Are the S3 buckets in AWS Region Specific

Question

My concern is the ambiguity I encountered on AWS. When I tried Visiting S3 in AWS and chose “Global” option I got a message saying “S3 doesn’t require you to select region”

This contradicts to the fact that you are supposed to enter a “Region” when you create a bucket. My concern does this really make S3 region specific?

Answer 1

Yes S3 buckets are region specific.

When you create a new bucket you need to select the target region for that bucket.

For example: 

Hope it helps.

Answer 2

This should shade light on your concern:

Well Amazon S3 bucket names are globally unique, this is regardless of the AWS Region in which you create the bucket. You are expected to specify the name at the time you create the bucket. This can be learned better from the AWS Course.

Please Note Amazon S3 creates buckets in a region you specify. You have the freedom choose any AWS Region that is geographically close to you. This helps in optimizing latency. It also minimizes costs or address regulatory requirements.

Consider this:

Objects belonging to a bucket that you create in a specific AWS Region never leave that region unless you explicitly transfer them to another region. That is why the user interface shows all your buckets, in all regions. But buckets exist in a specific region and you need to specify that region when you create a bucket

Refer this link to understand S3 better: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/UsingBucket.html

Answer 3

S3 buckets are region specific, you can check http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html#s3_region to get the list of end-points based on the region

From the doc on creating S3 bucket

Amazon S3 creates bucket in a region you specify. You can choose any AWS region that is geographically close to you to optimize latency, minimize costs, or address regulatory requirements. For example, if you reside in Europe, you might find it advantageous to create buckets in the EU (Ireland) or EU (Frankfurt) regions. For a list of AWS Amazon S3 regions, go to Regions and Endpoints in the AWS General Reference.

Also from UI, if you look at the properties for each of your bucket.

Answer 4

S3 buckets are region specific, you can check http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html#s3_region to get the list of end-points based on the region

Answer 5

You can access any bucket from any region, but if you want that access to be fast you want the bucket to be in the same region. It's the same consideration you would have for all the other regional AWS services. Your comment about the original "classic" region being globally available but new ones not being global isn't really correct. The original region was always us-east-1 (Virginia). That region still exists, and is accessible globally, like all the regions are, but you want to pick the closest region to your other services

Answer 6

Yes the buckets are region specific and you can find the region when you are creating a bucket.

By default it will be in your current location of your AWS. You can change it to the region you want. Only the constraint is that you will have to provide a unique bucket name.