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Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023

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Re: Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023

#21

Post by eli »

aeries wrote: post #14
eli wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tons of choices: Restic, Borg, Duplicity, Kopia Though Backblaze is pretty good at what it does and you can set your own encryption key, if that's the concern.

Unfortunately Backblaze requires[1] you to provide them this private key to restore. [1] https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038171794-Wh...

Yeah I mean you gotta trust them on some level. Backblaze could also push a client update that nerfs the encryption. If you've got really sensitive data I'd probably pick something else.

Re: Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023

#22

Post by eli »

ecwilson wrote: post #17
aeries wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately Backblaze requires[1] you to provide them this private key to restore. [1] https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038171794-Wh...

What does restore mean this context? I’ve downloaded files from their online portal without providing a key. Perhaps restoring in this context means having them mail you a hard drive.

Really? I thought the file metadata is encrypted so it needs the key to even identify what files are available to restore.

Re: Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023

#25

Post by 1-6 »

Mistletoe wrote: post #23
1-6 wrote: post #18

My simple rule still stands even after 20 years: Avoid Seagate.

I always found it hilarious when they were sponsoring the datahoarder subreddit. I’d like to meet that marketer and shake his or her hand.

I'm surprised that Seagate has consistently kept its 'slightly less reliable' crown after all these years.

It's like the student who copies the 'A' student's exam. They'll purposefully get a couple of the answers wrong to avoid suspicion.

Re: Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023

#26

Post by rft »

andy4blaze wrote: post #6
nicolaslem wrote: post #3

The article discusses the impact of high absolute temperature on the longevity of drives, however from my amateur knowledge the range of temperature during a day is also an important factor. I always assumed that having a stable 40°C is better than a drive constantly swinging between 20°C and 40°C, so I am surprised that the article only mentions alerts on reaching a high threshold.

Andy Klein from Backblaze here. Your point is a good one in that temperature fluctuation can be an important factor. We actually sample smart stats, which contain the temperature attribute, multiple times a day looking for such changes. The Drives Stats data is captured once a day, so it looks static, but behind the scenes the monitoring is more dynamic.

Do you have plans to look at whether higher fluctuations translate into higher failure rates? Not sure whether you have historical data on this, but I would be really interested in this aspect, even if you can only run the stats on a smaller number of drives or shorter time periods.

Maybe dividing the drives roughly in "higher than average variability" and "low variability" and then looking at the AFR for this subset can show some relation. Of course as the AFR for many drives is already quite low, the effect might be too small to distinguish from noise.

On the topic of temperatures: Have you run an analysis whether a drive increasing in temperature (or maybe even decreasing) compared to its base line and "neighbors" results in a higher chance of failure?

Re: Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023

#27

Post by encom »

briffle wrote: post #11
dist-epoch wrote: post #5

Is there any backup software which continuously uploads your files to an AWS/GCP/Azure long term storage account that you control and pay for? Something like CrashPlan, which from time to time performs automatic maintenance and deletes old versions of files.

Backblaze software is pretty reasonable. But I have a linux machine, so restic and their B2 storage is a buck or two a month to backup a few computers in my house. (around 185GB of photos, etc)

>Backblaze software is pretty reasonable.

Hard disagree. The jankiness of their software was what made me cancel my sub after several years. Firstly it doesn't follow the OS date and number formatting. It's a minor thing, but it's so annoying having to parse the dumb M/D/Y format and comma thousands separator etc (being da-DK). It's not a deal breaker, but on the other hand, it's such a low-hanging thing that most other software gets right immediately.

But far more importantly, the BB client would some times just decide to re-upload several hundred gigabytes of data that I know for sure didn't change, which makes me wonder if it's just the client being retarded or if the data got lost server-side. And it takes absolutely forever to detect USB harddrives being plugged in. And its log files will grow to absurd sizes, and you're not allowed to purge them or the client will become brain damaged. And one time I needed to do a restore, it took literal days for BB to prepare it and I had to get support involved. I feel I just can't trust the BB stack, the client being the weakest link by far, and backup I can't trust is worthless.

Re: Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023

#28

Post by thebiss »

dehrmann wrote: post #15

> The average age of the retired drives was just over eight years Didn't realize they can last so long.

Under my desk right now is a too-underutilized-to-upgrade-NAS that has been spinning 1TB Western Digitals since 2010. Between RAID-Z2 and cloud backups, there's almost no reason to get rid of them except for performance, which doesn't matter here.

Re: Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023

#30

Post by thebiss »

dist-epoch wrote: post #5

Is there any backup software which continuously uploads your files to an AWS/GCP/Azure long term storage account that you control and pay for? Something like CrashPlan, which from time to time performs automatic maintenance and deletes old versions of files.

Define "continuously". Does the data need to be mirrored immediately upon write?
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