Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond • Hacker News Board

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#111

Post by Operyl » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 4:08 PM UTC

atYevP wrote: post #106

Operyl wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's completely broken here as well, which was really frustrating. I already wasted 117 days of a yearly subscription on one machine because it ran Catalina Beta (which was my fault, I needed a test machine, and I ate the time lost without complaint), but not being able to inherit that back up really sucked afterwards.

Yev here -> Have you reached out to support about the issue? They are working with our devs to track all of the issues and could use the additional data points -> https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/requests/new . It's working for most users, so we're trying to whittle down the issue.

It’s too late now, I already wiped the old backup and reassigned the license. I didn’t feel like wanting to waste the time much further after past experiences with support and what I read here.

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#112

Post by Trias11 » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 4:37 PM UTC

atYevP wrote: post #105

Trias11 wrote: post #82

Are you (BackBlaze) still happily deleting user's backup files if user's computer does not contact BackBlaze servers within some arbitrary time? Yes/No? Source: https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217664898-What-... This is malice. If you are still doing this to your users - your service is a non-starter. Backup service that deletes user's valuable files under some TOS excuse should not exist.

Yev here -> yes, under our ToS you need to be a customer in good standing in order for us to provide service. We do want to see your computer ping home every now and again to make sure its running up-to-date and supported versions. The Computer Backup service is a backup, not an archive. If you need to put your data somewhere and have it be there forever until YOU remove it, we recommend our B2 Cloud Storage service…

Thank you for your response.

With all due - I'd argue with the statement: "Computer Backup service is a backup, not an archive".

It's like saying that banking is a process of sending money to the bank but there is no guarantee that money will be there unless "customer is in good standing".

Computer backup is a process (backup) AND storage (archive). Without BOTH of these components in place the customers will be facing a big surprise down the road when their valuable data is not there.

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#113

Post by cerberusss » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 5:38 PM UTC

Trias11 wrote: post #82

Are you (BackBlaze) still happily deleting user's backup files if user's computer does not contact BackBlaze servers within some arbitrary time? Yes/No? Source: https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217664898-What-... This is malice. If you are still doing this to your users - your service is a non-starter. Backup service that deletes user's valuable files under some TOS excuse should not exist.

Malice is quite strong, just because it doesn't do what you expected.

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#114

Post by cerberusss » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 5:42 PM UTC

paranoidrobot wrote: post #97

theshrike79 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backblaze is a backup service, not a file storage service. If the computer you are backing up isn't online for 6 months, it clearly isn't that important. If it is, you can use B2 to store files indefinitely.

> If the computer you are backing up isn't online for 6 months, it clearly isn't that important. Internet connectivity in some parts is particularly terrible. My grandmother's ADSL 12/1Mbit connection was never particularly reliable and would go down any time it rained for days at a time. Every 6-12 months it would go down hard and not come back requiring a visit - the techs would fiddle around, find a different work…

That setup is simply not suitable for using Backblaze, or actually any kind of off-site backup.

What would be an interesting solution, is to run a simple gigabit ethernet line to a neighbor or even the backyard shed. And set up a backup endpoint there. It's not totally off-site but sure beats the alternative.

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#115

Post by brianwski » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 5:59 PM UTC

Faark wrote: post #102

brianwski wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze so I'm biased. > supports client side encryption, making Blackblaze not really an option for me Just to be clear, Backblaze Personal Backup encrypts all files on the client side, period. Now by default, Backblaze has the ability to decrypt those files, but you can set a "Private Encryption Key" and then if you forget that private encryption key nobody (including you, any Backblaze empl…

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. Thank you. Seems like my memory was reduced to "have to give you the key". I'll be more precise in the future. I used to have my drives encrypted back when TrueCrypt was still a thing. From what I understand I'd lose a bunch of features, like de-duplication or the ability to restore individual files without having to download the entire state of the encrypted contai…

> May I ask why Backblaze doesn't offer client-side decryption?

Kind of a historical accident mostly.

When we built the very first product, we just thought we would build a web based restore process, and the ability to view your files online with a web browser, which means you have to hand us the private key ONLY FOR the web session to view your files, and it is only stored in RAM.

What followed (12 years ago) was that we immediately found out the maximum download size of many web browsers was only 2 GBytes (which was a complete shock to me personally). So I had to VERY QUICKLY write this hacky "bzdownloader" which could download arbitrarily large restores -> but again, I was just dealing with what we had built already so we never got around to decrypting on the client side.

After a while, it became clear that we only lose like 1% - 2% of our business to people who wanted the other model (download the encrypted file and decrypt it on the client side), and so we kept prioritizing other features ahead of that. :-) For example, businesses had a very particular problem that prevented 20% of our sales from occurring. Businesses wanted to pay for many backups at once, but not necessarily have access to do the "restore", just pay for all their employees backups in a kind of "site license". So we created "Backblaze Groups" which allows you to pay for other people's backups, and our sales jumped up 20% after that. Then businesses wanted "Single Sign On" so that when they revoked their employee's ability to sign into their email account, it would automatically revoke the employee's ability to prepare a restore. Sales jumped up again, yay! :-)

It is absolutely a requested feature to add "client side restore" which combines several features - get rid of the clunky "zip" format which can cause some issues, and decrypt on the client side. I fully expect it will percolate up to the top of the requested features list and get done in 2020.

One of the fun, but challenging aspects of never raising any Venture Capital is we can only hire more software engineers when our sales rise to support their salaries. Currently the only voting board members at Backblaze are all 100% employees, and employees own 95% of the company. (We did raise a very small friends and family round more than a decade ago, which is where the other shares reside.) But sometimes our slow progress is frustrating to customers who are more used to massive software shops with millions or billions of dollars of funding. :-)

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#116

Post by theshrike79 » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

paranoidrobot wrote: post #97

theshrike79 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backblaze is a backup service, not a file storage service. If the computer you are backing up isn't online for 6 months, it clearly isn't that important. If it is, you can use B2 to store files indefinitely.

> If the computer you are backing up isn't online for 6 months, it clearly isn't that important. Internet connectivity in some parts is particularly terrible. My grandmother's ADSL 12/1Mbit connection was never particularly reliable and would go down any time it rained for days at a time. Every 6-12 months it would go down hard and not come back requiring a visit - the techs would fiddle around, find a different work…

A single product can't work for everyone.

If you live in the outback and your network connection is literally provided by pigeons, maybe an online backup service isn't the correct solution.

External drives and TimeMachine/Windows Backup should be sufficient.

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#117

Post by elfchief » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 6:49 PM UTC

atYevP wrote: post #108

elfchief wrote: post #76

I've only ever had one problem with Backblaze, in my ... 7 or 8? ... years as a customer. The problem: The UI for excluding directories is horrific . It uses the Windows "Browse for Folder" *SHBrowseForFolder) dialog, which requires you click down through each and every level of your directory structure to get to the directory you want to exclude. You can't cut and paste, it doesn't start from the directory you added…

Yev here -> if you don't want to use the UI (meant for non-tech savvy folks) we do have advanced exclusions via XML - take a look -> https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/220973007-Advan... .

That's the thing -- I do want to use the UI and I don't want to have to hand-edit XML. I just want the UI to not use the single worst dialog box in all of windows.

I am baffled at why Backblaze clings so tightly to the existing dialog box.

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#118

Post by Dylan16807 » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 10:14 PM UTC

cerberusss wrote: post #114

paranoidrobot wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the computer you are backing up isn't online for 6 months, it clearly isn't that important. Internet connectivity in some parts is particularly terrible. My grandmother's ADSL 12/1Mbit connection was never particularly reliable and would go down any time it rained for days at a time. Every 6-12 months it would go down hard and not come back requiring a visit - the techs would fiddle around, find a different work…

That setup is simply not suitable for using Backblaze, or actually any kind of off-site backup. What would be an interesting solution, is to run a simple gigabit ethernet line to a neighbor or even the backyard shed. And set up a backup endpoint there. It's not totally off-site but sure beats the alternative.

It's not suited for it right now, but it very much disproves "If it's offline for six months, it clearly isn't that important."

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#119

Post by Dylan16807 » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #103

brianwski wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Comcast is promising 1GB download speeds. Their maximum upload speed is still an abysmal 35Mbps. Well, I have Comcast and my upload speed is 100 Mbits/sec. But even at 35 Mbits/sec you can upload 378 GBytes PER DAY. That means that within the Backblaze free trial of 14 days you can upload 5.2 Terabytes. Within Backblaze's recommended "fully backed up" period of 30 days you can upload 11.3 TBytes!! And we'll look th…

And if you fully max out the 35 mbps upload, your connection will be useless for a month - even for downloads. Learned that from when I did have Comcast and I was uhh “downloading Linux distros with bit torrent”.

Sure, so cap the backup process to 25.

Having a connection that's more asymmetrical than 5:1 is dumb, but those numbers are still good enough for online backup.

Re: Backblaze 7.0 – Version History and Beyond

#120

Post by Dylan16807 » Wed, Oct 09, 2019, 10:22 PM UTC

sjwright wrote: post #83

pfranz wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your criteria for backup? I completely agree that something like RAID is not backup, but 30-60 days seems comparable to other backup services and covers most scenarios. The old-school manual process of swapping a USB drive at work every week/month has the similar retention. The only consumer-facing system I've used with multi-year retention is Time Machine. Every few years it has trouble "verifying" the backup…

Backup means that if it takes me 6 months to realise that the 2014 finances folder had been accidentally deleted, I can still recover it. I'd love to see BackBlaze offer the option to select "mission critical" folders that have super-long-life (Time Machine-like) version retention. Give everyone a few gigabytes of this for free, charge a premium to increase that space.

Though that sounds tricky to set up all the UI for. For now you can set up a separate backup of that stuff. Set B2 as the backend and you get 10GB free.