- category
System Administration
- date
2011-07-06
- tags
Ubuntu, Backup
I recently discovered that my regular backups to my server (lives elsewhere) didn't work. At all.
Thus adding this to my long list of failed "nice and easy" DIY backup solutions, I thought it was about time to re-check my needs and options.
In short: A shitload of disks.
I really don't care about my music/video collection - I have physical backups in form of original CD's and DVDs in a box in the attic. Yes, very time-consuming to restore, but not impossible.
Most of my important documents already live in the cloud (thanks e-Boks!), and the rest amount to trivialities with respect to data-size.
But I take photos. A lot of photos. While I don't store the RAW-files, and I usually only keep about one in ten photos I shoot, but that still amounts to double-digit gigabytes every year. And I would be very sad if I lost those.
In total, I'm looking for something in the ballpark of 200 GB, expecting to add around 10% every year.
While I like my data, I am much more concerned about loosing all of it than it being stolen. So it's basically weighing the risk of getting all (or some) of my data stolen vs. being locked out by the very security that is supposed to protect it (e.g. if I encrypt all data before I store it, and then loose the decryption key...)
As I don't really believe I have any "digital valuables" worthwhile, I'd much rather fault on the side of convenience rather than paranoia.
Per-GB metered plan. No-go.
I need file backup, not distribution.
Has various plans including a few with un-limited cloud-storage. And you get a 30-day free demo.
(Crashplan optionally allows you to use client-side encryption on your backup. - But no truly paranoid would ever trust the security of those you are supposed not to trust...)
CrashPlan it is!
Quite simple, actually.
- Register as a user on their website.
- Hop to the download page and fetch the appropriate version for your platform (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux or even Open Solaris).
- Install the binary stuff you just downloaded.
- Enter your credentials from step 0.
- Good to go.
If you do this on multiple machines, they can automatically use each other as backup destinations, but you can also buy storage from Crashplan.
As I have quite a few PC's to back up, I chose a four-year "Family Unlimited". While it is their most expensive plan, it allows me to back up an unlimited amount of data from up to ten machines.
Crashplan on Linux isn't perfect. Far from, in fact.
Looking in /usr/local/crashplan/conf/default.service.xml, there is a minimal amount of entries about Linux. And I was rather surprised that they skip /etc/ by default!
In the <hidenFiles>-section, I removed the entry for /etc:
xml
- <linux>
<pattern regex="/bin/"/> <pattern regex="/boot/"/> <!--<pattern regex="/etc/"/>--> <pattern regex="/initrd/"/> <pattern regex="/lib/"/> <pattern regex="/opt/"/> <pattern regex="/sbin/"/> <pattern regex="/usr/"/> <pattern regex="/var/"/>
</linux>
You may also want to include /var, depending on what you use your machine for.
Further down, there's a list of items that is ignored no matter what. Originally, it contain only the top-four entries, which I found rather lacking:
xml
- <linux>
<pattern regex="/sys/."/> <pattern regex="/dev/."/> <pattern regex="/proc/."/> <pattern regex="/tmp/."/> <pattern regex="./lost+found/."/>
<!-- Added by me --> <!-- Default $XDG_CACHE_DIR --> <pattern regex="/home/./.cache/."/> <!-- GNOME & friends' thumbnail index --> <pattern regex="/home/./.thumbnails/."/> <!-- Firefox Cache --> <pattern regex="/home/./.mozilla/firefox/./Cache/."/> <!-- Banshee.db - Changes fairly often --> <pattern regex="/home/./.config/banshee-1/banshee.db"/> <!-- Google Chrome --> <pattern regex="/home/./.config/google-chrome/Default/."/> <!-- No trash, please --> <pattern regex="/home/./.local/share/Trash/."/>
</linux>
(More to come, when I figure it out.)
By default, the icon is put in ~/Desktop/CrashPlan.desktop.
Modifying the categories slightly:
ini
categories=Accessories
And moving it to /usr/local/share/applications/CrashPlan.desktop, it now shows up in the global menu, though in the Other-category!? (But if I don't edit the categories, it doesn't show up anywhere. Go figure.)
(I played around with it for a while, without ever figuring out the exact sequence that made it 'just work'. Ended up using Gnome's Menu Editor to force it into the right category. If anybody know the exact magic needed, I'd be happy to know it...)
Note
Update 17/07/2011: Completely ignores Google Chrome's Default-config, as it causes CrashPlan to do 60 MB's extra everytime you used the browser!
Update 19/07/2011: Ignores users' trash-cans...