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Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

kopia.io

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Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#31
post #6

I was using Vorta/Borgbase until I discovered that Vorta had an issue with restores. Kopia is pretty neat, but make sure you test as always.

I've been happy with kopia for a while now...

But I probably ought to double check that restoring works :)

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#32
The state of backup tech is surprisingly bad, and runs OS deep. Even with modern solutions like restic, you have no guarantee of a consistent backup[0] unless you pair it with a filesystem that supports snapshots like btrfs, ZFS, etc, which basically no one other than power users are even aware of. Interestingly, Windows ships snapshot support by default[1], but you need admin privileges to use it.

Also, it's unclear to me what happens if you attempt a snapshot in the middle of something like a database transaction or even a basic file write. Seems likely that the snapshot would still be corrupted. So for databases you're stuck using db-specific methods like pg_dump.

All this complexity makes it very difficult to make self-hosting realistic and safe by default for non-experts, which is the problem I'm having.

[0]: https://forum.restic.net/t/what-happens-if-file-changes-duri...

[1]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/fil...

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#33
post #7
post #4

Any comparisons to Restic? Looks like basically the same thing but with a GUI available. Edit: Found this very ad-hoc "benchmark" from over a year ago claiming that Kopia managed significantly better deduplication than Restic after several backups (what took Restic 2.2GB, Kopia did in https://github.com/kopia/kopia/issues/1809#issuecomment-1067... Edit Edit: Never mind, this benchmark was from before Restic supported…

UX is very important for backups (considering that users can be very lazy, so the least friction, the better), so a GUI is an important component; those who don't care about UX surely have infinite ways to perform their backups. My dealbreaker with Restic was near-realtime backup - the discussion has been open for 5 years now: https://forum.restic.net/t/continuous-backup/593); this is also a UX problem. I haven't che…

That link is corrupted. HN thinks the ");" is part of it:

https://forum.restic.net/t/continuous-backup/593

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#34
post #32

The state of backup tech is surprisingly bad, and runs OS deep. Even with modern solutions like restic, you have no guarantee of a consistent backup[0] unless you pair it with a filesystem that supports snapshots like btrfs, ZFS, etc, which basically no one other than power users are even aware of. Interestingly, Windows ships snapshot support by default[1], but you need admin privileges to use it. Also, it's unclear…

For database, in my experience, is better to dump the whole database and backup the dump for the reasons you explained

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#35
post #28
post #16

I've been using Kopia for my personal use and for products I have helped build at a couple of enterprise backup companies! It's also used by other open-source backup projects that focus on specific ecosystems (Velero and Kanister for Kubernetes, Corso for Microsoft 365 backup). I am obviously biased but it's pretty amazing. AMA.

Can you compare vs eg Duplicati? Do you (sorry, but just checking) repeatedly test backups? Eg pull monthly and bit verify that they're correct? Are you aware of anyone testing in this way? Thanks so much!

I can only compare it from a user experience point of view. I tried duplicati for my windows laptop and was never quite happy. Kopia just worked from day one. The front-end still has a few bugs here and there particularly if you on windows electron eating sockets, WebDAV mounts not always working), however the backend seems very reliable (only did one full restore, but I also did not note any reports).

It still has a lot of potential, IMHO. You e.g. find some hints how to use it with AWS storage tiering in the docs.

I am just a very happy user!

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#36
Can someone please help decide what is the "best" backup software?

- Restic (https://restic.net/)

- Borg backup (https://www.borgbackup.org/)

- Duplicati (https://www.duplicati.com/)

- Kopia (https://kopia.io/)

- Duplicay (https://duplicacy.com/)

- Duplicity (https://duplicity.us/)

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#37
post #32

The state of backup tech is surprisingly bad, and runs OS deep. Even with modern solutions like restic, you have no guarantee of a consistent backup[0] unless you pair it with a filesystem that supports snapshots like btrfs, ZFS, etc, which basically no one other than power users are even aware of. Interestingly, Windows ships snapshot support by default[1], but you need admin privileges to use it. Also, it's unclear…

The advantage and disadvantage of Linux simultaneously is that you need to pick such a filesystem or work around the limitations, but it's your choice. The OS underneath really should not be responsible. Apple solves it with APFS snapshots and Microsoft has Volume Shadow Copy (which requires NTFS or ReFS).

I personally use compose for all my services now and back up my compose.yaml by stopping the entire stack and running a restic container that mounts all volumes in the compose.yaml.[1] It's not zero downtime, but it's good enough, and it's extremely portable since it can restore itself.

[1]: https://gist.github.com/acuteaura/61f221ada67f49193bc1f93955...

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#38
> Kopia does not currently support cloud storage that provides delayed access to your files – namely, archive storage such as Amazon Glacier Deep Archive. Do not try it; things will break.

Sigh… and unfortunately all too common for there to be no cold storage support.

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#39

Can someone please help decide what is the "best" backup software? - Restic ( https://restic.net/ ) - Borg backup ( https://www.borgbackup.org/ ) - Duplicati ( https://www.duplicati.com/ ) - Kopia ( https://kopia.io/ ) - Duplicay ( https://duplicacy.com/ ) - Duplicity ( https://duplicity.us/ )

Bacula

I've tried all of these, and none are as reliable or powerful as Bacula.

It's way more complex at first, but you will have peace of mind. And backup/restore speed is way faster.

You can even easily setup automatic restore jobs to prove your backups work!

Re: Kopia: Fast and secure open-source backup software

#40

Can someone please help decide what is the "best" backup software? - Restic ( https://restic.net/ ) - Borg backup ( https://www.borgbackup.org/ ) - Duplicati ( https://www.duplicati.com/ ) - Kopia ( https://kopia.io/ ) - Duplicay ( https://duplicacy.com/ ) - Duplicity ( https://duplicity.us/ )

I can't give you a meaningful comparison between all of those, because I haven't used all of them, but I can say that I've been pretty happy with Restic in the time I've been using it.

Do you have any odd requirements that one might serve better than the rest? If you just want bog-standard backups, any of them will probably do.

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