Repositories

A repository is a place where Kopia stores its snapshot data. Kopia currently supports the following storage backends:

In addition, Kopia can connect to a Kopia Repository Server that acts as a proxy for the storage backend.

Google Cloud Storage

Google Cloud Storage is a globally unified, scalable, and highly durable object storage for developers and enterprises.

Creating a repository

To create a repository in Google Cloud Storage you need to provision a storage bucket and install local credentials that can access that bucket. To do so:

  1. Create a storage bucket in Google Cloud Console
  2. Install Google Cloud SDK
  3. Log in with credentials that have permissions to the bucket.
$ gcloud auth application-default login

After these preparations we can create Kopia repository (assuming bucket named kopia-test-123):

$ kopia repository create google --bucket kopia-test-123

At this point we should be able to confirm that Kopia has created the skeleton of the repository with 3 files in it:

$ gsutil ls gs://kopia-test-123
gs://kopia-test-123/kopia.repository
gs://kopia-test-123/n417ffc2adc8dbe93f1814eda3ba8a07c
gs://kopia-test-123/p78e034ac8b891168df97f9897d7ec316

Connecting To Repository

To connect to a repository that already exists, simply use kopia repository connect instead of kopia repository create. You can connect as many computers as you like to any repository, even simultaneously.

$ kopia repository connect google --bucket kopia-test-123

Detailed information and settings

Amazon S3

Kopia can connect to S3 compatible storage, such as Amazon S3, minio.io, Wasabi

Creating a repository

You will need your S3 bucket name, access key and secret access key.

$ kopia repository create s3 \
        --bucket=... \
        --access-key=... \
        --secret-access-key=...

Connecting To Repository

$ kopia repository connect s3

Detailed information and settings

B2

B2 is a very cheap yet fully featured S3 compatible storage.

Creating a repository

You will need your B2 bucket name, key-id and key.

$ kopia repository create b2 \
        --bucket=... \
        --key-id=... \
        --key=...

Connecting To Repository

$ kopia repository connect b2

Detailed information and settings

SFTP

The SFTP provider can be used to connect to a file server over SFTP/SSH protocol.

You must first configure passwordless SFTP login by following these instructions. Choose an empty passphrase because Kopia does not allow password prompts for the backend.

If everything is configured correctly, you should be able to connect to your SFTP server without any password by using:

$ sftp some-user@my-server
Connected to my-server.
sftp>

Creating a repository

Once the passwordless connection works, then you can create a Kopia SFTP repository. Assuming you want the files to be stored under /remote/path, run the command below. Adjust the user name and paths to the key file and known hosts file as necessary.

$ kopia repository create sftp \
        --host my-server \
        --username some-user \
        --keyfile ~/.ssh/id_rsa \
        --known-hosts ~/.ssh/known_hosts \
        --path /remote/path

When prompted, enter Kopia password to encrypt the repository contents.

If everything is done correctly, you should be able to verify that SFTP server indeed has Kopia files in the provided location, including special file named kopia.repository.f:

$ sftp some-user@my-server
sftp> ls -al /remote/path
-rw-r--r--    1 some-user  some-user  661 Sep 18 16:12 kopia.repository.f

Connecting To Repository

To connect to an existing SFTP repository, simply use connect instead of create:

$ kopia repository connect sftp \
        --host my-server \
        --username some-user \
        --keyfile ~/.ssh/id_rsa \
        --known-hosts ~/.ssh/known_hosts \
        --path /remote/path

If the connection to SFTP server does not work, try adding --external which will launch external ssh process, which supports more connectivity options which may be needed for some hosts.

Detailed information and settings

Rclone

Kopia can connect to certain backends supported by Rclone as long as they support server-side timestamps.

WARNING: Rclone support is experimental, use at your own risk.

Creating a repository

First you should follow rclone instructions for setting up a remote. This is provider specific, detailed instructions can be fount at https://rclone.org/#providers.

Assuming you’ve configured a remote named my-remote, you may create Kopia repository using:

$ kopia repository create rclone --remote-path my-remote:/some/path

Connecting to repository

$ kopia repository connect rclone --remote-path my-remote:/some/path

Detailed information and settings

Local storage

Local storage includes any directory mounted and accessible. You can mount any readable directory available on your storage, a directory on usb device, a directory mounted with smb, ntfs, sshfs or similar.

Creating a repository

$ kopia repository create filesystem --path /tmp/my-repository

Connecting to repository

$ kopia repository connect filesystem --path /tmp/my-repository

We can examine the directory to see which files were created. As you can see Kopia uses sharded directory structure to optimize performance.

$ find /tmp/my-repository -type f
/tmp/my-repository/n1b/d00/aa56a13c1140142b39befb654a2.f
/tmp/my-repository/pea/8b5/e01d92618653ffbf2bb9961448d.f
/tmp/my-repository/kopia.repository.f

Detailed information and settings

Last modified September 21, 2020: Minor edits for SFTP documentation (#635) (090cd1cc)