Arq Backblaze
The forum threads (one here, one in Windowsland) were active last autumn, but now I'm closer to my old Crashplan contract ending in July and have decided to do something about it. I'm interested in learning what other folks did (if they did it already) and whether their experiences were good/bad, and have they migrated again since migrating FROM crashplan.
I am leaning toward Backblaze, but need to manage a few computers (anyone have experience with that part of BB?). I am not leaning toward crashplan pro even though it would delay the decision for another year (special pricing for 1 year after the nonpro service contract ends).
Backblaze is now both, a personal backup service AND a cloud storage service. What is the difference? Backblaze Personal Backup is the initial service that Backblaze launched in 2007. The service includes a desktop client for Windows and Mac computers to automatically backup all the files from those computers to the Backblaze data centers. Arq Backup Arq users can now choose to store their data in Backblaze B2 and can save up to 75% on cloud storage costs versus similar providers. Get affordable backup of external drives, network drives, NAS devices, Windows PCs, Windows Servers and Macs to the cloud with Arq and Backblaze B2. Arq Backup, a long-time favorite of Backblaze customers for its ease-of-use and powerful features, takes full advantage of the Fireball. Arq has an excellent how-to post on creating the initial backup onto the Fireball and then transferring the backup target to Backblaze. Backblaze invites you to take a look! Backblaze is ranked 1st while Arq is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Backblaze is: The default configuration includes everything except for system files to be backed up. That also includes external USB drives.
Backblaze; Carbonite; iDrive; Arq; Acronis; Backblaze How to backup. Set up a new account and download the software from Backblaze. Follow the installation instructions. Backblaze will immediately begin to back up your hard drive. The initial backup can take days or weeks depending on the upload speed of your Internet connection.
In this article I share bit of what I’ve learned in putting together a backup anddata synchronization system for myself and my family. My goal is simple enough tostate generally: I want to make sure all of my notes, documents, photos and videosare backed up and available from anywhere. Diving into the details of this goal iswhere things get complex. Happily, I think the end result is simple enough for othersto emulate.
Gathering the requirements
Teasing apart my goal a bit more, I refined it to the following requirements:
- Every document from every device should be backed up to redundant, cloud storage.Losing a device should not mean losing data, nor should losing all of my devices atthe same.
- I’d like immediate access to some documents from all devices with transparentsynchronization. Some documents, like in-progress notes and drafts and to do listsneed to be up to date at all times on all devices.
- Photos are a bit special. I’d like the ability to view and search through everyphoto and video in my entire library from desktop and mobile devices. In addition,many photos need to be shared with others.
- I’d like for my personal data to be encrypted at rest and in transport.
- I’m lazy and forgetful: Whatever system I put together should be easy to maintainand mostly invisible.
- I need to store about 100GB of documents and 500GB of media.
Media is special
The special case of photos caught my attention, and I thought a bit more about how Itake, organize, access, and share pictures. This led to a few more requirements:
- An easy, consistent workflow is important to me. Everything captured from either myphone or DSLR should end up in the same places.
- Edits to photos and meta-data on any platform should be synchronized and backed up.
- As mentioned above, easily sharing photos with friends and family is important tome, but in general my pictures are private.
- I favor searching over ongoing organization. Searching for places, dates, people,and tags should be easy to do.
- I usually take pictures in RAW format, and edit to produce variants of theoriginal. Having a photo systems that understands this is important to me.
Finally, I am our family’s IT administrator. Some of this project will support theirneeds, so the solutions need to be relatively simple and inexpensive.
Considering the options
Now that I understand the problem I’m trying to solve, it’s time to consider thetools available to construct a solution.
Assets
I have some assets already available that could potentially form part of a solution:
- A Mac mini running at my home that is always on.
- An older but perfectly good Drobo NAS at home.
- An Amazon Prime account.
- An offsite, small virtual private server at buyvm.net.
(spoiler: my end solution uses only the first of these).
Services
For keeping a set of folders of data in sync across all of my devices, I looked atGoogle Drive, Dropbox,and Syncthing. For backup software and services, Ievaluated Backblaze,Carbonite, and Arq Backupusing Backblaze B2 cloud storage.Finally, I looked at various photo services, includingFlickr, GooglePhotos, Smugmug,and Amazon PrimePhotos.
Data Synchronization
Both Google Drive and Dropbox are easy to setup and use. I already use Dropbox forwork, so adding it for my personal documents is trivial. The same can generally besaid for Google Drive. Both of these services also have excellent mobile applicationsfor accessing the files. However both fail my encrypted at rest requirements. Thereare tools available to build encrypted filesystems on top of these services, but theycomplicate the final product. In the end, I chose to use Syncthing and not store mydocuments in a cloud (though they are backed up to the cloud). Syncthing lets mecontrol the storage – I use my Mac mini server as the “cloud,” and it’s contents arebacked up continuously to a cloud service. Syncthing can be a bid tricky to setup andmanage – certainly more so than Dropbox or Google Drive. If it proves too complex,and encrypted storage is still important, I would look toSpiderOak
Backups
Backblaze’s backup solution seemed great at first analysis, but the costs becomeprohibitive when scaled to my entire family. However Backblaze does offer a servicecalled “B2” which is similar to but cheaper than S3. I selected Arq Backup withBacklaze B2 as the offsite, geo-redundant storage. B2 is cheap, fast, and easy touse, and Arq is cheap enough, light-weight, and easy to configure and manage on allmy systems. Most importantly, it is easy to manage on all of my family computers, andcan be configured to be bandwidth-friendly.
My annual backup bill for offsite backup of all of my data went from $120/yr withCrashPlan to less than $50 with Backblaze B2.
Media
Arq Backup Vs Backblaze
All of my media is stored on my Drobo NAS at home, managed byMylio, which I like, but don’t love as a photo managementapplication. The photos and metadata are completely backed up to Backblaze B2 asdescribed above. Mylio is installed on all of my devices (include my phone), andkeeps the various systems in sync – all photos end up in original quality on myserver, and are accessible from my laptop and phone as needed.
Arq Backup Backblaze B2
Arq Vs Backblaze
Mylio is adequate for face detection and geolocation cataloging, but Google Photos isjust too impressive to ignore. I’m using the Google Photos Backup tool from my servermac mini to upload all of my photos to a private Google account. This violates myencrypted-at-rest requirement, but I can live with that for now. Using GooglePhotos, I get amazing search, and good limited sharing.
Putting it all together
My daughter was kind enough to draw a diagram of the whole system:
Mylio takes care of photo syncing, and Syncthing handles all other documents.Arq+Backblase B2 handle offsite backups, while Google Photos enables media sharingand searching. I’m not sure what role the duck plays, but it seems to be important.