Download Snowball Edge Client
Lester Chiaramonte
The Snowball Edge client is the tool that you use to unlock the AWS Snowball Edge device. We recommend that you use the AWS OpsHub for Snow Family application. For instructions, see Using AWS OpsHub for Snow Family to Manage Devices.
AWS OpsHub is a graphical user interface you can use to manage AWS Snowball devices. AWS OpsHub makes it easy to setup and manage AWS Snowball devices enabling you to rapidly deploy edge computing workloads and simplify data migration to the cloud. With just a few clicks in AWS OpsHub, you have the full functionality of the Snow Family of devices at your fingertips; you can unlock and configure devices, drag-and-drop data to devices, launch applications, and monitor device metrics.
We recommend using the latest Linux or Mac clients which support the Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (AES-NI) extension to the x86 instruction set architecture. This improves speeds for encrypting or decrypting data during transfers between the Snow Family devices and your Mac or Linux workstations.
Every time you run a command for the Snowball Edge client, you provide your manifest file, unlock code, and an IP address. You can get the first two of these from the AWS Snow Family Management Console or the job management API. For more information about getting your manifest and unlock code, see Getting Your Credentials and Tools.
You have the option of using the snowballEdge configure command to store the path to the manifest, the 29-character unlock code, and the endpoint as a profile. After configuration, you can use other Snowball Edge client commands without having to manually enter these values for a particular job. After you configure the Snowball Edge client, the information is saved in a plaintext JSON format to home directory/.aws/snowball/config/snowball-edge.config.
To unlock a standalone AWS Snowball Edge device, run the snowballEdge unlock-device command. To unlock a cluster, use the snowballEdge unlock-cluster command. These commands authenticate your access to the AWS Snowball Edge device.
Using the snowballEdge list-access-keys and snowballEdge get-secret-access-key commands, you can get the credentials of the admin user of your AWS account on Snowball Edge. You can use these credentials to create AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM users) and roles, and to authenticate your requests when using the AWS CLI or with an AWS SDK. These credentials are only associated with an individual job for Snowball Edge, and you can use them only on the device or cluster of devices. The device or devices don't have any IAM permissions in the AWS Cloud.
Snowball Edge devices support multiple services, in addition to Amazon S3. These include compute instances, the file interface, and AWS IoT Greengrass. Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 are always on by default, and can't be stopped or restarted with the Snowball Edge client. However, the file interface and AWS IoT Greengrass can be started with the snowballEdge start-service command. To get the service ID for each service, you can use the snowballEdge list-services command.
You can set up an external Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. You can use the NTP CLI commands when the device is in both locked and unlocked states. The manifest and unlock code are required. You can set these either with the snowballEdge configure command or by using the --manifest-file and --unlock-code options. Note that you can use the snowballEdge CLI on both AWS Snowcone Edge and AWS Snowcone.
Following, you can find information about how to get and use the Snowball Edge client with your AWS Snowball Edge device. The Snowball Edge client is a standalone terminal application that you run on your local server to unlock the device and get credentials, logs, and status information. You can also use the client for administrative tasks for a cluster. While using the Snowball Edge client, you can get additional support information by running the snowballEdge help command.
You can download and install the Snowball Edge client from AWS Snowball Edge Resources. On that page, you can find the installation package for your operating system. Follow the instructions to install the Snowball Edge client. Running the Snowball Edge client from a terminal in your workstation might require using a specific path, depending on your operating system:
You can use Snowball Edge Compute Optimized to collect information, process it, gain real-time insight, and then move the information to AWS. Snowball Edge lets you transfer information continuously produced by machines or sensors at factory floors, hospitals, ships, or other edge points to AWS.
After a device arrives, you set up a connection with your local area network and automatically establish the IP address with DHCP. Then utilize Snowball Edge client software, job manifest, and unlock code to check the Snowball Edge cluster or device's integrity and unlock it. Snowball Edge uniquely generates the manifest and cryptographic unlock code.
Before transferring data to your Snowball edge, you first need to configure it. Connect the powered-off box to your local network. There are various ways of doing it, be sure to read this article to learn more about connecting the Snowball to your network. Turn it on, and you will see a short video while the device is booting.
This step removes any temporary files in workstation and deletes all files on the Snowball as well as Content Hub workspace snowball folder that is associated with the job. It should only be used to prepare the workstation for the next job, or reset to initial state for the current job.
At this point, MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup does not recognize what files are in the cloud because the app tracks uploaded files with a local database called repository. This database only contains records about the files that had been uploaded to Amazon S3 with a regular backup plan. Information about the files uploaded using AWS Snowball edge is not in the repository yet and can be retrieved from the cloud by performing a repository sync.
An enterprise then connects Snowball Edge to a local network and unlocks the device. Next, it can transfer local data onto the appliance through either a Network File System (NFS) interface or an S3-compatible endpoint. Alternatively, it's possible to copy local data onto the device through the Snowball client.
In addition to data import and export, an enterprise can use Snowball Edge to provide local compute processing and storage capabilities for edge computing workloads. In addition to remote offices, the device's durable form factor makes it a good fit to provide these capabilities in harsh environments, such as an oil and gas rig or manufacturing facility that might be part of an internet of things (IoT) deployment.
Using the Amazon Snowball client (Recommended)
When you back up data to the Amazon Snowball device using the Amazon Snowball client, data is first staged on the NetBackup media server and then using the Amazon Snowball client, data is moved to the Amazon Snowball device.
To transfer data to the Snowball Edge, you need to use the Snowball client provided by AWS. Connect the device to your computer, install and configure the client, and use the import job command to upload your data. The Snowball Edge has a large storage capacity of up to 80 TB.
Data transfer to the Snowball Edge can be done using the Snowball client which is a software tool provided by AWS. First, you need to connect the Snowball Edge device to your computer using the USB cable. Then, install and configure the Snowball client, which allows you to interact with the device and transfer your data.
Once the client is set up, you can use the import job command to upload your data to the Snowball Edge. The client provides options to specify the source directory, destination on the device, and other settings for the transfer. The Snowball Edge device has a built-in storage capacity of up to 80 TB, so it can handle large volumes of data.
Hi All,
We just received our Snowball Edge and configured it based on the guides available from Amazon. The Snowball is connected to our main switch with 10GB SFP+ and clients are accessing through 1GB connections. The main reason we wanted the Edge was for the mountable NFS file system so not so technical users could drag their files onto the Snowball Edge over the network just like an SMB share they are used to.
Once the file interface was set up we went ahead and tested this on windows. We mounted the file share as the guide says using the command line and saw that the snowball AWS bucket was mounted. As a test, tried uploading a 4GB file and transfer speeds were maxed out at 20MBps. Since speeds were slow, we directly connected the snowball to a PC via 1GB RJ45. Transfer speeds were exactly the same. While transferring data I opened up the resource monitor and noticed that the network connection speeds were maxing out at 200Mbps \ 20MBps. To rule out Operating Systems also tried the same exact two tests using the latest version of Mac OS. Transfer speeds were even slower at 6MBps.
I know this cant be network related as I've tried moving the same exacted test file over a 1GB connection to a NAS and saw speeds of 980Mbps \ 112MBps
Any insight is greatly appreciated as I am a bit stumped. Thanks.
I found the only and best way around this was to run multiple copy commands at the same time, on a well-speced machine connected with the least amount of hops to the snowball. You might also want to consider using the AWS snowball adaptor to channel the transfers nicely.
AWS Snow Family is a petabyte-scale data transport solution that uses secure devices to transfer large amounts of data between your on-premises data centers and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). The Snow commands described here provide access to the same functionality that is available in the AWS Snow Family Management Console, which enables you to create and manage jobs for a Snow device. To transfer data locally with a Snow device, you'll need to use the Snowball Edge client or the Amazon S3 API Interface for Snowball or AWS OpsHub for Snow Family. For more information, see the User Guide
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