I have started my own journey into Backblaze storage

[Jud]

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I have a feeling the other shoe will drop and the price will shoot up, just like Amazon storage did years ago.

I think there’s been one modest price increase, maybe two, since I started using the service. (I’m using the unlimited personal plan, not as capable but substantially cheaper than the B2 storage plan @AudioDoctor has.) The owners said they intended to keep the service low cost. However, I believe ownership has changed since then. As always, we’ll just have to wait and see. But I’ve had no complaints so far.

I did have the B2 storage at one point and thought the capabilities and numerous available interfaces were excellent.

[Jud]

10 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

but also interfaces with the TrueNAS and Forklift App, and can more easily backup the business data because of it.

When I had B2, I was very happy with Rclone (free, open source, mature, capable, works with any OS we’re likely to be running), particularly the web GUI version that is designated experimental but which never gave me the least problem.

[Jud]

5 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I have read good things about Rclone because I am having a real heart to heart with myself right now about switching to Linux and am investigating the software that would replace what I currently rely on on the Mac platform, like Forklift. I am tempted to stick with Mac as my user interface, so to speak, to what is essentially entirely Linux (and BSD) behind me on my network.

 

The need to replace my iPhone 7 that works just fine only so I can  purchase an Apple Watch opened my eyes to the fact that this will also happen to Apple Silicon computers as well. It also soured me on the watch purchase, which I haven't done yet either.

Apple is famous for planned obsolescence, though its moves that were controversial at the time have proved prescient (getting rid of floppies, internal disk drives, USB2). I’m a gadget geek who looks forward to buying a new phone every couple of years (snappier internal processing and network speed make me happy). I also love my Apple Watch (great sleep, health and workout data). 🙂

 

Regarding Rclone, you can install it and play with stuff like looking through your storage and see if you like it, while continuing to use Forklift for actual work.

[Jud]

3 hours ago, jcbenten said:

Question is: Is it truly Unlimited?

Yep.

[Jud]

These days I feel the line between NAS and DAS is getting rather blurry. I've got my computers (and directly attached storage) in the office, and my audio system in the living room, so playback is over the network in any case. If I decided to switch to NAS (and I believe I will in perhaps the mid-term future), then I'd simply be running optical fiber from the NAS to a switch in the office, rather than USB cables from external HDDs to my computers. And just as I do now, I'd be syncing to offsite commercial backup. It doesn't really seem like that profound a difference to me.

[Jud]

7 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I see what you're saying, and I think you're using Linux, right? and if so I can see even more where the line would be blurred even more. In my case however, ZFS is something I just can't trust to directly attached USB or Thunderbolt drives on a Mac. I tried, it kept me up at night wondering which of the bugs was going to get me. If it was Oracle that convinced Apple not to pursue ZFS it really makes me dislike them. If I were using Kubuntu, for example, then I could plug drives in and use ZFS on a supported system and sleep soundly at night. So I think it really depends on which OS you're using.

I actually use 4 OSs - 2 Linux distros, MacOS, and Windows (MacOS on laptop, the other 3 at various times on desktop). I’d probably use a 5th OS on a NAS; as now, storage would be accessible from any of the OSs.

 

What would motivate me to use a NAS? I have the desktop set up to serve my music to the Internet, and can control it remotely from my phone or the laptop. As a rule I don’t leave the desktop on 24/7; I didn’t build it with that in mind. So I need to remember to leave it on if I want to listen to my locally stored music remotely. I’d buy or build the NAS to be on 24/7. It would be one less detail to remember, and I’m enough of a geek that I might enjoy building one.

[Jud]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I have no idea Jud, we all make these decisions for ourselves and the only person I can speak for is myself.

I did go on to answer that rhetorical question. 🙂 Two reasons, first because I want something that is purpose built to stay running 24/7 (my current desktop isn’t, so I have to remember to turn it on when I want remote access to my local music collection); and second because I might get some geeky fun out of building a NAS if I decided to go that route instead of buying.

[Jud]

2 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

In my case, I can split the cost of two identical NAS systems and Backblaze 3 ways between business, myself, and my brother, who all share in the expense and use of the NAS.

I liked B2 when I had it, so just trying to figure out whether it would be easier to get you to hire me or adopt me.

[Jud]

3 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

None of us are concerned about throughput to multiple devices.

That seems to be one of the two key distinctions in my reading between Ceph and ZFS. Ceph would appear to work better with a system distributed across multiple nodes (usually servers).

 

The other distinction is that Ceph is more configurable, but by the same token that means more complexity.

 

I personally think I would be happier with a single server and easier configuration.

[Jud]

On 8/14/2023 at 5:40 PM, AudioDoctor said:

 

TrueNAS makes it stupidly simple to do this stuff with TrueNAS Scale and TrueCommand

 

https://www.truenas.com/truecommand/

 

edit: I did pay for a year of 24/7 phone support so that if I have questions I can get help and hopefully learn enough from that year that I won't need it anymore.

 

Scale is relatively new. Anything you've noticed that's a missing capability you'd like to see, or that's not completely solid?

[Jud]

32 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

Backblaze is increasing prices effective October 3rd.

 

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/2023-product-announcement/

 

edit: Taking your data from Backblaze and moving to a new provider is now free. The increase is 1$/TB/month for B2 and 9$/month for personal, up from 7$. Click the link if you want more specifics, it's not a huge increase.

 

edit 2: This is important for Personal backups as well

Free One Year Extended Version History: Also effective October 3, all Computer Backup licenses may add One Year Extended Version History, previously a $2 per month expense, for free. Being able to recover deleted or altered files up to a year later saves Computer Backup users from huge headaches, and now this benefit is available to all subscribers. Starting October 3, log in to your account and select One Year of Extended Version History for free. 

 

This makes B2 very close to the same price as  Computer Backup (personal unlimited) for me, and with free data egress from B2 it might even be cheaper in the event I lost my data at home. So I'll likely go back to B2. I prefer B2's greater availability of tools for moving data and checking its status at Backblaze, and the fact that it works with all my OSs (personal is either just Windows or just Windows and MacOS, I forget which).

 

[Jud]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I tried. Century Link was happy to take my money and set up an install date. Tech showed up at my house on time and said that he didn't understand why they scheduled the install, Century Link doesn't have fiber here on my street yet...

 

My Brother has unlimited, so we finished the upload from his end after I received the email from Comcast telling me I was about to exceed my bandwidth limit. If I could switch to either Century Link or USI, I would in a heartbeat. I have friends who live in Linden Hills and they adore USI Fiber.

 

 

Anyone stuck on Comcast as I am: Upload at the end of one month and beginning of the next so you effectively double the limit.

 

Edit: Also, Comcast offers unlimited for an extra $30/month. They gave me a free one-month trial of the unlimited service (that is, no additional cost beyond the regular service). So that's another way around the monthly cap.

[Jud]

7 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I am just morally opposed to giving them more money.

 

I'm not eager to either, which is why I gave two strategies for avoiding that.

[Jud]

I used Astiga for a while, worked fine, but Backblaze charges for that usage. And there’s also a decision to make regarding whether to use B2 or Backblaze’s unlimited personal storage. For large collections the latter is less expensive, but in terms of capabilities is essentially limited purely to offsite backup (no cloud player, etc.).

[Jud]

3 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Comcast finally got me...  $120 bucks in overage charges...  Time to get Century Link on the phone and start talking to them about getting Fiber to my neighborhood...

 

I am sure that my messing around with backblaze and testing various methods of backing up are what caused this.

 

Yeah, that's my biggest complaint about Comcast, the data cap. They let you blow through it one month, then start charging. $30 extra per month lifts the cap.

[Jud]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

yep, this is also the month my promotion ended so my bill is MASSIVE at the moment... I am just fed up with Comcast to the point I am almost willing to pay to get Century Link to run fiber to my house.

 

Presume you've already talked to the customer retention people? Got my bill lowered by $20/month, though still have the cap....