
Ask HN: Alternatives to (locally hosted) CrashPlan? - saganus
tl;dr: What would you recommend as an alternative to a locally hosted CrashPlan instance to backup my files?<p>A bit of detail:<p>I&#x27;ve been using a locally hosted CrashPlan instance to backup my files (no cloud account) and it works really great for me because I don&#x27;t really generate that much data so having a NAS turned on all the time feels like overkill.<p>A local CrashPlan instance worked like a charm for me because I could backup my main machine (Windows based) very easily into a small (Celeron-based) Linux server, by turning it on every few weeks and letting CrashPlan run in the background.<p>This gave me peace of mind since I don&#x27;t have to worry about an Internet-connected NAS that might get hacked or something like that, and the very simple to use UI made things very easy.<p>What alternatives do you recommend now that CrashPlan for Home will be closing down?<p>Ideally I would like a similar setup, i.e. a locally hosted solution that has a Windows client and can backup to a Linux server, with some easy-to-use UI?<p>Thanks!
======
uptown
Take a look at Arq. I began switching over to it before Code42 announced they
were shutting down CrashPlan, and I've been happy with it. And if you do one-
day decide you want to put some of your data in a cloud, this supports that
as-well.

[https://www.arqbackup.com/](https://www.arqbackup.com/)

~~~
saganus
Arq sounds interesting.

Just for completeness sake, I see in their features section:

"You can back up to your own Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Web Services, Google
Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive accounts, or your SFTP
server or NAS"

So local options are only SFTP and NAS? do you know what do they mean by NAS?
i.e. they support a branded NAS like Synology, or maybe OpenNAS servers? any
info on this would be great as that would save me some time downloading the
trial and setting up stuff just to figure this out :)

~~~
ValentineC
> _So local options are only SFTP and NAS? do you know what do they mean by
> NAS? i.e. they support a branded NAS like Synology, or maybe OpenNAS
> servers? any info on this would be great as that would save me some time
> downloading the trial and setting up stuff just to figure this out :)_

The option is called "A folder on your drive or NAS", and asks you to specify
a folder, so external hard disks should work fine.

------
Brajeshwar
Arq has an option to backup to a local drive. This should suffice your local
backup needs. They have both Windows and Mac App.

I live in India and I realized about a year back that both Backblaze and
Crashplan sucks on recovery. They don't seem to have servers nearby nor the
option to mail a disk quickly enough. Here is how I do my current backup
setup.

Time Machine as the default option that keeps chugging along.

Carbon Copy Cloner[1] mirrors my primary computer's drive (bootable). This is
scheduled to backup every day around 11:00 PM.

Arq[2] does a backup to Amazon Drive every 5 minutes but is asked to pause
between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM. I'm looking for economical alternatives[3] to
Amazon Drive, as they are terminating the unlimited option.

1\. [https://bombich.com/](https://bombich.com/)

2\. [https://www.arqbackup.com/](https://www.arqbackup.com/)

3\.
[https://www.arqbackup.com/documentation/pages/strategy.html](https://www.arqbackup.com/documentation/pages/strategy.html)

~~~
saganus
Do you know the details for the local drive backup option?

I saw on their features list that it supports backup to a local SFTP and NAS
server. Any idea what they mean by NAS? i.e. they support a branded NAS like
Synology or do they support "any" NAS as in support for SSH file transfer or
something?

~~~
Brajeshwar
I haven't tried the local backup with Arq but that local folder or NAS option
seems straight forward to me. When I tried that as an option, it just ask me
for the destination. I guess you have to just pick one (i) on a connected
local drive or (ii) a folder on your NAS.

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/ns2mqe5ytr3dpie/Screenshot%202017-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/ns2mqe5ytr3dpie/Screenshot%202017-08-30%2022.46.07.png?dl=0)

~~~
saganus
Awesome, thanks!

------
icebraining
Not a client suggestion, but if you want to run your backups unattended but
not keeping the server running all the time, you can use the rtcwake command
to make it sleep and then wake up at a certain time automatically. My NAS (an
atom board) wakes up every three hours, syncs a git annex directory with a
remote node and goes back to sleep. Very efficient.

~~~
saganus
Aha!

Nice approach. I never thought of that.

I'll have to take a dive on rtcwake but that could work as a semi-automated
solution.

Thanks for the tip!

------
dabockster
> so having a NAS turned on all the time feels like overkill

It shouldn't. You probably only need a single drive NAS. Don't buy a multi-bay
NAS unless you need one.

As for remote connectivity, just use a good password and SSL. Most hacks are
caused by people coming up with bad passwords (eg hunter2).

~~~
saganus
Yeah, definitely only need a single drive NAS.

What I meant was that a Synology or similar product would not really be what
I'm looking for, not because it's not nice, but because AFAIK it's meant to be
on all the time, which wastes energy, makes noise, prone to electrical
problems (I have very bad electricity where I live, so I don't want to expose
my NAS unnecessarily, even with UPS/voltage protectors/etc.)

The good password + SSL is probably a good alternative and since I already use
1Password a strong password is not a problem, however I would love to have a
UI for it so I Can easily select folders/files, and either I would need to
build it... or get a product that supports it, which is the why of this Ask HN
post :)

------
jo909
While this is certainly not comparable to CrashPlan, for the odd Windows
System I have at Home, I just setup the builtin FileHistory backup and use my
existing Linux Server/NAS as a target storage.

As a second step the Linux Server already runs a more sophisticated, encrypted
etc Backup to offsite storage, and I just added those folders to that too, but
you can of course skip that if you are comfortable without a secondary
physical backup location.

~~~
saganus
Ah... Windows File History. Maybe I'm dense but I've never been able to figure
out how that works. Even when I thought I enabled it I never could make it
work. The history would just be empty every time. I'm sure I missed something,
but I just never figured out what.

A follow up question is then , can I restore those files to a non-Windows
machine?

With CrashPlan I could backup to a Linux server, and if I needed the files I
could restore them either to a Windows or to a Linux machine. Can I do the
same with File History? or do I have to restore to a Windows machine? or even
worse, do I have to restore to the same _instance_ of Windows that I used to
backup?

~~~
jo909
It just saves the changed files with a timestamp in the filename, which is
good enough for me manually to grab a few files when I'm in a pinch and the
Windows System is down.

I also have a python script somewhere (downloaded from github) that would keep
only the latest timestamp of each file and then remove the timestamp from the
filename, so kind of like restoring the last backup in full or from a folder.
And I could in reasonable time rewrite that to get out a specific timestamp
etc, without needing to read the database and metadata files. I'm not planing
to do that as the default restore method, but I'm confident to always be able
to get all data I need out of the backup without _ANY_ client software.

You can restore to any Windows instance, so to a fresh install, another
computer etc.

------
gesman
I came into Crashplan because for me these were essentials:

\- Encryption before data get to the cloud

\- Multi-platform support

\- Versioning - saved me few times

\- Deleted files backup without time limit to keep them.

\- No limit for size.

\- Real-time-ness.

No one else offers above. And I need 3 boxes.

$10/mo/box is more expensive than Home plan used to be - but i think i will
have to bite that $360/yr bill with a good feelings - because crashplan is
tested and it works on all points.

~~~
SyneRyder
The original poster is interested in a locally hosted CrashPlan - the $10/mo
CrashPlan For Small Business does not offer local backups:

 _CrashPlan for Small Business does not support computer-to-computer backups,
including:

Backing up to another computer you own

Backing up to a friend's computer_

[https://support.crashplan.com/Backup/Keeping_computer-to-
com...](https://support.crashplan.com/Backup/Keeping_computer-to-
computer_backups_when_migrating_to_CrashPlan_for_Small_Business)

~~~
saganus
Yeah, that's my biggest gripe with this.

Even though $10/mo is expensive for my usage, I was also very happy due to the
GPs points. However not allowing a local backup is a non-starter for me.

For cloud backups I already use tarsnap (albeit for a much smaller subset of
what I backup locally) which I think is a bit safer/better.

That's what made CrashPlan so nice for me. Having a no-fuss local backup
strategy.

I'm really sad CP decided to go this route without offering an similar
alternative :(

------
orthecreedence
I use Seafile
([https://www.seafile.com/en/home/](https://www.seafile.com/en/home/)) (hosted
on an RPi on my home network).

Then I back up the actual Seafile data files on the server with Borg
([https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/)),
which has the wonderful option to encrypt the backup. The Borg backup is on
the same server/drive. Then I sync the entire (encrypted) borg backup to S3
every night.

This offers self-hosted file-syncing (ala Dropbox) w/ an encrypted offsite
backup (make sure you keep a copy of your key in a safe place though).
Honestly, was a pain to set up, but haven't had a problem with it yet, and my
test restores work great.

I only pay for S3 storage.

~~~
x775
This sounds like an interesting solution, thanks for sharing!

Do you happen to have followed any tutorials, or were you forced to hack
things together on your own seeing how you found it to be a pain?

~~~
orthecreedence
It would have been nice if Seafile had a verified client-side encryption
mechanism, but after reading about how they do it, it seemed like a horrible
hack. This is why I looked into borg, which does have stronger encryption,
allowing the data to be synced to a 3rd party (S3).

All that said, no, there were no guides for this. I quite like Seafile as an
app, but wanted to make sure it's all (somewhat securely) backed up, so I
hacked all of this together myself.

------
eps
[https://bvckup2.com](https://bvckup2.com) is a godsend for local replication.

It's fast, light and predictable. The UI is insanely good. Been using it for
ages and it's still in active development.

------
Maultasche
I know it doesn't fulfill the local requirement, but I've been looking into
the Cloudberry backup product allows you to pay a one-time fee of $30 (per
computer) for their software (a free version is also available), and then
choose which cloud provider to store the backup on.

So you could use Amazon S3 or some other cloud provider to store backups and
pay the tiny amount per gigabyte (depending on the storage option you choose).

I'd recommend a cloud-based solution as further backup option even if you
stick with the local option. I currently back up my NAS using CrashPlan in
case a disaster (fire, flood, earthquake, theft, etc) wipes out my computers
and NAS. My NAS doesn't need to be exposed to the Internet: the software runs
on one of my computers with the NAS connected as network file shares.

One of the solutions I'm considering using is Cloudberry Backup. There's a bit
of initial cost, because I want the features of the pro version, but cloud
storage can be quite cheap in the long run. It can run on a computer and
backup network shares just like CrashPlan can. Unfortunately, a local option
is not supported.

Interestingly, I had renewed my Crashplan subscription only a couple days
prior to the discontinue announcement, so I have until October of 2018 to
figure out an alternative.

~~~
saganus
I'll look up into it.

But I already have a cloud solution (tarsnap) that works great for me. The
thing is I only backup a subset of my stuff to the cloud due to cost issues,
so less than critical files go to my local backup.

------
Tehchops
I've been using Duplicati with good success.

I also wrote a tutorial on setting it up to work with AWS S3:

[https://linuxserver.io/2017/07/04/how-to-setup-duplicati-
as-...](https://linuxserver.io/2017/07/04/how-to-setup-duplicati-as-a-
personal-backup-service-using-docker-and-aws-s3/)

------
8ig8
This came up on the latest episode of ATP. They discuss some
alternatives/options...

[http://atp.fm/episodes/236](http://atp.fm/episodes/236)

I'm not sure where in the episode the topic is discussed. I'd guess about
halfway through.

~~~
saganus
Thanks!

I'll take a look.

------
cweagans
If you're okay with a Linux server being up all the time, then just get a NAS.
I like Synology.

Back everything up to the NAS, then back up the NAS to B2 or something.
Synology will do that OOTB. Can't speak to other vendors, but I'm pretty happy
with my setup.

~~~
saganus
That's my next alternative if I can't find a suitable (for me) alternative.

However I would prefer not to have the NAS on all the time, mostly because I
only backup seldomly (since I don't really generate that much data, so losing
a month or so is not that bad. Really critical stuff I backup directly to
tarsnap though), and because where I live, the quality of the electricity is
really bad. I get unexpected blackouts once a month at least, if not more, and
voltage/current changes a few times a week, so even though I use voltage
regulators and such, I like to be extra safe with my backup hardware, so the
less time they spend connected to the grid, the better for me.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I believe (can't confirm) I've lost data over the
years due to electricity issues.

~~~
ValentineC
> _However I would prefer not to have the NAS on all the time, mostly because
> I only backup seldomly (since I don 't really generate that much data, so
> losing a month or so is not that bad. Really critical stuff I backup
> directly to tarsnap though), and because where I live, the quality of the
> electricity is really bad. I get unexpected blackouts once a month at least,
> if not more, and voltage/current changes a few times a week, so even though
> I use voltage regulators and such, I like to be extra safe with my backup
> hardware, so the less time they spend connected to the grid, the better for
> me._

In this case, why not a standard external hard disk over USB?

~~~
saganus
That's basically my current setup, however since I rather have a "good" HD
(currently a WD Red) as an added layer than only a run-of-the-mill USB drive
(which for several reasons I've come to believe aren't as reliable), I setup a
cheap Celeron-based computer for this.

I still use my USB drive, but it's used much more frequently so I fear it
might break some day. That's why I opted for the NAS-rated HD as a second
layer backup.

As a last resort I also use tarsnap for my very critical files though, so
yeah, USB drives are good but I wanted a bit more peace of mind on top :)

~~~
ValentineC
What's the Celeron-based computer for?

I share the same sentiment as you regarding off-the-shelf external drives — I
believe they're usually bottom-binned stuff. You could consider getting a 3.5"
enclosure and installing a NAS-rated drive in it.

------
zupreme
Duplicati rules, as long as all you need are files and folders. It's no good
for SQL, Exchange, Bare Metal, etc. though.

------
moepstar
I was recommended UrBackup[1] recently as a selfhosted backup solution.

However, i haven't tried it so far, so i can't really comment on it yet..

Feature-wise it seems it should fit the bill, however..

[1] [http://www.urbackup.org/index.html](http://www.urbackup.org/index.html)

------
Filligree
BorgBackup has been fast and painless for me, though it misses your UI goal.

------
the_angry_angel
I believe Duplicati is the current tool du jour

~~~
saganus
Aha!

This looks interesting.

Just to confirm, you mean this Duplicati?
([https://github.com/duplicati/duplicati](https://github.com/duplicati/duplicati))

Also, it says it's a client for backups which support cloud and local servers.

On their page it says it supports:

"Amazon S3, OneDrive, Google Drive, Rackspace Cloud Files, HubiC, Backblaze
(B2), Amazon Cloud Drive (AmzCD), Swift / OpenStack, WebDAV, SSH (SFTP), FTP,
and more!"

Only local options I see are SFTP/FTP. Do you know of other supported ones? I
can't seem to find reference to other local solutions, so if you have more
info that would be great!

I mean, setting up an FTP server is pretty simple and with such a client most
of the hassle of actually backing up would be solved apparently, but are there
any other options for local servers that you know of (just for comparison
sake)?

Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

~~~
the_angry_angel
Yeah thats the one.

SFTP is SSH (i.e. it's not FTPS), so you don't have to stand up a FTP server
:)

~~~
saganus
Ah.

I always thought SFTP was FTP. Will need to read up more on that.

Thanks!

------
sefpfi12
blackblaze has a backup plan now. Also I use SpiderOak One for my backups. not
to bad on the pricing.

~~~
saganus
Care to elaborate on the Backblaze solution?

I just gave it a cursory look at their product page, but it seems it's a cloud
backup only and I'm looking for a local one. Unless I'm wrong and it does
support local as well?

