Amazon S3 Glacier Interview Questions

1. What Is Amazon S3 Glacier?

Amazon S3 Glacier is a cloud storage service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows users to store and retrieve large amounts of data in a cost-effective and secure manner. It is designed for long-term data storage, with a focus on data archiving and backup. S3 Glacier offers three different storage classes: Standard, Expedited, and Bulk, which are designed for different data access needs. Standard is for general data storage, Expedited is for faster data retrieval, and Bulk is for large-scale data retrieval. S3 Glacier also provides options for data security, including encryption and access controls.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) also provides three Amazon S3 Glacier archive storage classes. These storage classes are designed for different access patterns and storage duration. These storage classes differ as follows:

• S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval – Use for archiving data that is rarely accessed and requires milliseconds retrieval.
• S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly the S3 Glacier storage class) – Use for archives where portions of the data might need to be retrieved in minutes. Data stored in the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class can be accessed in as little as 1-5 minutes by using Expedited retrieval. You can also request free Bulk retrievals in up to 5-12 hours.
• S3 Glacier Deep Archive – Use for archiving data that rarely need to be accessed. Data stored in the S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class has a default retrieval time of 12 hours.

2. How to Access Amazon S3 Glacier?

Amazon S3 Glacier is a RESTful web service that uses HTTP and HTTPS as transport protocols and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) as a message-serialization format. Your application code can make requests directly to the S3 Glacier web service API. When using the REST API directly, you must write the necessary code to sign and authenticate your requests. For more information about the API, see API Reference for Amazon S3 Glacier.

Alternatively, you can simplify application development by using the AWS SDKs that wrap the S3 Glacier REST API calls. You provide your credentials, and these libraries take care of authentication and request signing. For more information about using the AWS SDKs, see Using the AWS SDKs with Amazon S3 Glacier.

S3 Glacier also provides a console. However, all archive and job operations require you to write code and make requests by using either the REST API directly or the AWS SDK wrapper libraries. To access the S3 Glacier console, go to S3 Glacier Console.

3. What are the Regions and Endpoints of Amazon S3 Glacier?

Amazon S3 Glacier is available in the following regions:

• US East (Ohio)
• US East (N. Virginia)
• US West (Oregon)
• Asia Pacific (Mumbai)
• Asia Pacific (Seoul)
• Asia Pacific (Singapore)
• Asia Pacific (Sydney)
• Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
• Europe (Frankfurt)
• Europe (Ireland)
• Europe (London)
• South America (São Paulo)

The endpoint for Amazon S3 Glacier is in the following format: glacier.REGION.amazonaws.com. For example, the endpoint for the US East (N. Virginia) region would be glacier.us-east-1.amazonaws.com.

4. Are You a First-Time S3 Glacier User?

If you are a first-time user of S3 Glacier, we recommend that you begin by reading the following sections:

• What is Amazon S3 Glacier – The rest of this section describes the underlying data model, the operations it supports, and the AWS SDKs that you can use to interact with the service.
• Getting Started – The Getting Started with Amazon S3 Glacier section walks you through the process of creating a vault, uploading archives, creating jobs to download archives, retrieving the job output, and deleting archives.

working with S3 Glacier by using the REST API and the AWS SDKs for Java and Microsoft .NET:

Using the AWS SDKs with Amazon S3 Glacier

• This section provides an overview of the AWS SDKs used in various code examples in this guide. A review of this section will help when reading the following sections. It includes an overview of the high-level and the low-level APIs that these SDKs offer when to use them and common steps for running the code examples provided in this guide.

Working with Vaults in Amazon S3 Glacier

• This section provides details of various vault operations, such as creating a vault, retrieving vault metadata, using jobs to retrieve vault inventory, and configuring vault notifications. In addition to using the S3 Glacier console, you can use the AWS SDKs for various vault operations. This section describes the API and provides working samples by using the AWS SDK for Java and the AWS SDK for .NET.

Working with Archives in Amazon S3 Glacier

• This section provides details of archive operations, such as uploading an archive in a single request or using a multipart upload operation to upload large archives in parts. The section also explains how to create jobs to download archives asynchronously. The section provides examples by using the AWS SDK for Java and the AWS SDK for .NET.

API Reference for Amazon S3 Glacier

• S3 Glacier is a RESTful service. This section describes the REST operations, including the syntax, and example requests and responses for all the operations. The AWS SDK libraries wrap this API, simplifying your programming tasks.

5. How do I decide which S3 storage class to use?

In deciding which S3 storage class best fits your workload, consider the access patterns and retention time of your data to optimize for the lowest total cost over the lifetime of your data. Many workloads have to change (user-generated content), unpredictable (analytics, data lakes), or unknown (new applications) access patterns, and that is why S3 Intelligent-Tiering should be the default storage class to automatically save on storage costs. If you know the access patterns of your data, you can follow this guide.

To decide which S3 storage class to use, consider the following factors:

1. Access frequency: If you need to access your data frequently, you should choose a storage class with lower retrieval fees, such as S3 Standard or S3 Standard-Infrequent Access. If you only need to access your data occasionally, you can choose a storage class with higher retrieval fees, such as S3 Glacier or S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
2. Data durability: If you need to ensure that your data is highly durable and can withstand the loss of multiple copies, you should choose a storage class with a high durability rating, such as S3 Standard or S3 Standard-Infrequent Access.
3. Data retention: If you need to store your data for a longer period of time, you should choose a storage class with a longer data retention period, such as S3 Glacier or S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
4. Cost: Consider the total cost of storing your data, including storage fees, retrieval fees, and any other charges. Choose a storage class that offers the best balance of cost and performance for your needs.
5. Data compliance: If you have specific compliance requirements for your data, such as HIPAA or PCI DSS, you may need to choose a storage class that meets those requirements.

Overall, the best storage class for you will depend on the specific needs of your data and how you plan to use it.

Questions on Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class

6. What is the S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class?

The S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class delivers the lowest cost storage for long-lived data that is rarely accessed and requires milliseconds retrieval. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval delivers the fastest access to archive storage, with the same throughput and milliseconds access as S3 Standard and S3 Standard-IA storage classes. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is designed for 99.999999999% (11 9s) of data durability and 99.9% availability by redundantly storing data across a minimum of three physically separated AWS Availability Zones.

7. Why would I choose to use S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval?

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is ideal if you have data that is rarely accessed (once a quarter) and requires milliseconds retrieval times. It’s the ideal storage class if you want the same low latency and high throughput performance as S3 Standard-IA, but store data that is accessed less frequently than S3 Standard-IA, with a lower storage price and slightly higher data access costs.

8. What performance does S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval offer?

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval provides the same millisecond latency and high throughput performance as the S3 Standard and S3 Standard-IA storage classes. Unlike the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage classes, which are designed for asynchronous access, you do not need to issue a Restore request before accessing an object stored in S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval.

9. How do I get my data into S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval?

There are two ways to get data into S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval. You can directly PUT into S3 Glacier Instant retrieval by specifying GLACIER_IR in the x-and-storage-class header or set S3 Lifecycle policies to transition objects from S3 Standard or S3 Standard-IA to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval.

10. Is there a minimum storage duration charge for Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval?

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is designed for long-lived, rarely accessed data that is retained for months or years. Objects that are archived to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval have a minimum of 90 days of storage, and objects deleted, overwritten, or transitioned before 90 days incur a pro-rated charge equal to the storage charge for the remaining days.

11. How available and durable is S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval?

Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is a feature of the S3 Glacier storage class that allows you to retrieve your data in as little as 1 minute, rather than the typical retrieval time of several hours. This feature is available in all S3 Glacier regions, except for the South America (São Paulo) region.

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is highly available, with a 99.9% annual uptime service level agreement (SLA). It is also highly durable, with a durability rating of 99.999999999% (11 nines). This means that your data is stored across multiple facilities and multiple devices, and is highly resistant to data loss.

12. Is there a minimum object size charge for Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval?

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is designed for larger objects and has a minimum object storage charge of 128KB. Objects smaller than 128KB in size will incur storage charges as if the object were 128 KB. For example, a 6KB object in S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval will incur S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage charges for 6KB and an additional minimum object size charge equivalent to 122KB at the S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage price.

13. How am I charged for S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval?

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval charges you for monthly storage, requests based on the request type, and data retrievals. The volume of storage billed in a month is based on the average storage used throughout the month, measured in gigabytes per month (GB-Month). You are charged for requests based on the request type—such as PUTs, COPYs, and GETs. You also pay a per GB fee for every gigabyte of data returned to you. 

Questions on Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class (Formerly S3 Glacier)

14. What is the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class?

The S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class delivers low-cost storage, up to 10% lower cost (than S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval), for archive data that is accessed 1-2 times per year and is retrieved asynchronously, with free bulk retrievals. For archive data that does not require immediate access but needs the flexibility to retrieve large sets of data at no cost, such as backup or disaster recovery use cases, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly S3 Glacier) is the ideal storage class.

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval delivers the most flexible retrieval options that balance cost with access times ranging from minutes to hours and with free bulk retrievals. It is an ideal solution for backup, disaster recovery, and offsite data storage needs, and for when some data needs to be occasionally retrieved in minutes, and you don’t want to worry about costs. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is designed for 99.999999999% (11 9s) of data durability and 99.99% availability by redundantly storing data across multiple physically separated AWS Availability Zones in a given year.

15. Why would I choose to use the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage class?

For archive data that does not require immediate access but needs the flexibility to retrieve large sets of data at no cost, such as backup or disaster recovery use cases, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly S3 Glacier) is the ideal storage class. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval delivers the most flexible retrieval options that balance cost with access times ranging from minutes to hours and with free bulk retrievals. It is an ideal solution for backup, disaster recovery, and offsite data storage needs, and for when some data needs to be occasionally retrieved in minutes, and you don’t want to worry about costs to retrieve the data.

Amazon S3 Glacier Interview Questions

16. How do I get into S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval?

There are two ways to get data into S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval. You can directly PUT into S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval by specifying GLACIER in the x-and-storage-class header. You can also use S3 Lifecycle rules to transition objects from any of the S3 storage classes for active data (S3 Standard, S3 Intelligent-Tiering, S3 Standard-IA, S3 One Zone-IA, and S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval) to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval based on object age. Use the Amazon S3 Management Console, the AWS SDKs, or the Amazon S3 APIs to directly PUT into Amazon S3 Glacier or define rules for archival.

Note: S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (Formerly S3 Glacier) is also available through the original direct Glacier APIs and through the Amazon S3 Glacier Management Console. For an enhanced experience complete with access to the full S3 feature set including lifecycle management, S3 Replication, S3 Storage Lens, and more, we recommend using S3 APIs and the S3 Management Console to use S3 Glacier features.

17. How can I retrieve the objects that are archived in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and will I be notified when the object is restored?

Objects that are archived in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval are accessed asynchronously. To retrieve data stored in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, initiate a retrieval request using the Amazon S3 APIs or the Amazon S3 console. The retrieval request creates a temporary copy of your data in the S3 Standard storage class while leaving the archived data intact in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval. You can specify the amount of time in days for which the temporary copy is stored in Amazon S3. You can then access your temporary copy from S3 through an Amazon S3 GET request on the archived object. 

With restore notifications, you can now be notified with an S3 Event Notification when an object has successfully been restored from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and the temporary copy is made available to you. The bucket owner (or others, as permitted by an IAM policy) can arrange for notifications to be issued to Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) or Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). Notifications can also be delivered to AWS Lambda for processing by a Lambda function.

18. How long will it take to restore my objects archived in Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval?

The time it takes to restore your objects archived in Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval will depend on the size of the objects and the retrieval speed that you choose.

You can choose from three retrieval speed options:

1. Standard: This option is the default retrieval speed and allows you to restore your objects within a few hours.
2. Expedited: This option allows you to restore your objects within 1-5 minutes. It is typically used for urgent retrieval of small objects.
3. Bulk: This option allows you to restore large objects (over 100 TB) within 5-12 hours. It is the most cost-effective option for restoring large amounts of data.

Keep in mind that the retrieval speed you choose will affect the cost of restoring your objects. Standard retrieval is the least expensive option, while expedited retrieval is more expensive and bulk retrieval is the most expensive.

19. How is my storage charge calculated for Amazon S3 objects archived to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval?

The volume of storage billed in a month is based on the average storage used throughout the month, measured in gigabyte-months (GB-Months). Amazon S3 calculates the object size as the amount of data you stored, plus an additional 32 KB of S3 Glacier data, plus an additional 8 KB of Amazon S3 Standard storage class data.

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval requires an additional 32 KB of data per object for S3 Glacier’s index and metadata so you can identify and retrieve your data. Amazon S3 requires 8 KB to store and maintain the user-defined name and metadata for objects archived to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval. This enables you to get a real-time list of all of your Amazon S3 objects, including those stored using S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, using the Amazon S3 LIST API, or the S3 inventory report.

For example, if you have archived 100,000 objects that are 1 GB each, your billable storage would be:

1.000032 gigabytes for each object x 100,000 objects = 100,003.2 gigabytes of S3 Glacier storage.

0.000008 gigabytes for each object x 100,000 objects = 0.8 gigabytes of S3 Standard storage.

The fee is calculated based on the current rates for your AWS Region on the Amazon S3 pricing.

20. Are there minimum storage duration and minimum object storage charges for Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval?

Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is designed for long-lived but rarely accessed data that is retained for months or years. Objects that are archived to S3 have a minimum of 90 days of storage, and objects deleted, overwritten, or transitioned before 90 days incur a pro-rated charge equal to the storage charge for the remaining days.

Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval has a minimum billable object storage size of 40 KB. Objects smaller than 40 KB in size may be stored but will be charged for 40 KB of storage. 

21. How much does it cost to retrieve data from Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval?

There are three ways to retrieve data from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval: Expedited, Standard, and Bulk Retrievals. Expedited and Standard have a per-GB retrieval fee and per-request fee (i.e., you pay for requests made against your Amazon S3 objects). Bulk Retrievals from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval are free.

22. Does Amazon S3 provide capabilities for archiving objects to lower-cost storage classes?

The Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes are purpose-built for data archiving, providing you with the highest performance, the most retrieval flexibility, and the lowest cost archive storage in the cloud. You can now choose from three archive storage classes optimized for different access patterns and storage duration. For archive data that needs immediate access, such as medical images, news media assets, or genomics data, choose the S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class, an archive storage class that delivers the lowest cost storage with milliseconds retrieval.

For archive data that does not require immediate access but needs the flexibility to retrieve large sets of data at no cost, such as backup or disaster recovery use cases, choose S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly S3 Glacier), with retrieval in minutes or free bulk retrievals in 5—12 hours. To save even more on long-lived archive storage such as compliance archives and digital media preservation, choose S3 Glacier Deep Archive, the lowest cost storage in the cloud with data retrieval within 12 hours.

23. What is the backend infrastructure supporting the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class?

We prefer to focus on the customer outcomes of performance, durability, availability, and security. However, this question is often asked by our customers. We use a number of different technologies which allow us to offer the prices we do to our customers. Our services are built using common data storage technologies specifically assembled into purpose-built, cost-optimized systems using AWS-developed software. The S3 Glacier storage classes benefit from our ability to optimize the sequence of inputs and outputs to maximize efficiency in accessing the underlying storage.

Questions on Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive

24. What is the Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class?

S3 Glacier Deep Archive is an Amazon S3 storage class that provides secure and durable object storage for the long-term retention of data that is accessed once or twice a year. From just $0.00099 per GB-month (less than one-tenth of one cent, or about $1 per TB-month), S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest cost storage in the cloud, at prices significantly lower than storing and maintaining data in on-premises magnetic tape libraries or archiving data off-site.

25. What use cases are best suited for the S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class?

S3 Glacier Deep Archive is an ideal storage class to provide offline protection of your company’s most important data assets, or when long-term data retention is required for corporate policy, contractual, or regulatory compliance requirements. Customers find S3 Glacier Deep Archive to be a compelling choice to protect core intellectual property, financial and medical records, research results, legal documents, seismic exploration studies, and long-term backups, especially in highly regulated industries, such as Financial Services, Healthcare, Oil & Gas, and Public Sectors.

In addition, there are organizations, such as media and entertainment companies, that want to keep a backup copy of core intellectual property. Frequently, customers using S3 Glacier Deep Archive can reduce or discontinue the use of on-premises magnetic tape libraries and off-premises tape archival services.

26. Are there minimum storage duration and minimum object storage charges for S3 Glacier Deep Archive?

S3 Glacier Deep Archive is designed for long-lived but rarely accessed data that is retained for 7—10 years or more. Objects that are archived to S3 Glacier Deep Archive have a minimum of 180 days of storage, and objects deleted before 180 days incur a pro-rated charge equal to the storage charge for the remaining days. Please see the Amazon S3 pricing page for information about S3 Glacier Deep Archive pricing.

S3 Glacier Deep Archive has a minimum billable object storage size of 40KB. Objects smaller than 40KB in size may be stored but will be charged for 40KB of storage. Please see the Amazon S3 pricing page for information about S3 Glacier Deep Archive pricing.

27. How does S3 Glacier Deep Archive integrate with other AWS Services?

S3 Glacier Deep Archive is integrated with Amazon S3 features, including S3 Object Tagging, S3 Lifecycle policies, S3 Object Lock, and S3 Replication. With S3 storage management features, you can use a single Amazon S3 bucket to store a mixture of S3 Glacier Deep Archive, S3 Standard, S3 Standard-IA, S3 One Zone-IA, and S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval data.

This allows storage administrators to make decisions based on the nature of the data and data access patterns. Customers can use Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies to automatically migrate data to lower-cost storage classes as the data ages, or S3 Cross-Region Replication or Same-Region Replication policies to replicate data to the same or a different region.

AWS Storage Gateway service integrates Tape Gateway with S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class, allowing you to store virtual tapes in the lowest-cost Amazon S3 storage class, reducing the monthly cost to store your long-term data in the cloud by 75%. With this feature, Tape Gateway supports archiving your new virtual tapes directly to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and S3 Glacier Deep Archive, helping you meet your backup, archive, and recovery requirements.

Tape Gateway helps you move tape-based backups to AWS without making any changes to your existing backup workflows. Tape Gateway supports most of the leading backup applications such as Veritas, Veeam, Commvault, Dell EMC NetWorker, IBM Spectrum Protect (on Windows OS), and Microsoft Data Protection Manager.

28. How do I get started using S3 Glacier Deep Archive?

The easiest way to store data in S3 Glacier Deep Archive is to use the S3 API to upload data directly. Just specify “S3 Glacier Deep Archive” as the storage class. You can accomplish this using the AWS Management Console, S3 REST API, AWS SDKs, or AWS Command Line Interface.

You can also begin using S3 Glacier Deep Archive by creating policies to migrate data using S3 Lifecycle, which provides the ability to define the lifecycle of your object and reduce your cost of storage. These policies can be set to migrate objects to the S3 Glacier Deep Archive based on the age of the object. You can specify the policy for an S3 bucket, or for specific prefixes. Lifecycle transitions are billed at the S3 Glacier Deep Archive Upload price.

Tape Gateway, a cloud-based virtual tape library feature of AWS Storage Gateway, now integrates with S3 Glacier Deep Archive, enabling you to store your virtual tape-based, long-term backups and archives in S3 Glacier Deep Archive, thereby providing the lowest cost storage for this data in the cloud. To get started, create a new virtual tape using AWS Storage Gateway Console or API, and set the archival storage target either to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval or S3 Glacier Deep Archive. When your backup application ejects the tape, the tape will be archived to your selected storage target.

29. How do you recommend migrating data from my existing tape archives to S3 Glacier Deep Archive?

There are multiple ways to migrate data from existing tape archives to S3 Glacier Deep Archive. You can use the AWS Tape Gateway to integrate with existing backup applications using a virtual tape library (VTL) interface. This interface presents virtual tapes to the backup application. These can be immediately used to store data in Amazon S3, S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and S3 Glacier Deep Archive.

You can also use AWS Snowball or Snowmobile to migrate data. Snowball and Snowmobile accelerate moving terabytes to petabytes of data into and out of AWS using physical storage devices designed to be secure for transport. Using Snowball and Snowmobile helps to eliminate challenges that can be encountered with large-scale data transfers including high network costs, long transfer times, and security concerns.

Finally, you can use AWS Direct Connect to establish dedicated network connections from your premises to AWS. In many cases, Direct Connect can reduce your network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience than internet-based connections.

30. How can I retrieve my objects stored in S3 Glacier Deep Archive?

To retrieve data stored in S3 Glacier Deep Archive, initiate a “Restore” request using the Amazon S3 APIs or the Amazon S3 Management Console. The Restore creates a temporary copy of your data in the S3 Standard storage class while leaving the archived data intact in S3 Glacier Deep Archive. You can specify the amount of time in days for which the temporary copy is stored in S3. You can then access your temporary copy from S3 through an Amazon S3 GET request on the archived object.

When restoring an archived object, you can specify one of the following options in the Tier element of the request body: Standard is the default tier and lets you access any of your archived objects within 12 hours, and Bulk lets you retrieve large amounts, even petabytes of data inexpensively and typically completes within 48 hours.

31. How am I charged for using S3 Glacier Deep Archive?

S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage is priced based on the amount of data you store in GBs, the number of PUT/lifecycle transition requests, retrievals in GBs, and the number of restore requests. This pricing model is similar to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval. Please see the Amazon S3 pricing page for information about S3 Glacier Deep Archive pricing.

32. How will S3 Glacier Deep Archive usage show up on my AWS bill and in the AWS Cost Management tool?

S3 Glacier Deep Archive usage and cost will show up as an independent service line item on your monthly AWS bill, separate from your Amazon S3 usage and costs. However, if you are using the AWS Cost Management tool, S3 Glacier Deep Archive usage and cost will be included under the Amazon S3 usage and cost in your detailed monthly spend reports, and not broken out as a separate service line item.

33. How does the S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class differ from the S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, and S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage classes?

S3 Glacier Deep Archive expands our data archiving offerings, enabling you to select the optimal storage class based on storage and retrieval costs, and retrieval times. Choose the S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class when you need milliseconds to access to low-cost archive data. For archive data that does not require immediate access but needs the flexibility to retrieve large sets of data at no cost, such as backup or disaster recovery use cases, choose S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly S3 Glacier), with retrieval in minutes or free bulk retrievals in 5-12 hours.

S3 Glacier Deep Archive, in contrast, is designed for colder data that is very unlikely to be accessed but still requires long-term, durable storage. S3 Glacier Deep Archive is up to 75% less expensive than S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and provides retrieval within 12 hours using the Standard retrieval speed. You may also reduce retrieval costs by selecting Bulk retrieval, which will return data within 48 hours.