# Kopia maintenance with different owner **URL:** \ **Category:** General Topics\ **Created:** [November 17, 2025, 9:08am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696 "2025-11-17T09:08:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mabod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/mabod/32/941_2.png) [@mabod](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/mabod)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 9:08am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/1 "2025-11-17T09:08:43Z")
Hi, I have a different setup than ususal. I have a pull setup where the kopia server pulls the backups. The remote folders are mounted with sshfs and then kopia does the backup from that mountpoint with a `–-override-source`. Example: ```auto $ mount -t sshfs root@leno:/ /tmp/tmp.zUKqYYQm3 $ kopia snapshot create --override-source=root@leno:/ --tags=id:leno@2025-11-17–10-04 /tmp/tmp.zUKqYYQm3L ``` Now I have an issue with running a full maintenance for this source: ```auto $ kopia maintenance set --owner root@leno $ kopia maintenance run --full ERROR maintenance must be run by designated user: root@leno ``` What do I need to do to trigger the full maintenance for root@leno? ---
**Author:** ![budy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/budy/32/38_2.png) [@budy](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/budy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 5:42am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/2 "2025-11-18T05:42:12Z")
Looks like you’re not actually connected to the repo as user root@leno… ---
**Author:** ![mabod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/mabod/32/941_2.png) [@mabod](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/mabod)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 7:55am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/3 "2025-11-18T07:55:46Z")
I am never connected as root@leno. All kopia commands are executed on the sever as `root@rakete`. I am pulling the backups from the client. I am not logged into the client as `root@leno`. And, as you can see in my opening post, I overwrite the source with `--override-source=root@leno:/`. This `override-source` is forcing kopia to ask for a "`designated user: root@leno`” when doing full maintenance. I need to find a way to covince kopia to do a full maintenance for snapshots which have been created with `override-source.` ---
**Author:** ![mabod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/mabod/32/941_2.png) [@mabod](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/mabod)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 8:15am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/4 "2025-11-18T08:15:41Z")
Let me add a question to this issue that came to my mind. Lets assume I change the hostname of my server from `rakete` to `schnecke`. What happens then to the maintenance command? I assume the maintenance command will fail in the same way because the old snapshots where create for owner `root@rakete` and this owner does not exist anymore because it is now `root@schnecke`. Is that correct? What is best practise for kopia when hostnames change? ---
**Author:** ![budy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/budy/32/38_2.png) [@budy](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/budy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 8:23am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/5 "2025-11-18T08:23:15Z")
Then why did you set the maintenance owner to root@leno, anyway? Since you’re using sshfs, you’ll perform all snapshots as the user you used to connect to the repo, which is probably root@rakete and not root@leno. Since the maintenance owner should usually be the one you’re using to connect, there would be no change necessary. Changing the owner of a snapshot would require the flag –override-user to indicate another user. You should also see all snapshots in Kopia UI right under your default user… ---
**Author:** ![mabod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/mabod/32/941_2.png) [@mabod](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/mabod)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 8:31am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/6 "2025-11-18T08:31:14Z")
I found the solution. First: `kopia repository connect filesystem --no-persist-credentials --path=/data/BACKUP/kopia-repo --override-hostname=leno --override-username=root` Second: `kopia maintenance set --owner root@leno` Third: `kopia maintenance run --full` That is doing the trick. @budy, thanks for your time. ---
**Author:** ![mabod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/mabod/32/941_2.png) [@mabod](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/mabod)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 8:37am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/7 "2025-11-18T08:37:03Z")
But now I am wondering if this maintenance thing I am doing is really neccessary. I have one kopia repo and in this repo I have snapshots from several clients identified with `override-source.` ```auto $ kopia snapshot list -a root@acer:/ 2023-11-17 10:40:00 CET k8c27489aeb6a612eb4365dbecf1cda9b 5.7 GB drwxr-xr-x files:44812 dirs:10347 (annual-3) … root@debserv:/ 2024-11-27 16:41:26 CET k9342362f0090ffde52e28d4a963d6133 33.7 GB drwxr-xr-x files:270780 dirs:33045 (monthly-11) … root@leno:/ 2023-04-23 22:54:00 CEST kc751e8c3394e0a2e190e8162dea52b75 42 GB drwxr-xr-x files:68069 dirs:10055 (annual-3) … root@macmini:/Users 2024-11-27 20:48:59 CET k0eb2ba9f4b21aad307c922e37e3d9c45 64 GB drwxr-xr-x files:165158 dirs:32933 (monthly-7) … root@macmini:extra-Platz 2024-11-27 20:55:33 CET kdfcaafee08a0fb32e199420e696a4a84 105.7 GB drwxrwxr-x files:132704 dirs:818 (monthly-7) … root@rakete:/ 2024-12-30 19:33:08 CET kff9d63e91fba27974f21cc8509c025c6 109.5 GB drwxr-xr-x files:1206803 dirs:92069 (monthly-12,annual-2) … ``` All this is on server rakete handled with user root@rakete. If I do a full maintenance as this user will that include all snapshots in that repo or will maintenance only happen to the snapshots with source `root@rakete`? ---
**Author:** ![budy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/budy/32/38_2.png) [@budy](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/budy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 8:43am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/8 "2025-11-18T08:43:17Z")
As I said, since you’re using sshfs to pull the data, the snapshots belong to the root user of rakete, unless you’re using –overwrite-username, which would only be useful, if you ever planned to connect to that repo from a remote client. If not, you can have all the snapshots belong to the current local user root@rakete and be done. Just keep in mind, that the user rights on the files don’t necessarily represent the snapshot username. ---
**Author:** ![mabod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/mabod/32/941_2.png) [@mabod](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/mabod)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 8:46am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/9 "2025-11-18T08:46:54Z")
ok. So let me double check. I am always user root@rakete. When I do `kopia maintenance run --full` Will that do maintenance for the complete repo including everything, regardless of the override-source value? ---
**Author:** ![budy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/budy/32/38_2.png) [@budy](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/budy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:22pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/10 "2025-11-19T12:22:03Z")
Yes, the maintenance job will do all the maintenance tasks on the repo, regardless of what other owner is set. In the end the maintenance takes care of re-writing blobs, phasing out old blobs and the like. Nothing it does to the data in the repo itself, other than the juggling/removing of old fragments. ---
**Author:** ![budy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/budy/32/38_2.png) [@budy](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/budy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/11 "2025-11-19T12:57:34Z")
The only time, I am halting that automated maintenance is when I am performing a `kopia repo sync-to` operation, to ensure, that the target gets a clean sync from my repo. Other than that, I am always relying on the automated maintenance. ---
**Author:** ![mabod](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/mabod/32/941_2.png) [@mabod](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/mabod)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/kopia-maintenance-with-different-owner/8696/12 "2025-11-19T15:21:40Z")
@budy, thank you so much.