☁️ SMB to AWS S3 Migration with Storage Gateway
Objectives:
- Centralize file shares stored across various on-prem devices
- Migrate legacy SMB file servers to cloud-backed storage
- Maintain compatibility with Windows-based SMB clients
- Improve file structure, ownership clarity, and long-term manageability
- Assessment & Discovery:
- Identified existing SMB shares across NAS, Linux, and Windows-based hosts.
- Conducted analysis of file ownership using ACLs and Active Directory metadata.
- Located redundant or duplicate files and performed content-based deduplication.
- Developed a structured folder hierarchy to replace flat or chaotic share structures.
- AWS Setup:
- Created an S3 bucket to serve as the backend object store.
- Provisioned AWS Storage Gateway in File Gateway mode.
- Configured IAM roles and S3 lifecycle policies to manage archival and retention.
- Storage Gateway Deployment:
- Deployed a virtual Storage Gateway appliance on VMware.
- Registered and activated the gateway through the AWS Console.
- Integrated with Active Directory to preserve NTFS permissions and ACL mappings.
- Data Migration:
- Consolidated and transferred cleaned datasets to the Storage Gateway SMB shares.
- Used checksum-based comparison tools to ensure data integrity post-migration.
- Verified client access, performance, and permissions mapping.
- Client Integration & GPO Configuration:
- Applied SMB share mappings to all workstations using Active Directory Group Policy.
- Configured GPO to map network drives consistently across user logins.
- Performed testing under various user roles to validate access control boundaries.
- Monitoring & Optimization:
- Enabled Amazon CloudWatch monitoring for gateway health and activity metrics.
- Tuned local disk cache sizes and prefetch behavior for frequently accessed files.
Result:
The company transitioned from a disorganized, hardware-dependent file sharing model to a centralized, cloud-native solution. Benefits included:- Significantly simplified IT operations and backup management
- Reduced risk of hardware failure and local storage fragmentation
- Retained compatibility with Windows SMB clients via native drive mappings
- Improved traceability of file access and ownership through AD integration