How do I move data or files from Amazon EFS Infrequent Access to Amazon EFS Standard?

Resolution

Move files to Standard storage

To move files from Amazon EFS IA to Amazon EFS Standard, complete the following steps:

1. Temporarily copy the files to another location.
2. Move the files back to the original location on the EFS file system.

For example, to return a file that's mounted at /efs/file-old to Standard storage, copy the file to /efs/file-new:

$ cp /efs/file-old /efs/file-new

Note: When you run the mv command to move or rename files, the files don't transfer to Standard storage class. To keep files in Standard storage class, stop lifecycle management on the file system, and then copy the files.

For more information, see EFS storage classes.

You can also use Amazon EFS lifecycle policies to move files to Standard storage. If access patterns change, then the lifecycle policy automatically moves files back to EFS Standard. You must set the Transition into Standard lifecycle policy to On first access.

Determine the files that are moved to IA storage

Amazon EFS lifecycle management tracks when you last accessed a file. Amazon EFS doesn't use the publicly viewable POSIX file system attributes. When a file in Standard storage is written to or read from, the lifecycle management resets its tracking.

Files move to IA storage for the following reasons:

• The files are 128 KiB or larger, and you didn't access or modify the files within your selected time frame.
• You modify a file's metadata that doesn't change the file, so the transition isn't delayed.
• Metadata operations, such as listing the contents of a directory, don't count as file access.

File metadata, such as file names, ownership information, and file system directory structure, is always stored in Standard storage for consistent metadata performance.