Cloud backups strategies

[igormp]

First off, I'm not sure if this is the proper place to post this, but I couldn't decide if I should post on the Storage, Websites or Server subforums, so if any mod feels that this fits in a better place, feel free to move it and thanks in advance.

 

I used to have a local machine for backups, but for reasons it's not available anymore nor an option for me, sadly, so I've been toying about this idea ever since.

 

My current case is:

-Desktop:

• 2x 500GB disks
• 1x 1TB disk
• 1x 240GB disk

-Laptop:

• 1x 480GB disk
• 1x 120GB disk

- 120GB smartphone
- Some random embedded devices, which should add to around ~200GB of data.

 

This would give me a total of ~3TB of data, with about half of it actually in use (~1.5TB).

 

I prefer services that allow me to just attach the storage as a regular disk (through FUSE or any other API) so I can automate it whoever I want with my own policies, so services like GDrive (which I do have an unlimited account) are not really useful.

When it comes to policies, I used to use incremental backups, with a delta every hour (so 24 deltas in a day), with the last one being saved as the daily delta (which there'd be 7 of those), and the same goes for weeks and months (up to 3 months), meaning that I have a nice history of my data without occupying that much space.

 

Seeing all of the above, I came down to two services: Backblaze and Wasabi.

 

Backblaze has 2 plans available: their unlimited, Personal Backup that goes for $6/mo, and their B2 service that's pretty similar to AWS' S3.

Their Personal Backup has an awful limitation where their client only works with Windows (and all of my devices run Linux), so I'd need to have a VM running on the background to sync everything (I believe 1 core and 2gb of ram should be more than enough). Resource-wise, it wouldn't be a problem for me, but it'd be a pain to automate it and keep track of logs.

On the other hand, their B2 service would be way simpler to use given their S3-API compatibility, along with the fact that many services support it natively (such as borg or restic), but with higher costs when compared to the Personal plan, specially due to the API calls.

 

Wasabi is pretty similar to Backblaze's B2, but with free traffic egress/ingress. However, their pricing is not as simple as B2's at first glance, and their retention policy scares me since costs could skyrocket in some way if I'm not careful.

So, basically I'd like to hear what's your strategy on cloud backups, and which services you people use.

 

 

[Radium_Angel]

20 minutes ago, igormp said:

So, basically I'd like to hear what's your strategy on cloud backups, and which services you people use.

Personally, I tried several, and admittedly the "free" tiers, and was never very happy with them. SO, I went a different route:

 

Personal inexpensive NAS.

I have a main one in use, RAID 5, 4-2TB drives.

Nightly it clones over to two identical 4-2TB RAID 5 NAS devices.

Once a month, a manual clone to a third NAS which is then stored off-site at a bank box (and retrieved as needed)

Therefore, all the data is in my possession, no worries about network access or connection issues or bandwidth limits (USALand is famous for this issue) etc.

 

But having said that, backblaze, if I had to pay for a service, would be the one I would use.

[tkitch]

If you want to go cloud?  I'd "simplify" compatability:

 

Get a cheap windows box, and put in a 4-8TB HDD.  

 

Have have your linux boxes sync to a single (or two) shares on that box.  Let that box backup to cloud using whatever cloud service you like.  

That way you have a local copy (the drive on the windows box) and then your offisite with cloud.

[igormp]

29 minutes ago, tkitch said:

Get a cheap windows box, and put in a 4-8TB HDD.  

As I mentioned before, another machine is not an option for me anymore, so I'm stuck with cloud-only options.

 

The initial cost required for a local box is also something that I'm not really interested in ATM, I'd rather just pay the subscription fees and throw the whole responsibility to a 3rd party.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Programs, Apps and Websites