How to Mount S3 Bucket

Prerequisites

Before mounting an S3 bucket, make sure you have:

• SSH access to your VPS
• AWS access key and secret key
• S3 bucket name

Method 1: Using s3fs (Recommended)

Connect to your VPS:

ssh hxroot@YOUR_SERVER_IP -p 22

Install s3fs:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install s3fs -y

Create credentials file:

echo "ACCESS_KEY:SECRET_KEY" > ~/.passwd-s3fs
chmod 600 ~/.passwd-s3fs

Create mount point:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/s3bucket

Mount bucket:

s3fs my-bucket-name /mnt/s3bucket -o passwd_file=~/.passwd-s3fs -o url=https://s3.amazonaws.com -o use_cache=/tmp

For other S3-compatible storage (e.g., DigitalOcean Spaces):

s3fs my-bucket /mnt/s3bucket -o passwd_file=~/.passwd-s3fs -o url=https://ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com -o use_path_request_style

Method 2: Using rclone (Alternative)

Install rclone:

curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

Configure S3:

rclone config

Choose s3 type, enter credentials, bucket region.

Mount:

mkdir ~/s3bucket
rclone mount s3:my-bucket ~/s3bucket --daemon

Method 3: Auto-mount at Boot (s3fs)

Add to /etc/fstab:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

my-bucket-name /mnt/s3bucket fuse.s3fs _netdev,allow_other,use_cache=/tmp,passwd_file=/home/user/.passwd-s3fs 0 0

Create Systemd Service for s3fs

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/s3fs_mount.service

[Unit]
Description=S3FS Mount
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=root
ExecStart=/usr/bin/s3fs my-bucket /mnt/s3bucket -o passwd_file=/root/.passwd-s3fs -o allow_other
ExecStop=/bin/fusermount -u /mnt/s3bucket
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable s3fs_mount
sudo systemctl start s3fs_mount

Test Mount

df -h /mnt/s3bucket
echo "Hello S3" > /mnt/s3bucket/test.txt

Troubleshooting

If you see permission errors, add -o allow_other flag and ensure fuse.conf has user_allow_other:

sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf
# Uncomment: user_allow_other

Unmount:

sudo fusermount -u /mnt/s3bucket