CrashPlan vs Back Blaze for large backup set

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Paul1977

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#196271 25-May-2016 12:02

I'm wanting to put an offsite backup strategy in place for my home computer. I am on 100/20 unlimited UFB.

As well as usual documents and photos etc I have a lot of large video files that I would like to include in the backup (about 4TB worth), so speed is a major factor and I would like to be able to utilize at least 75% of my upload capacity. I realize the initial seed will take quite some time.

I don't like the idea of the site admins being able to access my data, but I understand that both of these services can be configured using a custom key so that even they can't access your data.

From experience, which service have you guys found best?

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jnimmo

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#1559351 25-May-2016 13:06

I can vouch for CrashPlan working very well to their Australia datacentre, no problem using 75% of 100Mbps upload when I tested

timmmay

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#1559352 25-May-2016 13:14

CrashPlan works fine for my very small backup size, 10GB. BackBlaze has multithreaded uploads, which could help mitigate TCP latency and saturate your connection, though with CrashPlan in Aussie their lower latency means probably ok. CrashPlan does file versions, which would be very handy if you got hit by ransomware or similar - I've restored old versions of files for family who have it. So, really, either is probably fine, but check out the version thing.

Since they have free trials you could see what works best for you.

Talkiet

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#1559370 25-May-2016 13:47

I have about 2.5TG backed up with Backblaze. It's never missed a beat. The client SW is easy, light on resources and as you say, encrypts locally. Multiple upload threads means good upload speed (10Mbps on my VDSL). Restoration options are easy, cheap and flexible. The only potential downside is that it is designed to back up pretty much everything instead of just your datasets. You can exclude drives or folders, or filetypes - but it will basicalyl upload everything.

This is often really useful - when away from home I can easily get any of my files by downloading a restore.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Paul1977

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#1559385 25-May-2016 14:24

Talkiet:

I have about 2.5TG backed up with Backblaze. It's never missed a beat. The client SW is easy, light on resources and as you say, encrypts locally. Multiple upload threads means good upload speed (10Mbps on my VDSL). Restoration options are easy, cheap and flexible. The only potential downside is that it is designed to back up pretty much everything instead of just your datasets. You can exclude drives or folders, or filetypes - but it will basicalyl upload everything.

This is often really useful - when away from home I can easily get any of my files by downloading a restore.

Cheers - N

I had read that restores are a bit of a pain with BackBlaze, done via the website and downloading a zip file?

Talkiet

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#1559386 25-May-2016 14:25

Paul1977:

Talkiet:

I have about 2.5TG backed up with Backblaze. It's never missed a beat. The client SW is easy, light on resources and as you say, encrypts locally. Multiple upload threads means good upload speed (10Mbps on my VDSL). Restoration options are easy, cheap and flexible. The only potential downside is that it is designed to back up pretty much everything instead of just your datasets. You can exclude drives or folders, or filetypes - but it will basicalyl upload everything.

This is often really useful - when away from home I can easily get any of my files by downloading a restore.

Cheers - N

I had read that restores are a bit of a pain with BackBlaze, done via the website and downloading a zip file?

There are several options. Look on their website.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Paul1977

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#1559390 25-May-2016 14:35

Talkiet:

Paul1977:

Talkiet:

I have about 2.5TG backed up with Backblaze. It's never missed a beat. The client SW is easy, light on resources and as you say, encrypts locally. Multiple upload threads means good upload speed (10Mbps on my VDSL). Restoration options are easy, cheap and flexible. The only potential downside is that it is designed to back up pretty much everything instead of just your datasets. You can exclude drives or folders, or filetypes - but it will basicalyl upload everything.

This is often really useful - when away from home I can easily get any of my files by downloading a restore.

Cheers - N

I had read that restores are a bit of a pain with BackBlaze, done via the website and downloading a zip file?

There are several options. Look on their website.

Cheers - N

Hmmm.... website verified having to download restore via their site in a zip file (or you can pay for a physical copy to be sent to you). Hopefully won't need to restore very often, but seems a bit convoluted.

Although from what I've read you are correct that BackBlaze is a much lighter on resources.

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amanzi

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#1559397 25-May-2016 15:04

I use CrashPlan and have just over 1.6TB backed up across three computers. I haven't used the Backblaze software so can't comment on that but here are some notes on Crashplan...

The family plan is cheap and covers up to 5 (I think) computers
The data centre is in Sydney
Upload speeds can be a bit hit and miss - there are some articles online that provide tips to increase speed. Once I followed these it got better.
The client software is functional but not that pretty.
I've had to restore files several times and it's been a pretty good process. You can search for files across backup sets or just drill down through the folder tree.
You can restore files natively through the app to the original location or to somewhere else. You can also download zip files from the website.
You can choose from several backup location options, including backing up to another Crashplan computer over the internet. I haven't used this feature but it sounds useful.
There's also a mobile app that you can use to browse your files - you can use it almost like a Dropbox client, though to be honest I tried it out but didn't see much use for me.

Hope that helps?

Paul1977

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#1559820 26-May-2016 09:40

amanzi:

I use CrashPlan and have just over 1.6TB backed up across three computers. I haven't used the Backblaze software so can't comment on that but here are some notes on Crashplan...

The family plan is cheap and covers up to 5 (I think) computers
The data centre is in Sydney
Upload speeds can be a bit hit and miss - there are some articles online that provide tips to increase speed. Once I followed these it got better.
The client software is functional but not that pretty.
I've had to restore files several times and it's been a pretty good process. You can search for files across backup sets or just drill down through the folder tree.
You can restore files natively through the app to the original location or to somewhere else. You can also download zip files from the website.
You can choose from several backup location options, including backing up to another Crashplan computer over the internet. I haven't used this feature but it sounds useful.
There's also a mobile app that you can use to browse your files - you can use it almost like a Dropbox client, though to be honest I tried it out but didn't see much use for me.
Hope that helps?

Thanks for that.

I'm giving CrashPlan a try. My only initial concern was that it's relatively resource heavy, but I have an i7-6700K with 16GB RAM and so far it's barely making a dent so I don't think that will be an issue.

I set the rate limit to 15 Mbps, and it is reporting the throughput at 15.7Mbps so speed seems good.

Only thing that isn't clear is the criteria for supplying your own custom key. I'd prefer to supply my own (so I know it is truly pseudo-random) rather than use one that the software generates for me.

jnimmo

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#1560006 26-May-2016 12:45

Check out https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Configuring/Upgrading_CrashPlan_Security_To_Custom_Key

Just make sure to have it printed off somewhere safe or similar!

Edit - note all previously backed up files are deleted, so good idea to get in place before getting too much uploaded

Paul1977

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#1560033 26-May-2016 13:21

jnimmo:

Check out https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Configuring/Upgrading_CrashPlan_Security_To_Custom_Key

Just make sure to have it printed off somewhere safe or similar!

Edit - note all previously backed up files are deleted, so good idea to get in place before getting too much uploaded

Yes, but I meant for option 3 to create and import my own key. It doesn't specify the criteria e.g what characters are allowed etc.

richms

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#1560073 26-May-2016 14:22

The issue I have with crashplan and a large amount is that it spends so long stuffing about snchronizing stuff, and starting again on large files that the overall thruput is quite minimal.

It wouldnt be so bad if it was synchronizing one back up set while it sent another, but it doesnt work like that.

So with a few 1TB VHD's in there, it will back up some of one, then decide to check stuff etc. Then it will re-start on the backup, it will go moderatly fast thru the part that is already sent (100-125 megabit/sec rates so I guess it is checking its the same at both ends) and then continue with it at the speed I have set (5 megabit because I have crap DSL) till it gets interupted again, either to synchronize blocks, because the connection dropped, because I rebooted, or whatever.

Then the next time it backs up it spends many hours catching up to where it was in that file before starting to actually send new stuff again. So a few 100 gig VHD which should take days, ends up taking weeks. A 1TB will be months till it is there. I suspect that it is all intentional to discourage large backup sets.

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Paul1977

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#1560080 26-May-2016 14:48

richms:

The issue I have with crashplan and a large amount is that it spends so long stuffing about snchronizing stuff, and starting again on large files that the overall thruput is quite minimal.

It wouldnt be so bad if it was synchronizing one back up set while it sent another, but it doesnt work like that.

So with a few 1TB VHD's in there, it will back up some of one, then decide to check stuff etc. Then it will re-start on the backup, it will go moderatly fast thru the part that is already sent (100-125 megabit/sec rates so I guess it is checking its the same at both ends) and then continue with it at the speed I have set (5 megabit because I have crap DSL) till it gets interupted again, either to synchronize blocks, because the connection dropped, because I rebooted, or whatever.

Then the next time it backs up it spends many hours catching up to where it was in that file before starting to actually send new stuff again. So a few 100 gig VHD which should take days, ends up taking weeks. A 1TB will be months till it is there. I suspect that it is all intentional to discourage large backup sets.

Mine seems to be going OK so far, but just doing the initial seed (which will take about a month). I actually signed up a few weeks ago for the trial and then didn't get around to doing anything with it until yesterday so only have about a week left for free. Maybe I'll just pay monthly for the first couple of months to make sure I'm happy before committing to a full year.