Create a Repository

The Backup Service REST API allows repositories to be created.

HTTP Methods and URIs

POST /cluster/self/repository/active/<new-repository-name>

Description

The POST http method and /cluster/self/repository/active/<new-repository-name> create a new repository. The call must specify a plan, as a JSON payload: for information on defining a plan, see Create and Edit Plans.

Once a repository has been created, the tasks specified in its plan are executed on schedule. While in this stage of its lifecycle, the repository is referred to as an active repository.

Curl Syntax

curl -X POST <backup-node-ip-address-or-domain-name>:8097/cluster/self/\
repository/active/<new-repository-name> \
-u <username>:<password> \
-d <repository-definition>

The new-repository-name path-parameter must be a name for the new repository: this name must be unique for repositories across the cluster. The username and password must be those of a user with the Full Admin role.

The repository-definition contains the following:

plan. A defined plan. For information, see Create and Edit Plans.
archive. A defined archive. This must be a location on a filesystem, or on a cloud, that is not used for any other repository. The location must be accessible from all cluster-nodes that run the Backup Service. Note also that Couchbase Server must have read and write access to the location. On Linux, therefore, for a filesystem location, use the chgrp command to set the group ID of the folder to couchbase; unless a non-root installation has been performed, in which case set the group ID either to the username of the current user, or to a group of which the current user is a member — see Non-Root Install and Upgrade, for more information.
bucket_name. Optionally, the name of a specific bucket, defined on the cluster. The bucket can be either a Couchbase or an Ephemeral bucket. If the bucket-name is provided, only data for this bucket is backed up. If the bucket specified by the name does not exist, repository-creation fails. If no bucket-name is provided, data for all buckets on the cluster is backed up.

Syntactically therefore, a filesystem-based repository-definition that specifies an individual bucket, is as follows:

{
  "plan": <existing-plan>,
  "archive": <path-to-storage-location>,
  "bucket_name": <individual-bucket-name>
}

Cloud-Specific Parameters

The following, additional parameters are provided, for defining a repository that uses cloud-based storage:

cloud_credential_name. A string that is a set of registered credentials for the cloud. If this is not specified, and cloud-storage is to be accessed, either the cloud_credentials_key or the cloud_credentials_id must be specified instead.
cloud_staging_dir. The location to be used as a staging directory. This must be specified, if cloud storage is to be used. The location must be directory on the local file system that is large enough to accommodate approximately 10% of the data set that is to be backed up. A minimum of 50 GB is recommended. The pathname of the location must be accessible to all nodes in the cluster that are running the Backup Service; but the location itself must be not be shared by NFS or any equivalent protocol. Instead, the location must be a non-shared directory on the local file system for the node.
cloud_credentials_id. An ID used to connect to object store. For AWS, this is the access key id.
cloud_credentials_key. A secret key used to connect to object store. For AWS, this is the AWS secret access key.
cloud_region. The AWS Region for the repository. For example, us-east-1, us-west-2.
cloud_endpoint. If provided, this overrides the default endpoint used for the cloud provider.
cloud_force_path_style. When provided, and using S3 or S3 compatible storages, this enforces the old S3 path style.

Responses

Successful repository-creation returns 200 OK; with the message, The repository was created. If the repository is incorrectly specified, 400 is returned; with the message, The request body is invalid. If the specified plan is not located, 404 is returned; with the message, The plan could not be found. If an internal error causes the call the fail, 500 is returned; with the message Failed to create repository due to internal error.

Failure to authenticate returns 401 Unauthorized. An incorrectly specified URI returns 404 Object Not Found. An incorrectly specified method returns 404 Object Not Found, and returns the object {"status":404,"msg":"requested plan not found"}.

Examples

The following call creates a new repository named testRepo. Its plan is to be the default, system-provided plan, _hourly_backups; and the data to be backed up is specified as from the travel-sample bucket only.

curl -v -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8097/api/v1/cluster/self/repository/active/testRepo \
-u Administrator:password -d '{"plan":"_hourly_backups","archive":"/Users/user/Documents/archives/testRepo","bucket_name":"travel-sample"}'

If successful, the call returns 200 OK.