Is there a proper documentation available? The info at https://kopia.io/docs/ is missing a lot of essential information.
What sort of information do you feel is missing?
e.g. this is just one example:
Just check the questions on this forum. 80% of them are just the fundamentals and could be handled by proper documentation.
Well… there is actually a lot of information. However, Kopia is mainly used via KopiaUI, which is fine for regular users, who simply want to snapshot their system. As soon, as you wander off into server/admin land, you will have to take a closer look at the command line references, where you will find all the commands available for general use.
I am the first to admit, that there’s a bit of a learning curve, but thats always the case, if you want to dive deep into something non-trivial. I guess, first of all, you will need to wrap your head around Kopia’s main principles regarding repos, snapshot, and policies. KopiaUI does make those quite acessible, but when running a Kopia server, those are things, you will have to setup on the command line. Once your Kopia server is up and running with it’s repo (see “backup root dir”, you can then even connect to it using a browser and configure it much like you’d do with Kopia UI.
I am a command line person and usually don’t use UI for things that can be easily scripted.
I read the command line reference. The issue is that the argument/option names are not useful, when you do not know their context. Which I have to say is never to be found.
Let’s take my previous example when I asked about server start. So, the reference tells me this: --server-control-username server-control Server control username
So the description for --server-control-username is Server control username
Brilliant, but what the blazing heck is a server control user???
Then you pasted:
--password=<repo password> \
--tls-cert-file /path/to/cert \
--tls-key-file /path/to/key \
--address 0.0.0.0:5151 \
--config-file="/path/to/server.config" \
--server-username <main repo user> \
--log-level=error \
--file-log-level=error \
--log-dir="/path/to/logdir" &
but the reference tells me something else:
--server-password HTTP server password (basic auth)
--server-username kopia HTTP server username (basic auth)
What about the repo user and repo password then? I suspect the http user/pwd is for accessing the server via the browser, but even this is nowhere explained. Is this the super admin for the server? No idea. Because it’s nowhere explained. What can this user do? For what do I need it?
Do you understand what I am trying to say? I am very good with command line stuff, but the documentation still has to explain what the options are actually for.
P.S.: I just noticed that asking if you understood what I’d been saying, might be seen as hostile. Please note that it was an honest question, because I do not know whether I expressed myself clearly enough.
No prob, I do get it - Kopia has become more powerful and thus more complex. The server-control-username can be regarded as the server admin. This account can access all sources of all clients in the repo, where as repo users only have access to their own sources.
kopia lack of documentation cause much pain in family. pls add thank you
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I can’t get it to work. Once I start the repo server, and try and login with the control ID/pass, I get an error: UI Access denied. See https://github.com/kopia/kopia/issues/880#issuecomment-798421751 for more information.
Are you supposed to use the kopiaui or something?
Nope - no KopiaUI needed at all. Have you tried to log in as the user, which also connects to Kopia server to push its snapshots?
If that works, you are maybe having an ACL issue - which can be resolved, of course…