--- title: Bucket lifecycle management for Object Storage summary: null url: >- https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/platform/object-storage/bucket-lifecycle-management --- Bucket lifecycle management lets you define rules that automatically expire objects in a Fastly Object Storage bucket after a set number of days, without having to delete them yourself. This is useful for cleaning up data on a schedule, such as rotating log files, removing temporary uploads, or enforcing a retention window for objects you only need for a limited time. This guide covers the elements that make up a lifecycle rule, how Fastly evaluates those rules, the S3-compatible API operations used to configure them, and how to apply and manage lifecycle configuration on your buckets. Because Fastly Object Storage charges for stored data as long as it remains in a bucket, lifecycle rules give you a way to automate removal so you aren't paying for data you no longer need. > **NOTE:** Fastly Object Storage bills for a minimum storage duration of 30 days per object. If you configure a rule with an `Expiration.Days` value shorter than 30 days, the object is removed on schedule but is still billed as though it were stored for the full 30 days. A shorter expiration reduces how long the object remains stored and accessible, but it doesn't reduce your storage costs below the 30-day minimum. ## Before you begin Make sure you review the [prerequisites](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/platform/object-storage/about-object-storage/#prerequisites) for using Fastly Object Storage. ## Lifecycle rule reference A lifecycle rule supports the following elements: | Element | Description | Notes | | :---------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `ID` | A unique identifier for the rule, up to 255 characters. | Can't start with `fst-` or `fastly-`. If omitted, Fastly generates a random UUID, matching Amazon S3 behavior. | | `Status` | Controls whether a lifecycle rule is active. | Must be set to `Enabled`. Rules set to `Disabled` aren't supported. Remove a rule you don't want active instead of disabling it. | | `Filter.Prefix` | Limits the rule to objects whose key starts with the given prefix, up to 1024 bytes. | An empty or omitted prefix matches every object in the bucket (see [bucket-wide rules](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/platform/object-storage/bucket-lifecycle-management#bucket-wide-rules)). | | `Expiration.Days` | The number of days after an object's creation at which it expires. | The minimum value is `1`. | ### Unsupported elements The following elements are part of the S3 lifecycle configuration API but are not supported. Requests that include them are rejected: | Rejected Element | Reason | | :---------------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `Transition`, `NoncurrentVersionTransition` | Storage class transitions aren't supported. | | `Expiration.Date` | Expiration by a fixed calendar date isn't supported. Use `Expiration.Days` instead. | | `Filter.Tag`, `Filter.And` | Tag-based and compound (multi-condition) filters aren't supported. Only a single prefix filter per rule is allowed. | | `Filter.ObjectSizeGreaterThan`, `Filter.ObjectSizeLessThan` | Size-based filters aren't supported. | | `NoncurrentVersionExpiration`, `ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker` | Object versioning isn't supported by Fastly Object Storage, so version-related lifecycle actions don't apply. | | `AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload` | Fastly Object Storage automatically cleans up incomplete multipart uploads on a platform-managed schedule. This interval isn't customer-configurable. | > **NOTE:** Fastly Object Storage requires `Prefix` to be nested inside `Filter`. The older S3 format, where `` appears directly under ``, is not supported and returns a `MalformedXML` error. All AWS SDKs, the AWS CLI, and Boto3 (the AWS SDK for Python) use the supported format by default, so this only affects hand-written requests or older tooling. ## Limitations and considerations - Each bucket may have a max of 25 rules. - The minimum `Expiration.Days` value is 1 day. - The `ID` limit is 255 characters and cannot start with `fst-` or `fastly-`. - `Filter.Prefix` can be up to 1024 bytes. ## Rule evaluation How Fastly evaluates lifecycle rules depends on how many rules match a given object and when the evaluation runs. ### Bucket-wide rules An empty `Filter.Prefix` (``, or a `` with no `Prefix` element at all) matches every object in the bucket, letting you apply a single expiration rule bucket-wide. ### Overlapping rules If more than one rule matches an object (for example, a bucket-wide rule and a more specific prefix rule both match the same object) the shortest expiration wins. This holds regardless of which rule's prefix is more specific. For example, given the following two rules, an object at `tmp/upload.dat` matches both: the bucket-wide rule (empty prefix) and the `tmp/` rule. Even though `tmp/` is the more specific prefix, it doesn't take precedence. The object expires after 1 day, because the bucket-wide rule's expiration is shorter: ```html expire-all-objects Enabled 1 expire-temp-files tmp/ Enabled 365 ``` ### Evaluation timing Fastly evaluates lifecycle rules once per day, around midnight UTC. Depending on when an object becomes eligible for expiration relative to that evaluation window, it can take up to 48 hours for the object to actually be removed after it becomes eligible. ## S3-compatible operations Fastly Object Storage exposes lifecycle configuration through three S3-compatible API operations: | Operation | HTTP method | Path | | :--------------------------------- | :---------- | :-------------------- | | Set a lifecycle configuration | `PUT` | `/{bucket}?lifecycle` | | Retrieve a lifecycle configuration | `GET` | `/{bucket}?lifecycle` | | Remove a lifecycle configuration | `DELETE` | `/{bucket}?lifecycle` | `GET` returns the lifecycle configuration set on the bucket. If no rules are configured, it returns a `404 Not Found` with a `NoSuchLifecycleConfiguration` error code. `DELETE` removes all lifecycle rules configured on the bucket and returns `204 No Content`. `PUT` requests must include a `Content-MD5` header or an `x-amz-checksum-*` header (using `CRC32`, `CRC32C`, `SHA1`, or `SHA256`) for payload integrity. Requests signed with AWS Signature Version 4 (SigV4) using a signed payload satisfy this requirement automatically. The AWS CLI and SDKs handle this for you. An example VCL Snippet can be found on the [working with Object Storage](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/platform/object-storage/working-with-object-storage/#configuring-your-fastly-service) page. > **IMPORTANT:** A `PUT` replaces the entire lifecycle configuration. It doesn't merge with any existing rules. If you want to add a rule to a bucket that already has lifecycle rules configured, `GET` the current configuration first, add your new rule to it, then `PUT` the combined result. Because `PUT` replaces the full configuration, tools that don't specify an explicit `ID` for each rule, including some infrastructure-as-code providers like Terraform, will see a new, different ID generated on every apply. To avoid this, always specify an explicit `ID` for each rule. ## Authentication and permissions Lifecycle operations support both [SigV4](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/developerguide/sigv4-auth-using-authorization-header.html) and Fastly API token authentication (using the `Fastly-Key` header). Managing lifecycle configuration requires an access key with **full** access to all buckets: - Retrieving a lifecycle configuration requires the `read-only-admin` [access key permission](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/platform/object-storage/working-with-object-storage#creating-an-access-key). - Setting or removing a lifecycle configuration requires the `read-write-admin` access key permission. Access keys with **limited** access to specific buckets (`read-write-objects`, `read-only-objects`) can't manage lifecycle configuration. ## Managing bucket lifecycle configuration To manage lifecycle configuration, save a configuration to a JSON file and use the AWS CLI (or any S3-compatible client) to apply it. For example, the following file expires objects under a `logs/` prefix after 90 days: ```json { "Rules": [ { "ID": "expire-old-logs", "Filter": { "Prefix": "logs/" }, "Status": "Enabled", "Expiration": { "Days": 90 } } ] } ``` Apply it to a bucket: ```term $ aws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle-configuration --bucket my-bucket --profile fastly-us-east-1 --lifecycle-configuration file://lifecycle.json ``` You can also retrieve the configuration set on a bucket: ```term $ aws s3api get-bucket-lifecycle-configuration --bucket my-bucket --profile fastly-us-east-1 ``` Or remove all lifecycle rules from a bucket entirely: ```term $ aws s3api delete-bucket-lifecycle --bucket my-bucket --profile fastly-us-east-1 ``` > **HINT:** For additional details on these commands, refer to the [AWS CLI documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/v1/userguide/cli-services-s3-commands.html). ## Example configurations Expire objects under a `logs/` prefix after 90 days: ```html expire-old-logs logs/ Enabled 90 ``` Apply different retention periods to different prefixes in the same bucket: ```html expire-temp-files tmp/ Enabled 1 expire-old-logs logs/ Enabled 90 ``` Expire every object in the bucket after one year, regardless of prefix: ```html expire-all-objects Enabled 365 ``` ## Related content - [Working with Object Storage](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/guides/platform/object-storage/working-with-object-storage) - [Object Storage Product API](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/reference/api/products/object_storage/)