Question about crashplan

[Automatic]

I'm currently setting up rsync to save data off-site, however, I just remembered crashplan and I felt like asking a few questions:-

 

A. How easy is it to use crashplan to back to and fro another server? Basically I want two servers to back up to each other.

B. Can I restore to any date in time? And have an exact copy of said files at that point in time?

C. Do backups only include items that have changed since the last back-up? I don't really want to have hundreds (or thousands) of gigabytes being used each time I back up my files (Hopefully daily).

D. Are there ANY limitations what-so-ever if I don't pay for an upgraded account? I don't plan to use their servers what-so-ever, just my own hard-drives & storage space.

E. Can I give other users access to my backups? And the ability to back-up to my servers? For instance, I have a server, but my friend may want to back up his picture collection. Can I let him without giving him my username & password?

[boof]

A. How easy is it to use crashplan to back to and fro another server? Basically I want two servers to back up to each other.

 

Once you have the client installed at either end? Easy. Getting the client installed on a headless linux server (like unraid) can be tricky. Hinges around how comfortable you are on the command line and with ssh tunnels.

 

B. Can I restore to any date in time? And have an exact copy of said files at that point in time?

 

Not to my knowledge no. As crashplan generally tries to do CDP (depending on license) there seems to be little concept of a snapshot / time even if you do force the client (via licensing restrictions or otherwise) to only backup up at certain specific periods. You can pick individual files to see past revisions to choose to restore but I'm not aware of being able to say anything like 'restore my system as it was last friday'. You can of course easily restore the most recent backup of everything at once easily.

 

Rsync won't do point in time restores either unless you're using other wrapper / management scripts around it.

 

C. Do backups only include items that have changed since the last back-up? I don't really want to have hundreds (or thousands) of gigabytes being used each time I back up my files (Hopefully daily).

 

Yes. It can also dedupe on the fly so skipping having to transfer identical data across your backup space.

 

D. Are there ANY limitations what-so-ever if I don't pay for an upgraded account? I don't plan to use their servers what-so-ever, just my own hard-drives & storage space.

 

You will get less client features I believe. I suppose you could pay for their service to get the uprated client but never send them data.

 

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

 

They used to have the more advanced tier as an additional client upgrade license (this is what I have still) but they merged those upgrade features into requiring being tied into the online service at their end. Smart / annoying depending what side of the fence you're on.

 

Also be aware that regardless of what tier you buy into (or not) you *have* to sign up to crashplan and your client *has* to stay logged in and heartbeating to their servers. There is also a little bit of data leak to them that I'm aware of - the client publishes to them the list of paths you're backing up and file exclusions etc.

 

If this concerns you, also be very careful about how you setup encryption in the client. Most ways of doing it can allow crashplan to retrieve your key for you - thus in theory allowing them access to the encrypted data too. You can avoid that but it's a specific option regards encryption. It may also not be available in the free client.

 

In theory if you're using your own storage etc then it shouldn't matter but IMO given the client is heartbeating and sending data to crashplan all the time - who knows what information is being sucked up, so if it's a concern best to play it safe.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=27000.msg237444#msg237444

 

May or may not be useful.

 

E. Can I give other users access to my backups? And the ability to back-up to my servers? For instance, I have a server, but my friend may want to back up his picture collection. Can I let him without giving him my username & password?

 

Other users access to your backups? Not sure. Possibly not without giving them your password. Not sure to be honest.

 

Ability to backuop to your servers - yes, easily. In much the same fashion as you'll set up your own server to server backups. You can effectively invite him to backup to you and additionally restrict him in terms of quota / backup times etc.

 

Hope this helps.

[Automatic]

Well I downloaded it, configured it (Although, so far not managed to make it fully automatic upon a reboot, but, I believe I just have to modify a go script now and I'm done) and I'm now backing up my important share (100GB) to my other server off-site:-

 

B. Can I restore to any date in time? And have an exact copy of said files at that point in time?

 

Not to my knowledge no. As crashplan generally tries to do CDP (depending on license) there seems to be little concept of a snapshot / time even if you do force the client (via licensing restrictions or otherwise) to only backup up at certain specific periods. You can pick individual files to see past revisions to choose to restore but I'm not aware of being able to say anything like 'restore my system as it was last friday'. You can of course easily restore the most recent backup of everything at once easily.

 

Although I can't really test it because I'm still backing up files, and only have one version of the files, I think you can do it by doing this (Unless this is what you mean by "Individual files")

 

Also be aware that regardless of what tier you buy into (or not) you *have* to sign up to crashplan and your client *has* to stay logged in and heartbeating to their servers. There is also a little bit of data leak to them that I'm aware of - the client publishes to them the list of paths you're backing up and file exclusions etc.

 

Well, that's not the best thing to know, but, I guess if it's just the names I'll have to start obscuring all of my secret file names.

 

However, I have another thing to ask, is there anyway to disable the "Backup code"? I'd prefer to not have a six digit uppercase letter based password preventing someone from filling up my hard-drives with their crap.

[boof]

Although I can't really test it because I'm still backing up files, and only have one version of the files, I think you can do it by doing this (Unless this is what you mean by "Individual files")

 

No I think you've cracked it - I've literally never seen that dialogue before.

 

Thanks - that's really useful to know.

 

Well, that's not the best thing to know, but, I guess if it's just the names I'll have to start obscuring all of my secret file names.

 

As far as I'm aware it's just the paths. But the client knows all - and the client can and does transfer data back to crashplan. So who knows what else it sends by default or perhaps by request...

 

However, I have another thing to ask, is there anyway to disable the "Backup code"? I'd prefer to not have a six digit uppercase letter based password preventing someone from filling up my hard-drives with their crap.

 

Yes and no.

 

You can disable inbound backups full stop - but not at a granular level.

 

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/reference_guide/settings#inbound_backup_from_other_computers

 

You can also change the backup code if necessary.

 

As your friends computer would have to connect directly to your client on an open port you could also look at firewalling at your end to only allow approved hosts through.

 

Neither is ideal I guess.