So, I was reading yet another 10 tips for Linux article (thanks Chrome recommendations), but this time I stumbled upon a gem. This gem was Wasabi storage. No, they’re not a warehouse for your favorite sushi condiment.

Wasabi storage is a cloud storage service. But unlike the vast amount of competitors, they charge just $5/TB/month and free egress traffic which is just perfect for a cheapo frugal person such as myself. The reason I was so excited when I first came across it is because I have been searching for a storage provider to migrate off my unlimited Google Drive education account which can end anytime because I’m no longer a student. Most of the storage space I’m using compose of pictures of my significant other and I over the years. And I just wanted to be careful in case that day comes where my account is terminated. Another reason I have been thinking about backing up files is because my car was broken into earlier this month :’( and my laptop stolen.

Fortunately and thankfully, most of my files were completely backed up and synced to the cloud thanks to CrashPlan. For those of you unfamiliar with CrashPlan, it’s a service that runs silently in the background to continuously backup your files. The benefits of such a backup is that you don’t need to browse to a website, select individual files/folders and manually hit the upload button. But, a con is that these files are not accessible from the web, and can only be restored via their desktop application. Actually, it appears you can restore files from the web, but the process doesn’t appear to be as straightforward as something like Google Drive. Although not as simple to restore, I am super glad to recover my work notes, application settings (e.g. Alfred), and my Chrome bookmarks (didn’t sign into Google account on the browser so bookmarks weren’t automatically backed up)! Through this demoralizing event, I became more appreciative of the online backup services which I have been using but taken for granted.

First of all, let’s discuss the differences between a cloud backup and file sync.

Cloud Backup vs File Sync

Cloud Backup

Examples Pros Cons
CrashPlan
Backblaze
Wasabi + Rclone
Duplicacy
Duplicati		 Sync entire computer / multiple directories Files not as easily accesible

File Sync

Examples Pros Cons
Google Drive
Dropbox		 User-friendly
Files easily accesible from the web		 Only single folder/directory is synced

Now, what exactly makes Wasabi storage so special? Well, I can utilize it as both a Cloud Backup and File Sync backend! Basically, a single storage provider to act as my private CrashPlan/Backblaze and Google Drive.

Let’s discuss Cloud Backup first.

There are a ton of open source and free cloud backup solutions out there. But, I’ve narrowed the options down to these three: Duplicacy, Duplicati and BorgBackup + Rclone. I chose these 3 because they support compression, deduplication and client-side encryption the three features which I personally care most about. Compression and deduplication helps me save space, and client-side encryption ensures my data is protected if it ever fell into the wrong hands.

Please find below a brief list of the pros and cons of each. If you’re interested, this Duplicati forum post goes into more detail on specific difference. Here are some benchmark tests performed by the creator of Duplicacy.

DIY Cloud Backup Solution

Examples Pros Cons
Duplicati Open-source and completely free (GUI, CLI)
Integrated online backup (S3, Wasabi, etc.)		 Possible database corruption
Duplicacy CLI is open-source
Speed (see benchmarks above)
Online storage provider integration (similar to Duplicati)		 Fee for GUI
BorgBackup + Rclone Open-source, free
Backup is mountable using FUSE		 No GUI
No online backup integration (requires rclone to sync)

After doing a ton of reading, I decided to go with BorgBackup for the following reasons:

  1. Mountable backups
  2. Better documentation
  3. Been around longer with more active developers and contributors
  4. Just discovered they have a Web GUI! Still in development, but keeps getting better :)

TODO

  • I can use my Google Drive account for testing. But will eventually sign-up for Wasabi
  • Automate (using shell script + cron):
    • Creating backup archives at regular intervals
    • Uploading archives to Wasabi
    • Reference: https://opensource.com/article/17/10/backing-your-machines-borg
  • Determine which directories on macOS I care about backing up
  • Research DIY File Sync solution
    • NextCloud vs Seafile