# Create a Lightsail bucket for object storage
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Create a bucket in the Amazon Lightsail object storage service when you're ready to start uploading your files to the cloud. Every file that you upload to the Lightsail object storage service is stored in a Lightsail bucket. For more information about buckets, see [Object storage](buckets-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

## Create a bucket
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Complete the following procedure to create a Lightsail bucket.

1. Sign in to the [Lightsail console](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/).

1. In the left navigation pane, choose **Storage**.

1. Choose **Create bucket**.

1. Choose **Change AWS Region** to choose the Region in which to create your bucket.

   We recommend that you create your bucket in the same AWS Region as the resources that you plan to use with your bucket. You cannot change the Region of your bucket after you create it.

1. Choose a storage plan for your bucket.

   The storage plan specifies the monthly cost, storage space quota, and data transfer quota for your bucket.

   You can change your bucket's plan only one time within your monthly AWS billing cycle. Change your bucket's plan if it's consistently going over its storage space or data transfer quota, or if your bucket's usage is consistently in the lower range of its storage space or data transfer quota. For more information see [Change the plan of your bucket](amazon-lightsail-changing-bucket-plans.md).

1. Enter a name for your bucket.

   For more information about bucket names, see [Bucket naming rules in Amazon Lightsail](bucket-naming-rules-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

1. Choose **Create bucket**.

   You are redirected to the management page of your new bucket. Continue to the Next steps section of this guide for additional documentation to use and manage your bucket.

## Manage buckets and objects
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These are the general steps to manage your Lightsail object storage bucket:

1. Learn about objects and buckets in the Amazon Lightsail object storage service. For more information, see [Object storage in Amazon Lightsail](buckets-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

1. Learn about the names that you can give your buckets in Amazon Lightsail. For more information, see [Bucket naming rules in Amazon Lightsail](bucket-naming-rules-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

1. Get started with the Lightsail object storage service by creating a bucket. For more information, see [Creating buckets in Amazon Lightsail](#amazon-lightsail-creating-buckets).

1. Learn about security best practices for buckets and the access permissions that you can configure for your bucket. You can make all objects in your bucket public or private, or you can choose to make individual objects public. You can also grant access to your bucket by creating access keys, attaching instances to your bucket, and granting access to other AWS accounts. For more information, see [Security Best Practices for Amazon Lightsail object storage](amazon-lightsail-bucket-security-best-practices.md) and [Understanding bucket permissions in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-understanding-bucket-permissions.md).

   After learning about bucket access permissions, see the following guides to grant access to your bucket:
   + [Block public access for buckets in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-block-public-access-for-buckets.md)
   + [Configuring bucket access permissions in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-configuring-bucket-permissions.md)
   + [Configuring access permissions for individual objects in a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-configuring-individual-object-access.md)
   + [Creating access keys for a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-creating-bucket-access-keys.md)
   + [Configuring resource access for a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-configuring-bucket-resource-access.md)
   + [Configuring cross-account access for a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-configuring-bucket-cross-account-access.md)

1. Learn how to enable access logging for your bucket, and how to use access logs to audit the security of your bucket. For more information, see the following guides.
   + [Access logging for buckets in the Amazon Lightsail object storage service](amazon-lightsail-bucket-access-logs.md)
   + [Access log format for a bucket in the Amazon Lightsail object storage service](amazon-lightsail-bucket-access-log-format.md)
   + [Enabling access logging for a bucket in the Amazon Lightsail object storage service](amazon-lightsail-enabling-bucket-access-logs.md)
   + [Using access logs for a bucket in Amazon Lightsail to identify requests](amazon-lightsail-using-bucket-access-logs.md)

1. Create an IAM policy that grants a user the ability to manage a bucket in Lightsail. For more information, see [IAM policy to manage buckets in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-bucket-management-policies.md).

1. Learn about the way that objects in your bucket are labeled and identified. For more information, see [Understanding object key names in Amazon Lightsail](understanding-bucket-object-key-names-in-amazon-lightsail.md).

1. Learn how to upload files and manage objects in your buckets. For more information, see the following guides.
   + [Uploading files to a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-uploading-files-to-a-bucket.md)
   + [Uploading files to a bucket in Amazon Lightsail using multipart upload](amazon-lightsail-uploading-files-to-a-bucket-using-multipart-upload.md)
   + [Viewing objects in a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-viewing-objects-in-a-bucket.md)
   + [Copying or moving objects in a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-copying-moving-bucket-objects.md)
   + [Downloading objects from a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-downloading-bucket-objects.md)
   + [Filtering objects in a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-filtering-bucket-objects.md)
   + [Tagging objects in a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-tagging-bucket-objects.md)
   + [Deleting objects in a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-deleting-bucket-objects.md)

1. Enable object versioning to preserve, retrieve, and restore every version of every object stored in your bucket. For more information, see [Enabling and suspending object versioning in a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-managing-bucket-object-versioning.md).

1. After enabling object versioning, you can restore previous versions of objects in your bucket. For more information, see [Restoring previous versions of objects in a bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-restoring-bucket-object-versions.md).

1. Monitor the utilization of your bucket. For more information, see [Viewing metrics for your bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-viewing-bucket-metrics.md).

1. Configure an alarm for bucket metrics to be notified when the utilization of your bucket crosses a threshold. For more information, see [Creating bucket metric alarms in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-adding-bucket-metric-alarms.md).

1. Change the storage plan of your bucket if it's running low on storage and network transfer. For more information, see [Changing the plan of your bucket in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-changing-bucket-plans.md).

1. Learn how to connect your bucket to other resources. For more information, see the following tutorials.
   + [Tutorial: Connecting a WordPress instance to an Amazon Lightsail bucket](amazon-lightsail-connecting-buckets-to-wordpress.md)
   + [Tutorial: Using an Amazon Lightsail bucket with a Lightsail content delivery network distribution](amazon-lightsail-using-distributions-with-buckets.md)

1. Delete your bucket if you're no longer using it. For more information, see [Deleting buckets in Amazon Lightsail](amazon-lightsail-deleting-buckets.md).