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What's your offsite backup solution?

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  What's your offsite backup solution? RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-05-17 19:44 +0000
    Re: What's your offsite backup solution? Larry Hynes <larry@larryhynes.com> - 2014-05-17 19:48 +0000
      Re: What's your offsite backup solution? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-05-17 21:27 +0000
        Re: What's your offsite backup solution? Larry Hynes <larry@larryhynes.com> - 2014-05-17 22:14 +0000
        Re: What's your offsite backup solution? Rich <rich@example.com> - 2014-05-17 23:16 +0000
          Re: What's your offsite backup solution? Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2014-05-18 06:12 +0000
            Re: What's your offsite backup solution? Rich <rich@example.com> - 2014-05-18 15:11 +0000
              Re: What's your offsite backup solution? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-05-18 18:52 +0200
    Re: What's your offsite backup solution? scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2014-05-21 15:40 +0000

#2861 — What's your offsite backup solution?

From the «truckload full of CDs hurtling down the highway» department:
Title: What Is Your Offsite Storage Solution?
Author: zafiro17@pipedot.org
Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 13:55:14 -0400
Link: http://pipedot.org/story/2014-05-16/what-is-your-offsite-storage-solution

We're talking data here, not your funky old couch and cassette collection.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is reviewing[1] six solutions for stuffing all your
data in the cloud [1]. He reviews Amazon CloudDrive, Box, Dropbox,
GoogleDrive, OneDrive, and SpiderOak. He then concludes, lamely , "I can't
tell you what the perfect cloud storage is because there's no such thing. It
all depends on your needs."OK, so the article was clickbait, and I'll stick
with my current back-up solution: burning lots of DVDs, labelling, and then
mailing them offsite in case my house burns down. I'm guessing the Pipedot
community can do better: what offsite services do you use and recommend? Any
providers you'd avoid? What's the best option for a small business hoping to
maintain access to docs from different locations and systems? What's the best
option for a homebody nerd making sure his carefully curated collection of ..
um .. downloaded images stays backed up in case of catastrophic hardware
failures at home?[1]Footnote: Interesting article, but also a test of whether
you have successfully installed this browser plug-in[2] .

Links:
[1]: http://www.zdnet.com/six-clicks-the-best-personal-and-smb-cloud-storage-services-7000029294/#photo (link)
[2]: http://pipedot.org/story/2014-05-16/sick-of-hearing-about-the-cloud--heres-a-browser-plugin-for-you (link)

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#2862

On 2014-05-17, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> From the «truckload full of CDs hurtling down the highway» department:
> Title: What Is Your Offsite Storage Solution?

https://www.tarsnap.com/

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#2866

On 5/17/14 7:48 PM, Larry Hynes wrote:
>On 2014-05-17, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
>> From the «truckload full of CDs hurtling down the highway» department:
>> Title: What Is Your Offsite Storage Solution?
>
>https://www.tarsnap.com/
>


I'm really happy you responded with tarsnap.  Somebody posted it to the
 Pipedot article too, so I went to check it out and am intrigued!  Looks
 like an implementation of rsync though.  Is that correct?  
One option I was considering was rsync.net but with per-gigabyte charges it
 adds up fast, and what I'm really hoping to back up are my photos, which
 were many gigs.

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#2867

On 2014-05-17, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> On 5/17/14 7:48 PM, Larry Hynes wrote:
>>On 2014-05-17, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
>>> From the «truckload full of CDs hurtling down the highway» department:
>>> Title: What Is Your Offsite Storage Solution?
>>
>>https://www.tarsnap.com/
>>
>
>
> I'm really happy you responded with tarsnap.  Somebody posted it to the
>  Pipedot article too, so I went to check it out and am intrigued!  Looks
>  like an implementation of rsync though.  Is that correct?  
> One option I was considering was rsync.net but with per-gigabyte charges it
>  adds up fast, and what I'm really hoping to back up are my photos, which
>  were many gigs.

Honestly, one of the things I like most about it is I have very little
idea what's going on 'under the hood' and I have great faith that the
proprietor does! :) He gives a breakdown of the technicalities here:
https://www.tarsnap.com/technical.html
It *feels* more like tar than rsync, but with a remote write address,
which is S3. Once it's set up, creating an archive is as simple as
`tarsnap -c -f myarchive /home/me`, which archives your home dir to your
Amazon storage, in an encrypted format. I run it nightly on nearly all
my machines, and have restored from it without issue.

I also recently bought a 2TB external and wrote everything that was to
be found on any drive here to it, then entrusted it to my folks for
safe-keeping in the event of a catastrophe - a dated off-site
backup, to be sure, but better than nothing! :)

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#2868

RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> On 5/17/14 7:48 PM, Larry Hynes wrote:
> >On 2014-05-17, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> >> From the «truckload full of CDs hurtling down the highway» department:
> >> Title: What Is Your Offsite Storage Solution?
> >
> >https://www.tarsnap.com/
> >


> I'm really happy you responded with tarsnap.  Somebody posted it to
>  the Pipedot article too, so I went to check it out and am intrigued! 
>  Looks like an implementation of rsync though.  Is that correct?

It is not rsync, but it functions like rsync (backing up a copy of your
data).

> One option I was considering was rsync.net but with per-gigabyte
>  charges it adds up fast, and what I'm really hoping to back up are
>  my photos, which were many gigs.

For any of the pay-per-gig services, the per-gig charges add up fast
enough that for what one would pay the service, one could simply buy
another backup hard drive every 3,6,9 months and end up with mulitple
redundant copies of the data.  Store some of those disks "offsite" and
you now have "offsite" backups.  You just don't get offsite "updates"
unless you can install them into a remote system as well.

Even for the "flat rate" services, the per month charges over time
would allow for the purchase of plenty of redundant disk to backup your
own data onto.

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#2870

In message <5377ede2$0$17075$c3e8da3$dd9697d2@news.astraweb.com> 
  Rich <rich@example.com> wrote:
> RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
>> On 5/17/14 7:48 PM, Larry Hynes wrote:
>> >On 2014-05-17, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
>> >> From the «truckload full of CDs hurtling down the highway» department:
>> >> Title: What Is Your Offsite Storage Solution?
>> >
>> >https://www.tarsnap.com/

>> I'm really happy you responded with tarsnap.  Somebody posted it to
>>  the Pipedot article too, so I went to check it out and am intrigued! 
>>  Looks like an implementation of rsync though.  Is that correct?

> It is not rsync, but it functions like rsync (backing up a copy of your
> data).

>> One option I was considering was rsync.net but with per-gigabyte
>>  charges it adds up fast, and what I'm really hoping to back up are
>>  my photos, which were many gigs.

> For any of the pay-per-gig services, the per-gig charges add up fast
> enough that for what one would pay the service, one could simply buy
> another backup hard drive every 3,6,9 months and end up with mulitple
> redundant copies of the data.  Store some of those disks "offsite" and
> you now have "offsite" backups.  You just don't get offsite "updates"
> unless you can install them into a remote system as well.

Backblaze is $5 a month for all the data on one computer, including
external drives. I have 4.5TB on backblaze. The only downside I would
point out is that restoring can be very annoying if Backblaze decides
your computer is now a new computer.

> Even for the "flat rate" services, the per month charges over time
> would allow for the purchase of plenty of redundant disk to backup your
> own data onto.

$5 a month for 4.5TB... well, that would take a long time to pay off in
hard drives.


-- 
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered

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#2873

Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> In message <5377ede2$0$17075$c3e8da3$dd9697d2@news.astraweb.com> 
>   Rich <rich@example.com> wrote:
> > RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> >> On 5/17/14 7:48 PM, Larry Hynes wrote:
> >> >On 2014-05-17, RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> >> >> From the «truckload full of CDs hurtling down the highway» department:
> >> >> Title: What Is Your Offsite Storage Solution?
> >> >
> >> >https://www.tarsnap.com/

> >> I'm really happy you responded with tarsnap.  Somebody posted it to
> >>  the Pipedot article too, so I went to check it out and am intrigued! 
> >>  Looks like an implementation of rsync though.  Is that correct?

> > For any of the pay-per-gig services, the per-gig charges add up fast
> > enough that for what one would pay the service, one could simply buy
> > another backup hard drive every 3,6,9 months and end up with mulitple
> > redundant copies of the data.  Store some of those disks "offsite" and
> > you now have "offsite" backups.  You just don't get offsite "updates"
> > unless you can install them into a remote system as well.

> Backblaze is $5 a month for all the data on one computer, including
> external drives. I have 4.5TB on backblaze. The only downside I would
> point out is that restoring can be very annoying if Backblaze decides
> your computer is now a new computer.

> > Even for the "flat rate" services, the per month charges over time
> > would allow for the purchase of plenty of redundant disk to backup your
> > own data onto.

> $5 a month for 4.5TB... well, that would take a long time to pay off in
> hard drives.

Western Digital 4TB (yes, not quite 4.5TB, I'm assuming that there is
likely .5TB of duplicative data in your dataset that would actually
squeeze out with a deduplicating backup program) external drive at
Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236626

Newegg price as I'm typing: $159.99 (free shipping).

Say you want to rotate to a brand new drive every X months (for safety,
and to build up a collection of redundant data):

Monthly cost per rotation interval:

Interval        Monthly cost
3 months        $53.33
6 months        $26.67
9 months        $17.78
12 months       $13.33
15 months       $10.67
18 months       $ 8.89
21 months       $ 7.62
24 months       $ 6.67

If you decided to rotate every 1.5 years, the cost (assuming fixed
prices, which are incorrect) is $8.89/month.  Backblaze at $5 only has
a $3.89 cushion before rotating your own drives at 1.5 year intervals
is cheaper than their plan.

And, your own physical backup drive never "decides your computer is now
a new computer" so you don't have that worry.

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#2875

On 2014-05-18, Rich <rich@example.com> wrote:
> Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>
>> $5 a month for 4.5TB... well, that would take a long time to pay off in
>> hard drives.
>
> Western Digital 4TB (yes, not quite 4.5TB, I'm assuming that there is
> likely .5TB of duplicative data in your dataset that would actually
> squeeze out with a deduplicating backup program) external drive at
> Newegg:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236626
>
> Newegg price as I'm typing: $159.99 (free shipping).
>
> Say you want to rotate to a brand new drive every X months (for safety,
> and to build up a collection of redundant data):
>
> Monthly cost per rotation interval:
>
> Interval        Monthly cost
> 3 months        $53.33
> 6 months        $26.67
> 9 months        $17.78
> 12 months       $13.33
> 15 months       $10.67
> 18 months       $ 8.89
> 21 months       $ 7.62
> 24 months       $ 6.67
>
> If you decided to rotate every 1.5 years, the cost (assuming fixed
> prices, which are incorrect) is $8.89/month.  Backblaze at $5 only has
> a $3.89 cushion before rotating your own drives at 1.5 year intervals
> is cheaper than their plan.
>
> And, your own physical backup drive never "decides your computer is now
> a new computer" so you don't have that worry.

One of my local suppliers is offering the 2TB version of that drive at
~88 USD including sales tax and shipping.  2TB per drive is currently ample
for my backups, so I can get more individual drives to rotate.

-- 
Paul Sture

The final step of #heartbleed recovery is to call your mother, and advise
her to change her maiden name                                  -- @gojomo

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#2965

In article <ll8e77$g7a$1@solani.org>, RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
>"OK, so the article was clickbait, and I'll stick with my current back-up
>solution: burning lots of DVDs, labelling, and then mailing them offsite in
>case my house burns down."

That's pretty much what I do for media files on my storage array, except I
use BD-R instead of DVD-R and bring the burned discs to work the next
morning to store in a binder in my office desk.

That's not an optimal method for backing up documents, however.  They're
stored with redundancy in the same storage array as the media files (which,
except for photos, are stored without redundancy), but I don't have a
consistent offsite backup set up for them.  Redundant storage has protected
them from disk failures so far.  They add up to less than 6 GB; maybe I
should set up a script to make an encrypted tarball and send the tarball to
cloud storage or my VPS or something.

  _/_
 / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us/            Top-posting!
 \_^_/                              >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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