So I finally got my Amazon Sync working and it's currently uploading my first 1TB. Yay!!
However, I got to thinking about security. There's a clause in the amazon terms of use that says they can look at and retain my data. (i'm paraphrasing). This got me thinking that maybe I should be encrypting the data to store it at Amazon so they cant' get to it. However I don't seem to see any options for doing that. Am i right in saying that's not currently an option?
Is anyone else using amzon for storage and concerned about lack of encryption?
As a matter of interest, what do you mean by Amazon Sync?
I have a laptop with admin access to my ReadyNas NVX and use it to backup using the Amazon Drive app on Windows, it supposedly copies my whole 3.8Tb data, but I keep finding things missing online wth no errors in the app logs. For me thats a bigger reason not to use it, than worrying that one day Amazon will look at my files, or more likely hand them over to some government organization to review.
For me thats a bigger reason not to use it, than worrying that one day Amazon will look at my files, or more likely hand them over to some government organization to review.
Not sure what's going there, but if you can't get it to work then it makes sense to find something else.
Amazon might not ever want to look at your files, but anyone who figures out how to access your Amazon Account (either guessing the password or as a result of an amazon security breach) would have full access to everything you have backed up. And Amazon is a tempting target for any cybercriminal.
You might be willing to take that risk, but I'd much rather the files were encrypted using a key that Amazon didn't have.
I want to use a cloud backup because it's offsite. I'm backing up important family things like photos and family documents. Nothing hugely interesting to someone specifically targeting me, but valuable to someone who gets my data as let of a larger breach.
I'm not a business, this is just for home use so I do not really want to buy another nas and put it in a data center on the other side of the country. I'm confident in my local backup solution, but what if my house burns down, I would hate to lose all that stuff.
I would just use readynas vault, but I'm looking for a more cost effective solution. 2tb with the vault is $40 per month where Amazon is $60 per year. Huge difference.
Maybe I just need to be less of a cheap **bleep** and pony up for readynas vault....
Sync isn't really a backup anyway, since any problem with the NAS files ends up being applied in the Amazon Cloud
Crashplan would also cost $60 per year for a single device (unlimited storage). It is encrypted.
It is possible to to install it on x86 NAS with ssh, or you can install it on a PC or Mac and map the NAS data volume to a network drive. The latter is simpler of course.
Just wanted to respond to the post comparing the ReadyNAS Vault (RNV) and the Amazon Cloud Drive and pricing (felt obliged to hop in when RNV was brought up)...
1. These aren't exactly apples to apples solutions, though both can be used for many similar purposes. One key difference, highlighted in this thread, is that the data is encrypted at rest with RNV. Meaning, the files are all encrypted on your device and never decrypted until they are returned to an authenticated device. Additionally, you have the option of using Personal Keys that the RNV service does not have access to (warning: if you use this option and lose/forget the passphrase, RNV cannot help you recover the data). There are several other features/function (e.g. granular control over backup rules, versioning/archiving, appropriate handling of attached devices, etc...) but those may not even matter for this use case.
2. We hear you loud and clear on the price . Amazon's one price fits all is designed to attract many users, likely with the knowledge that some users (like those with very large data sets, say NAS users) will be loss leaders. RNV has a variety of different plans that are built to cater to specific needs - perhaps one of our Personal plans will work for? Or maybe our sales team can provide a discount - please check in at support@vault.readynas.com and reference this link. The team will try to find the most economical plan for your use case and may be able to save you money.
Once I have my primary NAS resynced, and backup via rsync to a secondary NAS it certainly makes sense to backup offsite, and the amazon price is great. I'll need to get on the phone with them and debug why it's not working. It's not an permissions problem as I can cause those to happen and they are logged.
Next time I have a NAS failure I'll invest in a new model and this will be an interesting addition.
Crash plan looks interesting. My only hesitation is that I'm super lazy. I tend to prefer out of the box solutions that don't require me to instlal weird software. I can't really rely on installing it on a desktop so I'd have to install it on the NAS directly. I'm sure it's not supper difficult, but still not out of the box and so nobody will want to fix it if it's not working. where as if i keep everythign with netgear, they're insentivized to get it all working since it's all their product. It is tempting though.
@vrspectre: we meant to post this earlier, but somehow must have made an error in uploading.
In response to your comparison of ReadyNAS Vault and Amazon's Cloud Drive sync option...
1. These aren't exactly apples to apples solutions, though both can be used for many similar purposes. One key difference you've already highlighted in this thread is that data is encrypted at rest with RNV. Meaning, the files are all encrypted on your device and never decrypted until they are returned to an authenticated device. Additionally, you have the option of using Personal Keys that the RNV service does not have access to (warning: if you use this option and lose/forget your passphrase, RNV cannot help you recover your data). There are several other features/function (e.g. granular control over backup rules, versioning/archiving, appropriate handling of attached devices, etc...) but those may not even matter for this case.
2. We hear you loud and clear on the price. Amazon's one price fits all seems designed to attract many users with the knowledge that some users (like those with 2 TB of data) will be "loss leaders." RNV has a variety of different plans that are built to cater to specific needs - perhaps one of our Personal plans will work. Or maybe our sales team can provide a discount - please check in at support@vault.readynas.com and reference this thread. The team will try to find the most economical plan for your use case and may be able to save you money.
I'm sure it's not super difficult, but still not out of the box and so nobody will want to fix it if it's not working.
That is true- CrashPlan doesn't support headless installations on linux (though they have provided me support overall, they didn't support the installation itself). Like all NAS installs you have to pay attention to OS partition usage.
And I've seen one post here saying that the headless installations might become impossible in a future release.
I've been using it on my Pro-6 since 2012, and overall its worked out ok. There were bumps in the road in last summer (you'll find some posts from me and others on that in the forum).
I'm not ready to trust any Cloud Backup as my only backup, but for ~$60/year I'll gladly take it as disaster insurance.
>>It is possible to to install it on x86 NAS with ssh, or you can install it on a PC or Mac and map the NAS data volume to a network drive. The latter is simpler of course.
As others have posted, crashplan not supported in headless mode. Interestingly they do not support using Windows as a client using mapped drives to backup a NAS. Although they provide an unsupported workaround by installing ONLY in user mode, when the crashplan service is not installed. http://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Backup/Backing_Up_A_Windows_Network_Drive
Support is always a nebulous thing, and often a moving target. You think you are supported, until support tells you, you are not. You warranty and spport have expired, but you get great "support" through a community forum. Thanks guys!
As others have posted, crashplan not supported in headless mode.
This is true, though I have used crashplan support with good results several times over the years even though I use headless mode. They won't help with the install itself (though I wasn't needing that). But they did work to resolve my problems without fuss. Of course their business model is different from Netgear's (they get an ongoing revenue stream from their customers).
It is a bit odd - and perhaps there are historical reasons - they do support this mode in OSX. With older versions of Windows it is a bit harder to do.
Though if I ever need to reinstall crashplan, I likely will switch to this mode.
I wrote via email, and got pretty much a stock answer. Here is why ReadyNAS Vault doesn't work for me...
Really all I wanted was to backup my NAS. It’s still supported based on the web page, but the pricing is totally unrealistic. Most of the data is archive data, and won’t be accessed unless I have a total failure of the ReadyNAS.
It’s already just under 3Tb, and your plan is $39.95 per month for 2Tb. That’s totally unaffordable for a home user looking for occasional disaster recovery access and little else. Also your restrictions make it unsuable, I have backups of laptop hard drives going back to the early 1990’s archived on the ReadyNAS. The backups are often single files, many of them are over 15Gb in size. Again, chances are I’ll never need to access them. They are archived on the NAS and I just want the NAS backed up…
I need none of the things you list as “features” – link sharing, folder sharing, multiple devices, nor do I need a mobile app.
Thanks for the feedback. It sounds like there are two issues (cost and individual file size limitations), and the other note that many of the other features we offer are not of interest to you (i.e. just aren't relevant for your specific use case). We just want to comment below to let you (and/or other readers) know that we are listening...
re: Pricing -- We do offer lower cost "Personal" plans but I don't think they will work for you due to individual file size limits we enforce. As we get better pricing from our vendors and become more efficient, we will work to pass those savings on to end users but we understand that for the use case you are interested in it may make sense to go directly to a provider like Amazon Glacier (very low cost, high quality storage, aptly designed for your needs).
re: File size limitations -- we understand your frustration. While we will continue to increase our limitations on individual file size, it seems like we are a long way from supporting your full sized system images. We will pass the feedback along to our engineering team and let them know that the demand for large files (i.e. > 100GB) is strong and encourage them to accelerate their deployment of increased thresholds.
We're sorry we can't better meet your needs today. Thanks again for the candid report.
Really the pricing is the main issue. If the pricing was even practical, in my case, archiving and disaster recovery of a NAS, I could deal with file size by chopping up the files to 15Gb or less. I know how to do that if needed. My hard drive backups that are archived range from 10Gb-140Gb. I have few actual files that are not backups that would be greater than 1Gb.
On the Pro plan, at least from the website, http://www.readynasvault.com/cloudfs/#Comparison Table it's not clear how any overage is priced, or if it's possible. Does anyone, even a home user with a NAS actually have just 1Tb of data?
Given the service is aimed at ReadyNAS systems, it just seems the capacities are all too small.
Ah - based on your feedback we also have to improve our comparison chart, as it is failing to convey an important aspect of the plan strucutre. These are fairly new plans, only widely available for a few months now and we have been experimenting with explanatory pages (the current one isn't doing its job).
Absolutely we support much larger capacities than 1,000 GB for the Pro plans. That is, for the Pro plan, it starts at $9.95 for 1,000 GB, and can be expanded in 1,000 GB chunks for an additional $10 per chunk (e.g. 2,000 GB Pro for $19.95, 3,000 for $29.95, etc... - on to infinity, though we don't have very many Pro user over 12,000 GB.
Same goes for the Business plans, only the pricing is consistent with the entry point there. We have some users who have enormous data footprint, but they are backing up and syncing multiple devices.
So, while that may now do anything to help with our current pricing, we can and do support much larger capacities. We're grateful to you for helping identify that point of confusion and will be making updates to the page very shortly.
I'm in the same boat. I'm a home user and the majority of my 3TB needs are under 1GB files. The exceptions are within 2GB. It would be great if the personal plans supported up to like 5GB files. That would cover all of my documents and home movies. The only thing still as an outlier would still be a few zip file backups that are 20-100GB in size. But those aren't as important to me as the rest of it.
1. If you need file size limits of up to 2GB, please reach out to us. We will make it happen for you.
2. @vrspectre : per the avove, we hope everything is working well for you now.
3. In short order, all the Pro plans will have the individual file size limits increased to 2GB. We intend to keep raising the limits over time. Thanks for your patience and support - and always for your feedback.
