GetBucketLocation

GetBucketLocation returns the region a bucket lives in. Each STRG endpoint serves exactly one region and answers for the buckets in it, so a successful answer is always the endpoint's own region: us-east-1 comes back as an empty LocationConstraint, just as Amazon S3 answers it, and eu-central-1 by name. HeadBucket carries the same region in its x-amz-bucket-region header, which makes it a handy alternative.

Good to know on STRG

A bucket in another region answers 404 NoSuchBucket rather than a redirect, so the operation confirms a bucket's region from that region's own endpoint - Finding a bucket's region shows how that works.
The answer is always a STRG region (us-east-1 or eu-central-1), so legacy values such as EU never need handling.
x-amz-expected-bucket-owner is welcome and has nothing to check: a key only ever reaches buckets of its own account.

When you'd use it

Tools written for Amazon S3. Many clients and SDK helpers ask for a bucket's location before they start working with it, and they get an answer in the shape they expect.
Confirming configuration. A deploy script or an agent about to write to a bucket can check that the endpoint and region it was configured with really are the bucket's, before it uploads anything.
Finding where a bucket lives. A script handed only a bucket name can ask each regional endpoint in turn; the one that answers is the bucket's region.

Request

GET /?location HTTP/1.1
Host: my-bucket.s3.eu-central-1.strg.com
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=...
x-amz-date: 20260926T120000Z
x-amz-content-sha256: e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855

The path-style form is GET /my-bucket?location on s3.eu-central-1.strg.com - Addressing explains both.

Permissions

The access key needs Read bucket settings (buckets:read-config), which every access key holds, whether it covers all buckets or only some. A key limited to certain buckets reads the location of those buckets, and any other bucket answers 403 AccessDenied. Access keys has the details.

URI parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`Bucket`	String	Yes	The bucket whose region is returned.
`location`	Flag	Yes	Selects this operation. Sent with no value.

Any other query parameter answers 501 NotImplemented, so a client knows straight away.

Request headers

Name	Type	Required	Description
`x-amz-expected-bucket-owner`	String	No	Welcome, with nothing to check: an access key only ever reaches its own account's buckets.

Request body

None.

Response

A successful request answers 200 OK with an XML body.

Response headers

Name	Description
`Content-Type`	`application/xml`
`x-amz-request-id`	The request ID, handy for a support request.

Response body

Element	Type	Description
`LocationConstraint`	String	The bucket's region. Empty for `us-east-1`; `eu-central-1` otherwise.

A bucket in eu-central-1:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<LocationConstraint xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/">eu-central-1</LocationConstraint>

A bucket in us-east-1:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<LocationConstraint xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/"/>

The AWS SDKs and the AWS CLI report the empty element as null or leave it out, and either way it means us-east-1.

Errors

These are the errors this request can return, and the situation behind each one.

Code	HTTP status	When
`NoSuchBucket`	404	The bucket does not exist, belongs to another account, or is in a region other than the endpoint's - including when the account has nothing stored in this endpoint's region yet.
`AccessDenied`	403	The access key is limited to other buckets, the account is not active, or the request is unsigned.
`InvalidAccessKeyId`	403	The access key does not exist, has expired or been revoked - or it was created moments ago and is not usable yet in this endpoint's region, in which case the same request works shortly afterwards.
`SignatureDoesNotMatch`	403	The request signature does not match.
`RequestTimeTooSkewed`	403	The request time is more than 15 minutes from the server's.
`AuthorizationHeaderMalformed`	400	The signature's credential scope names a region other than the endpoint's.
`NotImplemented`	501	The request carries a query parameter this operation does not take.
`SlowDown`	503	Too many requests. The `Retry-After` header says when a retry is welcome; the AWS SDKs retry on their own.
`ServiceUnavailable`	503	A temporary failure; the same request can be retried.
`InternalError`	500	An unexpected failure while confirming the bucket; the same request can be retried.

Finding a bucket's region

Every endpoint answers for its own region, so finding a bucket's region is a matter of asking each regional endpoint in turn: the one that answers 200 is the bucket's region, and every other answers 404 NoSuchBucket. STRG has two regions, us-east-1 and eu-central-1, so this takes at most two requests. Each request is signed for the region of the endpoint it goes to - a signature for another region answers AuthorizationHeaderMalformed.

A region where the account has never stored anything answers NoSuchBucket as well, which is the truth: the bucket is not there.

Differences from Amazon S3

Aspect	Amazon S3	STRG
Bucket in another region	Answered from any region	`404 NoSuchBucket`; the bucket's own regional endpoint answers with its region
Values	Any AWS region, plus legacy values such as `EU`	`us-east-1` (empty) or `eu-central-1`
`x-amz-expected-bucket-owner`	Checked against the bucket owner	Welcome, with nothing to check - a key only reaches its own account's buckets

Examples

AWS CLI
Python (boto3)
JavaScript (AWS SDK v3)

aws s3api get-bucket-location \
  --bucket my-bucket \
  --endpoint-url https://s3.eu-central-1.strg.com \
  --region eu-central-1

{
    "LocationConstraint": "eu-central-1"
}

For a bucket in us-east-1, LocationConstraint is null.

import boto3

s3 = boto3.client(
    "s3",
    endpoint_url="https://s3.eu-central-1.strg.com",
    region_name="eu-central-1",
)

response = s3.get_bucket_location(Bucket="my-bucket")
print(response.get("LocationConstraint") or "us-east-1")

import { GetBucketLocationCommand, S3Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";

const client = new S3Client({
  endpoint: "https://s3.eu-central-1.strg.com",
  region: "eu-central-1",
});

const response = await client.send(new GetBucketLocationCommand({ Bucket: "my-bucket" }));
console.log(response.LocationConstraint || "us-east-1");

Finding which region a bucket is in, by asking each regional endpoint:

AWS CLI
Python (boto3)
JavaScript (AWS SDK v3)

for region in us-east-1 eu-central-1; do
  if aws s3api get-bucket-location \
      --bucket my-bucket \
      --endpoint-url "https://s3.${region}.strg.com" \
      --region "${region}" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "my-bucket is in ${region}"
  fi
done

import boto3
from botocore.exceptions import ClientError

for region in ["us-east-1", "eu-central-1"]:
    s3 = boto3.client(
        "s3",
        endpoint_url=f"https://s3.{region}.strg.com",
        region_name=region,
    )
    try:
        s3.get_bucket_location(Bucket="my-bucket")
    except ClientError as error:
        if error.response["Error"]["Code"] == "NoSuchBucket":
            continue
        raise
    print(f"my-bucket is in {region}")
    break

import { GetBucketLocationCommand, S3Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";

for (const region of ["us-east-1", "eu-central-1"]) {
  const client = new S3Client({ endpoint: `https://s3.${region}.strg.com`, region });
  try {
    await client.send(new GetBucketLocationCommand({ Bucket: "my-bucket" }));
  } catch (error) {
    if (error.name === "NoSuchBucket") continue;
    throw error;
  }
  console.log(`my-bucket is in ${region}`);
  break;
}

HeadBucket - the same region, in the x-amz-bucket-region header
ListBuckets
S3 API overview - regions and their endpoints
Access keys

View as Markdown

When you'd use it​

Request​

Permissions​

URI parameters​

Request headers​

Request body​

Response​

Response headers​

Response body​

Errors​

Finding a bucket's region​

Differences from Amazon S3​

Examples​

Related​