Arq

[Weaselboy]

I bought a refurb Chromebook (Acer C720P) for $113 off Amazon

Thanks for the thorough write up and info on the great work around for the server.

I have a Raspberry Pi I use to run PiHole adblocking and Homebridge. You can grab a Pi kit for about $70 and I'm wondering if that would work for your Minio server? Do you think it would have enough CPU power to work?

From this link it appears Minio will work on the Pi.

https://www.thepolyglotdeveloper.com/2017/02/using-raspberry-pi-distributed-object-storage-minio/

 

[sjinsjca]

You can grab a Pi kit for about $70 and I'm wondering if that would work for your Minio server? Do you think it would have enough CPU power to work?/

Well, you can try. At a minimum you'll have some good old geeky fun. And you can use the 'Pi for other things, such as running your own VPN, which can be very nice if you visit places that block known commercial VPN services.

The big slam against the 'Pi is its Ethernet implementation, which remains siamesed onto their USB2 bus even on their newest models. So networking throughput is severely bottlenecked, and this is a networking-centric application. Plus any USB drives will be sharing that puny USB2 bus with each other and with the networking. ...I have a few spare 'PIs lying around but decided against trying this with them.

So my original choice for this was a Libre Computing Renegade card, which is marketed as a more powerful Raspberry 'Pi and fits the same cases, etc. It has true Gbit Ethernet and USB3. So I bought one... alas, a wasted $45. Its software is very poorly architected and its community is pretty useless. Its Linux kernel is compiled in a way that vital functionality is missing, requiring the user to recompile the kernel with additional modules as needed. And one of the modules missing is needed for running Docker, which is the container Minio resides in in my implementation. Sorry, there are limits to how geektastic I'm willing to get.

Plus, with the a card like the 'Pi or Renegade, you need a keyboard, mouse, monitor, HDMI cable and power supply. The refurb Acer starts to look like a bargain considering all that, and it's a tidy package. It will reside inside our family-room entertainment center, with the drives tucked into a vertical folder organizer alongside it.

Note: Unlike the 'Pi's hobbled Ethernet port, the Chromebook has no Ethernet port at all, but that's easily solved with a $15 Gbit Ethernet dongle like the TrendNet unit I chose on Amazon (which advertises Linux compatibility and is indeed plug and play). You could do everything over WiFi of course.

Note: regardless of your choice, you will need a powered USB hub (preferably USB3) for the disk drives (and Ethernet adaptor).

Right now I'm stress testing the setup (which I call miniminio ...a 'Pi-based version would be a microminio I guess) and it's using 3 of the 4 GB of the Chromebook's RAM, but only a little CPU, typically 5% with bursts to no more than 20% or so; the entire system is running in typically less than 25% CPU utilization and remains responsive for browsing, ssh, etc. Impressive. I'm using the Cockpit utility (https://cockpit-project.org) to keep an eye on things via Safari on my Mac:

It has been a true Linux geekxperience, which is not a bad thing if you have a grey weekend day to spend fiddling. As with all things Linux, unless you're an experienced sysadmin you'll spend stupid amounts of time doing basic stuff like formatting the disks and figuring out how to get your backup data going to a persistent folder so it doesn't vanish when you reboot or something. It will all make you appreciate the Macintosh experience all the more!

But once running, Linux is amazingly powerful and robust. My past Linux playpens have run for literal years between reboots.

Bottom line: As of this moment my Mac's 1TB drive is about 20% backed up to my miniminio since I started it stress-testing last night. I'd neglected to turn off the auto-suspend power setting, so at some point the miniminio went to sleep, too. It woke right up and resumed this morning, no problem.

I'm feeling optimistic this might actually work! And I never thought I'd be impressed with a Celeron machine, but this one is actually not bad.

One caveat: the ability to run Linux is not guaranteed on Chromebooks. See https://platypusplatypus.com/chromebooks/5-best-chromebooks-for-linux/ and similar discussions regarding the topic. I got lucky with my choice and wish I'd been forewarned.

All in all, I'd rather Apple deliver a reliable LAN-friendly Time Machine solution that delivers on the promise of the Airport Extreme, but this'll do. As a layer in my backup strategy, it will fit nicely. But unless you're a real expert I wouldn't rely on it for mission-critical backups without a lot of testing and validation first.

 

[dai-leung]

Good question. I am interested in responses to this as well. Just recently I incorporated CCC 5 into my backup routine. I’m using the same drives as my Time Machine backup for one, then another drive for CCC 5. I have Arq copying the home folder to my 4TB drive and going to B2 and Google Drive.

For My MacBook Pro: (I’ve retired my Mini and Windows laptop).
4TB Drive: Time Machine, Arq Backup of Home Folder, CCC 5. - Encrypted, stored at work.
1TB Drive: CCC 5 - Encrypted, stored at home.
500 GB Drive: CCC 5 - Stored at home, bootable.
Backblaze Unlimited Backup ($50/year)
.

I would appreciate your advice and help.

Q1) I was told by an apple store technical support that cloud providers such as Amazon, Gdrive and Apple have backup of their servers, sometime multiple copies. Thus, even if a server crashed, files in that sever are never lost and can be recreated later on the replacement server. So there is no need to backup the same Computer data using ARQ to two different cloud providers. Doing so is just a waste of time, he said.

Is this true?

Q2) should I do two ARQ backups, one at Dropbox and one at Gdrive?
I subscribe to both Dropbox(1TB) because of research collaboration and to Gdrive (2TB) because of my large amount of Gmail.

I am doing ARQ backup to Dropbox now. Is there any advantage of doing an ARQ backup to Gdrive as well since it will be free for me?

Q3) my Gmail contains important and irreplaceable correspondences. If I want to do an ARQ backup to Gdrive, is there a way to create a partition for ARQ backup so that the ARQ backup will never corrupt the gmail data?

I set 800GB budget in ARQ for Dropbox , but the budget does not seem always work. In the past, it happened several times that my Dropbox account was frozen because ARQ backup had exceeded 1TB. I was very worried that my research data were all deleted by the overflow. Luckily, they were intact after I deleted the ARQ data set. But the occurrences scared me.

Q4) my research collaboration data in Dropbox and Gmail in Gdrive are also irreplaceable. Should I worry about their safety? If yes, how could I make a mirror copy of them on some other cloud?

 

[BigMcGuire]

I would appreciate your advice and help.

Q1) I was told by an apple store technical support that cloud providers such as Amazon, Gdrive and Apple have backup of their servers, sometime multiple copies. Thus, even if a server crashed, files in that sever are never lost and can be recreated later on the replacement server. So there is no need to backup the same Computer data using ARQ to two different cloud providers. Doing so is just a waste of time, he said.

Is this true?

Q2) should I do two ARQ backups, one at Dropbox and one at Gdrive?
I subscribe to both Dropbox(1TB) because of research collaboration and to Gdrive (2TB) because of my large amount of Gmail.

I am doing ARQ backup to Dropbox now. Is there any advantage of doing an ARQ backup to Gdrive as well since it will be free for me?

Q3) my Gmail contains important and irreplaceable correspondences. If I want to do an ARQ backup to Gdrive, is there a way to create a partition for ARQ backup so that the ARQ backup will never corrupt the gmail data?

I set 800GB budget in ARQ for Dropbox , but the budget does not seem always work. In the past, it happened several times that my Dropbox account was frozen because ARQ backup had exceeded 1TB. I was very worried that my research data were all deleted by the overflow. Luckily, they were intact after I deleted the ARQ data set. But the occurrences scared me.

Q4) my research collaboration data in Dropbox and Gmail in Gdrive are also irreplaceable. Should I worry about their safety? If yes, how could I make a mirror copy of them on some other cloud?

It is true that companies like Google, Amazon, Apple have multiple instances of your data strewn across multiple data centers. Amazon is kinda pricey but has great redundancy. But, I wouldn't put my "trust" in just one backup at one of these companies. What happens if your account accidentally gets deleted?

Arq will give you the option to store your data in Google Drive itself or in the App data area of Google Drive - both are completely separate from gmail. So it cannot corrupt gmail data. Usually they will just stop letting you upload data once you hit your limit.

800GB is a lot and expensive. Anything that large, I'd probably be backing up directly to disk drives and storing them off site. 800GB takes FOREVER to backup and restore via Cloud services and it is very costly (can be). I'd just buy 4 4TB drives and store one at my parent's house, work, my house, and maybe a bank vault - and back up every month or so.

Never rely on one backup.

I personally do this: TimeMachine to a 1TB disk at my house. Carbon Copy Clone to a 2 TB disk at my work. Arq via B2 to Backblaze servers. I also use Arq to backup to my 1 TB disk at my house. I use BackBlaze Backup ($50/year) to backup everything to Backblaze (separate from B2 but same company).

So technically I have quite a bit of redundancy. All I have to do is let Arq run and plug in my hard drives when I go to work/home. I usually vote against using Google Drive and Dropbox because they're designed for small file syncing, not as a backup solution and they get REALLY slow once you pass 100GB. With Backblaze, because you pay per GB, it is incredibly fast to restore and upload, which is why I use it.

But to answer your question, doesn't hurt anything to use Google Drive or Dropbox, other than potentially bumping against limits. Don't ever trust one backup.
[doublepost=1542577387][/doublepost]For most people, having their data and one backup is more than enough. So the Apple employee isn't wrong, but I go a little overboard on my backing up. My data is worth a lot to me.

I'm sure there are other smarter users here especially in this thread that could provide better information.

 

[bwintx]

I'm sure there are other smarter users here especially in this thread that could provide better information.

Definitely not smarter than @BigMcGuire but would add only that one should never confuse sync with backup, as often is done when things like iCloud and Google Drive are mentioned. Not sure that @dai-leung was doing so, but that’s the main thing I wanted to mention.

 

[dai-leung]

It is true that companies like Google, Amazon, Apple have multiple instances of your data strewn across multiple data centers. Amazon is kinda pricey but has great redundancy. But, I wouldn't put my "trust" in just one backup at one of these companies. What happens if your account accidentally gets deleted?

Arq will give you the option to store your data in Google Drive itself or in the App data area of Google Drive - both are completely separate from gmail. So it cannot corrupt gmail data. Usually they will just stop letting you upload data once you hit your limit.

800GB is a lot and expensive. Anything that large, I'd probably be backing up directly to disk drives and storing them off site. 800GB takes FOREVER to backup and restore via Cloud services and it is very costly (can be). I'd just buy 4 4TB drives and store one at my parent's house, work, my house, and maybe a bank vault - and back up every month or so.

Never rely on one backup.

I personally do this: TimeMachine to a 1TB disk at my house. Carbon Copy Clone to a 2 TB disk at my work. Arq via B2 to Backblaze servers. I also use Arq to backup to my 1 TB disk at my house. I use BackBlaze Backup ($50/year) to backup everything to Backblaze (separate from B2 but same company).

So technically I have quite a bit of redundancy. All I have to do is let Arq run and plug in my hard drives when I go to work/home. I usually vote against using Google Drive and Dropbox because they're designed for small file syncing, not as a backup solution and they get REALLY slow once you pass 100GB. With Backblaze, because you pay per GB, it is incredibly fast to restore and upload, which is why I use it.

But to answer your question, doesn't hurt anything to use Google Drive or Dropbox, other than potentially bumping against limits. Don't ever trust one backup.
[doublepost=1542577387][/doublepost]For most people, having their data and one backup is more than enough. So the Apple employee isn't wrong, but I go a little overboard on my backing up. My data is worth a lot to me.

I'm sure there are other smarter users here especially in this thread that could provide better information.

Thanks for your advice and time, but still a bit confused, so have more questions.

“I go a little overboard on my backing up. My data is worth a lot to me.”
—- I want to have the same attitude as yours: want my data protected under the worse possible scenario. Don’t mind to take extra effort to make data more safe.

From ur answer, the protection is not for the server in Dropbox or Gdrive crashed, but for my account get deleted accidentally, deliberately or maliciously.

Q1) if I am already backing up via time machine on HD, CCC on SSD and ARQ via Dropbox, will it provide more protection by doing a new ARQ backup via Gdrive? Gdrive is free for me as I am already a 2TB subscriber.

Q2)”Arq will give you the option to store your data in Google Drive itself or in the App data area of Google Drive - both are completely separate from gmail. So it cannot corrupt gmail data. Usually they will just stop letting you upload data once you hit your limit.”

—-so gmail data are stored in “Google Drive” and data from other apps are stored in “App data area”, yes?

How do I partition the two areas and assign storage space in GB to each?

How do I tell ARQ that I want to backup to the “app data area” and not where gmail is located? Where can I find more info?

Q3) do u know of anyway that I can protect my gmail data to safeguard accidental deletion of my account?

Q5) u mentioned “I also use Arq to backup to my 1 TB disk at my house.”
—— what is the purpose of doing this instead of via a third cloud provider?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Thanks for your advice and time, but still a bit confused, so have more questions.

“I go a little overboard on my backing up. My data is worth a lot to me.”
—- I want to have the same attitude as yours: want my data protected under the worse possible scenario. Don’t mind to take extra effort to make data more safe.

From ur answer, the protection is not for the server in Dropbox or Gdrive crashed, but for my account get deleted accidentally, deliberately or maliciously.

Q1) if I am already backing up via time machine on HD, CCC on SSD and ARQ via Dropbox, will it provide more protection by doing a new ARQ backup via Gdrive? Gdrive is free for me as I am already a 2TB subscriber.

Q2)”Arq will give you the option to store your data in Google Drive itself or in the App data area of Google Drive - both are completely separate from gmail. So it cannot corrupt gmail data. Usually they will just stop letting you upload data once you hit your limit.”

—-so gmail data are stored in “Google Drive” and data from other apps are stored in “App data area”, yes?

How do I partition the two areas and assign storage space in GB to each?

How do I tell ARQ that I want to backup to the “app data area” and not where gmail is located? Where can I find more info?

Q3) do u know of anyway that I can protect my gmail data to safeguard accidental deletion of my account?

Q5) u mentioned “I also use Arq to backup to my 1 TB disk at my house.”
—— what is the purpose of doing this instead of via a third cloud provider?

No worries.

Q1 - More protection? Yeah, but if you're already doing Time Machine on HD, CCC on SSD, and Arq to Dropbox, it's not really worth it in my opinion. Especially because of the amount of data you have - but no harm doing it.

Q2 - Gmail data is stored as part of your google storage quota but it is separate from the google drive storage area. Inside of Google Drive, you have Apps that can have their own "storage" that is invisible to google drive and you can use folders inside of Google Drive. Arq will give you the option to use that "invisible" google drive storage or a folder inside of Google Drive that you can see. You don't need to partition it, it'll just be a question Arq asks you when you choose Google Drive as a backup location.

Q3 - Two factor authentication if you aren't using it already. Don't do anything political with your account that Google may disagree with. Try not to draw attention by uploading/deleting massive amounts of data in short periods of time. Google/Apple/Dropbox do not expect you to utilize your entire available storage. They make money on people not using all of the storage. Warning lights go off on their end when people are costing them $.

Q4 - I prefer local hard drives because it's much faster to back up, control, and because I had several 1 TB Disks sitting around. Also, cloud storage costs money for me so it was a "free" option I had at the time.

Even with my 450mbps down and 100 mbps up internet connection, it can take a long time to get stuff down from the cloud. BackBlaze is SUPER fast - that's why I like it - I like the company too.

 

[dai-leung]

No worries.

Q1 - More protection? Yeah, but if you're already doing Time Machine on HD, CCC on SSD, and Arq to Dropbox, it's not really worth it in my opinion. Especially because of the amount of data you have - but no harm doing it.

Q2 - Gmail data is stored as part of your google storage quota but it is separate from the google drive storage area. Inside of Google Drive, you have Apps that can have their own "storage" that is invisible to google drive and you can use folders inside of Google Drive. Arq will give you the option to use that "invisible" google drive storage or a folder inside of Google Drive that you can see. You don't need to partition it, it'll just be a question Arq asks you when you choose Google Drive as a backup location.

Q3 - Two factor authentication if you aren't using it already. Don't do anything political with your account that Google may disagree with. Try not to draw attention by uploading/deleting massive amounts of data in short periods of time. Google/Apple/Dropbox do not expect you to utilize your entire available storage. They make money on people not using all of the storage. Warning lights go off on their end when people are costing them $.

Q4 - I prefer local hard drives because it's much faster to back up, control, and because I had several 1 TB Disks sitting around. Also, cloud storage costs money for me so it was a "free" option I had at the time.

Even with my 450mbps down and 100 mbps up internet connection, it can take a long time to get stuff down from the cloud. BackBlaze is SUPER fast - that's why I like it - I like the company too.

My sincere thanks again for ur time and effort for answering all my questions!

 

[dai-leung]

No worries.

Q1 - More protection? Yeah, but if you're already doing Time Machine on HD, CCC on SSD, and Arq to Dropbox, it's not really worth it in my opinion. Especially because of the amount of data you have - but no harm doing it.

Q2 - Gmail data is stored as part of your google storage quota but it is separate from the google drive storage area. Inside of Google Drive, you have Apps that can have their own "storage" that is invisible to google drive and you can use folders inside of Google Drive. Arq will give you the option to use that "invisible" google drive storage or a folder inside of Google Drive that you can see. You don't need to partition it, it'll just be a question Arq asks you when you choose Google Drive as a backup location.

Q3 - Two factor authentication if you aren't using it already. Don't do anything political with your account that Google may disagree with. Try not to draw attention by uploading/deleting massive amounts of data in short periods of time. Google/Apple/Dropbox do not expect you to utilize your entire available storage. They make money on people not using all of the storage. Warning lights go off on their end when people are costing them $.

Q4 - I prefer local hard drives because it's much faster to back up, control, and because I had several 1 TB Disks sitting around. Also, cloud storage costs money for me so it was a "free" option I had at the time.

Even with my 450mbps down and 100 mbps up internet connection, it can take a long time to get stuff down from the cloud. BackBlaze is SUPER fast - that's why I like it - I like the company too.

Have some more questions. I am a non computer person struggling to understand backup， so plse excuse me if I say something stupid.

What is the advantage of using ARQ to backup a Mac to a local hard drive as oppose to using Time Machine? Time Machine has rescued me several times and it has very user friendly interface; the starwar like window is very easy to navigate than ARQ. Not only it has backups at different time points but can also restore all files to a new Mac with less pain.

If I am already doing Time Machine backup and ARQ cloud backup, is there any reason to do another ARQ backup to a local hard drive like what you have been doing?

Assume one’s mac with 500GB of data is stolen, since downloading that large amount of data from a cloud backup is impossibly slow, does it make sense that he is better off to focus his energy on local backups? A full proof strategy for local backup seems to be essential to speedy recovery.

This suggests that the ARQ cloud backup will only be used when all the local hard drives are destroyed by theft or house burned down. If there are two Time Machine backups, one stored at home and one stored in office, it should guard against theft and fire at one location, unless both house and office are burned down, which will happen only if one lives in the fire zone of California, but it is an extremely unlikely event.

So I will use ARQ ( to Dropbox) for automatic hourly backups and for the convenient restoration of a small number of files if needed. It seems extremely unlikely that I will use it to fully restore a lost Mac.

The two daily Time Machine backups on hard drives, one stored at home and one stored in office as well as a daily CCC backup on SSD are the ones that really protect me when my Mac is stolen or died. The CCC on SSD also can externally boot other Macs so that I don’t have to buy a new Mac under pressure when Mac is stolen or lost.

It seems that my key backups should be the two Time Machine hard drives as they contained backups at different time points in easy access format. And perhaps, I should invest in a 2TB SSD ($400, SSD price has dropped 50% within a year) and use it for one of the time machine backup.

The probability that all four backups (local and cloud) are destroyed when I need them seems to be zero. I am fully protected. Is my thinking correct?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Have some more questions. I am a non computer person struggling to understand backup， so plse excuse me if I say something stupid.

What is the advantage of using ARQ to backup a Mac to a local hard drive as oppose to using Time Machine? Time Machine has rescued me several times and it has very user friendly interface; the starwar like window is very easy to navigate than ARQ. Not only it has backups at different time points but can also restore all files to a new Mac with less pain.

If I am already doing Time Machine backup and ARQ cloud backup, is there any reason to do another ARQ backup to a local hard drive like what you have been doing?

Assume one’s mac with 500GB of data is stolen, since downloading that large amount of data from a cloud backup is impossibly slow, does it make sense that he is better off to focus his energy on local backups? A full proof strategy for local backup seems to be essential to speedy recovery.

This suggests that the ARQ cloud backup will only be used when all the local hard drives are destroyed by theft or house burned down. If there are two Time Machine backups, one stored at home and one stored in office, it should guard against theft and fire at one location, unless both house and office are burned down, which will happen only if one lives in the fire zone of California, but it is an extremely unlikely event.

So I will use ARQ ( to Dropbox) for automatic hourly backups and for the convenient restoration of a small number of files if needed. It seems extremely unlikely that I will use it to fully restore a lost Mac.

The two daily Time Machine backups on hard drives, one stored at home and one stored in office as well as a daily CCC backup on SSD are the ones that really protect me when my Mac is stolen or died. The CCC on SSD also can externally boot other Macs so that I don’t have to buy a new Mac under pressure when Mac is stolen or lost.

It seems that my key backups should be the two Time Machine hard drives as they contained backups at different time points in easy access format. And perhaps, I should invest in a 2TB SSD ($400, SSD price has dropped 50% within a year) and use it for one of the time machine backup.

The probability that all four backups (local and cloud) are destroyed when I need them seems to be zero. I am fully protected. Is my thinking correct?

No worries - trying to understand something better is never stupid. Ask away!

In my opinion, no reason to do so at all. Arq local backups are easier to restore small batches of files than Time Machine but they do require a bit more know how and computer experience vs Time Machine (super easy to use).

Yeah, that's why I prefer local disk backups - I do them at work and at home. They're super fast, 70 miles apart, and my first line of defense. Cloud backup is secondary because of the time and cost.

Same, I expect to never have to ever use my backups. I hope I never have to, lol.

Yes, your usage of CCC to an SSD and two time machine backups is extremely secure.

The probability of all four backups (local and cloud) is practically 0. Agreed. That's my goal, to get to the point where my backup plan being destroyed is 0%. Nice work

 

[dai-leung]

No worries - trying to understand something better is never stupid. Ask away!

In my opinion, no reason to do so at all. Arq local backups are easier to restore small batches of files than Time Machine but they do require a bit more know how and computer experience vs Time Machine (super easy to use).

Yeah, that's why I prefer local disk backups - I do them at work and at home. They're super fast, 70 miles apart, and my first line of defense. Cloud backup is secondary because of the time and cost.

Same, I expect to never have to ever use my backups. I hope I never have to, lol.

Yes, your usage of CCC to an SSD and two time machine backups is extremely secure.

The probability of all four backups (local and cloud) is practically 0. Agreed. That's my goal, to get to the point where my backup plan being destroyed is 0%. Nice work

BigMcGuire,

Thank u for checking my backup plan!

I didn’t have confidence in my backup plan, but fter someone like yourself who is so conscious about backup approved my plan, from today onward I don’t have to worry wether my backup plan is foolproof anymore. I sincerely appreciate your answering my questions.

 

[Weaselboy]

https://www.arqbackup.com/blackfriday2018/

Arq is having a 50% off sale for Black Friday if anybody in the thread is still considering buying the app.

 

[dai-leung]

Bought an ARQ lifetime license about a year ago.

Very useful application. For someone who is not knowledgeable about computer, using it, it is so easy to do cloud backup. Without it, I have no clue how to do backup to cloud.

 

[tarsins]

Excellent App. Also have a lifetime licence. Anyone tried their ARQ Cloud Backup service? Particularly interested in speed from the UK.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Excellent App. Also have a lifetime license. Anyone tried their ARQ Cloud Backup service? Particularly interested in speed from the UK.

I'm very curious about this too.


Edit: Removed. I missed the below link.

"You can directly access your backup data at Wasabi."

The servers they use are Wasabi. I had assumed Amazon AWS but it is Wasabi. Interesting. https://www.arqbackup.com/docs/arqcloudbackup/English.lproj/dataFormat.html https://wasabi.com/about/

 

[sjinsjca]

The servers they use are Wasabi. I had assumed Amazon AWS but it is Wasabi. Interesting. https://www.arqbackup.com/docs/arqcloudbackup/English.lproj/dataFormat.html https://wasabi.com/about/

I'm using roll-your-own Arq and chose Wasabi as my online destination. (I also use Arq to back up to a local minio server on my LAN, see https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/arq.2017935/page-10#post-26751519. Having both local and remote backups is just good backup strategy.)

I am hugely impressed with Wasabi and with Arq. In both cases I've had a question or two, and they've been answered within a couple hours. I now have six family Mac and Windows computers running Arq (a single license lets a user back up all his machines) and have just received my first full-month Wasabi bill, for a shade over $10.

I am blown away by the speed of Arq/Wasabi compared to Crashplan. I'm backing up virtual machines that can involve 2GB files among other things. Now, backing up VMs is a dodgy business since the resulting backup can have problems: the day-to-day-changes to the files tend to be small relative to their size, and the resulting incrementally updated virtual disks and so on can quickly become unusable. But I've been too lazy to exclude them. So they're backing up, and while I have little confidence they'd work without issue, those big files have served as an interesting benchmark of backup prowess.

Results:

• Starting from scratch, Arq uploaded my entire ~1TB MacBook Pro to Wasabi and to my local minio setup in a few days. It has been performing incremental backups ever since, including of those huge VM files as they change with my usage. A two-week trip with many reboots and limited connectivity fazed it not at all.
• I've also kept Crashplan running, thinking to pull its plug once I'm fully confident in this new solution. And, sad to say, Crashplan has yet to complete a single incremental backup in the same amount of time!

Now, I have liked and recommended Crashplan, and had they kept their home offering I would not have bothered exploring alternatives. But their company's change in product offering and the imminent escalation of their pricing for my usage forced me to go shopping. Especially now that Arq offers "Arq Cloud Backup" (which is fully-configured to back up online with minimal user setup), it would be my top recommendation for most folks. For my usage--especially because I wanted a LAN solution too--the roll-your-own Arq Backup client was a better choice, but it requires you set up a separate account on a cloud storage provider like Wasabi or Amazon and get everything configured. Good geeky fun, with great results.

 

[tarsins]

I'm very curious about this too.


Edit: Removed. I missed the below link.

"You can directly access your backup data at Wasabi."

The servers they use are Wasabi. I had assumed Amazon AWS but it is Wasabi. Interesting. https://www.arqbackup.com/docs/arqcloudbackup/English.lproj/dataFormat.html https://wasabi.com/about/

Looks like Wasabi are planning an EU data centre early next year so I'll wait until then.

 

[sjinsjca]

Looks like Wasabi are planning an EU data centre early next year so I'll wait until then.

Why wait? The main reasons I can think of would be speed and data security-- basically, distrust of US-based cloud services in this post-Snowden world. If so: I doubt you'll see much speed improvement from waiting, and your Arq data on Wasabi is very effectively encrypted before it leaves your machine.

As of the time I provisioned my backups a few weeks ago, Wasabi had data centers on the US East and West coasts. You specify which you want by the server address you specify. I chose the West Coast servers since that's where I live. And per my previous post, the speed of the backup was indeed phenomenal compared to Crashplan. But in my travels I've noticed no diminishment of speed. It's always fast and responsive. I expect you'll see the same from Europe.

What you could do (and what I'd do if I were you) is provision your backups using the US servers and get your machines backed up. Then, if/when Wasabi opens its European data centers, you can switch to the new server addresses, repeat the backup, and then delete your previous backups once complete. This way you'd enjoy the protection of offline backups sooner. You could also retain both backups as extra insurance.


UPDATE 5 March 2019: Wasabi's EU data center is up and running! https://wasabi.com/press-releases/w...n-drives-opening-third-data-center-amsterdam/

 

[bwintx]

With Arq’s recent addition of OneDrive to its list of destinations, I have been mulling over whether to give it a try, since I have an Office 365 subscription and, with it, 1 TB of OneDrive space. Mind you, I remain quite happy with B2, but that OneDrive terabyte has gone mostly unused (more on that below) and I am paying for it, after all; so I figured I might as well set Arq to use OneDrive, too, and give that a try. Will see how it goes and let you guys know if anything anomalous (and/or strikingly good) occurs.

Re OneDrive for sync as opposed to backup: my own purely anecdotal experience has been that it suffered in quality upon the annual major updates to iOS each fall, so I have come to rely on iCloud and Dropbox for my primary sync, while using OneDrive only to sync a small number of files between macOS/iOS and my Windows instances (whether on a separate service, through Boot Camp, or, more recently, VM-based) — hence the chasm of heretofore-unused space available in OneDrive.

 

[BigMcGuire]

With Arq’s recent addition of OneDrive to its list of destinations, I have been mulling over whether to give it a try, since I have an Office 365 subscription and, with it, 1 TB of OneDrive space. Mind you, I remain quite happy with B2, but that OneDrive terabyte has gone mostly unused (more on that below) and I am paying for it, after all; so I figured I might as well set Arq to use OneDrive, too, and give that a try. Will see how it goes and let you guys know if anything anomalous (ans'/or strikingly good) occurs.

Re OneDrive for sync as opposed to backup: my own purely anecdotal experience has been that it suffered in quality upon the annual major updates to iOS each fall, so I have come to rely on iCloud and Dropbox for my primary sync, while using OneDrive only to sync a small number of files between macOS/iOS and my Windows instances (whether on a separate service, through Boot Camp, or, more recently, VM-based) — hence the chasm of heretofore-unused space available in OneDrive.

I’ve thought the same thing. I have office 365 as well. OneDrive has really matured over the last few years. Two years ago it had a lot of problems. Now it is definitely a powerhouse. I use it for work since I program on a Windows machine. I have OneDrive on my Mac to keep my Mac up to date with work files.

I have used Arq with OneDrive. It’s not as fast as B2 but it is a great way to have another copy of your data somewhere for no additional cost. Depending on amount of data I’d recommend it.

I instead choose to back up my iCloud data to OneDrive manually. What makes me not use Arq is that Google Drive and OneDrive seem to limit upload speeds from programs like Arq vs their respective desktop apps. But once uploaded it’s all good.

I already have Backblaze Unlimited, B2, carbon copy cloner to two drives (home / work) and time machine to a drive at home.

I very recently tried Google Drive with Arq. Google has limited Arq to under 1mb/second. Mind you I upload to B2 at almost 40mb/second. So I don’t use Google Drive at all anymore.

Thus I prefer Backblaze because OneDrive, Google tend to slow down anything not using their native syncing applications. Do note, last time I tried Arq with OneDrive was months ago and it was faster than Google Drive by 3-4mb/second.

 

[bwintx]

I have used Arq with OneDrive. It’s not as fast as B2 but it is a great way to have another copy of your data somewhere for no additional cost. Depending on amount of data I’d recommend it.

I instead choose to back up my iCloud data to OneDrive manually. What makes me not use Arq is that Google Drive and OneDrive seem to limit upload speeds from programs like Arq vs their respective desktop apps. But once uploaded it’s all good.

...

Thus I prefer Backblaze because OneDrive, Google tend to slow down anything not using their native syncing applications. Do note, last time I tried Arq with OneDrive was months ago and it was faster than Google Drive by 3-4mb/second.

Agree re the speed (on OneDrive; haven’t tried Google Drive with this, nor do I intend to) — took about 11 hours on the first run with OneDrive, and at some points it was crawling at around 0.6mb/second.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I’ve thought the same thing. I have office 365 as well. OneDrive has really matured over the last few years. Two years ago it had a lot of problems. Now it is definitely a powerhouse. I use it for work since I program on a Windows machine. I have OneDrive on my Mac to keep my Mac up to date with work files.

I have used Arq with OneDrive. It’s not as fast as B2 but it is a great way to have another copy of your data somewhere for no additional cost. Depending on amount of data I’d recommend it.

I instead choose to back up my iCloud data to OneDrive manually. What makes me not use Arq is that Google Drive and OneDrive seem to limit upload speeds from programs like Arq vs their respective desktop apps. But once uploaded it’s all good.

I already have Backblaze Unlimited, B2, carbon copy cloner to two drives (home / work) and time machine to a drive at home.

I very recently tried Google Drive with Arq. Google has limited Arq to under 1mb/second. Mind you I upload to B2 at almost 40mb/second. So I don’t use Google Drive at all anymore.

Thus I prefer Backblaze because OneDrive, Google tend to slow down anything not using their native syncing applications. Do note, last time I tried Arq with OneDrive was months ago and it was faster than Google Drive by 3-4mb/second.

Speaking of BackBlaze, which I also use, they are going up in price next month from $5 to $6 a month. Current subscribers can get a year extension for the $50 / year price until 3/11 ( I believe). Make sure to check your email about it.

https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us...1AEGisPuQ3D52cudN_9ai_UTLSoaFA&_hsmi=69847303

 

[Weaselboy]

Speaking of BackBlaze, which I also use, they are going up in price next month from $5 to $6 a month. Current subscribers can get a year extension for the $50 / year price until 3/11 ( I believe). Make sure to check your email about it.

https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us...1AEGisPuQ3D52cudN_9ai_UTLSoaFA&_hsmi=69847303

I noticed that in the news also. I think that only applies to their packaged backup service and not the B2 servers we (in the thread) are using with Arq. At least it appears that is the case.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Speaking of BackBlaze, which I also use, they are going up in price next month from $5 to $6 a month. Current subscribers can get a year extension for the $50 / year price until 3/11 ( I believe). Make sure to check your email about it.

https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us...1AEGisPuQ3D52cudN_9ai_UTLSoaFA&_hsmi=69847303

Thank you for taking the time to let me know! My wife and I already extended both of our Backblaze Unlimited subscriptions. $1/mo is amazing imo. I'm a huge Backblaze fan so I'm already biased but was more than happy with the price increase, even more happy that they let us extend another year (I had just bought a year last month for my wife and I). lol. So we have 2 years at the $50 price, basically.
[doublepost=1550419967][/doublepost]

I noticed that in the news also. I think that only applies to their packaged backup service and not the B2 servers we (in the thread) are using with Arq. At least it appears that is the case.

Correct, for Backblaze Unlimited - not B2. The $.005/gb for B2 is amazing. Upload speeds keep me coming back again and again. I really enjoy reading their hard drive stats blog posts.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I noticed that in the news also. I think that only applies to their packaged backup service and not the B2 servers we (in the thread) are using with Arq. At least it appears that is the case.

Thanks for the clarification.

I considered Arq, but for the amount of data I backup, it would be $50 - $60 a month cloud wise.