Having a good backup system both locally and offsite is important for anyone with a computer. Once you have decide to use a cloud backup the first problem you face is the overwhelming number of options. There are two broad category of backups, manual and automatic. Services like Dropbox or Google Drive are what I call manual backups, in that they require you to physically drop a file or folder into them. An automatic backup system is just that, you choose the files/folders you want to back up and the system you choose backs up those files automatically either at a specific time or interval. There are a couple of things I look for in a backup system: first is it easy to use, second when I recover a file do I get back what I put in, third is the cost, and finally is it trust no one(TNO) compliant. The idea behind TNO is that you and only you has access to your content including your password and keys.
The solution I have found is called Arq after trying Backblaze, Carbonite, and Jungle Disk. Arq falls into second category of backups in that the backup happens automatically once you have set it up.
I first heard about Arq on Security Now Episode #351: Back To The Cloud. Arq is a Mac only backup solution, although there is an app available to view the files on iOS. Arq runs on Amazon S3 and does require you to sign up for the Amazon Web Service
Once you sign up it will give you an access key id, secret access key and you also have to provide a password. Make sure you keep a copy of all these, neither Arq nor Amazon can recover them for you (I use 1password for this purpose). Although this can be inconvenient it makes Arq TNO compliant. There is a 30 day trial, during the trial you pay only for the Amazon S3 fees After 30 days if you decide to continue to use it there is a $29.00 one time licensing fee. Amazon S3 fees are$1.25 $12.5 cents/GB or $.93 9.3 cents/GB for reduce redundancy storage. They also bill you for outgoing transfers. Outgoing transfers are free up to 1GB/month, from 1GB/month to 10/GB it is .120 per GB and so on. The price per GB goes down the more GBs you use. This is one of the things I like about Arq you are only paying for what you are using instead of a flat fee. As part of the sign up process Arq will ask how much you want to budget for backup starting in $5.00 increments. You put in the dollar amount you want to spend and it will tell you how much that will backup. If you are about to go over your budgeted amount Arq will automatically delete the oldest files. Arq does version backup similar to Time Machine, so it will always keep at least two versions of a backup.
I first heard about Arq on Security Now Episode #351: Back To The Cloud. Arq is a Mac only backup solution, although there is an app available to view the files on iOS. Arq runs on Amazon S3 and does require you to sign up for the Amazon Web Service
Once you sign up it will give you an access key id, secret access key and you also have to provide a password. Make sure you keep a copy of all these, neither Arq nor Amazon can recover them for you (I use 1password for this purpose). Although this can be inconvenient it makes Arq TNO compliant. There is a 30 day trial, during the trial you pay only for the Amazon S3 fees After 30 days if you decide to continue to use it there is a $29.00 one time licensing fee. Amazon S3 fees are
You can choose which files/folders you want to back up and you can exclude specific files by name. You can back up from a network attach storage drive. It doesn’t delete backups from network storage devices even if you remove those devices from your network. If you can see it in the Finder menu it will back it up. In fact when I first start the backup process I noticed it was backing up my Dropbox folder, which I quickly unchecked. It does not care what type of file you are backing up. Arq allows you to back up automatically every hour at a specific time during that hour, you can schedule a backup once a day or you can do a manual back up and have it only back up when you tell it too. You can control the transfer rate, either maximum, automatic which will throttle the speed if you are transferring something else over the Internet or a fix transfer rate at a specific KB per second. If you want you can get a Growl notification when a backup is completed. Plus you can have Arq start-up on login, show on the menu bar and prevent your computer from sleeping when backing up.
I am wondering how Arq behaves when it comes to backup the photo livrary on Mac OS X. By photo library I mean the 'package' named (by default) 'Photo Library' in your User/Images folder. I would like to configure an incremental backup of this library among other things and store it on my dropbox storage. Arq Backup provides a simple backup solution for your Mac that can run in the background, constantly keeping your important files backed up to your choice of cloud storage platform. It encrypts your files locally and regularly backs up your changes when you are connected to the internet. Backing up a PC or Mac on Object Storage with Arq Backup. Arq Backup Overview. Installing and Configuring Arq Backup. Open your web browser and go to the Arq website and download the application. Double click on the downloaded file to open the setup tool. On a Mac double click on the Arq icon to install the application.
To restore a file or folder you simply highlight it and then either click restore, which restores it to a folder labeled Arq folder or you can drag and drop the folder/file on to the Finder Window. I did a test restore on an image and it worked great, the image and all the metadata restored perfectly.
I have only been using Arq for a day now but so far I really like it. It was easy to set up, I like the fact it is TNO compliant and I like the cost. If you want to share the files with someone this is not the solution you are looking for. However if you are on a Mac and are looking for a good, secure backup solution I do recommend trying Arq.
Correction: made on Amazon fees 18:55 May 4
Arq Backup Overview
Arq Backup automatically backs up Macs and PCs to cloud storage while encrypting the data in an open and documented format.
Requirements
- You have an account and are logged into console.scaleway.com
- You have an Object Storage bucket
Arq Backup Time Machine
Installing and Configuring Arq Backup
1 . Open your web browser and go to the Arq website and download the application.
2 . Double click on the downloaded file to open the setup tool. On a Mac double click on the Arq icon to install the application:
On a Windows, follow the instructions of the setup tool to install the application.
3 . Once installed, start the Arq application and enter the Preferences Menu:
4 . The preferences screen appears, click on + to add a new storage location:
5 . Select Other S3-Compatible Service in the list of destinations:
6 . Enter the Object Storage credentials:
- S3-Compatible Server URL: The URL of the Object Storage endpoint:
- For FR-PAR (Paris, France) enter
https://s3.fr-par.scw.cloud
- For NL-AMS (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) enter
https://s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud
- For PL-WAW (Warsaw, Poland) enter
https://s3.pl-waw.scw.cloud
- For FR-PAR (Paris, France) enter
- Access Key ID: The Access Key of the API Key used for authentication
- Secret Key ID: The Secret Key of the API Key used for authentication
- Request Signature Version: Signature Version 2
7 . Choose the bucket to be used for storing backups. Two options are proposed:
Arq Backup Mac Review
- Create a new bucket
- Choose an existing bucket from the drop-down list
8 . Choose the local folders to backup. Click on Add a folder to Backups …
To backup all files in the home folder (excluding temporary files), it is also possible to click on Backups in the menu bar, then on Add Home Folder to Backups
9 . Arq encrypts backups by default. Enter a password to decrypt a backup when needed:
Arc Backup For Mac
Important: Make a note of the password and keep it in a safe place. It is not possible to decrypt a backup without having the password. An open source restore tool is available to decrypt a Backup on a computer without having Arq installed.
10 . The added folders appear in the list on the left and Arq stats to backup them hourly on Object Storage:
11 . If required, the backup frequency can be adjusted from the preferences by clicking on Arq in the menu bar, then on Preferences. Select the Object Storage bucket and click on Edit
12 . Edit the backup schedule as required:
Restoring Files
- Go to the Restore Files section of Arq
- Expand the menu on the left to see a list of all backups. They are sorted by the time/date of their creation. Click on the desired backup, the contents of the backup appear on the right.
- Click on the Item to restore, then click the Restore… button. This restores the item into its original location
- If the item already exists in the original location, choose Overwrite to replace all missing and changed files with the contents from the backup. Choose Do Not Overwrite to create a Restored by Arq sub-folder which contains all restored data.
- Arq may prompt for an administrator username and password to avoid permission issues when restoring files.
3 . Alternatively it is possible to restore files anywhere by dragging-and-dropping them from the backup window to the desktop or a Finder window
For advanced configuration options, refer to the official documentation.