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Can HN users share their experience with B2? I wanted to use them as a backup backup solution since their pricing is close to what getting your own leased serve

Can HN users share their experience with B2? I wanted to use them as a backup backup solution since their pricing is close to what getting your own leased server would be. Also, are there ready solutions for B2 and incremental backups of Ubuntu server?

newsat13 9y ago
rclone supports B2 (it's basically rsync for cloud storage) I really miss a node module for B2 API though.
- artpar 9y ago
  daptin uses rclone to connect to cloud storages. I can add more actions to make a usable dashboard (for a file related utilities server). Please create an issue if someone would be interested in this https://github.com/daptin/daptin https://github.com/daptin/daptin
- ratboy666 9y ago
  I use minio for this. I then use the minio node library to access minio, B2 and S3.
briffle 9y ago
duplicati [0] (at least beta 2) can backup to it, however, I use Google cloud storage with it, since B2 is a single datacenter. I like a bit of extra paranoia, even if it is backups. I hear they are spinning up a second one, but not sure how multi-Region storage will work. [0] https://www.duplicati.com/ https://www.duplicati.com/
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- ShakataGaNai 9y ago
  According to their FAQ, they're still running primarily out of the single DC [1]. However they did post on the blog that the new DC was online as of June 2017 [2]. I run Backblaze (backup) for Desktop but also have a local NAS that stores copies of critical items. That NAS also serves bulk storage (like old Premier Pro projects) which is backed up to B2. So critical data follows 3-2-1 backups [3]. Desktop, NAS, Backblaze. Less critical bulk data is only 2 copies, NAS & Backblaze B2. That's a really long way of saying that 1 remote datacenter is enough for me. My data is important to me, I'm a digital packrat, but the likelyhood of something taking out my home (SF Bay Area) and Sacramento (Backblaze DC) ... likely means TEOTWAWKI [4] - and my data will be of very little concern then. Caveat. I'm just a person. Not a business. If you're a business using B2 for backup... you probably want to worry more about multiple AZ/Region storage. [1] https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217667468-B2-Security-and-Redundancy https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217667468-B2-Se... [2] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/data-center-design/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/data-center-design/ [3] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism#Survivalist_terminology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism#Survivalist_termin...
  - atYevP 9y ago
    Yev from Backblaze here -> very good points! We find that some folks even use us along WITH S3 or Azure as not only a different "region" but specifically because we're a different "vendor" - for greater diversification. It's easy enough to fork data over to B2 and with the low costs, it make it an easy sell for IT folks.
- brianwski 9y ago
  Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze. > since B2 is a single datacenter Backblaze now has three datacenters spread about (two in Sacramento area 50 miles apart, and one datacenter in Phoenix). However, if you store exactly one file in B2, it will land in one of those three datacenters. Very soon we will allow you to choose which of the three datacenters your one file lands in. > I like a bit of extra paranoia So do I, and I would NEVER keep a valuable piece of data in only one datacenter with only one vendor. My advice to my closest friends is you value a piece of data highly, you should have three copies with three separate vendors and technologies. For example, one copy on your local laptop, one copy in Amazon S3, and one copy in Backblaze B2. You might also make sure the Amazon S3 is not hosted in the same building as the Backblaze B2. Since Backblaze B2 does not share a single line of code with Amazon S3 and no employees and a different billing system, this means a bug or network outage or malicious employee inside Amazon S3 won't affect your copy in Backblaze B2. For bonus points, use two different credit cards to pay for it that expire at different times. If you forget to pay your Amazon S3 bill, they will delete your data for sure.
  - loxias 9y ago
    > > I like a bit of extra paranoia > ... three separate vendors and technologies ... > ... does not share a single line of code with ... > ... use two different credit cards ... This person legit thinks about failure modes.
    - atYevP 9y ago
      Yev from Backblaze -> we think about failures ALL the time...
pc2g4d 9y ago
I'm using B2 with duplicity under Linux. I ran into an issue where the tool couldn't upload its own index files to the backend, but there was a fork that fixed the problem and I expect it will be resolved in the official fork soon. Haven't done any file restores yet.
loxias 9y ago
B2 is great, I've used it roughly since they came out with it. I rolled my own solution for backups with linux, involving NBD and libcurl, but it sounds like there's other available things now. I'm stoked, they're already the cheapest, now they're even cheaper. I think the only thing left on my "wish list" would be some sort of lower pricing for using it from regions of the internet with lower transfer costs. Like, if there was some VPS provider Backblaze would partner with, then offer B2 at a discounted access rate when used from that provider, akin to how S3 access is cheap when used from EC2.
gregmac 9y ago
I switched to B2 after Crashplan Home was discontinued. I backup a couple hundred GB of personal photos/videos mainly, stored on a Ubuntu server. The drives are already protected by SnapRAID, and backups to an external drive, so B2 is my fire/theft/everything-else-failed-at-once protection. I just use b2 sync, and don't synchronize deletes. It took a few minutes to get set up, and I haven't thought much about it since, other than seeing the bill for a few dollars a month. The cron job should e-mail me if something goes wrong. I've also checked a couple times to ensure the latest files are visible in B2 storage, just to be certain. Haven't tried a restore yet.
sp332 9y ago
I've been using it with the first-party b2sync cli tool. My use case is very simple - refresh the backup, then download the whole thing when the hard drive dies. I was afraid the restore operation would be expensive, but it was cheap enough that I decided to be more liberal with what I upload in the future.
fpoling 9y ago
Recently we evaluated to use them to backup 25TB of data. Unfortunately their client sustained bandwidth was about 3 MB/s and even less for app that came with DiskStation. This is on 100 Mbit/line that normally gives that speed sustainably. Eventually we decided to use tapes. With our data usage just after 2 years the tapes will be cheaper...
bproven 9y ago
I use duplicity + B2 on my Fedora laptop. It works very well. I even proved out the restore when I accidentally borked my .profile file the other day ;)
Harkins 9y ago
I tried to evaluate it last month. Their login page does some kind of cross-site cookieing or referering that my privacy settings don't permit. Any time I log in, I get a warning that someone's been trying to brute force my account and it's been locked for 24 hours. Support was useless. I was repeatedly asked if the IP address I gave them was public or private, when they should've had training or tooling to know at a glance. The help system closes tickets aggressively, ignores replies, and the link to keep a ticket open just leads to a knowledge base. Eventually support agreed to take a curl that reliably reproduces their bug, but I got no tracking number or even a vague promise they'd get back to me when it's fixed. I concluded that if the product was broken and support was broken, there's probably something upstream in the business that's broken and I am not confident I'd be able to restore data.
- brianwski 9y ago
  Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze. > Any time I log in, I get a warning that someone's been trying to brute force my account and it's been locked for 24 hours. We had a bug where anybody who "cleared their cookies" would get exactly that behavior. It is fixed. I apologize for the inconvenience. I'm assuming you run some sort of cookie blocking software? If you used stock Chrome browser or stock Safari or stock Microsoft Edge and didn't clear cookies, it always worked.

newsat13 9y ago

rclone supports B2 (it's basically rsync for cloud storage) I really miss a node module for B2 API though.

artpar 9y ago
daptin uses rclone to connect to cloud storages. I can add more actions to make a usable dashboard (for a file related utilities server). Please create an issue if someone would be interested in this https://github.com/daptin/daptin https://github.com/daptin/daptin
ratboy666 9y ago
I use minio for this. I then use the minio node library to access minio, B2 and S3.

briffle 9y ago

duplicati [0] (at least beta 2) can backup to it, however, I use Google cloud storage with it, since B2 is a single datacenter. I like a bit of extra paranoia, even if it is backups. I hear they are spinning up a second one, but not sure how multi-Region storage will work. [0] https://www.duplicati.com/ https://www.duplicati.com/

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ShakataGaNai 9y ago
According to their FAQ, they're still running primarily out of the single DC [1]. However they did post on the blog that the new DC was online as of June 2017 [2]. I run Backblaze (backup) for Desktop but also have a local NAS that stores copies of critical items. That NAS also serves bulk storage (like old Premier Pro projects) which is backed up to B2. So critical data follows 3-2-1 backups [3]. Desktop, NAS, Backblaze. Less critical bulk data is only 2 copies, NAS & Backblaze B2. That's a really long way of saying that 1 remote datacenter is enough for me. My data is important to me, I'm a digital packrat, but the likelyhood of something taking out my home (SF Bay Area) and Sacramento (Backblaze DC) ... likely means TEOTWAWKI [4] - and my data will be of very little concern then. Caveat. I'm just a person. Not a business. If you're a business using B2 for backup... you probably want to worry more about multiple AZ/Region storage. [1] https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217667468-B2-Security-and-Redundancy https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217667468-B2-Se... [2] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/data-center-design/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/data-center-design/ [3] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism#Survivalist_terminology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism#Survivalist_termin...
- atYevP 9y ago
  Yev from Backblaze here -> very good points! We find that some folks even use us along WITH S3 or Azure as not only a different "region" but specifically because we're a different "vendor" - for greater diversification. It's easy enough to fork data over to B2 and with the low costs, it make it an easy sell for IT folks.
brianwski 9y ago
Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze. > since B2 is a single datacenter Backblaze now has three datacenters spread about (two in Sacramento area 50 miles apart, and one datacenter in Phoenix). However, if you store exactly one file in B2, it will land in one of those three datacenters. Very soon we will allow you to choose which of the three datacenters your one file lands in. > I like a bit of extra paranoia So do I, and I would NEVER keep a valuable piece of data in only one datacenter with only one vendor. My advice to my closest friends is you value a piece of data highly, you should have three copies with three separate vendors and technologies. For example, one copy on your local laptop, one copy in Amazon S3, and one copy in Backblaze B2. You might also make sure the Amazon S3 is not hosted in the same building as the Backblaze B2. Since Backblaze B2 does not share a single line of code with Amazon S3 and no employees and a different billing system, this means a bug or network outage or malicious employee inside Amazon S3 won't affect your copy in Backblaze B2. For bonus points, use two different credit cards to pay for it that expire at different times. If you forget to pay your Amazon S3 bill, they will delete your data for sure.
- loxias 9y ago
  > > I like a bit of extra paranoia > ... three separate vendors and technologies ... > ... does not share a single line of code with ... > ... use two different credit cards ... This person legit thinks about failure modes.
  - atYevP 9y ago
    Yev from Backblaze -> we think about failures ALL the time...

pc2g4d 9y ago

I'm using B2 with duplicity under Linux. I ran into an issue where the tool couldn't upload its own index files to the backend, but there was a fork that fixed the problem and I expect it will be resolved in the official fork soon. Haven't done any file restores yet.

loxias 9y ago

B2 is great, I've used it roughly since they came out with it. I rolled my own solution for backups with linux, involving NBD and libcurl, but it sounds like there's other available things now. I'm stoked, they're already the cheapest, now they're even cheaper. I think the only thing left on my "wish list" would be some sort of lower pricing for using it from regions of the internet with lower transfer costs. Like, if there was some VPS provider Backblaze would partner with, then offer B2 at a discounted access rate when used from that provider, akin to how S3 access is cheap when used from EC2.

gregmac 9y ago

I switched to B2 after Crashplan Home was discontinued. I backup a couple hundred GB of personal photos/videos mainly, stored on a Ubuntu server. The drives are already protected by SnapRAID, and backups to an external drive, so B2 is my fire/theft/everything-else-failed-at-once protection. I just use b2 sync, and don't synchronize deletes. It took a few minutes to get set up, and I haven't thought much about it since, other than seeing the bill for a few dollars a month. The cron job should e-mail me if something goes wrong. I've also checked a couple times to ensure the latest files are visible in B2 storage, just to be certain. Haven't tried a restore yet.

sp332 9y ago

I've been using it with the first-party b2sync cli tool. My use case is very simple - refresh the backup, then download the whole thing when the hard drive dies. I was afraid the restore operation would be expensive, but it was cheap enough that I decided to be more liberal with what I upload in the future.

fpoling 9y ago

Recently we evaluated to use them to backup 25TB of data. Unfortunately their client sustained bandwidth was about 3 MB/s and even less for app that came with DiskStation. This is on 100 Mbit/line that normally gives that speed sustainably. Eventually we decided to use tapes. With our data usage just after 2 years the tapes will be cheaper...

bproven 9y ago

I use duplicity + B2 on my Fedora laptop. It works very well. I even proved out the restore when I accidentally borked my .profile file the other day ;)

Harkins 9y ago

I tried to evaluate it last month. Their login page does some kind of cross-site cookieing or referering that my privacy settings don't permit. Any time I log in, I get a warning that someone's been trying to brute force my account and it's been locked for 24 hours. Support was useless. I was repeatedly asked if the IP address I gave them was public or private, when they should've had training or tooling to know at a glance. The help system closes tickets aggressively, ignores replies, and the link to keep a ticket open just leads to a knowledge base. Eventually support agreed to take a curl that reliably reproduces their bug, but I got no tracking number or even a vague promise they'd get back to me when it's fixed. I concluded that if the product was broken and support was broken, there's probably something upstream in the business that's broken and I am not confident I'd be able to restore data.

brianwski 9y ago
Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze. > Any time I log in, I get a warning that someone's been trying to brute force my account and it's been locked for 24 hours. We had a bug where anybody who "cleared their cookies" would get exactly that behavior. It is fixed. I apologize for the inconvenience. I'm assuming you run some sort of cookie blocking software? If you used stock Chrome browser or stock Safari or stock Microsoft Edge and didn't clear cookies, it always worked.