Sunday, April 3, 2011

Re: [BLUG] looking for (linux friendly) offsite backup options

Ben Shewmaker <ben@shewbox.org> wrote:
> Does anyone have any recommendations on offsite backup options? I

[...]

I personally use and can recommend tarsnap[0]:

"Tarsnap is a secure online backup service for BSD, Linux, OS X,
Solaris, Cygwin, and can probably be compiled on many other UNIX-
like operating systems."

[0]: https://www.tarsnap.com

--
Jeremy L. Gaddis

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Re: [BLUG] looking for (linux friendly) offsite backup options

I've been using dropbox for several months now, and I'm extremely
impressed with it. I'm using the free version (up to 2G), which I use
mostly for keeping files synced between computers and sharing files
with other people without sending huge email attachments. Their
approach is great, and so far I've found the Windows and Linux
software both do everything I expect every time. And remarkably
quickly. Eventually I realized that this was also a good way to
backup, so I moved some of my more important files into the dropbox.

I didn't think that they'd be a good solution for you, though, Ben,
because I thought you have much more data. But, in fact, they've got
a plan for you!! :)

https://www.dropbox.com/pricing

50GB for $10/month
100GB for $20/month

Naturally, you'd have to decide if you want to trim down your data set
a bit to fit it into $10/month, or if you relax and plan for the
future at $20/month. But, you might want to start out with the free
client and just see if you like it. 2GB is still quite a lot of data.
And you can get some bonus space for doing things like installing on
more than one computer and turning your friends onto the service.

Oh, speaking of which! If you (Ben, or anyone reading this) want to
try it out, if you use this referral link, you and I could both get a
bonus 250MB of space:

http://db.tt/ZTxGVAM

If you think it's sleazy to send such a thing to a mailing list, I'm
sorry, and remember, you don't need me, you can just sign up. :)

I have no advice on backing up datasets larger than 100GB. Seems like
there should be a good solution. I would check out Amazon S3, I don't
think it's cost-prohibitive for home, but it does seem a little like
not quite the right tool. Anyway, my data gets backed up on multiple
hard drives at home, and my most-critical stuff also stays in dropbox.

David

On Sun, Apr 03, 2011 at 03:04:14PM -0400, Joe Auty wrote:
>Amazon S3 is pretty doable for the home user. You do have to find a
>savvy client, but it works well. You can calculate your monthly costs in
>advance. Client-wise, I use s3tools/s3cmd, which is an rsync clone for S3:
>
>http://s3tools.org/s3tools
>
>
>One popular consumer oriented solution, Dropbox, is actually Amazon S3
>based. There is a Linux Dropbox client:
>
>http://www.dropbox.com/downloading?os=lnx
>
>> Ben Shewmaker <mailto:ben@shewbox.org>
>> April 3, 2011 2:51 PM
>>
>>
>> Does anyone have any recommendations on offsite backup options? I
>> know there are a number of companies with varying offers on price and
>> storage, but a number of them only work with their software (usually
>> windows/pc only). Right now I have an Ubuntu box serving as my NAS,
>> so ideally I'd love to be able to continue to backup to that, then
>> have that box backup to the cloud. I have around 50 gigs of
>> photos/vids/other docs right now that I really need backed up, but of
>> course that will only grow as I take more pictures and videos and
>> whatnot. What about something like Rackspace or Amazon s3? Or they
>> purely enterprise solutions or are they doable and/or affordable for a
>> home user? Or is there some other company that will provide what I
>> need?
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Ben
>> _______________________________________________
>> BLUG mailing list
>> BLUG@linuxfan.com
>> http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>--
>Joe Auty, NetMusician
>NetMusician helps musicians, bands and artists create beautiful,
>professional, custom designed, career-essential websites that are easy
>to maintain and to integrate with popular social networks.
>www.netmusician.org <http://www.netmusician.org>
>joe@netmusician.org <mailto:joe@netmusician.org>
>

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Re: [BLUG] looking for (linux friendly) offsite backup options

:-) Sure Thanks!

Seriously though, there is this company called SpiderOak that I was
looking into and they look like a good option. They aren't foolish
enough to try offering unlimited storage for $5/month. They actually
base their price on what they can support. Kinda like Suso. ;-) Plus,
they support Linux.

Companies like Mozy that try to offer unlimited backups for
$5.99/month are flawed by design. Hard drive capacity generally follows
the trends of the desktop and if desktop users continue to store more
and more data, then Mozy won't be able to make a profit in the long run
and will have to increase their pricing. Let's say that user's space
requirements double every 4 years (safe estimate). So if they use 1TB
now, you have to pay that off storing that amount within 2 or 3 years to
make a profit. Enterprise storage costs Mozy anywhere from $100/TB on
the low end to $20000/TB on the high end, dpending on their setup, how
well they are backing up, whether they are using a SAN or not, etc.
Let's say its $200/TB because they claim that they are reliable and
offer you something better than you can do yourself. So at $5.99/month,
a user will pay off a TB in 33 months or almost 3 years. But of course,
by that time, the user is now using about 1.8TB and growing fast, so now
Mozy has to upgrade their system to accomodate more storage. All in
all, their profit is quite low and eventually they will either go out of
business (and who knows what will happen to your data) or they will
raise their prices accordingly.

Actually, I wrote all that for nothing. They no longer do unlimited
backup and I heard that this happened. So it was obvious that they
weren't thinking ahead (or it was all just a marketing scam). Either
way, do you want to store your backup data with a company that didn't
plan ahead?

Amazon s3 is actually more expensive per GB than an EMC SAN, which in
my own experience is crazy expensive. So that's not the route to go.
S3 is for small amounts of online data, not large amounts of offline
data.

Please don't let price drive your decision. Remember, $5.99 isn't even
enough to buy popcorn at the movie theater anymore. How can it buy you
unlimited backup storage?

Actually, I recently have come to realize that desktop users are
actually seeing lower prices at the cost of enterprise users. You won't
see this on the consumer market, but enterprise SAN drives can cost as
much as $40,000 for a 400GB SSD drive. Yes, that's 40 thousand dollars.
Most enterprise storage prices are like this and I think its because
Enterprises subsidize the lower cost of consumer stuff. I think that one
of the reasons for this is because it helps keep new companies out of
the market.

Anyways, I'm rambling.

On Sun, Apr 03, 2011 at 07:05:23PM GMT, Mark Warner [mhwarner@gmail.com] said the following:
>
> SUSO? :-)
>
> Ben Shewmaker wrote:
> > Does anyone have any recommendations on offsite backup options? I
> > know there are a number of companies with varying offers on price and
> > storage, but a number of them only work with their software (usually
> > windows/pc only). Right now I have an Ubuntu box serving as my NAS,
> > so ideally I'd love to be able to continue to backup to that, then
> > have that box backup to the cloud. I have around 50 gigs of
> > photos/vids/other docs right now that I really need backed up, but of
> > course that will only grow as I take more pictures and videos and
> > whatnot. What about something like Rackspace or Amazon s3? Or they
> > purely enterprise solutions or are they doable and/or affordable for a
> > home user? Or is there some other company that will provide what I
> > need?
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Ben
> > _______________________________________________
> > BLUG mailing list
> > BLUG@linuxfan.com
> > http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug
> >
>
>
> --
> Mark Warner
> MEPIS Linux
> Registered Linux User #415318
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> BLUG mailing list
> BLUG@linuxfan.com
> http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug
>

--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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Re: [BLUG] looking for (linux friendly) offsite backup options

SUSO? :-)

Ben Shewmaker wrote:
> Does anyone have any recommendations on offsite backup options? I
> know there are a number of companies with varying offers on price and
> storage, but a number of them only work with their software (usually
> windows/pc only). Right now I have an Ubuntu box serving as my NAS,
> so ideally I'd love to be able to continue to backup to that, then
> have that box backup to the cloud. I have around 50 gigs of
> photos/vids/other docs right now that I really need backed up, but of
> course that will only grow as I take more pictures and videos and
> whatnot. What about something like Rackspace or Amazon s3? Or they
> purely enterprise solutions or are they doable and/or affordable for a
> home user? Or is there some other company that will provide what I
> need?
>
> Thanks!
> Ben
> _______________________________________________
> BLUG mailing list
> BLUG@linuxfan.com
> http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug
>


--
Mark Warner
MEPIS Linux
Registered Linux User #415318

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Re: [BLUG] looking for (linux friendly) offsite backup options

Amazon S3 is pretty doable for the home user. You do have to find a savvy client, but it works well. You can calculate your monthly costs in advance. Client-wise, I use s3tools/s3cmd, which is an rsync clone for S3:

http://s3tools.org/s3tools


One popular consumer oriented solution, Dropbox, is actually Amazon S3 based. There is a Linux Dropbox client:

http://www.dropbox.com/downloading?os=lnx

Ben Shewmaker
April 3, 2011 2:51 PM

Does anyone have any recommendations on offsite backup options? I
know there are a number of companies with varying offers on price and
storage, but a number of them only work with their software (usually
windows/pc only). Right now I have an Ubuntu box serving as my NAS,
so ideally I'd love to be able to continue to backup to that, then
have that box backup to the cloud. I have around 50 gigs of
photos/vids/other docs right now that I really need backed up, but of
course that will only grow as I take more pictures and videos and
whatnot. What about something like Rackspace or Amazon s3? Or they
purely enterprise solutions or are they doable and/or affordable for a
home user? Or is there some other company that will provide what I
need?

Thanks!
Ben
_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
BLUG@linuxfan.com
http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug



--
Joe Auty, NetMusician
NetMusician helps musicians, bands and artists create beautiful, professional, custom designed, career-essential websites that are easy to maintain and to integrate with popular social networks.
www.netmusician.org
joe@netmusician.org

[BLUG] looking for (linux friendly) offsite backup options

Does anyone have any recommendations on offsite backup options? I
know there are a number of companies with varying offers on price and
storage, but a number of them only work with their software (usually
windows/pc only). Right now I have an Ubuntu box serving as my NAS,
so ideally I'd love to be able to continue to backup to that, then
have that box backup to the cloud. I have around 50 gigs of
photos/vids/other docs right now that I really need backed up, but of
course that will only grow as I take more pictures and videos and
whatnot. What about something like Rackspace or Amazon s3? Or they
purely enterprise solutions or are they doable and/or affordable for a
home user? Or is there some other company that will provide what I
need?

Thanks!
Ben
_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
BLUG@linuxfan.com
http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug