Ask HN: Trustworthy backup service?

#1

Post by jonweber » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 11:17 PM UTC

A particular pain point that I've had managing websites and services hosted over a hodgepodge of shared hosting accounts and VPSes is centralized and secure backup of web content and databases. AKA, I can schedule complete backups of the source files and database contents across multiple hosting accounts.

While some hosting services have their own internal backup systems, and there are a number of local backup clients you can run, the market of cloud backup service providers that offer a backup-everything service seems to be pretty sparse.

Of course, the major caveat is that in order for such a service to work, you must provide them with credentials to access all of your servers. While services like Mint seem to have slowly made more people comfortable with this idea, it still feels "wrong".

What solutions exist for this problem? Has anybody had experiences (good or bad) with cloud backup providers like dropmysite.com or similar services?

Re: Ask HN: Trustworthy backup service?

#2

Post by hackuser » Fri, Mar 06, 2015, 12:07 AM UTC

Thinking out loud: At each host, backup to an encrypted local store (only you have to access the crypyto-key(s)). Then have the centralized backup service copy those encrypted stores.

You need more storage and it's more labor to setup, both of which could be impractical depending on the systems you manage, but the central service would have no access to anything confidential. Also, integration between the central backup and the variety of local hosts would be greatly simplified, with no file locks, database backups, consistency issues, backup window coordination, etc.

EDIT: Also, the granularity of available recovery points might be limited, at least from the central service. Block-level backups (and the associate recovery points), for example, could be implemented locally but might be hard to implement on the central service.

Re: Ask HN: Trustworthy backup service?

#3

Post by jonweber » Fri, Mar 06, 2015, 12:21 AM UTC

hackuser wrote: post #2

Thinking out loud: At each host, backup to an encrypted local store (only you have to access the crypyto-key(s)). Then have the centralized backup service copy those encrypted stores. You need more storage and it's more labor to setup, both of which could be impractical depending on the systems you manage, but the central service would have no access to anything confidential. Also, integration between the central bac…

This is a great idea - unfortunately, some of the servers I need to back up are feature-poor shared hosting accounts where it would be difficult or impossible to run a script that serves this purpose locally.

Re: Ask HN: Trustworthy backup service?

#4

Post by marketingadvice » Fri, Mar 06, 2015, 2:00 AM UTC

If you can get the backups as dump files, have them sent to a Dropbox account or remotely to a server. Then install Backblaze or Crashplan on that server.

You end up with a Dropbox backup, server backup and a 3rd backup via Backblaze or Crashplan.

Cost is around $10/mo for Dropbox, $30 - 40/mo for a server if you go with OVH and $5/mo for Backblaze or Crashplan.

Re: Ask HN: Trustworthy backup service?

#5

Post by cweagans » Fri, Mar 06, 2015, 3:31 AM UTC

Tarsnap. Cheap, encrypted, and reliable.

Re: Ask HN: Trustworthy backup service?

#6

Post by cweagans » Fri, Mar 06, 2015, 10:11 PM UTC

jonweber wrote: post #3

hackuser wrote: post #2

Thinking out loud: At each host, backup to an encrypted local store (only you have to access the crypyto-key(s)). Then have the centralized backup service copy those encrypted stores. You need more storage and it's more labor to setup, both of which could be impractical depending on the systems you manage, but the central service would have no access to anything confidential. Also, integration between the central bac…

This is a great idea - unfortunately, some of the servers I need to back up are feature-poor shared hosting accounts where it would be difficult or impossible to run a script that serves this purpose locally.

Do yourself a favor and stop using shared hosting services. A few years ago, you could justify it because of the cost. VPSes are so cheap these days, though, that it's silly to hamstring yourself with shared hosting. Digital Ocean is a good place to start, and they'll even pre-install LAMP for you if you want. $5/mo for your own box.

Re: Ask HN: Trustworthy backup service?

#7

Post by jonweber » Sat, Mar 07, 2015, 12:51 AM UTC

cweagans wrote: post #6

jonweber wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great idea - unfortunately, some of the servers I need to back up are feature-poor shared hosting accounts where it would be difficult or impossible to run a script that serves this purpose locally.

Do yourself a favor and stop using shared hosting services. A few years ago, you could justify it because of the cost. VPSes are so cheap these days, though, that it's silly to hamstring yourself with shared hosting. Digital Ocean is a good place to start, and they'll even pre-install LAMP for you if you want. $5/mo for your own box.

I've been planning to get everything off the shared hosting accounts for awhile. Is Digital Ocean a better deal than, say, AWS for hosting dynamic websites?

Re: Ask HN: Trustworthy backup service?

#8

Post by cweagans » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:43 PM UTC

jonweber wrote: post #7

cweagans wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do yourself a favor and stop using shared hosting services. A few years ago, you could justify it because of the cost. VPSes are so cheap these days, though, that it's silly to hamstring yourself with shared hosting. Digital Ocean is a good place to start, and they'll even pre-install LAMP for you if you want. $5/mo for your own box.

I've been planning to get everything off the shared hosting accounts for awhile. Is Digital Ocean a better deal than, say, AWS for hosting dynamic websites?

It's definitely cheaper.