Q: You accidentally deleted an important file from S3. How do you recover it?
If versioning is enabled: The delete created a "delete marker." You can recover by:
#AWS #S3 & Storage #L1 #Cloud #Infrastructure #S3
🎙️ Candidate Opening & Architectural Context
""In a previous role, our monitoring paged me for a similar incident across our AWS VPC infrastructure. When addressing this question, I walk the interviewer through our production incident runbook: isolating the blast radius, checking diagnostic logs and metrics, and applying a safe fix.""
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🛠️ Production Runbook & Step-by-Step Resolution
1️⃣
Initial Diagnostics & Root Cause Analysis
If versioning is enabled: The delete created a "delete marker." You can recover by:
- Go to S3 console → show versions → find the version before the delete marker → restore it.
aws s3api list-object-versions --bucketthen--prefix aws s3api get-object --version-id.- Check if you have a backup (S3 Replication to another bucket, AWS Backup).
2️⃣
Remediation & Permanent Safeguards
If versioning is NOT enabled: The object is permanently deleted. Options: Lesson: Always enable versioning on important buckets. Enable MFA Delete for extra protection.
- Check CloudTrail for when it was deleted and by whom.
- No recovery possible without prior versioning or backup.
💡 The Senior SRE Gold Nugget (Key Architectural Takeaway)
"Pro-Tip: Go to S3 console → show versions → find the version before the delete marker → restore it.."
⚡ 60-Second Elevator Pitch Talking Points
- Go to S3 console → show versions → find the version before the delete marker → restore it.
- aws s3api list-object-versions --bucket --prefix then aws s3api get-object --version-id .
- Check if you have a backup (S3 Replication to another bucket, AWS Backup).
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