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Backblaze provides a mirror of your running system with a 30 day max limit on diffs; if you discover a file disappeared or became corrupted more than 30 days in

by extra88 12y ago

Backblaze provides a mirror of your running system with a 30 day max limit on diffs; if you discover a file disappeared or became corrupted more than 30 days in the past, Backblaze can't help you. You can download 1GB/month from Glacier for free or you can transfer any amount from Glacier to an EC2 instance in the same region; one or both should be sufficient to do your own integrity testing. Anyway, Backblaze is a backup service, Glacier is not. Glacier is a storage service you can use with any backup software written to be compatible with Glacier's API. Backup management including diffs is the backup software's job, not Glacier's. Glacier's job is to be very durable storage; I also wish Amazon would say more about their storage media but it's generally understood to be heterogeneous with multiple redundant copies of all data stored.

bretthoerner 12y ago
> or you can transfer any amount from Glacier to an EC2 instance in the same region Note that it's only the transfer that is free. Telling Glacier to retrieve something, even from EC2, comes with all the same fees as if you did it from your own machine.
- extra88 12y ago
  Glacier retrievals (separate from data transfers out) can also be effectively free but it can be complex. This complexity is a significant downside to Glacier. http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/pricing/ http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/pricing/ http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/faqs/#How_much_data_can_I_retrieve_for_free http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/faqs/#How_much_data_can_I_retr...
billyhoffman 12y ago
"Backblaze is a backup service, Glacier is not. Glacier is a storage service" This was my original point, and thank you for stating it so clearly. My concern with the article was that is was saying "Here is a storage service, and here is what I do to use it as a backup, isn't that cheap and easy!" If you want a backup service, you are often better off purchasing a backup service instead of trying to roll your own on top of someone else's storage service. YMMV

by extra88 12y ago

bretthoerner 12y ago

> or you can transfer any amount from Glacier to an EC2 instance in the same region Note that it's only the transfer that is free. Telling Glacier to retrieve something, even from EC2, comes with all the same fees as if you did it from your own machine.

extra88 12y ago
Glacier retrievals (separate from data transfers out) can also be effectively free but it can be complex. This complexity is a significant downside to Glacier. http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/pricing/ http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/pricing/ http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/faqs/#How_much_data_can_I_retrieve_for_free http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/faqs/#How_much_data_can_I_retr...

billyhoffman 12y ago

"Backblaze is a backup service, Glacier is not. Glacier is a storage service" This was my original point, and thank you for stating it so clearly. My concern with the article was that is was saying "Here is a storage service, and here is what I do to use it as a backup, isn't that cheap and easy!" If you want a backup service, you are often better off purchasing a backup service instead of trying to roll your own on top of someone else's storage service. YMMV