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How to backup a S3 bucket?

Last reviewed: 2025-09-04 / Plakar v1.0.3

This tutorial explains how to configure the Plakar S3 source integration to back up an existing S3 bucket into an already configured Kloset store. You’ll learn how to install the integration, set up your credentials, build the correct bucket URL for your provider, and run backups.

1. Install the S3 integration

Before using S3 as a source, you need to install the Plakar S3 integration. You can do this in two ways:

Option A — Install from pre-built packages (requires being logged in with plakar login)

1plakar pkg add s3

Option B — Build locally (requires the Go toolchain to be installed)

1plakar pkg build s3
2plakar pkg add ./s3_v1.0.0_darwin_arm64.ptar

⚠️ Adapt the filename to match the package file generated by plakar pkg build.

2. Get your bucket credentials

  • Access Key ID
  • Secret Access Key

3. Build your bucket URL

Most S3-compatible providers do not show you the full s3://… address in their web UI—you’ll need to construct it yourself based on your bucket name, host/region, and (sometimes) port or path.

You’ll use this URL in the next step to configure your Plakar s3 source.

Depending on your provider, use one of these formats:

AWS S3

1# Region-specific endpoint:
2s3://s3.<REGION>.amazonaws.com/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mybucket

MinIO

1# Custom host & port:
2s3://<MINIO_HOST>:<PORT>/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://localhost:9000/mybucket

Scaleway

1# Region-specific endpoint:
2s3://s3.<REGION>.scw.cloud/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://s3.fr-par.scw.cloud/mybucket

Backblaze

1# Region-specific endpoint:
2s3://s3.<REGION>.backblazeb2.com/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://s3.us-west-001.backblazeb2.com/mybucket

CleverCloud

1# Fixed endpoint for CleverCloud Cellar:
2s3://cellar-c2.services.clever-cloud.com/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://cellar-c2.services.clever-cloud.com/mybucket

4. Configure the s3 source

1# Add a store (name it anything — here we use "mys3")
2plakar source add mys3 <YOUR_S3_URL> access_key=<YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID> secret_access_key=<YOUR_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY>
3
4# If running MinIO locally without TLS:
5plakar source set mys3 use_tls=false

5. Run your backup

Once your remote is configured, trigger a backup of your Kloset with:

1plakar at @myrepo backup @mys3

This assumes you already have a Kloset named @myrepo. Creating it is outside the scope of this tutorial.