[Borgbackup] Help with Initializing Remote Repository

[Samir Parikh]

Hello,

I am trying to back up from a local Ubuntu laptop running borgbackup
version 1.0.12 to a remote Ubuntu VM running borgbackup version
1.1.15.

I created the following environment variable as I am using an
alternate SSH key which does not use a passphrase (to facilitate
future automation):

export BORG_RSH='ssh -i /home/spython01/.ssh/borgsshkey'

I then ran the following command on my local machine to initialize a
remote repo:

borg init --encryption=repokey borg at ip.address:/home/borg/borgbackup

but got the following message, instead of a prompt to create a password:

root Remote: There is already something at /home/borg/borgbackup.
('Remote Exception (see remote log for the traceback)', 'PathAlreadyExists')
Platform: Linux 4.4.0-178-generic #208-Ubuntu SMP Sun Apr 5 23:45:10
UTC 2020 x86_64
Linux: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
Borg: 1.0.12  Python: CPython 3.5.2
PID: 20952  CWD: /home/spython01
sys.argv: ['/usr/bin/borg', 'init', '--encryption=repokey',
'borg at ip.address:/home/borg/borgbackup']
SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND: None

Permissions on the remote VM for the backup directory are as follows:

drwxr-xr-x 3 borg borg 4096 May  4 23:41 borgbackup

Any suggestions on what to change or what I did wrong?

Thanks
Samir