Skip to content

S3 Object Storage

3.0 Enterprise Edition

SeaTable allows the use of S3 from AWS or any other S3 compatible object storage e.g. from Exoscale, Minio, OpenStack Swift and Ceph's RGW. In S3 SeaTable stores:

  • Base snapshots
  • Content of picture and file columns

Bucket naming conventions

No matter if you using AWS or any other S3 compatible object storage, we recommend that you follow S3 naming rules. When you create buckets on S3, please read the S3 rules for naming first. Note, especially do not use capital letters in the name of the bucket (do not use camel-style naming, such as MyCommitObjects).

  • seatable-blocks
  • seatable-commits
  • customer-name-storage
  • SeaTableBlocks
  • SUperIMPORTANTS3
  • seatable blocks

Restart required

Don't forget to restart SeaTable service after these configuration changes. Easiest is with

docker exec -it ... seatable.sh restart

Use S3 for base snapshots

The storage of base snapshots are configured in dtable-storage-server.conf. By default the section [storage backend] contains type = filesystem. With this setting, all base snapshots are stored in the folder /opt/seatable-server/seatable/storage-data.

Switch the type to type = s3 to use S3 Object storage. Depending on whether you are using AWS or an S3 compatible service, different configuration options must be used.

AWS requires only a few settings. key_id and key are used to provide S3 authentication. You can find the key_id and key in the Security Credentials section of your AWS account page.

[storage backend]
type = s3
bucket = ...
key_id =
key =

Create the bucket and an IAM Key for accessing the S3 storage from exoscale.

[storage backend]
type = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = sos-de-fra-1.exo.io
use_https = true
key_id = ...
key = ...
path_style_request = true
use_v4_signature = false

Use the following settings to connect to your S3 compatible storage.

[storage backend]
type = s3
bucket = ...
host = ...
use_https = true
key_id =
key =
path_style_request = true
use_v4_signature = false

host is the address and port of the S3 compatible service. You can not add "http" or "https" before the option. By default, it will use http connection. If you want to use https connection, set the option:hostuse_https = true.

path_style_request option tells Seatable to use the form https://192.168.1.123:8080/bucketname/object to access the object. In AWS S3 service, the default URL format is virtual host format, such as https://bucketname.s3.amazonaws.com/object. But general object storage products do not support this format.

Use S3 for files and pictures

S3 Object storage for file and picture columns is configured in /opt/seatable-server/seatable/conf/seafile.conf. You have to add three new sections:

  • [commit_object_backend]
  • [fs_object_backend]
  • [block_backend]
[commit_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-commit-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key

[fs_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-fs-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key

[block_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-block-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key
[commit_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = sos-de-fra-1.exo.io
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
path_style_request = true

[fs_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = sos-de-fra-1.exo.io
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
path_style_request = true

[block_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = sos-de-fra-1.exo.io
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
path_style_request = true
[commit_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-commit-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key

[fs_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-fs-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key

[block_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-block-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key

Advanced configurations

Use the new AWS S3 service area

Since January 2014, the new AWS service area only provides version 4 certification and signing protocol support for S3. This includes such as China region, EU central regions.

To use S3 in the new service area, add the following additional options in the three buckets "commit_object_backend", "fs_object_backend", "block_backend":

use_v4_signature = true
aws_region = eu-central-1    # eu-central-1 for Frankfurt region

If you are using S3 in China or Germany, you also need to add the host configuration of the corresponding region under each bucket configuration section, for example, Beijing, China:

host = s3.cn-north-1.amazonaws.com.cn