How to add AWS as backup provider

To use AWS S3 as a backup destination in Ploi you need an IAM user with an access key/secret pair that can write to your backup bucket. This guide walks through the current AWS console flow.

1. Create the IAM user

Sign in to the AWS IAM console, open Users in the sidebar and click Create user. Give the user a name (for example ploi-backups) and continue. AWS no longer asks you to choose "Programmatic access" at this step — you create an access key separately once the user exists.

2. Attach a permissions policy

On the permissions step, choose Attach policies directly. For the quickest setup you can attach the built-in AmazonS3FullAccess policy, but we recommend a least-privilege policy scoped to just your backup bucket. Choose Create policy, switch to the JSON editor and paste the following, replacing your-bucket-name with your bucket name:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": ["s3:ListBucket", "s3:GetBucketLocation"],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": ["s3:PutObject", "s3:GetObject", "s3:DeleteObject"],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*"
        }
    ]
}

Give the policy a name, create it, then attach it to your new user.

3. Create an access key

Open the user you just created, go to the Security credentials tab and click Create access key. Choose Third-party service (or "Application running outside AWS") as the use case, confirm, and create the key.

You'll be shown an Access key ID and a Secret access key. Copy both now — the secret is only shown once.

4. Add the credentials to Ploi

In Ploi, add AWS as a backup provider and enter the access key, secret key, your bucket name and its region. Your database and file backups can now be stored in S3.