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Use S3cmd with Backblaze B2
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S3cmd is a free command-line tool and client for uploading, retrieving, and managing data in Amazon S3 and S3-compatible storage like Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage.
This article shows you how to configure S3cmd to connect to your Backblaze B2 account.
Enable Backblaze B2
Before you begin: You must have a Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage account. If you already have a Backblaze account and the left navigation menu contains a B2 Cloud Storage section, your account is already enabled for Backblaze B2.
- Sign in to the Backblaze web console.
- In the user menu in the upper-right corner of the page, select My Settings.
- Under Enabled Products, select the checkbox to enable B2 Cloud Storage.
- Review the Terms and Conditions, and click OK to accept them.
Create an Application Key
You must have a Backblaze B2 application key ready to set up the connection.
- Sign in to the Backblaze web console.
- In the left navigation menu under B2 Cloud Storage, click Application Keys.
- Click Add a New Application Key, and enter an app key name. Please note: You cannot search an app key by this name; therefore, app key names are not required to be globally unique. Key names are limited to 100 characters and can contain letters, numbers, and "-", but not I18N characters, such as é, à, and ü.
- Select All or a specific bucket in the Allow Access to Bucket(s) dropdown menu.
- Optionally, select your access type (Read and Write, Read Only, or Write Only).
- Optionally, select the Allow List All Bucket Names checkbox (required for the B2 Native API b2_list_buckets and the S3-Compatible API S3 List Buckets operations).
- Optionally, enter a file name prefix to restrict application key access only to files with that prefix. Depending on what you selected in step #4, this limits application key access to files with the specified prefix for all buckets or just the selected bucket.
- Optionally, enter a positive integer to limit the time, in seconds, before the application key expires. The value must be less than 1000 days (in seconds).
- Click Create New Key, and note the resulting keyID and applicationKey values.
Create a Bucket
If you use a bucket-restricted application key, the bucket must have the listAllBucketNames
capability to work with S3cmd. If you did not select this capability when you created your application key, you must create a new key with the listAllBucketNames
capability.
- Sign in to the Backblaze web console.
- In the left navigation menu under B2 Cloud Storage, click Buckets.
- Click Create a Bucket.
- Enter a name for your bucket. Bucket names must be at least six characters and globally unique.
A message is displayed if your bucket name is already in use. - Select a privacy setting: Private or Public. Files that are in a private bucket require authentication to perform an action, for example, downloading. Public buckets do not require authentication so you can easily share files. You can change a bucket's privacy settings at any time.
- If applicable, enable a Backblaze B2 server-side encryption key.
- Enable Object Lock to restrict a file from being modified or deleted for a specified period of time.
- Click Create a Bucket, and copy the value that is in the Endpoint field; you may need this value later.
- Click Lifecycle Settings to control how long to keep the files in your new bucket.
1. Verify your email address.
2. Have a payment history on file, or use the credit card form to pay a small fee that is credited to your account balance.
Configure S3cmd with Backblaze B2
- In a terminal window, enter the following command:
python s3cmd --configure
- When prompted, enter the following information:
- In the Access Key field, enter your Backblaze B2 key ID.
- In the Secret Key field, enter your Backblaze B2 application key.
- In the Default Region field, enter the part of your S2 endpoint URL that identifies the region. For example, if your endpoint URL is
s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com
, enterus-west-004
.
The Access Key and Secret Key are the identifiers for Amazon S3. Leave them empty if you use the env variables as in the following example:
Access key and Secret key are your identifiers for Amazon S3. Leave them empty for using the env variables.
Access Key: 0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx7
Secret Key: KyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyQ
Default Region [US]: us-west-002
To target Amazon S3, use "s3.amazonaws.com" for the S3 endpoint and do not modify it as in the following example:
S3 Endpoint [s3.amazonaws.com]: s3.us-west-002.backblazeb2.com
Use "%(bucket)s.s3.amazonaws.com" to target Amazon S3. You can use the vars "%(bucket)s" and "%(location)s" if the target S3 system supports DNS-based buckets:
DNS-style bucket+hostname:port template for accessing a bucket [%(bucket)s.s3.amazonaws.com]: %(bucket)s.s3.us-west-002.backblazeb2.com
An encryption password is used to protect your files from reading by unauthorized persons while in transfer to S3:
Encryption password:
Path to GPG program [/usr/bin/gpg]:
When you use secure HTTPS protocol, all communication with Amazon S3 servers is protected from third-party eavesdropping. This method is slower than plain HTTP, and it can be proxied only with Python 2.7 or newer:
Use HTTPS protocol [Yes]:
On some networks, all Internet access must go through a HTTP proxy. You can set it here if you cannot connect to S3 directly:
HTTP Proxy server name:
This example provides all of the fields referenced above:
New settings:
Access Key: 0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx7
Secret Key: KyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyQ
Default Region: us-west-002
S3 Endpoint: s3.us-west-002.backblazeb2.com
DNS-style bucket+hostname:port template for accessing a bucket: %(bucket)s.s3.us-west-002.backblazeb2.com
Encryption password:
Path to GPG program: /usr/bin/gpg
Use HTTPS protocol: True
HTTP Proxy server name:
HTTP Proxy server port: 0
If you receive a 403 error when you verify the configuration, you may have created a bucket-restricted key and not enabled the List All Bucket Names permission. Create a new key and ensure that this option is selected.