What is AWS Transfer Family?
AWS Transfer Family is a set of fully managed file transfer services provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that enables secure file transfers over SFTP, FTPS, and FTP directly into and out of Amazon S3.
What protocols does AWS Transfer Family support?
- SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) – Provides secure file transfer capabilities over SSH (Secure Shell), ensuring data protection during transmission
- FTP(File Transfer Protocol) – Standard network protocol used to transfer files between a client and a server over a TCP/IP network, but it lacks encryption
- FTPS (File Transfer Protocol Secure) – It is an extension of FTP that adds support for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols, ensuring secure file transfers
- AS2 (Applicability Statement 2) – Used for securely exchanging data over the internet, commonly used for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transactions
Why should I use AWS Transfer Family
AWS Transfer Family simplifies file transfers by offering a managed solution that integrates seamlessly with Amazon S3, providing security, scalability, and ease of use. These services make it easy for organizations to migrate file transfer workloads to AWS, providing a highly available solution for moving files between on-premises systems and AWS storage.
Benefits of AWS Transfer Family
Benefits include secure and compliant file transfers, integration with AWS services, no infrastructure management, support for multiple protocols, and scalability to meet varying workload demands.
How AWS Transfer Family Helps in Migration:
1. Seamless Migration:
AWS Transfer Family makes it easy to migrate existing file transfer workloads to AWS without significant changes to your existing processes. Users can continue using familiar SFTP or FTP clients.
2. Integration with AWS Services:
By connecting AWS Transfer Family with Amazon S3, you can seamlessly integrate file transfers with other AWS services. This is particularly useful for building data pipelines, analytics, and processing workflows.
3. Security and Compliance:
AWS Transfer Family supports encryption in transit, helping ensure the security of data during file transfers. It also integrates with AWS Key Management Service (KMS) for managing encryption keys. This is crucial for maintaining security and compliance with regulatory requirements.
4. IAM Integration:
The integration with IAM allows you to control user access, permissions, and authentication using AWS Identity and Access Management. This aligns with AWS security best practices and provides a central identity management system.
5. Scalability and High Availability:
Both AWS Transfer for SFTP and AWS Transfer for FTP are designed for scalability and high availability. They automatically scale to handle varying workloads and distribute data across multiple Availability Zones for increased resilience.
6. Operational Efficiency:
AWS Transfer Family services reduce the operational overhead associated with managing file transfer infrastructure. The fully managed nature of the services allows you to focus on your application development rather than infrastructure maintenance.
How to Setup an SFTP-enabled Server in AWS Transfer Family
In this article, we will look into the step-by-step instructions to create a AWS transfer family SFTP-enabled server.
1. Login to the AWS console. Navigate to the AWS transfer family. First, We need to set up a new server to transfer data. Click on “Create Server”
2. On the Choose protocols page, you can see the list of file transfer protocols you can enable. You can select one or more protocols. I’ve chosen ‘SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol)’
3. Choose an identity provider according to your environment to manage user access for authentication and authorization. I’ve selected the ‘Service Managed’ option.
4. Choose the endpoint. In enterprise environments, we might need to select VPC hosted to control the access for the endpoints.
5. Select the domain to store and access data over selected protocols. It depends on the use case where you want to keep data such as Amazon S3 or EFS.
6. Select the log group to store the logs.
7. Finally, Review and create a SFT2 server.
8. We have successfully created the server.
9. Let’s add a new user and try to access the endpoint from your laptop/desktop to transfer the data. Created a new user and added the SSH public.
10. Once everything is in place, you can use WINSCP or a Linux machine to log in to SFTP server that you have set up.
[root@centos9 tmp]# sftp -i sftp-aws-priv-key sftp-aws@s-7f7d66d0ee454015a.server.transfer.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
Connected to s-7f7d66d0ee454015a.server.transfer.us-east-1.amazonaws.com.
sftp>
AWS Transfer for SFTP:
- Secure File Transfer: AWS Transfer for SFTP allows you to securely transfer files to and from your Amazon S3 buckets. It supports SFTP, a standard and secure protocol, providing a seamless transition for users familiar with traditional SFTP solutions
- Integration with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): IAM integration enables you to manage user access and permissions using IAM roles, allowing for fine-grained control over who can access and transfer files
- Scalability: AWS Transfer for SFTP scales automatically to handle varying levels of file transfer activity. This ensures performance and availability for your file transfer workloads
- High Availability: AWS Transfer family SFTP is designed for high availability, with data distributed across multiple Availability Zones. This helps ensure the availability of your file transfer service
- Logging and Monitoring: AWS Transfer for SFTP provides logging and monitoring capabilities, allowing you to track user activity and access logs for compliance and audit purposes
AWS Transfer for FTP:
AWS Transfer for FTP provides similar features to AWS Transfer for SFTP but supports the FTP protocol. It enables organizations to migrate file transfer workloads that use FTP to AWS.
Conclusion
Overall, AWS Transfer Family simplifies the process of migrating and managing file transfer workloads in the AWS cloud. Whether you are using SFTP or FTP, these services provide a secure, scalable, and highly available solution for your file transfer needs.
Read More:
AWS for Beginners: How to Set Up AWS CLI and SDK on CentOS – Part 64
AWS for Beginners: How to Set Up Container Insights on Amazon EKS – Part 63
AWS for Beginners: What is Amazon Lightsail and How to Create a Lightsail Instance – Part 62
AWS for Beginners: What is AWS WorkSpaces and How it Works? – Part 61
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