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Backup to cloud: advice requested for novice

Asked by Martin Fisher

I have been using BiT successfully, for several years, to backup to disks within my house. A recent nearby burglary reminded me of the need to backup into the cloud. If I have understood correctly I could do this with BiT using encrypted SSH and some space in the cloud somewhere. I am a complete novice at this (and I don't have any cloud space). Could somebody point me in the right direction to get me started. I have questions such as: (1) Are there particular qualities that any cloud space I use must have? (2) What details should I put into the options field in BiT?

If I can set something up successfully I would be happy to write it up as a mini-guide for others.

With thanks, Martin

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Germar (germar) said : 		#1

Hi Martin,

IMHO BIT is not the right tool to backup into the 'cloud'. Normal 'cloud' providers (I hate that buzzword) will only give you space which can be used through their website or a proprietary connector or webdav. A better way would be to rent a Root-Server (or VServer) with enough space and SSH access. Than you can use BITs mode 'SSH encrypted'. But root-servers are more expensive than 'cloud' space.

Also keep in mind that EncFS -which is used by BIT for encryption- is potential vulnerable. A recent security audit exposed several attac vectors for it. I still use it for my local backups. But I recommend to not use it with systems you don't own by yourself.

IMHO duplicity (or Deja Dup when you need a GUI) is a lot better when it comes to 'cloud' backup. It has connectors for several providers and it has strong encryption with gpg.

Regards,
Germar

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Martin Fisher (yusuf-martin) said : 		#2

Hi Germar

Many thanks for this sensible advice. I am now exploring the possibility of using Deja Dup with Amazon S3. Have set up an AWS account and am trying to run a test backup (so far I appear to have run into a bug but will persevere!).

Regards, Martin

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Martin Fisher (yusuf-martin) said : 		#3

Although this is marked as solved, I am adding some further comments here in case anybody else finds their way to this thread.

I have now successfully used Deja Dup to backup to the Amazon S3 service but I think I will not continue with this. Here is why: Deja Dup makes a full backup on the first occasion and then incremental backups. This is all fine. However, Deja Dup periodically needs to run a new full backup (see https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/DejaDup/HowItWorks for details). I think this is fine if one is using this method for a modest number of files (e.g. critical files or for a few gigabytes). However, I have c. 80 GB and a full backup takes a long time. I can tolerate this once (run it overnight, for example) but not once per month or every few months - it doesn't agree well with my workflow or life.

This leaves me with a vulnerability unless I take one of my portable USB drives (I backup to two) with me when I leave the house (which is what I do now, and inevitably I sometimes forget).

An alternative would be a wireless backup system in the house that could copy the backintime folder to Amazon S3, for example. I don't know whether this is possible but I am looking.

Martin

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Martin Fisher (yusuf-martin) said : 		#4

I have been thinking further about my previous suggestion - perhaps it is not the best idea. A simple alternative would be to put the backintime folder inside the folder for a backup service such as Dropbox or SpiderOak.

Dropbox is slightly more complicated - but it is possible to use it - because only the Dropbox folder can by synced (the Dropbox folder could be moved to a USB drive).

SpiderOak is easier because one can choose which folders are synced online (i.e. one can sync any folder not just the SpiderOak Hive folder, which is the equivalent of the Dropbox folder). Also, SpiderOak is preferable if one wants encryption, as all files are encrypted by default.

There are probably alternative services as well.

The only downside is the price, currently $8.00 per month for Drop box, $9 for SpiderOak.

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Germar (germar) said : 		#5

Hi Martin,
I'm not sure Dropbox or SpiderOak will handle hard-links correctly. Could be that they treat hard-links as new files so you'll end up with a new full upload again.

I'd ditch Deja Dup but keep using Duplicity (the underlaying command-line tool of Deja Dup). It's not that complicated to construct your own command for Duplicity (there are many good tutorials out there). Once you have that command you can reuse it every day or put it into crontab. As you already made a full backup you can just go ahead and make incremental backups with Duplicity.
I'd recommend to make at least one new full backup per year. But with using Duplicity directly you can control this by your own when you want to do that.

Kind regards,
Germar

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Martin Fisher (yusuf-martin) said : 		#6

Hi Germar

Many thanks for more useful advice. I am now looking into Duplicity tutorials!

All the best, Martin

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Martin Fisher (yusuf-martin) said : 		#7

Some further information for anybody who finds this thread:

After some browsing and reading I have concluded that the easiest way to use Duplicity to back up to Amazon S3 is to use the script at https://github.com/zertrin/duplicity-backup