Cross-Region Bucket Replication

This guide walks through setting up automated cross-region replication for Railway Buckets using DataRaven’s scheduled tasks.

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Prerequisites

• A Railway account with active project(s)
• Railway Buckets in at least two regions that you want to replicate
• DataRaven account with team access

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Step 1: Gather Your Bucket Credentials

For each bucket you want to replicate, you’ll need to collect the S3 credentials from the Railway console:

1. Open your Railway dashboard
2. Navigate to your project and select the bucket
3. Go to the Credentials tab
4. Note the following values:
   • Bucket Name: e.g., `dr-bak-west-0iofqnrozari“
   • Access Key ID: Your S3 access key
   • Secret Access Key: Your S3 secret key
   • Endpoint URL: e.g., https://t3.storageapi.dev

Repeat this process for both your source and destination buckets.

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Step 2: Configure Source Bucket Location

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Via DataRaven Dashboard

1. Go to Locations in your team workspace
2. Click Add Location
3. Select Railway as the provider type
4. Fill in the following details:
   • Display Name: e.g., “Railway US-East Bucket”
   • Bucket Name: The bucket name from your credentials (e.g., dr-bak-west-0iofqnrozari)
   • Access Key ID: Your S3 access key (or reference a vault secret)
   • Secret Access Key: Your S3 secret key (or reference a vault secret)
   • Endpoint URL: The endpoint from your credentials (e.g., https://t3.storageapi.dev)
5. Click Test to verify the connection
6. Click Save

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Step 3: Configure Destination Bucket

1. Repeat Step 2 for your destination bucket
2. Use the Display Name: e.g., “Railway EU-West Bucket”
3. Use the bucket name and credentials for your destination bucket (e.g., dr-bak-west-0iofqnrozari)

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Step 4: Create a Replication Task

1. Navigate to Tasks in your workspace
2. Click Create Task
3. Configure the task:
   • Task Name: e.g., “Replicate US→EU Buckets”
   • Source Location: Select your source Railway bucket
   • Destination Location: Select your destination Railway bucket
   • Task Type: Choose sync (one-way sync) or copy (copies new/changed files without deleting)
   • Filters: Optionally set path filters to replicate only specific directories or file types

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Schedule Options

Use cron expressions to set when your replication runs. Enter a standard cron schedule or use shortcuts:

• @daily — Runs every day at midnight
• @weekly — Runs every Sunday at midnight
• Custom cron — e.g., 0 2 * * * for 2 AM every day

All jobs execute in UTC. You can also run one-off syncs manually from the task dashboard.

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Step 5: Monitor Replication

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Dashboard Monitoring

1. Go to Tasks and select your replication task
2. View:
   • Last Execution: When the sync last ran
   • Status: Success/In-progress/Failed
   • Data Transferred: Total bytes synced
   • Execution Time: How long the sync took

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View Detailed Logs

1. Click on an execution in the task history
2. View logs including:
   • Files synced/skipped
   • Any errors or warnings
   • Performance metrics

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Set Up Alerts

1. Navigate to Notifications in settings
2. Create a notification rule for your replication task
3. Choose channel: Email, Slack, or Webhook
4. Configure when to notify: On success, failure, or both

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Best Practices

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Performance Optimization

• Filter by path: If you only need to replicate specific directories, use path filters in your task configuration to reduce transfer time and costs
• Schedule during off-peak hours: Run large syncs at times when traffic is lowest
• Use Daily or Weekly for large datasets: Hourly syncs can be expensive if your data is large

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Cost Management

• Railway Bucket egress is free: Cross-region transfers between Railway Buckets don’t incur egress charges

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Troubleshooting

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”Connection Failed” Error

Cause: Invalid S3 credentials or incorrect endpoint URL Solution:

• Verify your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key are correct
• Confirm the Endpoint URL matches what’s shown in Railway console (e.g., https://t3.storageapi.dev)
• Ensure the bucket name is exact (Railway generates unique names with hashes)
• Test the connection again after updating credentials

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Slow Transfer Speed

Cause: Free tier accounts have limitations on transfer performance Solution:

• Free tier transfers are single-threaded with a 1 GB/s speed cap. Upgrade to Pro for parallel transfers and faster speeds.
• Consider splitting large datasets into smaller sync jobs
• Run syncs during off-peak hours to avoid network congestion

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Next Steps

• Learn about general task creation for other use cases
• Explore vault integration for managing credentials securely

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Additional Resources

• Railway Documentation