Yes it does. For example my current Linux CrashPlan install got its JRE from

http://download.code42.com/installs/proserver/jre/jre-7u45-linux-x64.tgz

Though I guess maybe the Linux version might use the installed JRE if the installer finds one ?

Since 3.6.3 the Linux installer has been using a version downloaded from CrashPlan:

https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Configuring/CrashPlan_and_Java_security

I'm way ahead of you...

tanstaafl.

I missed that part. I knew that the installer would download Java if it wasn't there -- didn't realize they'd switched to just always download. But even if I had, I would assume it's simply to ensure that they were running on a specific version of Java, rather than because they did something custom to the JVM.

Pretty sure it won't work without their cloud service. You still login to an account they host even if you don't back up to them right? So if you can't do that then P2P backups won't work as you won't be able to set up a machine.

That appears not to be the case.

If I unplug my cable modem (my internet provider) my CrashPlan program still loads and works. I suspect that what won't work is the setup of new backups or even changing the setup of existing backups.

tanstaafl.

Well I'd say that's close enough to not working if it can't be managed at all.

How about restoring from scratch, from a backup?

Suffice to say that I want to make sure my backup scheme is operating with actively supported software. I want to know that security patches, bug fixes, and general software maintenance is ongoing. Part of why I liked CrashPlan so much is that it was a fire-and-forget solution. Install it and it does auto-updates and, as such, generally just works. (There was that one time I had to increase the JVM memory size. Let's pretend that was an aberration. The point still stands.)

When Apple dropped support for their AirPort Extreme WiFi units, coincidentally around the same time that Google announced their own WiFi units, the same sort of logic led me to dump the former and adopt the latter. Also, those Google WiFi units are exceptionally good, but that's a topic for another thread.

Consequently, I now have to decide whether I want to go with a cloudy solution, or whether I want to wait for some open-source hero to come out with a clone of the "peer to peer" mode from CrashPlan.

Of course, what I *really* want is for Apple to support "Remote TimeMachine", except you know they won't ever do such a thing unless it involves iCloud and monthly fees.

Open-source would be good, but in the absence of all of that, I'm just going to use the stuff that comes with my Synology NAS:

• We keep valuable stuff (photos, etc.) directly on the NAS (using SMB).
• I can (but don't) use it as a TimeMachine destination. It can be a bit flaky -- it loses auth or something, but that can be resolved fairly easily.
• It's got some backup software on there that claims to be able to do agent-less backup of Linux and Windows servers.
• If you want to install an agent, it's got that too.
• It'll do backups to/from other Synology boxes.

All that said, I've not actually used anything other than backup-to-USB in anger. Other than "photos, etc.", I wouldn't be massively traumatised if I were to lose the data from any of my PCs. Because pretty much everything I do is in Github.

I guess I'd be annoyed if my/kids' Minecraft server was lost -- maybe I'll push that to the NAS as well.

What about offsite backup ?

Sync over a VPN to a friend's Synology? Or, what I actually do: take the external hard disk into the Cambridge office every month or so and swap it for another one.


It's got backup clients for (e.g.) iDrive, Elephant and Glacier, too, btw...

Off-site backup is one of those places where ZFS's features (incremental send/recv, etc.) would do all the right things with a nice layer of UI over the top. Add in Oracle's recent abandonment of all things related to Solaris, and I'm very sad about all this.

Say, what/who is the "Cambridge office" these days?

Haven't seen you in person for 8-9 years now, so getting a bit behind on such things!

That would never happen for me, if it ain't automatic and reliable, it ain't going to happen in reality.

Looks like I am settled on Arq + Amazon Cloud Drive for backing up my Macs and PC.

What I'm going to do on the Linux side is less clear at the moment. If Arq was available on Linux I'd use that, but it isn't.

Duplicati is looking like an option on Linux, but my Ubuntu server is too out of date to run it. So I'm still working out with how to deal with that (either run Duplicati in a VM or go through the pain of upgrading a ZFS based, thankfully not root/boot, Ubuntu system).

Arq is far from perfect, but it seems to work well enough. Amazon Cloud Drive from the UK is fast enough to not be a bottleneck (in comparison to Backblaze, which seemed to be limited somewhere between the UK and the US).

In terms of people you've met, I think it's just Peter. I don't know whether you met Shaun -- he joined empeg on the same day I left, but he's also in the Cambridge office. Toby is also in the Cambridge team, but not in the Cambridge office. Did I forget anyone?

Who's the current corporate overlord? What used to be empeg got bought and sold so many times that I've lost track.

No idea. To be clear, "the Cambridge office" is the embedded engineering team for Electric Imp. Electric Imp just happens to have a number of ex-empeg people.

Is Rob Voisey still involved there?

Thanks for the updates!

No. I think (but could be mistaken...) he did some consultancy work for us back at the beginning, though. We're still in touch, and meet up socially. Rob's doing this now.

Backblaze did launch a speedtest site recently, may be useful for others considering using their services. https://www.backblaze.com/speedtest/

Personally been happy with them so far to keep 2 computers backed up, but not sure what I'll go with long term. I'm still debating if I need to back up my NAS data based on most of it being my media archive. I question if it's worth the cost vs rereipping in a loss, vs not even caring about having local media with current online offerings.

The test shows 0.3 mbits/sec upload for me, so it matches the poor performance of there actual service from the UK.

They just don't seems to have enough trans Atlantic bandwidth in place as they need.

Decent speedtest app. Getting 20Mbit down and 30Mbit up from Australia which is probably about the limit of my office. It's a bit variable though. 200ms ping too which isn't great but that's about right for Australia-US connections. Absolute max is about 40Mbit/40Mbit but shared amongst a lot of people and it's middle of the day.

I have been noticing somewhat significant issues with bandwith to the US for other things (Yocto development in particular) but it doesn't seem particularly limited for this.

I ended up using Crashplan Pro/Business, whatever they call it. It's been up and running for a week now, and all seems to be good. I liked that it retained my data, so I did not have, of course, to transfer everything from scratch (it took me months last time).

So you were more or less forced to go the Pro route. Which is probably what their intention was in the first place.

And is why I no longer use CrashPlan. They abandoned me (as of October 22) so I abandoned them in return.

tanstaafl.

And fair enough you make that decision. I wouldn't say they are forcing anything. It is still a puzzling decision and probably brought on by abuse of Unlimited as much as anything. I do think the fact they won't offer pro-rata refunds is a bit rubbish for a service that is intended to be an ongoing thing. There's no point in backing up anything on the last day of your plan is there?

I had the Family plan which I paid 12 months for only recently so I still have some 9 months paid left to use. That cost me $149 for a year. In reality I really only *need* to back up one machine (my NAS) as long as I sort out something else to back everything else up to it. As a result I will most likely end up paying $120/year i.e. less.

I also have about 5 or 6 years of history with them so if I go elsewhere all that backup history is completely lost.

The loss of the P2P is annoying but also I presume I can't back up to a local disk either? I backnup on the NAS on a spare drive I have out of the array so basically it's a high speed backup for everything and the cloud backup is the "house burns down" or "lightning strikes house" backup.

Less.

I never used/needed/wanted their back-up to local HDD feature;
I never used/needed/wanted their back-up friend's stuff feature either;
I do like their multi-user Crashplan-Pro feature;
On-line control panel is quite better;

As it turns out, the new service is actually a better fit to my specific needs and, at present, the best service in the market in terms of features.

Not having to back-up everything from scratch was a (big) benefit, but actually not what made the difference.

What I did not like, instead, is the cost increase, in spite fo the extra months for free I got, and, the cancellation of the service I was using in the first place; quite obviously, of course.

In the end, I did not feel "forced", but rather annoyed. I think they could've handled the transition better.

Crashplan isn't forcing anyone into their business service. If anything, they've been pushing Carbonite pretty hard. In their first announcement I'm not sure if they even mentioned migrating to their Pro service.

It's interesting that Crashplan decided to completely close up shop instead of simply capping their plan. I've been moving my clients over from Crashplan to iDrive, and I'm signing up around 90% of them for the 2TB plan because most of them won't even fill that. I was even able to sign a couple of them up for the FREE iDrive plan. The rest I only signed up for the 5TB plan because they had multiple computers they needed to back up.