Off-site backup

[jasonfromallentown]

Good afternoon,



I have been doing some research and just looking for other suggestions.



Currently I have our Macs (2 iMacs and MBP) backing up to an old Mac Mini running Lion Server. I have a 4TB USB drive attracted, 1 TB for TimeMachine and 3 TB for just general data storage. Might be getting a second USB drive for general storage giving the full 4 TB for TimeMachine. But for now this is working well for us, and I like knowing that our Macs are being backed up.



Now I am looking to take this to the next level. Our Macs and the TimeMachine backups are for the most part local, great for quick recovery and one computer disasters but we are not protected from a natural disaster, fire or lightning strike. I would like to have my OS X Server backup to a cloud service, such as Amazon S3 or glacier. This will give me local backup and recovery from a local failure and off-site backup.



I am looking for something that is automatic with little user interaction, much the way TimeMachine works. Any suggestions great appreciated.



Thank you,



Jason


Mac mini, OS X Server, 10.7.5

 

[iPhil]

Since you have 3 total macs and external drives -- I personally use http://www.code42.com/crashplan/

But Single Mac @ $60 per year.. You need Family Plan @ 12.50 month option ...

 

[zhenya]

I like Crashplan as well. Very reliable and fairly price. Be careful with any plan that charges you per gigabyte. Many of them are not that careful with monitoring block level file changes, so any reorganizing you do locally can me huge duplicate backups. They don't mind because you are paying for GB. Crash plan, with their unlimited plans, pays for duplicates themselves, so no matter how much I reorganize my files, I never see huge duplicate backups.

 

[Les Kern]

I have the same problem to solve and short of encrypting a backup and keeping it a family member or friends house, there are no free services that offer space for the amount of files I need protected. (And why should there be free services? Just wishful thinking) I found that the easiest paid service is
http://www.thetop10bestonlinebackup.com/online-backup-reviews/mypcbackup/review

Truly unlimited, automated, secure.
So perhaps you can continue to back up to the server then apply the account to that server to back up all your files automatically. Once installed it seems you'll never have to bother with backups again. If you add a new computer, no changes to the account, just add it to the server backup.

 

[Weaselboy]

I would like to have my OS X Server backup to a cloud service, such as Amazon S3 or glacier.

I use the app Arq to backup to Amazon S3. I tworks with Glacier also. Terrific app and very responsive developer. There is a free trial if you want to try it out.

 

[jasonfromallentown]

thanks for all the replies, I have been doing some thinking today, and I think I want to do things a little different. Most of this comes from my internet connection and the amount of uploading that will begin to happen.

So new plan....

Time machine will still back up to Mac Mini server in the event that I have to do a quick recover and no disaster has happened.

I really don't need to offsite backup application and system files, I can recover them in other ways. (We can just leave it at that). Between the app store and office365 I really don't own software anymore.

Now I have already moved the 2 iMac to have the home folder on the mini as that's fine they don't leave the house. Is there a way to do the same thing with the MBP but have the home folder local but sync to mini server when on the home network.

The plan will be then to use Arq to back up the user home folders to the cloud. This will make for much smaller uploads and still keep most if not all our user data safe.

Thanks again

 

[dimme]

I have 3 macs backing up to a mini server. I use time machine for secondary backups. I have one drive decade to data on the server which the macs sync to and that drive is backed locally and also off site via crash plan.

 

[iphoneuserinyyz]

I have been using Crashplan for several years and have no complaints (other than it requires Java to be installed on my Mac, which I would prefer to avoid). I had also been using Arq to back up to S3 and Glacier as a backup backup. Recently, Arq enabled the ability to back up to Amazon Cloud Storage, which charges $60 per year for unlimited storage. I have taken advantage and have already uploaded more than 800 GB of backups from 2 computers (different computers can share the same Amazon Cloud Storage credentials - because Arq uses a separate key for each computer's backup, the computers cannot read any files other than their own unless you supply the key from the other device). So this has allowed me to back up all my computers for the same price as Crashplan for a single machine.

The only sticking point in my mind so far is the question of the reliability of Amazon Cloud Storage when compared to S3 or Crashplan. I have not found any definitive information about this. So right now, I have not deleted my S3 backups, and I have a few months left on my Crashplan subscription before I have to decide whether to let that elapse as well. Any thoughts?

 

[Weaselboy]

The only sticking point in my mind so far is the question of the reliability of Amazon Cloud Storage when compared to S3 or Crashplan. I have not found any definitive information about this. So right now, I have not deleted my S3 backups, and I have a few months left on my Crashplan subscription before I have to decide whether to let that elapse as well. Any thoughts?

I ditched CrashPlan for the Arq with S3 setup and could not be happier. Myself and others had the problem described in this thread with CrashPlan's background updates of their app locking up the Time Machine local snapshots folder.

I also just stopped believing their promises of a native OS X app coming "soon". They made Twitter posts a couple years ago promising this, and still nothing. Also, there upload speeds were very slow and inconsistent for me.

I have not seen any data in Amazon Cloud Storage reliability, but I don't see why it would be any less reliable that S3 has been.

 

[iphoneuserinyyz]

I ditched CrashPlan for the Arq with S3 setup and could not be happier. Myself and others had the problem described in this thread with CrashPlan's background updates of their app locking up the Time Machine local snapshots folder.

I also just stopped believing their promises of a native OS X app coming "soon". They made Twitter posts a couple years ago promising this, and still nothing. Also, there upload speeds were very slow and inconsistent for me.

I have not seen any data in Amazon Cloud Storage reliability, but I don't see why it would be any less reliable that S3 has been.

The developer of Arq has tweeted that he has had some difficulties involving the Amazon Cloud Storage API's, and there have been a number of updates to Arq addressing this. This make me a little wary of trusting Amazon Cloud Storage for important backups.

 

[sevoneone]

Has anyone used BackBlaze? I am thinking about trying them out. https://www.backblaze.com

 

[hobowankenobi]

BTW, with the CrashPlan free version you can backup locally, and over the internet to a friend/family computer. Most competitors don't offer these features. Worth trying.....for free.

Agreed about the down sides: they have a long history of slow upload speeds (data trickles in the background) and the java thing is getting old. Not a deal breaker for me, but hard to love.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Has anyone used BackBlaze? I am thinking about trying them out. https://www.backblaze.com

Did you end up giving them a go? I am curious as to wether I should also use it.

 

[stiwi]

Did you end up giving them a go? I am curious as to wether I should also use it.

Backblaze is very fast in uploading, especially with their recent support of multi-threading, but I have stopped using them for two reasons:
- to restore a file you have to provide your private key on their website, so they can prepare the zip file for you. This makes the security useless I believe.
- they keep the file versioning for 30days only
- there is a limit of days you have to remember reconnect you drive (90 days I believe).

CrashPlan is good in terms of unlimited file versioning, the fact that you can upload something and delete it from your HDD but:
- java sucks
- their speed sucks too. Initially I was getting 10-12Mbps and now I am unable to go above 4Mbps.

I am wondering if Arg combined with Amazon Cloud unlimited is a better way to go? I assume upload speeds should be great to Amazon servers. Any issues with uploading large files like 20-30GB?

The only con I can think of Arq so far (as I have not tested it yet) is that you have to buy a licence for each computer separately in order to be able to utilize one Amazon cloud account.

 

[Weaselboy]

I am wondering if ARQ combined with Amazon Cloud unlimited is a better way to go? I assume upload speeds should be great to Amazon servers. Any issues with uploading large files like 20-30GB?

You can see my posts above on Arq with Amazon S3. I am still very happy with this setup and can saturate my 30/5 connection any time I use it. I don't have any experience with single files as large as the 20GB you mentioned though.

 

[iphoneuserinyyz]

You can see my posts above on Arq with Amazon S3. I am still very happy with this setup and can saturate my 30/5 connection any time I use it. I don't have any experience with single files as large as the 20GB you mentioned though.

I have been using Arq with Amazon Cloud Storage for a couple of months now. I have had no problems whatsoever. Backups are speedy. The largest single file I have backed up is just over 1 gigabyte, so I too have no experience with the larger files you are wondering about.

 

[IHelpId10t5]

Good afternoon,

... I have a 4TB USB drive attracted, 1 TB for TimeMachine and 3 TB for just general data storage. Might be getting a second USB drive for general storage giving the full 4 TB for TimeMachine. But for now this is working well for us, and I like knowing that our Macs are being backed up.

... Now I am looking to take this to the next level...

I am looking for something that is automatic with little user interaction, much the way TimeMachine works. Any suggestions great appreciated.

Great move to start off-site backups as it's an essential part of any backup strategy.

I have been using Backblaze for several years and have had nothing but a great experience. It is truly set-and-forget software. Despite what many reviewers say, you can indeed configure the software to exclude unnecessary directories. Two major benefits of Backblaze over other services are that it is NOT a slow/bloated Java application, and, it backups attached external drives.

Lastly, if you ever want to go one step further in your backup strategy, I recommend an external of some type that you use exclusively for occasional complete images of you Mac and externals. I use SUperDuper! for this to produce bootable clones. I do so at least a few times a year or before every Mac OS major version upgrade. Then, keep this clone off-site somewhere as well.

So, the ultimate setup includes something like desktop attached thunderbolt RAID solution for storage, TimeCapsule, for real-time backup, occasional bootable clones, and offsite cloud backup. Then, and only then can you sleep well at night!

 

[zhenya]

wo major benefits of Backblaze over other services are that it is NOT a slow/bloated Java application, and, it backups attached external drives.

I know that using Java is a big turn-off for many people, but the fact remains that I've now been using Crashplan to backup several TB of data over ~30 workstations plus my home computers for several years now and have had the backup system stop working on exactly one of those machines, once. This is why we are still using Crashplan even in the business - we've been through several 'enterprise-grade' workstation backup systems and none of them has been that reliable. I don't particularly care what code they've written in, as long as the system works at its core functionality, and at that, Crashplan excels. It also backs up my external drives just fine...

 

[Longer Lane]

Good afternoon,



I have been doing some research and just looking for other suggestions.



Currently I have our Macs (2 iMacs and MBP) backing up to an old Mac Mini running Lion Server. I have a 4TB USB drive attracted, 1 TB for TimeMachine and 3 TB for just general data storage. Might be getting a second USB drive for general storage giving the full 4 TB for TimeMachine. But for now this is working well for us, and I like knowing that our Macs are being backed up.



Now I am looking to take this to the next level. Our Macs and the TimeMachine backups are for the most part local, great for quick recovery and one computer disasters but we are not protected from a natural disaster, fire or lightning strike. I would like to have my OS X Server backup to a cloud service, such as Amazon S3 or glacier. This will give me local backup and recovery from a local failure and off-site backup.



I am looking for something that is automatic with little user interaction, much the way TimeMachine works. Any suggestions great appreciated.



Thank you,



Jason


Mac mini, OS X Server, 10.7.5

I have another location, where I have a Mac mini running with external storage. I am using Carbon Copy Cloner (bombich.com) to create daily backups. You can configure the backups, so that the external disk is bootable. In my view the best solution as everything is under my control.
In your case, you can direct CCC to backup to Amazon S3. There are plenty of how-tos on the internet. Check out the pricing beforehand.

My $0.02

LL