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Amazon S3 Inventory provides scheduled listings of the objects in your S3 bucket, along with key metadata. You can generate these reports daily or weekly in CSV or Apache Parquet format, simplifying auditing, compliance, and analytics workflows.

What Is Amazon S3 Inventory?

An S3 Inventory report gives you a flat-file listing of all objects and their metadata stored in a bucket. It’s ideal for:

Auditing object-level configurations
Generating cost and usage analytics
Verifying compliance requirements
Bulk operations (e.g., export object keys for processing)

Report Formats and Delivery

You can choose one of two output formats:

Format	Advantages
CSV	Widely supported by spreadsheets and ETL tools
Apache Parquet	Optimized for big-data queries (e.g., Amazon Athena)

Reports are delivered to a destination bucket in the same AWS Region, and you can configure optional encryption and prefix settings.

Note

Inventory reports can take up to 48 hours to appear when first enabled. Plan accordingly before running compliance checks.

Metadata Fields Included

By default, each inventory entry includes the following metadata fields:

Field	Description
Bucket name	The name of the source bucket
Object key	The object’s path and file name
Version ID	Version identifier (requires versioning)
Size	Object size in bytes
Last modified	Timestamp of the last modification
Storage class	e.g., STANDARD, INTELLIGENT_TIERING
Replication status	`COMPLETE`, `PENDING`, or `FAILED`
Encryption status	e.g., `AES256` or AWS KMS key
Object lock status	Holds `GOVERNANCE` or `COMPLIANCE` locks

The image lists the types of information included in an inventory report, such as bucket name, key name, version ID, size, last modified date, storage class, replication status, encryption status, and object lock status. It also suggests referring to documentation for a complete list.

Refer to the AWS documentation for the full list of available fields.

Configuring S3 Inventory Reports

You can set up an inventory report via the AWS CLI, SDK, or the S3 console. Below is an example using the AWS CLI:

aws s3api put-bucket-inventory-configuration \
  --bucket my-source-bucket \
  --id daily-inventory \
  --inventory-configuration '{
    "Destination": {
      "S3BucketDestination": {
        "AccountId": "123456789012",
        "Bucket": "arn:aws:s3:::my-destination-bucket",
        "Format": "CSV",
        "Prefix": "inventory-reports/"
      }
    },
    "IsEnabled": true,
    "Filter": {
      "Prefix": "data/"
    },
    "IncludedObjectVersions": "All",
    "OptionalFields": [
      "Size",
      "LastModifiedDate",
      "StorageClass",
      "ETag",
      "IsMultipartUploaded",
      "ReplicationStatus"
    ],
    "Schedule": {
      "Frequency": "Daily"
    }
  }'

Warning

If you include VersionId, versioning must be enabled on the source bucket. Otherwise, the report will fail.

Key Configuration Options

Schedule.Frequency: Daily or Weekly
IncludedObjectVersions: All or Current
OptionalFields: Add any additional metadata fields you require
Destination.S3BucketDestination.Prefix: Organize reports under a common prefix

References

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