https://rclone.org/ + backblaze b2.
It Works on every desktop and server and takes minimal cpu and memory. Backblaze b2 buckets can be configured to retain overwritten copies, or you can take periodic snapshots within b2.
Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
11–20 of 52 posts
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#12my dev workstation is so simple i don’t even really need to back it up. All my projects are stored on git. Even assets are stored in the cloud somewhere. I can copy sensitive data like recovery keys onto USB sticks, and occasionally back up everything to a hard drive.
But the actual workstation is IntelliJ, git, language tooling, neovim, fish shell, and firefox. The rest are constantly changing based on the project, e.g. language tooling and libraries, and most projects either install these automatically or make them clear to install.
i’ve set up my dev workstation so often it takes me like 30 minutes to go from fresh OS to working on a project. maybe one day ill make a shell script or something but the software i need changes so often it doesn’t really matter.
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#13Arq backup + GSuite/Workspace as a target. Needs fewer resources than Backblaze, and is (was?) cheaper than it.
I had to exclude Dropbox etc. folders from Arq because of the warnings about these online-only placeholder files, and I would prefer it if we could silently ignore those.
Additionally, I recommend a solution that can restore entire volume images in case of boot drive failures. Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner on Mac and Macrium on Windows are nice choices in my experience. Acronis was also very reliable in the past, but since then, they have shifted to yearly nonsense upgrades with questionable value. It reminds me of the transition of Nero Burning ROM into the Nero Media-whatever-center-thingy, where the core functionality remained unchanged while more and more auxiliary features were added.
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#14for OSX, network time machine.
for linux, ZFS, and a couple of scripts to do snapshotting and copying the backups to a target host.
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#15I'm using Kopia + {Wasabi, B2}
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#16I push my code changes to origin. I copy my media files to a local NAS. Other than that, nothing. In 30 years I've never lost a file. My .vimrc was around 8k at one point, but I pretty much use vanilla vim now and defaults for most things.
I'm not saying this is the correct approach but it has worked for me.
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#17Treat your workstation much like one would a Docker container: everything should be ephemerally configured, driven by automation, and reproducible on the fly. Always commit frequently, backup large files to cloud storage, and wipe your device clean on a regular basis.
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#18Arq Backup, with both a Linux VPS and a local drive as the target. Plus attached Time Machine backup.
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#19I do software development for living and do not have any special backups for dev related files other than git. For general office documents I use Seafile (selfhosted Dropbox equivalent) and have redundant copies of important files on multiple machines and the central Seafile server. If I need real backups with the ability to restore a set of files in a specific point in time I use restic.
Re: Ask HN: Developer Workstation Backups
#20tarsnap, if you want a decent all-in-one solution. It's pricey though.