Suggestions on a cloud-based backup plan

[Vrakfall]

Hello!
I'm looking for a cloud-based solution to backup the data on my FreeNAS. I've got something from 4 to 5 To to backup so I'm mostly looking towards unlimited data solutions.

So far I found the following (The last two ones that look more appealing were given by @danb35, thanks.):

• Backblaze Personal: For 50$/year I could store an unlimited amount of data but I'd have to do it +- manually from a computer and doesn't seem to be doable from a NAS. (Is that sure?)
• Backblaze Business Backup: Sounds like a good NAS backup plan but it's 5$/TB/month. :s
• Crashplan Business: For 10$/month I could store an unlimited amount of data from a NAS.

• Plain old Crashplan for ~$50/year will back up anything you want to throw at it from your FreeNAS server--I have about 4 TB backed up there right now.

• Google Drive on a business account--$10/mo normally, but can be found for quite a bit less. Unlimited storage and bandwidth (and much better bandwidth than Crashplan, IME). Use rclone to implement this; I've written about it elsewhere on the forum.

Backblaze seems nice (on the first look) but they also seem more expensive when it comes to backup a full NAS.
Crashplan "Individual" seems interesting thanks to its "Linux client" so I could set up tasks for scheduled backups but is a bit more expensive than the, what looks to be, non-automatizable Backblaze Personal.
Google Drive Business looks really great for scheduled backups but although a bit more exepensive.

Does someone use one of these and could give me their mind on these? Are there other solutions I don't know about that could fit my needs?

Edit: Seeing the title I wrote, now I wish there was a way to edit it. *Facepalm*
And I also forgot to add tags.

 

[joeschmuck]

I have used Crashplan for an individual, just the trial period on my FreeNAS system and I had no complaints. It backed up all my data without issue. My only issue was firewall related as the data is spread out across several countries, some which I had previously blocked. It took a bit of time to allow all the servers since they would periodically change. Otherwise it was very well worth the $5/month. My only real issue has nothing to do with Crashplan but more so my ISP. I only have 5Mb/sec upload and that takes considerable time to upload data. The other thing you need to do is ensure you have your account info written down somewhere so you can recover your data if bad things happen, and maybe even ensure someone else has it for an emergency backup.

 

[Vrakfall]

Interesting!
Was it all done with the original FreeNAS plugin or with the program within a jail?

 

[Jailer]

I only have 5Mb/sec upload

Only!!??? That's my download speed. What I wouldn't give to have 5Mb upload..........

 

[Vrakfall]

That's my download speed.

D: That's very little. xD I hope you don't suffer too much from it. :/

 

[joeschmuck]

Interesting!
Was it all done with the original FreeNAS plugin or with the program within a jail?

I don't recall. I thought it was a plugin but I could swear that I manually configured it in a jail. You should be able to find CrashPlan in these forums, do a Google search, there is a few threads which describe how to set it up.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I'm using HashBackup with BackBlaze b2. At $0.005/month per GB, storing 5TB would cost $25/month.

 

[Vrakfall]

I don't recall. I thought it was a plugin but I could swear that I manually configured it in a jail. You should be able to find CrashPlan in these forums, do a Google search, there is a few threads which describe how to set it up.

Thank you. I found this one but it seems a bit fiddly and I don't know if it's still reliable.

I already started playing a bit with Google Drive's one because it has a better wandwidth and `rclone` seems like an easy tool to play with. It also has a 15 days trial time.

I'll keep you up to date with my situations.

Don't hesitate to chime in if you have other opinions or other solutions to suggest.

 

[Vrakfall]

storing 5TB would cost $25/month.

Yeah, I did that calculation too. It's already more expensive than other solutions. :/

 

[danb35]

I have Crashplan running on an Ubuntu VM, and I've recently started using rclone with Google Drive. There's lots to not like about Crashplan--it requires a mess of a Java app, the upload bandwidth sucks, it's fragile af, and it takes a ton of RAM. OTOH, there's no limit on bandwidth usage or storage, the price is good, and the software implements deduplication.

OTOH, Google Drive with rclone requires no Java, is stable, and has minimal RAM requirements. It also uses all my available bandwidth (20 Mbit/sec), and implements client-side encryption, so the big G doesn't know what you're putting there. But there's no deduplication, so you're uploading the full amount of your data.

 

[Vrakfall]

it requires a mess of a Java app

Java

OTOH, Google Drive with rclone requires no Java, is stable, and has minimal RAM requirements. It also uses all my available bandwidth (20 Mbit/sec), and implements client-side encryption, so the big G doesn't know what you're putting there. But there's no deduplication, so you're uploading the full amount of your data.

Well, I guess all the advantages of GDrive overcome its little flaw. I guess I can do without dedup. I prefer a slow, steady and reliable river than an unpredictable torrent.

implements client-side encryption, so the big G doesn't know what you're putting there.

I especially like this part (although I think most cloud-based backups do this). I don't like when big G or other big corps know things about me. ^^

 

[danb35]

I especially like this part (although I think most cloud-based backups do this).

Yes, most cloud-based backups implement encryption in one way or another. But how strong the crypto is, and who holds the keys, varies. Crashplan (for example) encrypts too, but by default, they hold the keys. You can generate your own keys, but of course that means that if you lose them, your data goes bye-bye (which is always a risk with encryption).

The other issue (that I know of) with Google Drive is that, officially, a paid Google Apps account ($10/user/mo or $120/user/yr) is limited to 1 TB of storage per user until you reach five users, though there are plenty of reports of individual users using more than this. There are a couple of ways around this limitation. One is to buy your account from an authorized reseller--it will be completely legal, completely TOS-compliant, have unlimited storage, and also cost about the same as buying a single account directly from Google. The other is to find one of the sellers on eBay selling (supposed) lifetime, unlimited Google Apps accounts for a single low price--I've seen them under $10. It's really cheap, still has unlimited storage, but unlikely that it's TOS-compliant, and risks Google deleting the account.

 

[Vrakfall]

One is to buy your account from an authorized reseller

Where can I find such an alien?

 

[danb35]

Where can I find such an alien?

http://goez.us/unlimited-google-drive-2-0/ appears to be one.

 

[Vrakfall]

http://goez.us/unlimited-google-drive-2-0/ appears to be one.

Thank you. I bet I didn't look hard enough after it. :P
It looks like this one hasn't started yet. :/

 

[danb35]

IIRC, they're just getting set up in the wake of Amazon killing the unlimited Cloud Drive. I'd expect there are other resellers, but I haven't looked very hard.

 

[danb35]

Poking around a little more with rclone, it supports a bunch of storage systems, including B2, Dropbox, Hubic, and others.