S3 Object Storage¶
SeaTable allows the use of S3 from AWS or any other S3 compatible object storage e.g. from Exoscale, Minio, OpenStack Swift and Ceph's RGW.
SeaTable can use S3 buckets to store these type of data:
- Base snapshots
- Content of picture and file columns
- Avatar pictures
Bases and avatars require one bucket, to store the content of picture and files columns, you will require three buckets.
Bucket naming conventions
No matter if you using AWS or any other S3 compatible object storage, we recommend that you follow S3 naming rules. When you create buckets on S3, please read the S3 rules for naming first. Note, especially do not use capital letters in the name of the bucket (do not use camel-style naming, such as MyCommitObjects).
- customer-seatable-storage
- customer-seatable-blocks
- customer-seatable-commits
- customer-seatable-fs
- customer-seatable-avatars
- SeaTableBlocks
- SUperIMPORTANTS3
- seatable blocks
- seatable$$$
General hints and recommendations¶
Restart required
Don't forget to restart SeaTable service after these configuration changes. Easiest with this command:
docker exec -it seatable-server seatable.sh restart
Option: use_v4_signature
Always try to use latest signature for best performance
Default configuration of SeaTable is to use the default Signature Version 2 for accessing commits, fs and blocks. This might lead to slow requests and a unresponsive interface.
It is recommended to always use use_v4_signature to get the best performance.
Option: aws_region
If you use the configuration use_v4_signature = true, then you must also define the configuration option aws_region - even if you don't use AWS. If there is no aws_region, just add the empty value like this aws_region =.
Option: host
The configuration option host is the address and port of the S3 compatible service. You can not add "http" or "https" before the option. By default, it will use http connection. If you want to use https connection, set the option:use_https = true.
Option: path_style
path_style_request option tells Seatable to use the form https://192.168.1.123:8080/bucketname/object to access the object. In AWS S3 service, the default URL format is virtual host format, such as https://bucketname.s3.amazonaws.com/object. But general object storage products do not support this format.
S3 for base snapshots¶
The storage of base snapshots are configured in dtable-storage-server.conf.
By default the section [storage backend] contains type = filesystem, which stores all base snapshots in the folder /opt/seatable-server/seatable/storage-data.
To use S3, switch the type to type = s3. Depending on whether you are using AWS or an S3 compatible service, different configuration options must be used.
AWS requires only a few settings. key_id and key are used to provide S3 authentication. You can find the key_id and key in the Security Credentials section of your AWS account page.
[storage backend]
type = s3
bucket = ...
key_id =
key =
Create the bucket and an IAM Key for accessing the S3 storage from exoscale.
[storage backend]
type = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = sos-de-fra-1.exo.io
use_https = true
key_id = ...
key = ...
path_style_request = true
use_v4_signature = true
aws_region =
Create the bucket and an IAM Key for accessing the S3 storage from exoscale.
[storage backend]
type = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = fsn1.your-objectstorage.com
use_https = true
key_id = ...
key = ...
path_style_request = true
use_v4_signature = true
aws_region =
Use the following settings to connect to your S3 compatible storage.
[storage backend]
type = s3
bucket = ...
host = ...
use_https = true
key_id =
key =
path_style_request = true
use_v4_signature = true
aws_region =
S3 for files and pictures¶
S3 Object storage for file and picture columns is configured in /opt/seatable-server/seatable/conf/seafile.conf. You have to add three new sections:
- [commit_object_backend]
- [fs_object_backend]
- [block_backend]
[commit_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-commit-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key
use_v4_signature = true
aws_region = eu-central-1
host = s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
[fs_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-fs-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key
use_v4_signature = true
aws_region = eu-central-1
host =
[block_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-block-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key
use_v4_signature = true
aws_region = eu-central-1
host =
You can get an overview of regular AWS S3 endpoints from here.
[commit_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = sos-de-fra-1.exo.io
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
use_v4_signature = true
path_style_request = true
[fs_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = sos-de-fra-1.exo.io
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
use_v4_signature = true
path_style_request = true
[block_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = sos-de-fra-1.exo.io
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
use_v4_signature = true
path_style_request = true
[commit_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = fsn1.your-objectstorage.com
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
use_v4_signature = true
path_style_request = true
[fs_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = fsn1.your-objectstorage.com
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
use_v4_signature = true
path_style_request = true
[block_backend]
name = s3
bucket = your-bucket-name
host = fsn1.your-objectstorage.com
key_id = ...
key = ...
use_https = true
use_v4_signature = true
path_style_request = true
[commit_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-commit-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key
use_v4_signature = true
host =
[fs_object_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-fs-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key
use_v4_signature = true
host =
[block_backend]
name = s3
bucket = my-block-objects
key_id = your-key-id
key = your-secret-key
use_v4_signature = true
host =
S3 for avatars¶
It is possible to store the avatar pictures in S3 instead of the local filesystem. SeaTable uses the Django File Storage API for AWS S3.
Avatar bucket must be publicly accessible
While other S3 buckets used by SeaTable can remain private, the S3 bucket for avatars must be publicly readable. Once avatars are saved to S3, they are accessed directly from the S3 storage. Therefore, it is necessary to grant read access to everyone (anonymous access) while restricting write access to authenticated users with bucket credentials.
The storage of the avatar pictures is configured in dtable_web_settings.py. Currently these options are currently available and mapped to the django-storage settings:
| SeaTable Configuration | Django Storage Setting |
|---|---|
| S3_ENDPOINT_URL | AWS_S3_ENDPOINT_URL |
| S3_REGION | AWS_S3_REGION_NAME |
| S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID | AWS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID |
| S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY | AWS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID |
| S3_BUCKET_NAME | AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME |
AWS_S3_SIGNATURE_VERSION is set by default to s3v4 and can not be configured.
Here are some examples on how to configure the S3 bucket for avatars.
You can find the value for S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID and S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY in the Security Credentials section of your AWS account page.
AVATAR_FILE_STORAGE = 'django_s3_storage.storage.S3Storage'
S3_ENDPOINT_URL = 'https://s3.example.com'
S3_REGION = 'eu-west-1'
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID = ''
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = ''
S3_BUCKET_NAME = ''
Create the bucket and an IAM Key for accessing the S3 storage from exoscale.
AVATAR_FILE_STORAGE = 'django_s3_storage.storage.S3Storage'
S3_ENDPOINT_URL = 'https://sos-de-fra-1.exo.io'
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID = ''
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = ''
S3_BUCKET_NAME = 'your-bucket-name'
Create the bucket and an IAM Key for accessing the S3 storage from exoscale.
AVATAR_FILE_STORAGE = 'django_s3_storage.storage.S3Storage'
S3_ENDPOINT_URL = 'https://fsn1.your-objectstorage.com'
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID = ''
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = ''
S3_BUCKET_NAME = 'your-bucket-name'
Use the following settings to connect to your S3 compatible storage.
AVATAR_FILE_STORAGE = 'django_s3_storage.storage.S3Storage'
S3_ENDPOINT_URL = 'https://sos-de-fra-1.exo.io'
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID = ''
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = ''
S3_BUCKET_NAME = 'your-bucket-name'