Ask HN: Alternatives to (locally hosted) CrashPlan?
A bit of detail:
I've been using a locally hosted CrashPlan instance to backup my files (no cloud account) and it works really great for me because I don't really generate that much data so having a NAS turned on all the time feels like overkill.
A local CrashPlan instance worked like a charm for me because I could backup my main machine (Windows based) very easily into a small (Celeron-based) Linux server, by turning it on every few weeks and letting CrashPlan run in the background.
This gave me peace of mind since I don't have to worry about an Internet-connected NAS that might get hacked or something like that, and the very simple to use UI made things very easy.
What alternatives do you recommend now that CrashPlan for Home will be closing down?
Ideally I would like a similar setup, i.e. a locally hosted solution that has a Windows client and can backup to a Linux server, with some easy-to-use UI?
Thanks!
63 comments
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https://www.arqbackup.com/documentation/pages/restoring_from...
It's not clear to me whether it's a point-in-time backup, or continuous like Crashplan, do you know?
Just for completeness sake, I see in their features section:
"You can back up to your own Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive accounts, or your SFTP server or NAS"
So local options are only SFTP and NAS? do you know what do they mean by NAS? i.e. they support a branded NAS like Synology, or maybe OpenNAS servers? any info on this would be great as that would save me some time downloading the trial and setting up stuff just to figure this out :)
https://www.arqbackup.com/documentation/pages/strategy.html
The option is called "A folder on your drive or NAS", and asks you to specify a folder, so external hard disks should work fine.
This looks interesting.
Just to confirm, you mean this Duplicati? (https://github.com/duplicati/duplicati)
Also, it says it's a client for backups which support cloud and local servers.
On their page it says it supports:
"Amazon S3, OneDrive, Google Drive, Rackspace Cloud Files, HubiC, Backblaze (B2), Amazon Cloud Drive (AmzCD), Swift / OpenStack, WebDAV, SSH (SFTP), FTP, and more!"
Only local options I see are SFTP/FTP. Do you know of other supported ones? I can't seem to find reference to other local solutions, so if you have more info that would be great!
I mean, setting up an FTP server is pretty simple and with such a client most of the hassle of actually backing up would be solved apparently, but are there any other options for local servers that you know of (just for comparison sake)?
Any input is appreciated. Thanks!
SFTP is SSH (i.e. it's not FTPS), so you don't have to stand up a FTP server :)
I always thought SFTP was FTP. Will need to read up more on that.
Thanks!
- Encryption before data get to the cloud
- Multi-platform support
- Versioning - saved me few times
- Deleted files backup without time limit to keep them.
- No limit for size.
- Real-time-ness.
No one else offers above. And I need 3 boxes.
$10/mo/box is more expensive than Home plan used to be - but i think i will have to bite that $360/yr bill with a good feelings - because crashplan is tested and it works on all points.
CrashPlan for Small Business does not support computer-to-computer backups, including:
Backing up to another computer you own
Backing up to a friend's computer
https://support.crashplan.com/Backup/Keeping_computer-to-com...
Even though $10/mo is expensive for my usage, I was also very happy due to the GPs points. However not allowing a local backup is a non-starter for me.
For cloud backups I already use tarsnap (albeit for a much smaller subset of what I backup locally) which I think is a bit safer/better.
That's what made CrashPlan so nice for me. Having a no-fuss local backup strategy.
I'm really sad CP decided to go this route without offering an similar alternative :(
CrashPlan lost some of my data because of a Windows Volume Shadow Services error around April 2013, which caused me to look for alternatives. I hope you test the entirety of your backup set regularly.
It shouldn't. You probably only need a single drive NAS. Don't buy a multi-bay NAS unless you need one.
As for remote connectivity, just use a good password and SSL. Most hacks are caused by people coming up with bad passwords (eg hunter2).
What I meant was that a Synology or similar product would not really be what I'm looking for, not because it's not nice, but because AFAIK it's meant to be on all the time, which wastes energy, makes noise, prone to electrical problems (I have very bad electricity where I live, so I don't want to expose my NAS unnecessarily, even with UPS/voltage protectors/etc.)
The good password + SSL is probably a good alternative and since I already use 1Password a strong password is not a problem, however I would love to have a UI for it so I Can easily select folders/files, and either I would need to build it... or get a product that supports it, which is the why of this Ask HN post :)
A multi-bay NAS allows one to run RAID-1 or RAID-5/6 though — I think some form of RAID is important to avoid downtime.
http://atp.fm/episodes/236
I'm not sure where in the episode the topic is discussed. I'd guess about halfway through.
I'll take a look.
I just gave it a cursory look at their product page, but it seems it's a cloud backup only and I'm looking for a local one. Unless I'm wrong and it does support local as well?
As a second step the Linux Server already runs a more sophisticated, encrypted etc Backup to offsite storage, and I just added those folders to that too, but you can of course skip that if you are comfortable without a secondary physical backup location.
A follow up question is then , can I restore those files to a non-Windows machine?
With CrashPlan I could backup to a Linux server, and if I needed the files I could restore them either to a Windows or to a Linux machine. Can I do the same with File History? or do I have to restore to a Windows machine? or even worse, do I have to restore to the same instance of Windows that I used to backup?
I also have a python script somewhere (downloaded from github) that would keep only the latest timestamp of each file and then remove the timestamp from the filename, so kind of like restoring the last backup in full or from a folder. And I could in reasonable time rewrite that to get out a specific timestamp etc, without needing to read the database and metadata files. I'm not planing to do that as the default restore method, but I'm confident to always be able to get all data I need out of the backup without _ANY_ client software.
You can restore to any Windows instance, so to a fresh install, another computer etc.
Nice approach. I never thought of that.
I'll have to take a dive on rtcwake but that could work as a semi-automated solution.
Thanks for the tip!
Back everything up to the NAS, then back up the NAS to B2 or something. Synology will do that OOTB. Can't speak to other vendors, but I'm pretty happy with my setup.
However I would prefer not to have the NAS on all the time, mostly because I only backup seldomly (since I don't really generate that much data, so losing a month or so is not that bad. Really critical stuff I backup directly to tarsnap though), and because where I live, the quality of the electricity is really bad. I get unexpected blackouts once a month at least, if not more, and voltage/current changes a few times a week, so even though I use voltage regulators and such, I like to be extra safe with my backup hardware, so the less time they spend connected to the grid, the better for me.
Maybe I'm paranoid, but I believe (can't confirm) I've lost data over the years due to electricity issues.
That aside, the Synology is just a linux box with a nice chassis. You don't necessarily need it to always be running. Shut it down when you're not using it and boot it up when you need it.
I mean, yeah sure, my pictures and personal stuff are very valuable, but I already have a few copies in my parent's home, etc, and I don't produce much photos or videos anymore so my space needs grow very slowly.
However I would prefer to just have one more layer just in case.
I thought Synology products were meant to be kep on so I came to believe that startup times and such would be a pain, but maybe if they are not it could work fine for my needs... I'll definitely consider it!
Also.. yeah, once I get a nice chunk of money I too would love to have a line conditioner... but dayum those things are expensive. Btw, can you recommend a particular model you like?
Thanks!
It's not a dedicated power conditioner, I guess, but it does handle voltage irregularities, and it switches to battery and back fast enough to not be an issue in brownouts.
Thanks, I'll dig into it a bit more.
In this case, why not a standard external hard disk over USB?
I still use my USB drive, but it's used much more frequently so I fear it might break some day. That's why I opted for the NAS-rated HD as a second layer backup.
As a last resort I also use tarsnap for my very critical files though, so yeah, USB drives are good but I wanted a bit more peace of mind on top :)
I share the same sentiment as you regarding off-the-shelf external drives — I believe they're usually bottom-binned stuff. You could consider getting a 3.5" enclosure and installing a NAS-rated drive in it.
I live in India and I realized about a year back that both Backblaze and Crashplan sucks on recovery. They don't seem to have servers nearby nor the option to mail a disk quickly enough. Here is how I do my current backup setup.
Time Machine as the default option that keeps chugging along.
Carbon Copy Cloner[1] mirrors my primary computer's drive (bootable). This is scheduled to backup every day around 11:00 PM.
Arq[2] does a backup to Amazon Drive every 5 minutes but is asked to pause between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM. I'm looking for economical alternatives[3] to Amazon Drive, as they are terminating the unlimited option.
1. https://bombich.com/
2. https://www.arqbackup.com/
3. https://www.arqbackup.com/documentation/pages/strategy.html
I saw on their features list that it supports backup to a local SFTP and NAS server. Any idea what they mean by NAS? i.e. they support a branded NAS like Synology or do they support "any" NAS as in support for SSH file transfer or something?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ns2mqe5ytr3dpie/Screenshot%202017-...
It's fast, light and predictable. The UI is insanely good. Been using it for ages and it's still in active development.
I also wrote a tutorial on setting it up to work with AWS S3:
https://linuxserver.io/2017/07/04/how-to-setup-duplicati-as-...
So you could use Amazon S3 or some other cloud provider to store backups and pay the tiny amount per gigabyte (depending on the storage option you choose).
I'd recommend a cloud-based solution as further backup option even if you stick with the local option. I currently back up my NAS using CrashPlan in case a disaster (fire, flood, earthquake, theft, etc) wipes out my computers and NAS. My NAS doesn't need to be exposed to the Internet: the software runs on one of my computers with the NAS connected as network file shares.
One of the solutions I'm considering using is Cloudberry Backup. There's a bit of initial cost, because I want the features of the pro version, but cloud storage can be quite cheap in the long run. It can run on a computer and backup network shares just like CrashPlan can. Unfortunately, a local option is not supported.
Interestingly, I had renewed my Crashplan subscription only a couple days prior to the discontinue announcement, so I have until October of 2018 to figure out an alternative.
But I already have a cloud solution (tarsnap) that works great for me. The thing is I only backup a subset of my stuff to the cloud due to cost issues, so less than critical files go to my local backup.
Then I back up the actual Seafile data files on the server with Borg (https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/), which has the wonderful option to encrypt the backup. The Borg backup is on the same server/drive. Then I sync the entire (encrypted) borg backup to S3 every night.
This offers self-hosted file-syncing (ala Dropbox) w/ an encrypted offsite backup (make sure you keep a copy of your key in a safe place though). Honestly, was a pain to set up, but haven't had a problem with it yet, and my test restores work great.
I only pay for S3 storage.
Do you happen to have followed any tutorials, or were you forced to hack things together on your own seeing how you found it to be a pain?
All that said, no, there were no guides for this. I quite like Seafile as an app, but wanted to make sure it's all (somewhat securely) backed up, so I hacked all of this together myself.
However, i haven't tried it so far, so i can't really comment on it yet..
Feature-wise it seems it should fit the bill, however..
[1] http://www.urbackup.org/index.html