(I am _not_ affiliated with Backblaze in anyway. Just a happy user)
(I am _not_ affiliated with Backblaze in anyway. Just a happy user)
The main thing for me is legacy. In my will it is a lot easier to explain how to get files from the standard backup plan, rather than install a tool from Github etc.
They generate a public/private key pair for the user. The client gets the public key and the server gets the private key. During backups the data is encrypted on the client with a symmetric key (which I believe is generated on the client). The encrypted data is sent to the server. The symmetric key is encrypted using the public key and also sent to the server.
On a restore they use the private key on the server to decrypt the encrypted symmetric key, use that key to decrypt the backup data, and then make the decrypted files available in a zip file that the user can download. The download is over HTTPS so is encrypted in transit.
If you don't like the idea of them having such access to your private key they do offer an option to add additional protection [1]:
> The user’s private key which is stored safely in our data center is protected by a password that is highly guarded. But for some users this is not good enough and we allow the user to secure this file with their own password. When this is done it is impossible to access the data without the user’s password. Unfortunately, this also means we can’t help the user if they ever forget this password so we don’t recommend it for most users.
If you do that then when you restore you have to enter that password on their site when requesting the restore, so their server can decrypt the private key.
They give some more detail in their "Security Question Round-up!" [2]:
> The answer shows a weak point in the Backblaze system. As you prepare a restore, you must type in your private passphrase into the restore server. This is not written to disk, but held in RAM and for the period of time of decrypting all your files, and they are then stored in "clear text" on our very highly secured servers until they are ZIPPED up and offered to you to be downloaded. At that moment you can download them (by HTTPS only), then you can "delete the restore zip" which means you close the window of time that your files are available in plain text.
> So to recap: if you never actually prepare a restore, we cannot possibly know what is in your files, but if you prepare a restore (let's say of a few files) then for the couple minutes they are being prepared and downloaded they are in "plain text" on a HIGHLY SECURE system in the Backblaze datacenter. At that moment, if a Backblaze employee were malicious enough and dedicated enough and was watching (which is actually pretty hard, we get thousands of restores every day so it would fly by quickly) they could see your filenames appear on the Linux servers right before they are ZIPPED up into a new bundle. A few minutes of exposure.
> We actually want to improve this to provide a password encrypted ZIP file for download, and then the FINAL improvement is to actually allow you to download the private encryption key, download the encrypted files, and provide the pass phrase in the privacy of your computer. We hope to add this functionality in the future.
[1] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-make-strong-encryption...
[2] https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217664798-Secur...
This whole “the files would fly by really quickly” line is not reassuring as surely this means the whole scraping/thieving thing could be automated.
I have not dug into it in detail though, so I would encourage everyone to not believe this without verifying.
• If you use the backup service, which is called Computer Backup, Backblaze supplies the client backup software. Computer Backup is $9/month/computer (with discounts if you pay in advance which can lower it to $5.25/month/computer if you pay 3 years in advance) and has file sharing and mobile apps.
It's meant to be an all-in-one easy to use backup service that you don't have to think much about.
• If you are using the S3-like service, which is called B2, Backblaze just provides storage and an API. If you want to use it for backup you have to supply the backup software, such as Restic. It is priced based on storage rather than number of computer, costing $6/TB/month.
There are no data transfer costs for uploads. Downloads are $0.01/GB but each month you get free up to 3x the total amount you have stored. You'd have to be having a really bad month if you had to restore your entire backup more than 3 times!
There are also charges for using some API calls. It looks like upload and delete calls are free, download calls are 2500 free per day then $0.0004 per 10000, and calls that manipulate data on the server like copying are 2500 free per day then $0.0004 per 1000 calls. That doesn't seem too bad. Downloading a million files in one day would be about $0.40.
Worth noting it's only available on Windows + OSX.
Presumably since they offer unlimited storage and don't want people installing the cloud backup tool on their NAS.
I used to be a Backup customer until recently when it threw out errors on my macOS machine. The solution according to support was to remove my backup including version history. When I complained that was a problem, they suggested a second account, which they would refund the price for, after I made the switch.
Rclone give me more control, which I like. I use tmutil to create snapshots of what I backup, too. Very slick.
https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup/pricing
It's still a pretty good deal though...
your links are to their "backup" service which is only for Windows and Mac computers, and is limited to their backup app which many people report having throttling and other issues, it is "unlimited" in the sense that it should only be used for a single computer, which is why they never support Linux on it, because they believe (probably correctly) that linux support would mean most people will install it to NAS devices and ruin the business model for everyone else
Historically that has been the case for all of the backup solutions that offered "unlimited" data for a fixed price monthly, I think BackBlaze is the only remaining vendor in the game that does
https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/pricing
$6/TB/Month. Very manageable egress-fees. If you're using it for cold-backup, hopefully you rarely have to pay them.
Do you have access to your file via mobile access, sharing feature, etc.? https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup
With their personal computer backup offering, there’s a web interface that you can use to download individual files from your backups, share files, or even have them mail you a flash drive containing your full backups.
https://blog.sapico.me/posts/how-i-backup-my-servers/
I'm basically backing up to: /backups/type/{day-of-month} and backups/type/latest every day.
https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/3268#issuecomment-78...
On the other hand, I tested around 15,000 backups last year (multiple hourly backups, daily tests) and they all passed.
If you are backing up daily and testing daily egress charges become an issue.
If you are doing it 3x a month then it's a good deal.
B2 is for achiving in my use case.
> Stability: Currently our tools are in beta state and miss regression tests. It is not recommended to use them in production backups, yet.