2.7 KiB
Tutorial
Kopia is a simple, cross-platform tool for managing encrypted backups in the cloud. It provides fast incremental backups, data deduplication and client-side encryption.
The main difference from other backup solutions is that as a user, you are in full control of backup storage - in fact you are responsible for purchasing one of the cloud storage products available (such as Google Cloud Storage), which offer great durability and availability for your data.
Installation
Binary Releases
You can download pre-built kopia binary from http://kopia.github.io/download. Once downloaded, it's best to put it in a directory that's in system PATH, such as /usr/local/bin.
Installation From Source
To build Kopia from source you need the latest version of Go and run the following commands:
mkdir $HOME/kopia
export GOPATH=$HOME/kopia
go get github.com/kopia/kopia
go install github.com/kopia/kopia/cmd/kopia
This will automatically download and build kopia and put the resulting binary in $HOME/kopia/bin. For convenience it's best to add this directory to system PATH or copy/symlink it to a directory already in the path, such as /usr/local/bin.
Getting Started
To use Kopia, you need to set up two storage locations:
- Repository - which will store the bulk of encrypted data
- Vault - which stores the backup metadata and their encryption keys
The Repository can be shared between multiple computers or users because without the encryption keys stored in the Vault its data is unaccessible.
The metadata stored in the Vault is very small and will typically fit on even smallest of USB drives for safekeeping. You have a choice of using Vault in the cloud or keeping it on a removable storage device in your possession.
Setting Up Vault
To create new vault in Google Cloud Storage, first create the bucket bucket using https://console.cloud.google.com/storage/ then run:
kopia vault create gcs BUCKET
To create new vault in the local filesystem, use:
mkdir /path/to/vault
kopia vault create filesystem /path/to/vault
You will be prompted for the password to protect the data in the vault. Don't forget your password, as there is absolutely no way to recover data in the vault if you do so.
To later connect to an existing vault, simply replace vault create with vault connect.
To disconnect from a vault, run:
kopia vault disconnect
Setting Up Repository
After creating the vault, we now need to create a repository. This is very similar way to creating a vault, just replace vault with repository. For example to create GCS-backed repository, use:
kopia repository create gcs BUCKET