Amazon S3 Lifecycle Rules | Overview.

Amazon S3  Lifecycle Rules - Overview.

Scope:

• Intro,
• Architecture,
• Common Use Cases,
• Key Lifecycle Actions,
• Sample Lifecycle Rule(Policy),
• insights.

Intro:

• Amazon S3 Lifecycle rules allow twtech to automate the transition of objects between storage classes and manage object expiration to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Architecture:

Common Use Cases

• Move infrequently accessed data to lower-cost storage (e.g., from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier).
• Expire/delete old data automatically (e.g., delete logs after 365 days).
• Manage multipart upload cleanup.

 Key Lifecycle Actions

1. Transition Actions – Change the storage class of an object.
• E.g., Move to:
• S3 Standard-IA (Infrequent Access)
• S3 One Zone-IA
• S3 Glacier
• S3 Glacier Deep Archive
2. Expiration Actions – Permanently delete objects after a defined time.
• Useful for data retention policies.
3. Noncurrent Version Actions – Manage versioned objects (e.g., delete older versions after X days).
4. Incomplete Multipart Uploads – Automatically clean up uploads that were never completed.

twtech Sample Lifecycle Rule

Transition objects to S3 Glacier after 60 days and delete them after 365 days.

# json

{

  "Rules": [

    {

      "ID": "MoveToGlacierAndExpire",

      "Status": "Enabled",

      "Prefix": "",

      "Transitions": [

        {

          "Days": 60,

          "StorageClass": "GLACIER"

        }

      ],

      "Expiration": {

        "Days": 365

      }

    }

  ]

}

 twtech-insights:

• Rules can apply to all objects or be filtered by prefix or object tags.
• Lifecycle policies auto-work in the background—transitions and deletions are not immediate but generally happen within a day.