Output location is not a valid S3 path error is no longer a problem with Bobcares by your side. 

At Bobcares, we have solutions for every query, big and small, as a part of our Server Management Service.

Let’s take a look at how our Support Team recently helped out a customer get rid of the “Not a valid S3 location” via the Athena console.

What is the “output location is not a valid S3 path” error?

If you have been having trouble with your Amazon Athena queries you have come to the right place. Amazon Athena is responsible for automatically storing query results as well as metadata information for every query to a specific query location in Amazon S3.

However, the “Invalid S3 location” and “Not a valid S3 location” errors are common occurrences. It usually occurs due to one of the following conditions:

• Amazon S3 query result location is missing.
• Inaccurate S3 query result location is inaccurate.
• S3 query result location is in a different Region.
• IAM user does not have permission to view or set up the query result location.

How to resolve the “output location is not a valid S3 path” error?

Our Support Team has come up with three different strategies to help you get rid of the “Invalid S3 location” and “Not a valid S3 location” errors.

How to specify query result location

According to our Support Techs, the following steps will help us specify the correct query result location in S3:

1. First, we have to open the Athena console.
2. Then, we will select Settings from the navigation bar.
3. After that, we have to verify that the Query result location points to the query result bucket.

How to verify the S3 path accuracy

Another way to avoid the output location is not a valid S3 path error is by verifying the query result location in the Athena console. It has to point to the correct S3 path. Moreover, there needs to be a trailing slash (/) at the end of the path.

For instance:

s3://example_bucket/example_folder/

How to verify that IAM user has permissions to access query result files

In order to avoid the “Invalid S3 location” error, the IAM user/role needs specific permission to perform these actions:

• GetObject
• GetQueryResults

Our Support Engineers would like to point out that IAM principals with GetObject action permission for query results can also access query results from S3.

Furthermore, this is true even if GetQueryResults action permission is denied for the IAM principals. If we want to restrict user or role access, we have to ensure the S3 permissions to the query results location are denied.

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Conclusion

In essence, the skilled Support Engineers at Bobcares demonstrated different strategies to avoid the output location is not a valid S3 path error.