How to use AWS CDK to deploy an S3 bucket with custom lifecycle policies

Introduction

In this lesson, we will learn how to use AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) to deploy an S3 bucket with custom lifecycle policies. AWS CDK is an open-source software development framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code and provisioning it through AWS CloudFormation. It allows developers to use familiar programming languages such as TypeScript, Python, Java, and C# to model and provision cloud application resources.

What is AWS CDK?

AWS CDK is an open-source software development framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code and provisioning it through AWS CloudFormation. It allows developers to use familiar programming languages such as TypeScript, Python, Java, and C# to model and provision cloud application resources.

AWS CDK provides a set of high-level abstractions called “constructs” that allow developers to define cloud resources in a way that is both human-readable and machine-readable. Constructs are pre-defined components that can be used to quickly and easily create cloud resources.

What is an S3 Bucket?

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is an object storage service that stores and retrieves data from the cloud. It is a highly durable, secure, and highly available storage service that can store any type of data. S3 buckets are the containers for storing objects in S3.

What is a Lifecycle Policy?

A lifecycle policy is a set of rules that define how objects in an S3 bucket should be managed over time. These rules can be used to automate the process of moving objects to different storage classes, archiving objects, or deleting objects after a certain period of time.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, there are a few prerequisites that must be met in order to successfully deploy an S3 bucket with custom lifecycle policies using AWS CDK.

An AWS account
An AWS IAM user with appropriate permissions
The AWS CLI installed and configured
The AWS CDK installed and configured
A text editor or IDE
Basic knowledge of TypeScript

Deploying an S3 Bucket with Custom Lifecycle Policies

In this section, we will walk through the steps required to deploy an S3 bucket with custom lifecycle policies using AWS CDK.

Step 1: Create a New CDK Project

The first step is to create a new CDK project. To do this, we will use the cdk init command. This command will create a new project directory with the necessary files and folders.

$ cdk init --language typescript

Step 2: Create a Construct

The next step is to create a construct. A construct is a high-level abstraction that allows us to define cloud resources in a way that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

To create a construct, we will create a new file called s3-bucket.ts in the lib directory. This file will contain the code for our construct.

import * as cdk from '@aws-cdk/core';
import * as s3 from '@aws-cdk/aws-s3';

export class S3Bucket extends cdk.Construct {
  public readonly bucket: s3.Bucket;

  constructor(scope: cdk.Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StackProps) {
    super(scope, id);

    this.bucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'MyBucket', {
      // bucket properties here
    });
  }
}

Step 3: Add Lifecycle Policies

Now that we have created our construct, we can add lifecycle policies to our S3 bucket. Lifecycle policies allow us to define how objects in an S3 bucket should be managed over time.

To add lifecycle policies to our S3 bucket, we will add the following code to our s3-bucket.ts file:

import * as cdk from '@aws-cdk/core';
import * as s3 from '@aws-cdk/aws-s3';

export class S3Bucket extends cdk.Construct {
  public readonly bucket: s3.Bucket;

  constructor(scope: cdk.Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StackProps) {
    super(scope, id);

    this.bucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'MyBucket', {
      lifecycleRules: [
        {
          expiration: cdk.Duration.days(30),
          transition: [
            {
              storageClass: s3.StorageClass.INTELLIGENT_TIERING,
              transitionAfter: cdk.Duration.days(7),
            },
            {
              storageClass: s3.StorageClass.GLACIER,
              transitionAfter: cdk.Duration.days(14),
            },
          ],
        },
      ],
    });
  }
}

In this example, we have defined a lifecycle policy that will transition objects to the Intelligent Tiering storage class after 7 days, and then to the Glacier storage class after 14 days. After 30 days, the objects will be deleted.

Step 4: Deploy the Construct

Now that we have created our construct and added lifecycle policies, we can deploy it using the cdk deploy command. This command will create a CloudFormation stack and deploy our construct.

$ cdk deploy

Conclusion

In this lesson, we learned how to use AWS CDK to deploy an S3 bucket with custom lifecycle policies. We created a construct, added lifecycle policies, and then deployed the construct using the cdk deploy command. By using AWS CDK, we can quickly and easily define cloud resources in a way that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

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