Concepts — S3 Buckets

Architecture

Hikube's Object Storage service is built on SeaweedFS, an S3-compatible object storage solution. Data is automatically triple-replicated across 3 geographically distinct datacenters, ensuring high availability even in the event of a complete datacenter loss.

Terminology

Term	Description
Bucket	Kubernetes resource (`apps.cozystack.io/v1alpha1`) representing an S3 bucket. Only one required field: the `name`.
Object Storage	Unstructured storage based on objects (files) identified by a unique key.
S3-compatible	API compatible with the Amazon S3 protocol, supported by the vast majority of tools and SDKs.
SeaweedFS	Open-source distributed storage system, S3-compatible, used as the backend by Hikube.
Access Key / Secret Key	Credential pair for S3 authentication, automatically generated in a Kubernetes Secret.
BucketInfo	JSON field in the Secret containing the S3 endpoint, protocol, and port.
Endpoint	Hikube S3 service URL: `https://prod.s3.hikube.cloud`

How it works

Creation

Creating a bucket is the simplest of all Hikube resources:

bucket.yaml
apiVersion: apps.cozystack.io/v1alpha1
kind: Bucket
metadata:
  name: my-data
spec: {}

The operator automatically creates:

The bucket in SeaweedFS
A Kubernetes Secret containing the access credentials

Automatic credentials

The Secret <bucket-name>-credentials contains:

Key	Description
`accessKeyID`	S3 access key
`accessSecretKey`	S3 secret key
`bucketInfo`	JSON with endpoint, protocol, and port

Multi-datacenter triple replication

Data is automatically replicated across 3 datacenters:

Datacenter	Location
Region 1	Geneva
Region 2	Gland
Region 3	Lucerne

This architecture guarantees:

Zero data loss in case of a datacenter failure
Service continuity with automatic failover
Optimized latency from Switzerland and Europe

tip

Triple replication is transparent — you have nothing to configure. All data is automatically replicated.

Compatible tools

The service is compatible with all tools supporting the S3 protocol:

Tool	Use case
AWS CLI	Command-line file management
MinIO Client (mc)	S3-compatible command-line client
rclone	Data synchronization and migration
s3cmd	Alternative S3 management
Velero	Kubernetes cluster backup
Restic	Database backup (PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse)
SDKs	boto3 (Python), AWS SDK (Go, Java, Node.js)

Use cases

Use case	Description
Asset storage	Images, videos, static files for web applications
Backup	Destination for database and K8s cluster backups
Data lake	Raw data storage for analytics
Archival	Long-term retention of documents and logs

Limits and quotas

Parameter	Value
Max object size	Depending on backend configuration
Number of buckets	Depending on tenant quota
Replication	Triple (3 DC), automatic
Endpoint	`https://prod.s3.hikube.cloud`

Architecture​

Terminology​

How it works​

Creation​

Automatic credentials​

Multi-datacenter triple replication​

Compatible tools​

Use cases​

Limits and quotas​

Further reading​