# Using the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance Using the hardware appliance **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. The AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance is a physical hardware appliance with the Storage Gateway software preinstalled on a validated server configuration. You can manage the hardware appliances in your deployment from the **Hardware appliance overview** page in the AWS Storage Gateway console. The hardware appliance is a high-performance 1U server that you can deploy in your data center, or on-premises inside your corporate firewall. When you buy and activate your hardware appliance, the activation process associates the hardware appliance with your AWS account. After activation, your hardware appliance appears in the console on the **Hardware appliance overview** page. You can configure the hardware appliance as an S3 File Gateway, FSx File Gateway, Tape Gateway, or Volume Gateway type. The procedure that you use to deploy these gateway types on a hardware appliance is same as on a virtual platform. For a list of supported AWS Regions where the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance is available for activation and use, see [AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance Regions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/sg.html#sg-hardware-appliance) in the *AWS General Reference*. In the sections that follow, you can find instructions about how to set up, rack mount, power, configure, activate, launch, use, and delete an AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance. **Topics** + [ # Setting up your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance ](appliance-quick-start.md) + [ # Physically installing your hardware appliance ](appliance-rack-mount.md) + [ # Accessing the hardware appliance console ](access-hardware-appliance-console.md) + [ # Configuring hardware appliance network parameters ](appliance-configure-network.md) + [ # Activating your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance ](appliance-activation.md) + [ # Creating a gateway on your hardware appliance ](appliance-launch-gateway.md) + [ # Configuring a gateway IP address on the hardware appliance ](appliance-configure-ip.md) + [ # Removing gateway software from your hardware appliance ](appliance-remove-gateway.md) + [ # Deleting your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance ](delete-appliance.md) # Setting up your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance Setting up your hardware appliance **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. After you receive your Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance, you use the hardware appliance local console to configure networking to provide an always-on connection to AWS and activate your appliance. Activation associates your appliance with the AWS account that is used during the activation process. After the appliance is activated, you can launch an S3 File Gateway, FSx File Gateway, Tape Gateway, or Volume Gateway from the Storage Gateway console. **To install and configure your hardware appliance** 1. Rack-mount the appliance, and plug in power and network connections. For more information, see [Physically installing your hardware appliance](appliance-rack-mount.md). 1. Set the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses for the hardware appliance (the host). For more information, see [Configuring hardware appliance network parameters](appliance-configure-network.md). 1. Activate the hardware appliance on the console **Hardware appliance overview** page in the AWS Region of your choice. For more information, see [Activating your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance](appliance-activation.md). 1. Create a gateway on your hardware appliance. For more information, see [Creating your gateway](create-file-gateway.md). You set up gateways on your hardware appliance the same way that you set up gateways on VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), or Amazon EC2. **Increasing the usable cache storage** You can increase the usable storage on the hardware appliance from 5 TB to 12 TB. Doing this provides a larger cache for low latency access to data in AWS. If you ordered the 5 TB model, you can increase the usable storage to 12 TB by buying five 1.92 TB SSDs (solid state drives). You can then add them to the hardware appliance before you activate it. If you have already activated the hardware appliance and want to increase the usable storage on the appliance to 12 TB, do the following: 1. Reset the hardware appliance to its factory settings. Contact AWS Support for instructions on how to do this. 1. Add five 1.92 TB SSDs to the appliance. **Network interface card options** Depending on the model of appliance you ordered, it may come with a 10G-Base-T RJ45 copper, or a 10G DA/SFP\$1 network card. + 10G-Base-T NIC configuration: + Use CAT6 cables for 10G or CAT5(e) for 1G + 10G DA/SFP\$1 NIC configuration: + Use Twinax copper Direct Attach Cables up to 5 meters + Dell/Intel compatible SFP\$1 optical modules (SR or LR) + SFP/SFP\$1 copper transceiver for 1G-Base-T or 10G-Base-T # Physically installing your hardware appliance **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. Your appliance has a 1U form factor and fits in a standard International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) compliant 19-inch rack. **Prerequisites** To install your hardware appliance, you need the following components: + Power cables: one required, two recommended. + Supported network cabling (depending on which Network Interface Card (NIC) is included in the hardware appliance). Twinax Copper DAC, SFP\$1 optical module (Intel compatible) or SFP to Base-T copper transceiver. + Keyboard and monitor, or a keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) switch solution. **Note** Before you perform the following procedure, make sure that you meet all of the requirements for the Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance as described in [Networking and firewall requirements for the Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance](Requirements.md#appliance-network-requirements). **To physically install your hardware appliance** 1. Unbox your hardware appliance and follow the instructions contained in the box to rack-mount the server. The following image shows the back of the hardware appliance with ports for connecting power, ethernet, monitor, USB keyboard, and iDRAC. ![\[hardware appliance one rear with network and power connector labels.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/filegateway/latest/files3/images/HWAppliance1Back.png) 1. Plug in a power connection to each of the two power supplies. It's possible to plug in to only one power connection, but we recommend power connections to both power supplies for redundancy. 1. Plug an Ethernet cable into the `em1` port to provide an always-on internet connection. The `em1` port is the first of the four physical network ports on the rear, from left to right. **Note** The hardware appliance doesn't support VLAN trunking. Set up the switch port to which you are connecting the hardware appliance as a non-trunked VLAN port. 1. Plug in the keyboard and monitor. 1. Power on the server by pressing the **Power** button on the front panel, as shown in the following image. ![\[hardware appliance front with power button label.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/filegateway/latest/files3/images/appliance-front.jpeg) **Next step** [Accessing the hardware appliance console](access-hardware-appliance-console.md) # Accessing the hardware appliance console **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. When you power on your hardware appliance, the hardware appliance console appears on the monitor. The hardware appliance console presents a user interface specific to AWS that you can use to set an administrator password, configure initial network parameters, and open a support channel to AWS. To work with the hardware appliance console, enter text from the keyboard and use the `Up`, `Down`, `Right`, and `Left Arrow` keys to move about the screen in the indicated direction. Use the `Tab` key to move forward in order through items on-screen. On some setups, you can use the `Shift+Tab` keystroke to move sequentially backward. Use the `Enter` key to save selections, or to choose a button on the screen. The first time the hardware appliance console appears, the **Welcome** page is displayed, and you are prompted to set a password for the *admin* user account before you can access the console. **To set an admin password** + At the **Please set your login password** prompt, do the following: 1. For **Set Password**, enter a password, and then press `Down arrow`. 1. For **Confirm**, re-enter your password, and then choose **Save Password**. After you set your password, the hardware console **Home** page appears. The **Home** page displays network information for the **em1**, **em2**, **em3**, and **em4** network interfaces, and has the following menu options: + Configure Network + Open Service Console + Change Password + Logout + Open Support Console **Next step** [Configuring hardware appliance network parameters](appliance-configure-network.md) # Configuring hardware appliance network parameters **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. After the hardware appliance boots up and you set your admin user password in the hardware console as described in [Accessing the hardware appliance console](access-hardware-appliance-console.md), use the following procedure to configure network parameters so your hardware appliance can connect to AWS. **To set a network address** 1. From the **Home** page, choose **Configure Network** and then press `Enter`. The **Configure Network** page appears. The **Configure Network** page shows IP and DNS information for each of the 4 network interfaces on the hardware appliance, and includes menu options to configure **DHCP** or **Static** addresses for each. 1. For the **em1** interface, do one of the following: + Choose **DHCP** and press `Enter` to use the IPv4 address assigned by your Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server to your physical network port. Note this address for later use in the activation step. + Choose **Static** and press `Enter` to configure a static IPv4 address. Enter a valid **IP Address**, **Subnet Mask**, **Gateway**, and **DNS** server address for the **em1** network interface. When finished, choose **Save** and then press `Enter` to save the configuration. **Note** You can use this procedure to configure other network interfaces in addition to **em1**. If you configure other interfaces, they must provide the same always-on connection to the AWS endpoints listed in the requirements. Network bonding and Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) are not supported by the hardware appliance or by Storage Gateway. We do not recommend configuring multiple network interfaces on the same subnet as this can sometimes cause routing issues. **To log out of the hardware console** 1. Choose **Back** and press `Enter` to return to the **Home** page. 1. Choose **Logout** and press `Enter` to return to the **Welcome** page. **Next step** [Activating your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance](appliance-activation.md) # Activating your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance Activating your hardware appliance **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. After configuring your IP address, you enter this IP address on the **Hardware** page of the AWS Storage Gateway console to activate your hardware appliance. The activation process registers the appliance to your AWS account. You can choose to activate your hardware appliance in any of the supported AWS Regions. For a list of supported AWS Regions, see [Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance Regions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/sg.html#sg-hardware-appliance) in the *AWS General Reference*. **To activate your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance** 1. Open the [AWS Storage Gateway Management Console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/home) and sign in with the account credentials you want to use to activate your hardware. **Note** For activation only, the following must be true: Your browser must be on the same network as your hardware appliance. Your firewall must allow HTTP access on port 8080 to the appliance for inbound traffic. 1. Choose **Hardware** from the navigation menu on the left side of the page. 1. Choose **Activate appliance**. 1. For **IP Address**, enter the IP address that you configured for your hardware appliance, then choose **Connect**. For more information about configuring the IP address, see [Configuring network parameters](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/filegateway/latest/files3/appliance-configure-network.html). 1. For **Name**, enter a name for your hardware appliance. Names can be up to 255 characters long and can't include a slash character. 1. For **Hardware appliance time zone**, enter the local time zone from which most of the workload for the gateway will be generated., then choose **Next**. The time zone controls when hardware updates take place, with 2 a.m. used as the default scheduled time to perform updates. Ideally, if the time zone is set properly, updates will take place outside of the local working day window by default. 1. Review the activation parameters in the Hardware appliance detail section. You can choose **Previous** to go back and make changes if necessary. Otherwise, choose **Activate** to finish the activation. A banner appears on the **Hardware appliance overview** page, indicating that the hardware appliance has been successfully activated. At this point, the appliance is associated with your account. The next step is to configure and launch an S3 File Gateway, FSx File Gateway, Tape Gateway, or Volume Gateway on the new appliance. **Next step** [Creating a gateway on your hardware appliance](appliance-launch-gateway.md) # Creating a gateway on your hardware appliance **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. You can create an S3 File Gateway, FSx File Gateway, Tape Gateway, or Volume Gateway on any AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance in your deployment. **To create a gateway on your hardware appliance** 1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Storage Gateway console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/home](https://console.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/). 1. Follow the procedures described in [Creating Your Gateway](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/filegateway/latest/files3/create-file-gateway.html) to set up, connect, and configure the type of Storage Gateway that you want to deploy. When you finish creating your gateway in the Storage Gateway console, the Storage Gateway software automatically starts installing on the hardware appliance. If you use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), it can take 5 to 10 minutes for a gateway to display as online in the console. To assign a static IP address to your installed gateway, see [Configuring an IP address for the gateway](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/filegateway/latest/files3/appliance-configure-ip.html). To assign a static IP address to your installed gateway, you next configure the gateway's network interfaces so your applications can use it. **Next step** [Configuring a gateway IP address on the hardware appliance](appliance-configure-ip.md) # Configuring a gateway IP address on the hardware appliance **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. Before you activated your hardware appliance, you assigned an IP address to its physical network interface. Now that you have activated the appliance and launched your Storage Gateway on it, you need to assign another IP address to the Storage Gateway virtual machine that runs on the hardware appliance. To assign a static IP address to a gateway installed on your hardware appliance, configure the IP address from the gateway local console for that gateway. Your applications (such as your NFS or SMB client) connect to this IP address. You can access the gateway local console from the hardware appliance console using the **Open Service Console** option. **To configure an IP address on your appliance to work with applications** 1. On the hardware console, choose **Open Service Console** and then press `Enter` to open the login page for the gateway local console. 1. The AWS Storage Gateway local console login page prompts you to login to change your network configuration and other settings. The default account is `admin` and the default password is `password`. **Note** We recommend changing the default password by entering the corresponding numeral for **Gateway Console** from the **AWS Appliance Activation - Configuration** main menu, then running the `passwd` command. For information about how to run the command, see [Running Storage Gateway commands on the local console](MaintenanceGatewayConsole-fgw.md). You can also set the password from the Storage Gateway console. For more information, see [Setting the local console password from the Storage Gateway console](LocalConsole-login-fgw.md#set-password). 1. The **AWS Appliance Activation - Configuration** page includes the following menu options: + HTTP/SOCKS Proxy Configuration + Network Configuration + Test Network Connectivity + View System Resource Check + System Time Management + License Information + Command Prompt **Note** Some options appear only for specific gateway types or host platforms. Enter the corresponding numeral to navigate to the **Network Configuration** page. 1. Do one of the following to configure the gateway IP address: + To use the IP address assigned by your Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, enter the corresponding numeral for **Configure DHCP**, and then enter valid DHCP configuration information on the following page. + To assign a static IP address, enter the corresponding numeral for **Configure Static IP**, and then enter valid IP address and DNS information on the following page. **Note** The IP address you specify here must be on the same subnet as the IP address used during hardware appliance activation. **To exit the gateway local console** + Press the `Crtl+]` (close bracket) keystroke. The hardware console appears. **Note** The keystroke preceding is the only way to exit the gateway local console. After your hardware appliance has been activated and configured, your appliance appears in the console. Now you can continue the setup and configuration procedure for your gateway in the Storage Gateway console. For instructions, see [Configure your Amazon S3 File Gateway](create-gateway-file.md#configure-gateway-s3-file). # Removing gateway software from your hardware appliance **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. If you no longer need a specific Storage Gateway that you have deployed on a hardware appliance, you can remove the gateway software from the hardware appliance. After you remove the gateway software, you can choose to deploy a new gateway in its place, or delete the hardware appliance itself from the Storage Gateway console. To remove gateway software from your hardware appliance, use the following procedure. **To remove a gateway from a hardware appliance** 1. Open the Storage Gateway console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/home](https://console.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/). 1. Choose **Hardware** from the navigation pane on the left side of the console page, and then choose the **Hardware appliance name** for the appliance from which you want to remove gateway software. 1. From the **Actions** drop down menu, choose **Remove gateway**. The confirmation dialog box appears. 1. Verify that you want to remove the gateway software from the specified hardware appliance, and then type the word `remove` in the confirmation box. 1. Choose **Remove** to permanently remove the gateway software. **Note** After you remove the gateway software, you can't undo the action. For certain gateway types, you can lose data on deletion, particularly cached data. For more information on deleting a gateway, see [Deleting your gateway and removing associated resources](deleting-gateway-common.md). Removing the gateway doesn't delete the hardware appliance from the console. The hardware appliance remains for future gateway deployments. # Deleting your AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance Deleting your hardware appliance **Note** End of availability notice: As of May 12, 2025, the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance will no longer be offered. Existing customers with the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance can continue to use and receive support until May 2028. As an alternative, you can use the AWS Storage Gateway service to give your applications on-premises and in-cloud access to virtually unlimited cloud storage. If you no longer need an AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance that you have already activated, you can delete the appliance completely from your AWS account. **Note** To move your appliance to a different AWS account or AWS Region, you must first delete it using the following procedure, then open the gateway's support channel and contact Support to perform a soft reset. For more information, see [Turning on Support access to help troubleshoot your gateway hosted on-premises](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/filegateway/latest/files3/troubleshooting-on-premises-gateway-issues.html#enable-support-access-on-premises). **To delete your hardware appliance** 1. If you have installed a gateway on the hardware appliance, you must first remove the gateway before you can delete the appliance. For instructions on how to remove a gateway from your hardware appliance, see [Removing gateway software from your hardware appliance](appliance-remove-gateway.md). 1. On the Hardware page of the Storage Gateway console, choose the hardware appliance you want to delete. 1. For **Actions**, choose **Delete Appliance**. The confirmation dialog box appears. 1. Verify that you want to delete the specified hardware appliance, then type the word *delete* in the confirmation box and choose **Delete**. When you delete the hardware appliance, all resources associated with the gateway that is installed on the appliance are deleted, but the data on the hardware appliance itself is not deleted.