumes still requires you to back up the data in those volumes on your own. There is another option - storing your container data in the cloud. It's not a solution for every problem, but after this lab, you'll have another tool at your disposal. This lab will show you how to mount an S3 bucket onto your local system as a directory. You will then mount that directory into your Docker container. We will use an httpd container to serve the contents of that bucket as a webpage, but you can use it to share any common data between containers. This will demonstrate how flexible Docker can be. You can make changes to your bucket and all of your containers using the S3 bucket will near-instantly have access to the content.

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 30m
Last updated
Clock icon Aug 30, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Configuration and Installation

    1. Install the AWS CLI.
    2. Configure the AWS CLI for your user.
    • Use the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key provided in your lab credentials.
    • Use us-east-1 as the default region.
    • Output is optional, but json is a good choice.
    1. Copy the credentials to the root user.
    2. Install s3fs-fuse. This package is in EPEL, which is already installed on the server.

  2. Challenge

    Prepare the Bucket

    1. Create a mount point on the server.
    2. Enable the allow_other option in fuse.conf to make the S3 bucket mount accessible to non-root users or processes via: 
      sudo sed -i 's/^# user_allow_other/user_allow_other/' /etc/fuse.conf
    3. Mount the S3 bucket.
    • Use the bucket name provided to you with the lab credentials. It is helpful to set this as an environment variable.
    • To prevent a lot of extra calls to S3 that will increase your AWS bill, enable local file system caching by setting the use_cache option when mounting.
    1. Copy the website files into the bucket.
    2. Verify the files are in the folder.
    3. Verify the files are in the S3 bucket.

  3. Challenge

    Use the S3 Bucket Files in a Docker Container

    1. Run an httpd container to serve the website. Remember to mount the bucket and publish the web server port.
    2. View the webpage in a browser. Use the server's public IP provided with the lab.
    3. Create a new page in the bucket, called newPage.html, by making a copy of an existing page.
    4. View the new webpage in a browser. This will be at: http://<ServerPublicIP>/newPage.html.
    5. Verify that the new webpage is in the S3 bucket.
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Pluralsight Skills

Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

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We will provide the credentials and environment necessary for you to practice right within your browser.

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Follow along with the author’s guided walkthrough and build something new in your provided environment!

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