Ubuntu Encrypted Backup to Cloud

Hi all, mostly have my server set up with smb shares and want to have a private backup to cloud.

Any recommendations, does and don’t, and/or configuration requirements that suit cloud backup?

So, you want some folders on your server to be baced up to the cloud? Or you want your server to be your own cloud?

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folders

Well, you can do one of two things. Use any old cloud and encrypt it beforehand, or choose spideroak which will streamline it all for you. It costs a bit though.
If you choose the first option, the way I’d do it is to make a private folder which unlocks at login (if the password is the same as your user’s). It’ll store the password in your keyring so it’s not redily accessible. It’ll make a .Private hidden folder which is encrypted, and open up a regular Private folder at login. Whatever you put in the Private folder is encrypted in the .Private folder, which you can upload to the cloud. Will find a link to a guide later, am on mobile atm.

Edit: Here it is, though this is a “Secret” folder, makes no difference. You can even make the encrypted folder any name you want, with or without a “.” for it to be a hidden folder. https://www.maketecheasier.com/create-a-private-encrypted-folder-on-ubuntu-hardy-with-ecryptfs/

Edit II: Or, SpiderOak https://spideroak.com/

Edit III: And of course there are the advice of the more experienced from @Ruffalo :slight_smile:

Depends how much data you’re talking about. If it’s only a couple gigabytes, I would use Duplicati with any freebie cloud account; Google gives 15GB so it’s a good choice.

If you want to backup a tremendous amount of data, my suggestion is to get a GSuite for Business account which costs $10/month for unlimited storage (and yes, that works with a single user), and point Duplicati there. You can also mount your unlimited GDrive with encryption at rest and in transit using Rclone. I have around 30TB in my personal GDrive.

Check with your college; if they use Google you may already have an unlimited GDrive. Works with a lot of alumni accounts too.

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I’ve heard good things about borg (encrypted, deduped backup).

I like rclone for cloud backup. I’ve pushed dozens of TB with rclone.

You could use these in conjunction for encrypted cloud backup.

https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

https://rclone.org

Rclone isn’t really meant as a backup solution, and it doesn’t support versioning. You’re overwriting your entire backup every time, it’s essentially rsync to the cloud.

Borg doesn’t support cloud storage targets, so you would need to mount them first with rclone and then backup. So why not just use Duplicati which supports everything you need natively? Also it’s unclear if Borg uses versioning either.

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The last time I looked at this, there was a 1TB limit unless you had at least 5 users in your domain. You’re sure that’s been changed? I split an account with some friends for this reason.

You’re right, I wasn’t aware of Duplicati. Looks really good. (Sorry I obviously didn’t read through your post carefully before commenting myself)

Borg backups are incremental, but I’m not sure if the increments are stored in a single monolithic file, or if they are separated (I have not actually tried it yet). If they are saved into a monolithic file (which I suspect is the case), then you’re correct, you’d need to re-upload the whole file each time which is not ideal.

I specifically pointed out it works with only one user because I knew someone would ask that exact question. So much for forethought, /shrug. Here it is again: Yes, it works with one user. I’m aware Google’s site says otherwise.

I haven’t used Borg, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Duplicati 2.0. I backup 7 hosts to Google Drive with it, covering 7TB or so. Since Google gives unlimited storage, I just set the expiration time to “never”, so I can restore backups from any point in time I might need.

i have been looking in to borgbackup but cant find if it supports splitting its archive??

i have Tbs and cant upload (to box) any files larger then 5Gb, thus would need to split it in to 5~Gb files

I asked for clarification because I had tried it years ago and it did limit me to 1TB which led me to get 4 other people together to split an account.

I’m not sure. It was recommended to me recently, and I have looked over the documentation but haven’t yet used it.

That’s a serious limitation. I’ve never used Box. Why are you stuck with it (or why do you prefer it)?

Im only archiving 8TB and dont need much file access, lets say a daily 1-2Gb change. i dont need a high transfer speed, im not serving the files from cloud. i just need an off site backup in the case of raid/system failure

box.com is the only cloud that fits the size per cost

Google Drive also has a 5TB file size limit, and they will rate-limit if you upload over 750GB per day, which shouldn’t be a major problem although I did get limited on my initial upload at gigabit speeds. At $10/month I would be very surprised if Box is cheaper.