Setup S3 Bucket

S3 BUCKET CREATION & CONFIGURATION

1. Create S3 Bucket

Go to: https://s3.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/home

Click Create bucket, and fill in:

▸ AWS Region:

• Choose your preferred (same as in your AWS profile), e.g., us-east-1

  If you are using a different AWS region, you will need to update the region in the AWS Management Console on the upper right, next to Account ID

▸ Bucket type:

• Choose “General purpose”

▸ Bucket name:

• Use lowercase, no spaces.
• Example: face-recognition-users
• Remember the bucket name

2. Object Ownership

This affects whether objects uploaded by others are owned by you (the bucket owner)

Recommended Setting:

• Choose: ACLs disabled (Bucket owner enforced) → safest & preferred
• Why: Prevents cross-account issues and ensures the bucket owner owns all uploaded files.

3. Block Public Access Settings

This determines if objects can be made public.

*Recommended Setting** (FOR PRIVATE FACE DATA):

• Leave all 4 checkboxes checked (default)
  • Block all public access
  • Block public ACLs
  • Block public bucket policies
  • Restrict public buckets

📌 Why? You do not want anyone from the internet accessing user face images.

If testing requires public access temporarily, you can unblock later, but always re-enable for production.

4. Bucket Versioning

This stores multiple versions of the same file.

• Recommended: Disable
• Unless you need to track changes or deletions, versioning is unnecessary and costs more.

5. Default Encryption

Encrypts objects at rest.

Recommended: Enable

• Select: S3-managed keys (SSE-S3) → simplest and still secure
• Or, for more control: AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS) → for regulated environments

📌 Encryption helps protect sensitive facial data.

6. Advanced Settings

You can skip most of this unless needed for logging or replication. Tags: Not needed now (optional for cost tracking)

Object Locking: Leave disabled unless you need WORM (write once, read many)

Final Step: Create Bucket

Click “Create bucket” to finish.

Post-Setup Checks

1. Permissions tab:
   • Ensure “Block all public access” is still enabled.

2. Properties tab:
   • Confirm encryption and region are correct.

3. Upload test file (optional):
   • Upload a face image into a faces/ folder (optional organization).

Summary for Face Rekognition Use Case

STEP 2: Set Up .env

Create a .env file in your project folder (or like the .env.example in the clone project of this workshop, the others env like Dynamo can be build later in this workshop):

AWS_REGION=us-east-1 #or the region specified that you selected
S3_BUCKET=your-bucket-name
REKOGNITION_COLLECTION= your-collection-name