6mo ago

Is Backblaze a reliable provider?

Hi everyone,

I've started pushing backups of media important to me (family pictures, video etc) to backblaze with client-side encryption.

However, are they a reliable storage provider? I can't help but compare them to something like Amazon who likely has a better chance of maintaining my files but they are so expensive that I don't even bother.

What do you think? Yes, I've heard of 3-2-1, however for now I only have backblaze and a local backup. I'm trying not to spend too much on this.

Thanks!

67 comments

Backblaze is a great backup solution. They publish drive stats and even show you the hardware they use.
https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/resources/hard-drive-test-data
https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/resources/storage-pod
- I'm worried about reliability; what are the chances that they will lose my data? I have a local backup but I'm also feeling paranoid
  
  The person you're replying to linked their literal reliability stats lmao
  
  Bottom line, there's always a possibility a cloud/service provider could lose you data. That chance is (/should be) exponentially smaller on their environments however than the likelihood of your own local stores.
  If you're really serious about preserving your data, consider the 3-2-1 Backup Rule:
  3 copies of your data 2 different types of media 1 copy stored off-site

I am a happy backblaze user and generally I’ve only heard good things about them.
They do have multiple data centers and they are operating B2B products too.
Is there anything in particular that would make you think they could be unreliable?
- I'm just afraid of data loss, but I also know that that is unlikely. I have a local backup but sometimes I feel like that's not enough, unfortunately my budget is also tight which means I can't spend too much on replicated buckets/another cloud provider with a complete backup etc.
  Also, have you ever faced the issue where you're pushing files to backblaze with rclone and there are many failed uploads (rclone retries them eventually after reaching the end of the queue), which is something I've never had with S3. Well, you get what you pay for I suppose.

I've used backblaze b2 for almost 8 years now and it just works. I've never had any data lost by them in that time.
I just recently switched over to Storj.io as it a bit cheaper at only $4/TB as compared to B2 at $6/TB. Both are S3 compatible and work with just about every backup software out there. I have used Borg, Kopia and now Restic to do backups of important data. All 3 tools deduplicate all your data and reduces the amount of storage used. They also do encryption client side and are open source. They also have a built-in verification mechanism that checks the data is intact.
- There definitely isn’t a docker container that will let you run Backblaze in WINE so that you can get the cheap unlimited plan working on Linux. You shouldn’t go looking for such a thing to save money. /s
  
  Awesome and hopefully they never find out as that's against their TOS. Sticking it to the man for what? ~$20 a year, potentially losing your backups and not having any if they find out? Why would you want to potentially lose your backup service over this? Idk why but this seems dumb. The point of 3-2-1 is to reduce points of failure and you are increasing your potential of data loss by doing this.
  
  For my use, it actually cost less to use B2 than the home backup product. The bulk of my data is Linux isos so I'm not really worried about losing it.
- Do you use zfs? Something that I am unsure if is whether people are making ZFS backups to backblaze, or if they're backing up files directly.
  Ie: Do I need the same filesystem as the source in order to recover the data?
  
  Personally I'm using rclone with the crypt backend of top of the usual b2 remote
  
  I do use ZFS and I just backup the files with restic. To restore a file in a zfs snapshot I would have to download the entire thing to a spare HDD, even if I only need to recover a few files. Restic has snapshots too and is designed to be used with cloud providers like B2.

I think the main thing is for you to try doing a test restore of your data before you need to (and you already have a local backup anyway if your test goes wrong)
That will give you a better understanding of the whole process - they might be 100% reliable in storing data which is totally unusable by you because you've lost your decryption key, weren't backing it up correctly, etc (for example).
- I've never really understood the logistics of how to do a test restore.
  Do you have to buy a 2nd computer?
  
  You dont need a second computer, just replace the drive with an empty one.
  
  No, you can jusy restore to a second location...it depends on whether everything was backed up, or just a few test files.
  I prefer backing up specific folders rather than "everything", so it's easier to test. (I'd just reinstall the OS if that was nuked)
  Let's say I want to do a test restore of all my photos. I just rename that folder to simulate that it's been accidentally deleted... then I just do a normal restore - and do a bit-by-bit comparison of the two folders and check it all went well.
  
  I just have a smaller dataset using the same settings, which I try to recover a couple of times/year.
  It’s not perfect as recovery exercises go … but it feels safe enough for me.
- I really need to do a test restore. I've been backing my NAS up to B2 for about a year now and haven't done one yet.
  
  Yeah, that was me a couple years ago... I'd read some blogs, watched some yoochoobz and had data going from my NAS to Backblaze... encrypted...so... ok... is it restorable? No idea.

I’ve used backblaze for years and regularly run recovery exercises. Never had a problem.
However, to avoid any fears, I store remote backups in two locations (the other one being OVH, a large French cloud provider).
My data retention regime:
Mirrored disks in local NAS.
Continually (every night) copy to Backblaze(US) and OVH (DE).
Once/year, copy all local NAS data to offline disks (ie disks that are plugged into a tray only during the copy) to avoid a file locking/encryption infection that could spread to the online files.
- How much does OVH cost you for storage?
  
  I pay about £2.50 for 700+ GB storage, with about 2-10 GB of ingress every month. Storage alone is only £1.40. That’s using OVH’s “Cloud Archive” product; they also have a product called Cold Storage which is a smidge cheaper but doesn’t offer updating of existing data, so according to my projections based on the class of data I am archiving it wouldn’t be cheaper in the long term.

I use them as my backup backup provider. Crazy cheap, my bill was like $1.50 for a month. Their backup command line tool is pretty solid also. I would definitely use them if you need a new backup provider.
- How was it so cheap? How much data are you storing
  
  It is $6 a TB. I use less than a TB. Their whole sthick is being cheaper than others. It is a very basic service overall. But does it's job.
  Also they publish drive stats which is pretty cool to have that transparency.
- Yeah well I have over 3TB to store
  
  So.... $18 a month? That's a Netflix subscription homie.

It's alright. I use both their desktop backup service and B2 extensively. Their desktop client and web interface is very basic and a bit rough, you don't buy their service for the well-developed UI. The service works as advertised though.

Tbf I think a 2-2-1 is sufficient for home users.
I would only recommend 3-2-1 to some that has a business behind themself.
- Until your house burns down
  
  2-2-1 still insinuates having a remote backup. I don't see how this particular threat destroys a 2-2-1 setup.

I use them as well. Cheap, reliable and easy to use. I only had trouble once, where I was caught in some sort of anti-spam measure and they blocked my account. An email to their support fixed the problem pretty quickly though.
One thing to look out for is to determine where you want your backups. You can't change your account's server location after you create your account afaik.

Used them since the company started but stopped this year due to the cost going up. Never had an issue.

I've got my mom setup on their PC backup service, no complaints so far (on the Backblaze side that is, she still insists that she doesn't need continuous backups even though I've had to restore multiple times for her).
I switched my backups from Crashplan to B2 as it was significantly cheaper than going to AWS. B2 is more expensive than what I was paying for Crashplan Pro Unlimited (about 8x for the amount of data I have), but I have more peace of mind with it not relying on Crashplan's terrible Java client.
A reminder that the only good backup is a tested backup.

I have used them since januar 2019, and I don't have any complaints. I have only needed to restore backups once - it worked as well as could be expected.
Any issues with backups have always been on my side
- Can you explain the situation around you restoring a backup? Did backblaze lose your data?
  AFAIK AWS replicates your data across buckets for reliability in case their datacentre goes down, which (from what I understand) is the cost of a whole another bucket with B2. That's my concern. I don't think Backblaze is going out of business any time soon but I'm afraid of data loss (I do have one local backup but my budget is unfortunately a bit tight right now - I'm going to have to pick and choose important bits from all of the data and add a second backup I guess)
  
  AWS has multiple teirs of storage options in s3, some replicate and some dont. by default those that do replicate do so in multiple availability zones, but not across regions. unless you turn on cross-region replication (CRR) which is an additional charge.
  So, for example without CRR if your bucket is in us-east-1 and 1 availability zone goes down you can still access the data, but if all of us-east-1 is down, you cannot.

I don’t use them but I work for a dj that uses them to backup all their music and production music. This has been going on for over 10 years now and they are still using them. At one point I was over there while they were downloading a large batch of their files and the speed was fast enough to saturate his internet.

US based provider so eww
- It is encrypted
  
  Doesn't matter.
  The US stores to decrypt later
- ignore the cucks downvoting you, what privacy-respecting alternatives do you suggest?
  
  Backblaze but you encrypt your data before uploading it?
  
  Any storage provider with client-side encryption
  
  I've recently switched from Backblaze to a Hetzner Storagebox. 5TB for only slightly more than I was paying for Backblaze.
  They support BorgBackup out of the box, so super simple to set up encrypted, differential backups
  
  not the op of this comment. I know there’s Infomaniak that is an independent host based in Switzerland, and they have a service called Infomaniak Swiss Backup. I might use their services in few times, so will come back to this comment to tell what I think of them in a few weeks if you wanna know
  You could still encrypt your backups tho to make them private.
  
  Any provider outside of the 5 eyes

I would not use them, they have bad ratings on Trustpilot.
- Most reviews seem to be related to the "personal backup" service, but still good to consider. I've only read positive things about their B2 storage on self-host communities.
  
  That's true. Though there are reviews saying their support is terrible, which I assume applies to B2 as well.

67 comments