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Getting started

This page takes you from the AWS Marketplace listing to a checked copy: subscribe, launch, connect, copy a file to the local destination and compare checksums.

You need: an AWS account with permission to subscribe to AWS Marketplace products, launch EC2 instances and use AWS Systems Manager.

1. Subscribe

Open the rclone listing in AWS Marketplace, choose View purchase options, review the terms and subscribe. When the subscription is confirmed, choose Launch your software.

2. Launch the instance

On the EC2 launch page:

  1. Keep the instance type at t3.medium.
  2. Under Configure storage, use an encrypted gp3 root volume of at least 16 GiB, larger if the destination will stay on the instance.
  3. Under Network settings, allow no inbound traffic. If you also want SSH, allow port 22 from your administrative address range only.
  4. Under Advanced details, choose an IAM instance profile that includes the AWS managed policy AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore, so you can connect with Session Manager.
  5. Choose Launch instance.

3. Connect

In the EC2 console, select the instance, choose Connect, then Session Manager, then Connect. Switch to the ubuntu user:

sudo -iu ubuntu

4. Wait for first boot

On first boot the instance writes the configuration and creates the source, destination and cache folders:

cloud-init status --wait
systemctl is-active sushi-rclone-firstboot
systemctl list-timers rclone-copy.timer

5. Run the walkthrough

bash /opt/sushi/docs/demo.sh

6. Copy a file

Put something in the source folder and give it to the rclone user, which runs the copies:

echo "hello from rclone" | sudo tee /var/lib/rclone/include/hello.txt
sudo chown rclone:rclone /var/lib/rclone/include/hello.txt

See what a copy would do, without writing anything:

sudo -u rclone /opt/sushi/bin/rclone-copy.sh --dry-run

Then copy and compare checksums:

sudo -u rclone /opt/sushi/bin/rclone-copy.sh
sudo -u rclone /opt/sushi/bin/rclone-check.sh

The file is now in /var/lib/rclone/destination/hello.txt. rclone copies the contents of the source folder, not the folder itself. Run the copy again and unchanged files are skipped.

Next, read Configuration to copy to your own S3 bucket.