Downloading an Archive in Amazon Glacier Using the AWS CLI - Amazon Glacier
(Prerequisite) Setting Up the AWS CLIExample: Download an Archive Using the AWS CLI

This page is only for existing customers of the Amazon Glacier service using Vaults and the original REST API from 2012.

If you're looking for archival storage solutions, we recommend using the Amazon Glacier storage classes in Amazon S3, S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and S3 Glacier Deep Archive. To learn more about these storage options, see Amazon Glacier storage classes.

Amazon Glacier (original standalone vault-based service) will no longer accept new customers starting December 15, 2025, with no impact to existing customers. Amazon Glacier is a standalone service with its own APIs that stores data in vaults and is distinct from Amazon S3 and the Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes. Your existing data will remain secure and accessible in Amazon Glacier indefinitely. No migration is required. For low-cost, long-term archival storage, AWS recommends the Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes, which deliver a superior customer experience with S3 bucket-based APIs, full AWS Region availability, lower costs, and AWS service integration. If you want enhanced capabilities, consider migrating to Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes by using our AWS Solutions Guidance for transferring data from Amazon Glacier vaults to Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes.

Downloading an Archive in Amazon Glacier Using the AWS CLI

You can download archives in Amazon Glacier (Amazon Glacier) using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI).

(Prerequisite) Setting Up the AWS CLI

  1. Download and configure the AWS CLI. For instructions, see the following topics in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide:

    Installing the AWS Command Line Interface

    Configuring the AWS Command Line Interface

  2. Verify your AWS CLI setup by entering the following commands at the command prompt. These commands don't provide credentials explicitly, so the credentials of the default profile are used.

    • Try using the help command.

      aws help

    • To get a list of Amazon Glacier vaults on the configured account, use the list-vaults command. Replace 123456789012 with your AWS account ID.

      aws glacier list-vaults --account-id 123456789012

    • To see the current configuration data for the AWS CLI, use the aws configure list command.

      aws configure list

Example: Download an Archive Using the AWS CLI

Note

In order to download your archives you must know your archive ids. Steps 1-4 will retrieve your archive ids. If you already know the archive ids you wish to download skip to step 5.

  1. Use the initiate-job command to start an inventory-retrieval job. The inventory report will list your archive ids.

    aws glacier initiate-job --vault-name awsexamplevault --account-id 111122223333 --job-parameters="{\"Type\":\"inventory-retrieval\"}"

    Expected output:

    
{
    "location": "/111122223333/vaults/awsexamplevault/jobs/*** jobid ***", 
    "jobId": "*** jobid ***"
}

  2. Use the describe-job command to check status of the previous job command.

    aws glacier describe-job --vault-name awsexamplevault --account-id 111122223333 --job-id *** jobid ***

    Expected output:

    {
    "InventoryRetrievalParameters": {
        "Format": "JSON"
    }, 
    "VaultARN": "*** vault arn ***", 
    "Completed": false, 
    "JobId": "*** jobid ***", 
    "Action": "InventoryRetrieval", 
    "CreationDate": "*** job creation date ***", 
    "StatusCode": "InProgress"
}

  3. Wait for the job to complete.

    You must wait until the job output is ready for you to download. If you set a notification configuration on the vault or specified an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic when you initiated the job, Amazon Glacier sends a message to the topic after it completes the job.

    You can set notification configuration for specific events on the vault. For more information, see Configuring Vault Notifications in Amazon Glacier. Amazon Glacier sends a message to the specified SNS topic anytime the specific event occurs.

  4. When it's complete, use the get-job-output command to download the retrieval job to the file output.json. This file will contain your archive ids. 

    aws glacier get-job-output --vault-name awsexamplevault --account-id 111122223333 --job-id *** jobid *** output.json

    This command produces a file with the following fields.

    
{
"VaultARN":"arn:aws:glacier:region:111122223333:vaults/awsexamplevault",
"InventoryDate":"*** job completion date ***",
"ArchiveList":[
{"ArchiveId":"*** archiveid ***",
"ArchiveDescription":*** archive description (if set) ***,
"CreationDate":"*** archive creation date ***",
"Size":"*** archive size (in bytes) ***",
"SHA256TreeHash":"*** archive hash ***"
}
{"ArchiveId":
...
]}

  5. Use the initiate-job command to start the retrieval process each archive from a vault. You will need to specify the job parameter as archive-retrieval as seen below.

    aws glacier initiate-job --vault-name awsexamplevault --account-id 111122223333 --job-parameters="{\"Type\":\"archive-retrieval\",\"ArchiveId\":\"*** archiveId ***\"}"

  6. Wait for the archive-retrieval job to complete. Use the describe-job command to check status of the previous command.

    aws glacier describe-job --vault-name awsexamplevault --account-id 111122223333 --job-id *** jobid ***

  7. When the above job is complete use the get-job-output command to download your archive.

    aws glacier get-job-output --vault-name awsexamplevault --account-id 111122223333 --job-id *** jobid *** output_file_name