Troubleshooting S3 Files

Overview

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues: mount failures, IAM permissions, synchronization, conflict resolution, and performance.

For authoritative guidance, see S3 Files Troubleshooting.

Common Tasks

0. Verify Dependencies

• You MUST verify aws CLI is available with s3files subcommand support
• You MUST confirm valid AWS credentials
• You MUST ONLY check for tool existence and version — MUST NOT execute destructive or mutating commands during verification
• You MUST inform the user if any required tools are missing
• You MUST respect the user's decision to abort if tools are unavailable
• You SHOULD explain steps before executing and wait for user confirmation on write commands

1. Classify the Issue

Symptom	Category
mount.s3files: command not found	A: Client Installation
Connection timed out during mount	B: Network/Security Group
Mount hangs indefinitely (no timeout)	B: Network/Security Group
Access denied during mount	C: IAM Permissions
File system stuck in "creating"	C: IAM Permissions
Permission denied on file operations	C: IAM Permissions
Files not appearing in S3 after write	D: Synchronization
Files in .s3files-lost+found directory	E: Conflict Resolution
Slow reads or high latency	F: Performance
NFS server error	G: Encryption/KMS
DNS name resolution fails	H: VPC DNS

2. Category A — Client Installation

mount.s3files: command not found means amazon-efs-utils is missing or < v3.0.0.

sudo yum -y install amazon-efs-utils  # Amazon Linux

3. Category B — Network/Security Group

Connection timeout is the #1 mount failure — almost always security groups.

Verify mount target exists in the instance's AZ:

aws s3files list-mount-targets --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION

Cross-AZ mounting works but adds latency.

Verify security groups — most common fix:

• Mount target SG MUST have inbound TCP 2049 from compute SG
• Compute SG MUST have outbound TCP 2049 to mount target SG
• Fix: aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-MT --protocol tcp --port 2049 --source-group sg-COMPUTE

Test connectivity:

nc -zv az-ID.fs-ID.s3files.REGION.on.aws 2049

Note: These SG troubleshooting steps also apply to EFS — use aws efs describe-mount-targets instead.

Mount hangs in isolated VPC: If the VPC has no internet access, S3 Files requires a CloudWatch Logs VPC endpoint (com.amazonaws.REGION.logs) for mount to complete.

4. Category C — IAM Permissions

File system stuck in "creating" status: S3 Files does NOT validate IAM role permissions at creation time. Wrong trust policy or missing permissions → stuck in creating with access denied in statusMessage.

Check status:

aws s3files get-file-system --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION

Check statusMessage. If access denied, fix the IAM role and delete/recreate.

Mount access denied: Compute role needs s3files:ClientMount. For dev/test only, AmazonS3FilesClientFullAccess is acceptable — avoid in production.

Write permission denied: Compute role needs s3files:ClientWrite

Root access denied: Compute role needs s3files:ClientRootAccess. ⚠️ Bypasses POSIX permissions — prefer access points with scoped POSIX users.

Check file system policy:

aws s3files get-file-system-policy --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION

5. Category D — Synchronization

Files not appearing in S3: Writes sync within ~60 seconds. Check status:

getfattr -n "user.s3files.status;$(date -u +%s)" filename --only-values

Common ExportError values:

Error	Fix
S3AccessDenied	File system IAM role lacks S3 write permissions
S3BucketNotFound	Bucket deleted or renamed
RoleAssumptionFailed	Trust policy misconfigured
EncryptionKeyInaccessible	KMS key disabled or permissions revoked
PathTooLong	File path exceeds 1,024 byte S3 key limit

Monitor: PendingExports CloudWatch metric. Growing = exceeds 800 files/sec rate.

6. Category E — Conflict Resolution

Files in .s3files-lost+found-{fs-id} = sync conflict (modified via FS and S3 simultaneously). S3 wins; FS version moved to lost+found.

7. Category F — Performance

First access latency: Normal — first directory access imports metadata.

Intelligent read routing not working: Compute role needs s3:GetObject on the bucket.

Slow writes: If PendingExports growing, distribute across multiple file systems.

8. Category G — Encryption/KMS

NFS server error with encrypted FS = KMS issue. Verify key is enabled and role has KMS permissions.

9. Category H — VPC DNS

DNS resolution failure = VPC DNS settings disabled.

aws ec2 describe-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --attribute enableDnsHostnames
aws ec2 describe-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --attribute enableDnsSupport

Both MUST be true. If not:

aws ec2 modify-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --enable-dns-hostnames Value=true
aws ec2 modify-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --enable-dns-support Value=true

Troubleshooting

AWS CLI endpoint URL cannot be resolved

CLI is too old for S3 Files. Run aws --version — if v1.x, upgrade to AWS CLI v2: Installing the AWS CLI.

ECS task fails with DNS resolution error

Used efsVolumeConfiguration instead of s3filesVolumeConfiguration. Fix: use fileSystemArn in S3 Files-specific volume config.

S3 Files vs other products confusion

S3 Files is NOT Mountpoint for S3, S3 File Gateway, or File Cache. Uses aws s3files CLI, s3files: IAM actions, mount -t s3files.

Enable Debug Logs

Set logging_level = DEBUG in /etc/amazon/efs/s3files-utils.conf. Logs at /var/log/amazon/efs/mount.log.

Collect Logs for AWS Support

sudo tar -czf /tmp/s3files-logs.tar.gz /var/log/amazon/efs/ /etc/amazon/efs/s3files-utils.conf

Security Considerations

• When diagnosing IAM issues, verify least-privilege — avoid FullAccess as a shortcut
• Without a file system policy, any VPC client can mount
• Restrict /var/log/amazon/efs/ access — logs contain S3 key names

Additional Resources

• S3 Files Troubleshooting
• S3 Files Best Practices
• S3 Files Quotas