# Remote Destinations

> Copy finished backup archives off the server to S3-compatible object storage or an SFTP server, and keep those destinations working.

Source: https://www.corepanel.net/docs/backups/destinations/
Last updated: 2026-10-02
Part of the CorePanel documentation — https://www.corepanel.net/docs

---

By default an archive stays on the same disk as the server it protects — which is exactly
the failure a backup exists to survive. A **destination** is where CorePanel copies the
finished archive: S3-compatible object storage, or any SSH server over SFTP. Once one
exists, [taking a backup](https://www.corepanel.net/docs/backups/taking-backups) by hand or on a schedule can push
to it, and [restoring](https://www.corepanel.net/docs/backups/restoring) can read straight from it.

Remote destinations require **CorePanel Pro or Business**. Listing, disabling and deleting
a destination — and restoring an archive back from one — work on every edition, so a
lapsed licence never leaves you unable to reach your own backups.

## Adding a destination

**Backup & Transfers → Destinations → Add destination**, then choose the driver:

| Driver | Works with |
|---|---|
| **S3-compatible** | AWS S3, MinIO, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and Google Cloud Storage through its S3 endpoint |
| **SFTP** | Any SSH server with a directory you can write to |

![The New backup destination dialog with S3-compatible selected: the name offsite-s3, shortcut buttons for AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Wasabi and MinIO, the endpoint s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com, the bucket corepanel-backups, the region eu-west-1, the folder server-01, an access key and a masked secret key, switches for Path-style addressing (off), Plain HTTP (off) and Available to backups (on), and Cancel and Add and test buttons](https://www.corepanel.net/_astro/backup-destination-dark.DjBPYhi1.png)

For S3 the form asks for the endpoint, bucket, region and an optional **folder** inside the
bucket — useful when several servers share one bucket — plus an access key and secret key.
The provider buttons above the endpoint fill in its usual shape. For SFTP it asks for the
host, port, username, a password or a private key, and the **remote directory**.

Three settings are worth understanding:

- **Path-style addressing** (S3) puts the bucket in the URL path instead of the hostname.
  MinIO and most self-hosted gateways need it; AWS does not. Getting it wrong is the usual
  cause of a destination that connects but cannot find the bucket.
- **Plain HTTP** (S3) talks to the endpoint without TLS. It exists for a storage service
  on a private network; over the internet it would send your keys and your archives in the
  clear.
- **The host key** (SFTP) is pinned on the first successful connection: CorePanel adopts
  the key it sees then and verifies every later connection against it. From the CLI,
  `--host-key` pins one you supply instead.

**Available to backups** decides whether the destination is offered when a backup or a
schedule is created. Turning it off keeps the destination and the archives stored there —
they can still be listed and restored — but stops new archives going to it: a schedule
that still points at it keeps its local archive and reports the push as not done.

## Always test a destination

**Add and test** saves the destination and tests it in the same step; **Test connection**
in its menu runs the test again at any time. The test uploads a small probe object, lists
it and deletes it again. That is deliberately more than a login check: a destination can
accept a connection and still reject writes, and you do not want to discover that on the
night you need the backup.

The result is stored, so the **Last check** column shows the last known state of every
destination — green when it accepted the test upload, red when it did not.

## Using a destination

Once a destination exists, **Create backup** and every schedule can point at it in
**Copy to**. A schedule's retention then prunes the remote copies too, not just the local
ones, and [deleting a backup](https://www.corepanel.net/docs/backups/taking-backups#deleting-a-backup) removes its
remote copy along with the local one.

> **The local copy is kept**
>
> Pushing to a destination does not remove the archive from the server. If the destination
> is unreachable the job comes back **partial**, with the reason in its report, and the
> local archive is still there — a failed upload never costs you the backup.
A destination is also the simplest way to [move an account](https://www.corepanel.net/docs/backups/moving): add the
same one on the other server, and its archives are there to restore.

## Editing a destination

**Edit** changes a destination's settings in place — a corrected bucket, a new folder, or
rotated credentials. Leave the credential fields empty and the stored ones are kept, so
fixing a typo in the endpoint never costs you the keys. The driver itself cannot change:
S3 and SFTP are different destinations, not two settings of one.

Editing rather than replacing matters more than it looks. Backup jobs remember which
destination they were pushed to by **id**, so deleting a destination and creating an
identical one leaves every archive already stored there orphaned: retention can no longer
find it, and those files stay in the bucket — billed — until someone removes them by hand.
Rotating S3 keys is an edit, not a re-creation.