Ask HN: Secure automated backup?

I have a setup which works really well for my photos and videos [1][2][3][4][5]. It automatically keeps a copy of each file in 3 locations; my laptop, a Synology NAS and Google Drive / Photos.

[1] https://medium.com/@jmathai/introducing-elodie-your-personal...

[2] https://medium.com/@jmathai/understanding-my-need-for-an-aut...

[3] https://medium.com/@jmathai/my-automated-photo-workflow-usin...

[4] https://medium.com/@jmathai/one-year-of-using-an-automated-p...

[5] https://medium.com/vantage/how-to-protect-your-photos-from-b...

I've used rclone[1] with great success (it can sync specific folders which looks like what you want) but I've since then moved on to a commercial service called Insync[2] because I was having rate limiting problems with the Google Cloud API key that rclone needs.

I do wonder that I should move back to rclone because I don't like a third party having access to my google drive. As it goes without saying, use a good encrypted backup solution. I like cryfs for encrypting data.

[1]: https://rclone.org/ [2]: https://www.insynchq.com/ [3]: https://www.cryfs.org/

I see it's already been mentioned, but allow me to second Backblaze. I use it for hundreds of clients, and they have consistently been the most reliable of the backup services I have tested*. Since they also have versioning, you can recover from CryptoLocker variants comparatively easily as well.

(Almost any cloud-based backup system can help detect Locker variants. If you notice your daily backup data set suddenly shooting up in size, time to start checking for background encryption.)

(°Backblaze, Carbonite, Crashplan, Mozy, Acronis)

There's a common rule called the 3-2-1 rule, it states that you should:

- Have at least three copies of your data.

- Store the copies on two different media.

- Keep one backup copy offsite.

Personally, I'd recommend:

Copy 1: Your Mac.

Copy 2: A local NAS (my personal choice) or hard disk.

Copy 3: A remote backup, stored on a hard drive in a desk drawer at work, Backblaze, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive or whatever other solution suits your needs.

In terms of software, I personally use rsync + ZFS/BTRFS snapshots (NAS - local, NAS2 - remote) and rclone (cloud). I haven't really used fancy solutions like Attic and Borg due to their need to write dead (i.e. not mountable without a performance penalty) data to local disk or SSH. No affordable storage that I've found offers this (rsync.net offers it but is too expensive).

It's getting to the point where I'm seriously considering buying an LTO6/7 tape drive though...

I'll also add because I haven't seen it elsewhere: verify your backups. A backup is pointless unless you know you can restore it. The best way to test this is by doing it. It should get to the point where you don't fear a restore. It shouldn't be painful. There should be no worry. It should be no more than an inconvenience. When something goes wrong, you don't want there to be even the smallest hint of doubt that there's something wrong with your process.

As such, I strongly recommend having an easily accessible backup. I'd go for a spare HDD sitting in a desk drawer at home before going for cloud backups just so that you can test it frequently.

I've used the following method for years and it's really simple. Get an external hard drive and partition it as needed. One for your Time Machine backup and another for data. Use Google Drive to mirror the data and use Arq as your Time Machine in the cloud.