MCDrive S3: How to Connect and Use It with AWS CLI, rclone and restic

You can turn on S3 in MCDrive — the standard protocol used by backup software, websites and applications. Bucket files show up right away in the S3 folder on your drive, data is stored in Tashkent, and traffic and requests are free. Here is how to connect, how the keys work and how to set up popular apps.

What S3 in MCDrive is

S3 is the standard object storage protocol used by backup software, websites and applications. In MCDrive, S3 is attached to your cloud drive. You get your own private bucket, and every file in it is visible in the S3 folder in Synology Drive. It works the other way too: a file placed in that folder via Drive is available over S3.

What it is good for:

• automatic backups of servers and VPS (restic, rclone, Veeam, Duplicati);
• storing website and application files, exports and archives;
• moving data between servers via the standard S3 API.

Data is stored in Uzbekistan, in the MyCloud data center, on a separate storage system — not on VPS disks or hosts.

Price and activation

How to activate:

1. Sign in to your mcvps.uz account and top up the balance if needed.
2. Order MCDrive if you don’t have it yet — the steps are in the MCDrive setup guide.
3. Open the MCDrive service → S3 section → “Connect S3”.
4. Copy the connection settings and keys.

If the balance runs short, S3 access is suspended and the data is kept. After payment, access is restored with the same keys.

Connection settings and keys

Use exactly uz-tashkent-1 as the region. Many apps default to us-east-1, and the server will reject requests with it. If the region is picked from a list, choose “custom” and type it in.

Two kinds of keys

The main key has full rights to the bucket. Keep it away from the server, for example in a password manager.

The restricted key is created separately in your account and is meant for the backup server. Creating it automatically turns on file versioning. If the server is hacked or hit by ransomware, this key cannot destroy the copies already stored: overwritten and deleted files remain as old versions.

Don’t share keys with third parties. If a key may have leaked, click “New keys” in your account — the old one stops working immediately.

Connecting apps

In all examples, replace <bucket>, <access key> and <secret key> with the values from your account.

AWS CLI

Install AWS CLI version 2 from the official AWS website, then:

aws configure --profile mcdrive
#   AWS Access Key ID:      <access key>
#   AWS Secret Access Key:  <secret key>
#   Default region name:    uz-tashkent-1
#   Default output format:  json
aws configure set profile.mcdrive.s3.addressing_style path
aws configure set profile.mcdrive.request_checksum_calculation when_required
aws configure set profile.mcdrive.response_checksum_validation when_required

Working with files:

E="--profile mcdrive --endpoint-url https://s3.mcdrive.uz"
aws $E s3 ls s3://<bucket>/                          # list files
aws $E s3 cp file.zip s3://<bucket>/backup/          # upload a file
aws $E s3 cp s3://<bucket>/backup/file.zip ./        # download a file
aws $E s3 sync /var/backups s3://<bucket>/backups/   # sync a folder

The two checksum lines are needed for recent AWS CLI versions: without them, uploads may fail.

rclone

Add this to rclone.conf (or create it with rclone config: type “S3”, provider “Other”):

[mcdrive]
type = s3
provider = Other
access_key_id = <access key>
secret_access_key = <secret key>
endpoint = https://s3.mcdrive.uz
region = uz-tashkent-1
force_path_style = true

rclone ls mcdrive:<bucket>                         # list files
rclone copy /var/backups mcdrive:<bucket>/backups  # copy new and changed files
rclone sync /var/backups mcdrive:<bucket>/backups  # make an exact copy of the folder

restic — encrypted backups

restic encrypts data before uploading, so only encrypted blocks reach the storage. We recommend the restricted key for the server.

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<access key>
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<secret key>
export RESTIC_REPOSITORY=s3:https://s3.mcdrive.uz/<bucket>/restic
export RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE=/root/.restic-password   # encryption password; keep a copy elsewhere
R="-o s3.region=uz-tashkent-1 -o s3.bucket-lookup=path"

restic $R init                 # once
restic $R backup /var/www /etc # back up
restic $R snapshots            # list snapshots
restic $R check                # integrity check
restic $R restore latest --target /restore

If the restic password is lost, the data cannot be recovered — not even by MyCloud.

Other apps

Veeam, Duplicati, Synology Hyper Backup, CloudBerry and others: choose the “S3-compatible” storage type (other S3 server) and enter:

• server address: s3.mcdrive.uz, HTTPS, port 443;
• region: uz-tashkent-1;
• path-style, if there is such a setting;
• the bucket and keys from your account.

Don’t enable Object Lock / immutable backups: the storage doesn’t support it and the job will fail. Protection against deleting copies comes from the restricted key with file versioning.

File versions

With versioning on, overwriting a file keeps the previous version, and deleting only adds a “deleted” marker. Versioning is turned on automatically with the restricted key. The commands below are run with the main key via AWS CLI (the mcdrive profile from above).

List a file’s versions:

E="--profile mcdrive --endpoint-url https://s3.mcdrive.uz"
aws $E s3api list-object-versions --bucket <bucket> --prefix backup/file.zip

In the response, Versions are the stored versions with their VersionId and date, and DeleteMarkers are deletion markers.

Download a specific version:

aws $E s3api get-object --bucket <bucket> --key backup/file.zip --version-id <VersionId> ./file.zip

Restore a deleted file — delete its deletion marker (VersionId from DeleteMarkers):

aws $E s3api delete-object --bucket <bucket> --key backup/file.zip --version-id <marker VersionId>

Free up space — permanently delete an old version:

aws $E s3api delete-object --bucket <bucket> --key backup/file.zip --version-id <old version VersionId>

Old versions are not deleted automatically and count towards the billed volume. Keep an eye on them in your account (S3 section, “Volume” block). With restic, after restic forget --prune old data also stays as versions until you delete them with the main key.

Versions are kept only for operations over S3. A file deleted from the S3 folder via Synology Drive or File Station is not kept as a version.

Limitations and common errors

Not supported:

• creating new buckets — each client has one bucket, with any folders inside;
• addresses like <bucket>.s3.mcdrive.uz — path-style only;
• Object Lock (blocking deletion for a period, even for the owner);
• automatic deletion of old versions (lifecycle);
• file names ending with a slash or containing characters not allowed in the file system.

If the error persists, write to the chat in your mcvps.uz account — the AI assistant or an operator will reply. Include the bucket name, the app and the full error text. Never send your secret key to support.

How to connect MCDrive to a virtual machine via NFS or SFTP — see “How to connect MCDrive to a VM”. Prices and calculator — on the MCDrive page.