Benefits of using a central Kopia server for all clients

General Topics
1

Hey all, I try to figure out an optimal deployment for our scenario:

We have a bunch of Linux boxes, all managed by AWX that we want to backup with kopia as well as a deployed Minio. Do we really need a Kopia-UI server as central endpoint? From my understanding of the documentation, we could also just connect each client to a bucket on the minio host instead of using the server at all. We can then manage the policies on all clients in AWX, removing the burden to manage another box. Is this correct or do I miss something?
Shall we a) use a central kopia server or b) just let each client connect to its own bucket.

2

No UI needed to run kopia as a repository server.

You coudl do that but kopia server has a few benefits:

  • Data deduplication across all client
  • ACL: prevent clients from deleting any data (ransomware)
  • Ability to administer policies for all clients in 1 location
  • Maintenance on server reduces load on clients
  • You can easily switch backends without clients needing reconfiguration

There is no real answer to this question just personal preference. :wink:

1 Like
3

Hi Alex,

great answer. Good point with not needing the UI to run a repository server.
Some benefits do not apply in an ansible world, theres not much difference between altering a palybook for all clients or altering the playbook for the server. Same with the policies. But the other benefits make the difference.

Thanks for pointing me into the right direction here.