Results of my backup services research

backup-services.md

backup services research

I googled around, especially with site:news.ycombinator.com for backup recommendations. Here are notes on the top hits.

tarsnap

http://www.tarsnap.com/

• by prolific HN member; focus on encryption and deduplication
• awkward setup of encryption keys
• $0.30/GB/month, not including transfer fees
• automatic deduplication of identical files "across time and space"
• no automatic deletion of old backups (will get expensive fast!)
• only prepaid billing, with a few days warning when you run low
• after 7 days of negative balance, ACCOUNT DELETED AUTOMATICALLY
• commandline API that's like "tar" but automatically rsynced; "no need to worry about versioning"
• push based (you have to run cron on every machine)
• no real WEB UI, no email notifications on failure or stale backups

rsync.net

http://rsync.net

• "backend to rsync", been around for 12 years
• special pricing: $0.10/GB/month; requires $60 prepay: http://www.rsync.net/products/git-annex-pricing.html
• otherwise $.30/GB/month, with free xfer and 7 daily snapshots.
• They charge for max quota, not usage; but you can instantly modify quota via admin panel.
• use any rsync compatible tool (eg rsync; duplicity; rdiff-backup; rbackup; etc...)
• like tarsnap:
  • push-based, requiring you run cron and maintain scripts
  • no real Web UI; no email notifications of failures
• cheaper and not prepaid; seems like a better option than Tarsnap

crashplan

http://www.crashplan.com/business/compare.html

• very popular desktop app for cloud backups
• Java based, so works on Linux, OSX, Windows
• big java APP (requires 512MB RAM for service)
• web management UI + monitoring, email notifications
• Requires GUI management APP, but can run backup service in headless mode ("unsupported")
• biz pricing: $10/month/server or $0.32/GB/month;

other services

• Strongspace rsync backend with snapshots; $7.50/month for 60GB; free ExpandDrive license. Mac backup app.
• Backblaze - $5/month mac/pc backup app; folder based (kind of like Dropbox)

command-line tools

rdiff-backup:

• like rsync but with deduplication of data across backups
• Duplicity is a wrapper on rdiff-backup with encryption support
• support cleaning up old versions:
• supports de-duplication; incremental backups; statistics; deleting old snapshots
• rBackup is a wrapper on rdiff-backup with extra features (daily/weekly..)
• bup - exciting git-like backup tool

BackupPC

http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/info.html

• Like Proxmox or Freepbx - a hosted web UI and packages on top of backup scripts.
• tons of features (daily/monthly, email notifications)
• pull-based (connects to all the servers you specify via SSH)
• supposed to work really well...

while it's not yet mature enough, bup is very promising (it lacks meta-data support and never deletes old data). i would also like to mention git-annex, which, while not being exactly a backup tool, does allow you to keep track of multiple redundant copies of files all over the place. think libre dropbox replacement.

also, we've had scalability and reliability issues with rdiff-backup at koumbit, we're actively looking for a replacement. so far, bup seems to be the most promising contender, if they can finally release their shit so that we have metadata support. ;)

If someone is interested, a somehow worthy alternative to the no longer maintained rdiff-backup is http://obnam.org

A relatively new backup software project, but one that looks very promising, is BorgBackup. This originated as a fork of Attic in May 2015.

+1 for BorgBackup: http://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/en/stable/

On tarsnap:

• extremely slow to restore
• extremely slow to prune snapshots (which you'll have to write a script for unless you want to be charged through the nose, as you note)

I don't understand the price you list for rsync.net. According to https://www.rsync.net/pricing.html, I think it is (as of the time of this writing) 2.5 cents per month per GB.

I don't understand the price you list for rsync.net. According to https://www.rsync.net/pricing.html, I think it is (as of the time of this writing) 2.5 cents per month per GB.

This Gist was written in 2013, when their pricing was significantly higher than it is right now

I found these two, but don't need a cloud solution. Backing up either site with family members instead.
zfs.rent
HDD Housing

I found these two, but don't need a cloud solution. Backing up either site with family members instead. zfs.rent HDD Housing

I use zfs.rent currently and can confirm it is solid for the last year and a bit that I've been a customer.