How to move a repository to new local storage?

[allenpomeroy]

What is the best way to move a repository from one filesystem path to a new path? I can see use of "rsync -avPH --progress /old/path/repos/ /new/path/repos/" will do a copy and preserve file attributes. Not sure of the best way to update the repository at the client level in BBS.

[marcpope]

Here's the process I'd follow:

1. Add the new storage location in the UI first
Storage → Add Storage Location, point it at /new/path. That writes an entry to storage_locations and updates /etc/bbs/allowed-storage-paths so bbs-ssh-helper will accept repo operations under it.

2. Put BBS in maintenance mode
Settings → check Maintenance Mode. The scheduler stops queuing new backup jobs and the queue stops dispatching to agents. Wait for any in-flight job to finish.

3. Copy the data with rsync -aHP
The -H is the one that matters — Borg uses hard links between chunks and segment files. Without -H you'll end up with an inflated copy and a broken dedup chain.

sudo rsync -aHP --info=progress2 /old/path/<agent_id>/ /new/path/<agent_id>/

Preserve <agent_id> as the parent directory name — that's how the SSH chroot expects to find each client's repos.

4. Verify ownership
Each per-client home directory is owned by that agent's bbs-* unix user. rsync -a preserves that, but quick check:

ls -ld /new/path/<agent_id>
# should show: drwx------ bbs-<something>:bbs-<something>

5. Update the database to point the repo(s) at the new location

-- Find the new storage location id
SELECT id, path FROM storage_locations WHERE path = '/new/path';

-- For each repo you moved, point it at the new location
UPDATE repositories
SET storage_location_id = <new_id>,
    path = REPLACE(path, '/old/path', '/new/path')
WHERE id = <repo_id>;

The path column on repositories holds the full ssh://user@host//abs/path/<agent_id>/<reponame> URL the agent uses — just swap the path component.

6. Re-run the per-client storage path setup
Edit the client in BBS and save (no changes needed) — that re-triggers bbs-ssh-helper update-storage-paths so the SSH chroot adds an overlay mount for the new path. Alternatively from the shell:

sudo /usr/local/bin/bbs-ssh-helper update-storage-paths <ssh_home_dir> /new/path/<agent_id>

7. Turn maintenance mode off and trigger a test backup
If borg list and a fresh backup both succeed, you're done. The ClickHouse file catalog is keyed by (agent_id, archive_id) and is unaffected — search and restore continue to work without re-cataloging.

8. Remove the old data
Once you've confirmed a successful backup against the new path, rm -rf /old/path/<agent_id> (or leave it as an offline copy for a day).

A few things to watch out for:

• Don't move the data with the agent online and a backup in flight — you'll either corrupt the destination or get a "repo locked" error on the next run
• If the repo encryption mode is repokey*, the key lives inside the repo's config file, so the move is self-contained — no passphrase changes needed
• If you have multiple clients sharing /old/path, move them all in one window so the agent_ids stay consistent under one parent

A managed "move to new storage" workflow is on my list, but it's manual for now. Let me know if you hit a snag.