How does tarsnap compare to borgbackup https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ ? rsync.net has quite some praise for it: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/42feqz/i_asked_here_...
Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
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Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#62This has appeared on HN a few times.. I'd really like to use tarsnap but it's simply too expensive to be viable (to which I guess the response is: don't use tarsnap for full-backups -- but this makes it practically useless as far as diminishing the complexity of my current backup scheme[0]). [0] http://duplicity.nongnu.org/
I also use duplicity for my backups. I don't use the S3 option, preferring to write to my own storage, but if I were to turn on S3, what exactly does Tarsnap give me beyond what I'm already getting? Other than an additional middleman taking a cut?
Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#63Tarsnap is great if you backup a file system holding small files. If you use it to backup eg vm disks images, the slow restore makes it an impractical tool. Worth knowing before switching to Tarsnap...
Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#64I do use tarsnap and like it but in the last years I've found another similar approach that I do prefer.
What I do is create a local backup using borg. So I do get deduplication, compression and encryption. Once I update my borg archive (a few megabytes per day) I sync it to a cloud storage provider, like GCS, S3 or backblaze.
The reason I prefer it, is that I have a copy of my backups locally, which is convenient if I ever need them. Also borg is more friendly when it comes to managing old archives.
Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#65Why did you never follow Patrick's advice: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/04/03/fantasy-tarsnap/ Not your thing? I've always wondered.
ironically he claims tarsnap is run as a lemonade stand mostly because he uses it for his serious business and he lacks a process to check his balance every week. That should be one extra little step to his backup check anyway.
Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
A "truly paranoid" that is not a software developer can use Tarsnap?
I'm not sure what you're asking, but if your question is "can paranoid non-developers use Tarsnap", absolutely. You'll need to have some basic comfort with UNIX, though.
Yes, the question was if it is possible, regarding necessary technical knowledge to use Tarsnap for a non-developer to use it. You answered it, thanks.
Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#67I've been using tarsnap as a backup tool for a small NGO, especially backing up DB. I take a dump of the DB every 2 hours (we have almost 1k users now) and send it over.
The biggest pain is that it now takes ages to list archives. I think i have like 1500 of them. But otherwise: i'm really glad tarsnap exists. I deposited $5 in november and have $4.673539677478560010 left (i'm pretty sure Colin can now tell who i am, using the unique amount of picodollars)
My stats now:
pawwer@pro16:~$ tarsnap --print-stats --humanize-numbers
Total size Compressed size
All archives 137 GB 42 GB
(unique data) 2.0 GB 489 MB
pawwer@pro16:~$ tarsnap --list-archives | wc -l
1425
However, i backup my personal photos someplace else, tarsnap is a bit pricey for that. You can get backblaze for $0.005 / GB month with free transfer, so i use that.
Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#68Not sure why Tarsnap has bubbled up on HN again, but I'm always happy to answer questions about Tarsnap if there's anything anyone here wants to know.
How can I download backups into a different directory from where they originated?
[I was just trying out tarsnap, go to the restore test section, and was a bit stumped. It seems like "-xC /other/dir" might do it, but the man page is pretty opaque. I'd like to test a restore without the risk of clobbering my data with some misconfigured backup!]
Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#69Not sure why Tarsnap has bubbled up on HN again, but I'm always happy to answer questions about Tarsnap if there's anything anyone here wants to know.
How can I download backups into a different directory from where they originated? [I was just trying out tarsnap, go to the restore test section, and was a bit stumped. It seems like "-xC /other/dir" might do it, but the man page is pretty opaque. I'd like to test a restore without the risk of clobbering my data with some misconfigured backup!]
It works just like tar for the most part, so it extracts into whatever the current working directory happens to be. I'd just do (cd /other/dir; tarsnap -x -f whatever-archive).
Re: Tarsnap – Online backups for the truly paranoid
#70I use Tarsnap and it's great for two big reasons:
1. Deduplication. I have a 10gb database but only about 30mb changes every day. So I can backup the full database each day but only pay for an extra 30mb.
2. Security. Colin is an expert in security and Tarsnap has a respectable bug bounty program. Plus I can have a Tarsnap crypto key which only allows read and write - no delete - which adds an extra layer of security in case a hacker gains access to my server.