Backup Solution & Crashplan

[Welly Wu]

One of the unique features about CrashPlan+ is that it allows you to backup your data off-site to a friend's PC for free. You'll need to visit http://www.crashplan.com and download the client for your operating system for each PC that you want to backup your data. You can backup your data to multiple destinations including external drives and multiple friend's PCs for free. All you need is to get your friend's e-mail address and exchange your backup codes. Then, you specify where your friend's data will be backed up on your PC. You can choose internal or external drives using the CrashPlan+ software application.

Right now, I have my mother, my friend, and my best friend backing up their data to my System76 Welly PC for free.

You'll need to read this official CrashPlan article to setup your firewall to enable peer to peer backups:

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/faq/network

If you decide to pay a monthly or discounted annual or multi-year subscription for CrashPlan Central access, then you'll have the full features and you can backup your data to their data centers, your local drives, and to your friend's PCs.

If you are interested, then I will be willing to provide you with my e-mail address and my CrashPlan+ backup code so that I can host your data. If you would be so kind, then please provide me with your e-mail address and your CrashPlan+ backup code so that you can host my data.

CrashPlan+ allows you to use the Blowfish cipher in CBC mode of operation at the full 448 bits and 16 rounds cipher strength. You can also create your own unique backup key which only you would have access to your data. This is what I have chosen to do. This is the maximum amount of security and it guarantees two-factor authentication so that only you have access to your own data regardless of where you upload it to each destination.

I hope that this is not going to break any rules here, but I am looking to start a CrashPlan users club. CrashPlan works with Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8. It works with Apple Macintosh OS X Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion. It works with GNU/Linux including Ubuntu. It works with Solaris. You can download and install the CrashPlan app for Apple iOS 5, 6 for iPhone and iPad. You can also do the same for Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean for smart phones and tablets.

Backing up is boring, but it is critical.

I have up to 8.30 TB of total storage capacity using Super Speed USB 3.0 technology.

I don't care what kind of data you upload to me, but I will let you know that I need 1 TB of your available disk space if you let me backup my data to your PC for now. My needs will grow rapidly in 2013 and beyond.

Thank you.

I hope that this thread is not violating any rules, but I apologize in advance if it is spam.

Send me a private message if you are serious.

[donniezazen]

Hello,

I have been running CrashPlan for a while. Over all I like it a lot considering it requires no user intervention but what annoys me is computational load this java app/backend is putting on my system. It might take many days or may be a few weeks for CrashPlan to upload my 300-400 GB of data. My system is consistently running at over 60C and may jump 70C or 80C at time if I run other resource hogging app. What do you guys use and if you are a CrashPlan fan do you think this computational load is justified.

Thanks.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Thread moved to Community Market.

Not sure how well this fits in with the forum rules but will park it here for now (seems more appropriate).


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[aysiu]

Using Crashplan and love it. Yes, the initial seeding stinks, but you can also pay to have them ship you a terabyte drive for the initial seed if you don't want to upload that much data over weeks or months.

I haven't experienced any performance hits from using Crashplan. If you are, I'd recommend putting it on pause for a few hours (8 or 12 even) while you're using the computer and then just having it resume the backup when you're sleeping. You can also change the bandwidth throttling for active/idle.

Crashplan is definitely a great affordable offsite backup solution. If you're willing to pay more (a lot more), you can also use Dropbox or Spider Oak.

[CharlesA]

Using Crashplan and love it. Yes, the initial seeding stinks, but you can also pay to have them ship you a terabyte drive for the initial seed if you don't want to upload that much data over weeks or months.

Which plan are you using? I've been debating an offsite backup and this seems to be a whole lot easier than storing an external hard drive off site. The latter might be more secure, as the drive is offline and is encrypted but still..

[donniezazen]

Using Crashplan and love it. Yes, the initial seeding stinks, but you can also pay to have them ship you a terabyte drive for the initial seed if you don't want to upload that much data over weeks or months.

I haven't experienced any performance hits from using Crashplan. If you are, I'd recommend putting it on pause for a few hours (8 or 12 even) while you're using the computer and then just having it resume the backup when you're sleeping. You can also change the bandwidth throttling for active/idle.

Crashplan is definitely a great affordable offsite backup solution. If you're willing to pay more (a lot more), you can also use Dropbox or Spider Oak.

How long have you been using CrashPlan? It works great overall but this initial seeding does suck. Thanks for suggesting hard drive option.


Which plan are you using? I've been debating an offsite backup and this seems to be a whole lot easier than storing an external hard drive off site. The latter might be more secure, as the drive is offline and is encrypted but still..

I was able to get a year of free CrashPlan Pro for one computer. Initial seeding got me thinking if I really want to run this program which eats up a lot of CPU and Memory. Overall it's hell of a product. Everything is automated. It's more or less ones install and then forget about it. A great thing about CrashPlan is that even if you don't want to buy their Pro plan you could backup on your friends computer for free.

[CharlesA]

I was able to get a year of free CrashPlan Pro for one computer. Initial seeding got me thinking if I really want to run this program which eats up a lot of CPU and Memory. Overall it's hell of a product. Everything is automated. It's more or less ones install and then forget about it. A great thing about CrashPlan is that even if you don't want to buy their Pro plan you could backup on your friends computer for free.

Gotcha. That's pretty cool. It makes me wonder if it will run on Ubuntu Server, cuz that would make a great emergency backup plan.

[donniezazen]

Gotcha. That's pretty cool. It makes me wonder if it will run on Ubuntu Server, cuz that would make a great emergency backup plan.

That is how I have set it up. I have it installed on my Ubuntu 12.10 laptop and Ubuntu 12.04 Server. Basically, I have one local copy on my Ubuntu Server and one offsite backup on CrashPlan's Servers.

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/how_to/configure_a_headless_client

[CharlesA]

That is how I have set it up. I have it installed on my Ubuntu 12.10 laptop and Ubuntu 12.04 Server. Basically, I have one local copy on my Ubuntu Server and one offsite backup on CrashPlan's Servers.

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/how_to/configure_a_headless_client
Awesome!

Thanks for the link, I googled a bit and found this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/111303/crashplan-on-headless-server

But the instructions are a bit limited.

EDIT: That HDD option sounds tempting if I decided to go with it, as it will take a hell of a long time to upload about 500GB of data going at 1.5Mbps.

EDIT2: The seeding service is here (http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/feature/seed_service#seed_your_initial_backup_to_crashplan _central) and costs $124.99, but if you have a ton of data, that would be worth it tbh.

[donniezazen]

Awesome!

Thanks for the link, I googled a bit and found this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/111303/crashplan-on-headless-server

But the instructions are a bit limited.

EDIT: That HDD option sounds tempting if I decided to go with it, as it will take a hell of a long time to upload about 500GB of data going at 1.5Mbps.

EDIT2: The seeding service is here (http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/feature/seed_service#seed_your_initial_backup_to_crashplan _central) and costs $124.99, but if you have a ton of data, that would be worth it tbh.

$125 sounds a little expensive. It will take many weeks to upload my data. I have currently removed my video folder, so, that should help. Also Comcast has currently suspended their 250GB data cap so that is also helpful.

[CharlesA]

$125 sounds a little expensive. It will take many weeks to upload my data. I have currently removed my video folder, so, that should help. Also Comcast has currently suspended their 250GB data cap so that is also helpful.

Lucky one. I have a 250GB cap now, and that includes both uploads and downloads.

My upload speed is around 1.5Mbps, and if I want to upload 500GB at that speed it will take about a month. That would also eat up my upstream bandwidth.

[Elfy]

merged

[CharlesA]

merged
Thanks. :)

EDIT:

That is how I have set it up. I have it installed on my Ubuntu 12.10 laptop and Ubuntu 12.04 Server. Basically, I have one local copy on my Ubuntu Server and one offsite backup on CrashPlan's Servers.

I just set it up exactly the same way and it looks pretty sweet. I particularly like that you can exclude items via path and using regex if you so desire.

[Welly Wu]

So, since my original thread got merged into this one for some reason, I was wondering if anyone here wants to take me up on my offer to start a CrashPlan users backup club.

Send me a private message if you are serious about getting started with me. I'll host your data up to 1 TB if you'll host my data which is currently at almost 894 GB.

Thank you.

[Welly Wu]

If you have less than 100 GB of data, then I will host it for free. You are not obligated to host all of my data at all. I realize doing so would be unfair to you so you should feel free to contact me in private if you are interested.

I'm really serious about this. I want to make friends here and I want another safe and secure destination to host my data off-site for free.

I have 8.34 TB of total storage capacity. Most of my drives are external storage devices that use Super Speed USB 3.0 technology. I can still add another external hard disk drive at any time to gain a couple extra gigabytes of high speed USB 3.0 storage capacity.

Your data is going to be highly secure and it will be safe using peer to peer backup.

CrashPlan sent me this link to help with peer to peer data backups:

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/client/troubleshooting/troubleshoot_network_connection

Please make sure you read this official CrashPlan support article if you are having problems with peer to peer data backups using CrashPlan+.

[aysiu]

How long have you been using CrashPlan? It works great overall but this initial seeding does suck. Thanks for suggesting hard drive option. I think it's been almost two years now. It honestly took over six months for the initial seed (for multiple computers, granted).


Which plan are you using? I've been debating an offsite backup and this seems to be a whole lot easier than storing an external hard drive off site. I'm using the unlimited family plan.
The latter might be more secure, as the drive is offline and is encrypted but still.. Well, Crashplan isn't offline, but it is encrypted:
http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/faq/security#what_type_of_encryption_does_crashplancra shplan_use

[CharlesA]

I think it's been almost two years now. It honestly took over six months for the initial seed (for multiple computers, granted).

I believe it. I did some calculations and it will take a few months to upload all my data due to my bandwidth cap, but if you do the essential data first that isn't so bad.



I'm using the unlimited family plan.

Awesome, thanks. I'm thinking of going with a single computer plan cuz I already back all the other machines up to my home server and so far it's been working ok.

[PatrickD-52761]

Out of curiosity, has anyone restored their files with crashplan? I backed up my /home (over 200 GB) to an Amahi Home Server on my network. Then, I installed Lubuntu 12.10 and proceeded to restore the files. I got a kernel panic. This happened multiple times, so I installed Lubuntu 12.04 via the alternate CD (thinking it was a bad installation), and had the same problems.

I've even installed Fedora 18, and had the kernel panic when I tried to restore my files. java is what causes the panic (at least on Fedora).

Any suggestions on what to do to get things restored without the kernel panic's are greatly appreciated.

Have a great day:)
Patrick.

[CharlesA]

Restores have worked fine for me. Have you contacted CrashPlan support about the kernel panic?