My goal is to to fully ditch Google Photos for Immich. I have about ~3TB of photos and videos. Looking for a super simple way of backing up the library to cloud storage in case of a drive failure without spending a ton.
Ideally, this will require nothing on my part besides copying files into a given folder. And ideally the storage will be encrypted and have basic privacy assurances.
Also if it matters my home server is running Debian.
Use Restic backups to a local drive then sync that with something like rsync to ovhcloud cloud archive (not cold archive but that can work too). You can also skip the local copy but it’s better to have one and if you sync weekly it gives you opportunities to do things like cull photos you took too many of before it slaps them all up. There are plenty of GUI based restic interfaces now if you want a quick check or browse. Use healthchecks.io to monitor the cronjobs and alert you if they aren’t working.
You could check out FolderFort. Sometimes they have lifetime pricing. I paid something like $170 for 3TB lifetime.
They have SFTP access in beta.
I use hetzner storagebox for similar needs. It’s not encrypted, so you need to manage that by yourself, but they support a ton of protocols and pricing is decent, even if they’re increasing the price shortly.
What does the setup look like on your end? Is there like, an app? Also how would I look into managing encryption by myself?
I use Borg Backup to backup specific folders of my hard disk to my hetzner storage box.
The software is triggered by corn/systemd to start a backup.
Does borg need an entire python venv?
I was looking at “modern” backup tools while back and when I saw borg was python I decided not to bother.
Instead I focused on restic for a little while and then rsync was already there and I already knew the commands so… Rsync. Though I still have restic on my list.
If you want to go on the restic route, you can try BackRest: it’s a web interface for restic with graphs and all.
I’m using proxmox backup server to make copies of full virtual machines, it takes care of encryption and verification of the data, so it’s not exactly the same than your scenario. Borg Backup is commonly recommended, but restic and dejadup are worth checking out too.
Backblaze B3, backup software of your choice pointed at the Immich library. Photos get put into Immich, backup runs, data encrypted and saved offsite.
Backup software of your choice pointed at the Immich library
Any recommendations? Preferably something something with a homeassistant integration or docker container with webui so I can more easily access it remotely. New to all this.
I use restic to backup immich (and everything else) to b3.
Be sure to stop the docker container while you backup to avoid skew.
Backblaze saved my ass at the end of last year when I had a hardware failure.
I use Duplicati and I THINK it has a container option? It is a web UI though.
I have my Immich library on a network drive and I took the lazy way and have my desktop duplicati just back up the network drive instead of directly on the server 😅
Looks like it does have a container option! $100/year for Backblaze computer backup is above what I was hoping to spend but it’s unlimited and I’m looking for a set it and forget it option so I’ll probably do exactly that, thank you.
This is what I did, only I set it up such that my family’s computers are backing up to my large external drive, and this drive is connected to the computer with the unlimited BB running and backing up. Just to get a little more benefit out of the cost.
There’s a plan where you pay some tiny amount per gb. Thats the one to use.
It’s $6/tb which isn’t bad but for my 3tbs is still more than $100/yr.
I’d be surprised if you find cheaper, but if you do, please report back.
Fwiw, BB have been super reliable for me over that past few years I’ve used them.
Hetzner Storage Box Costa 3,81€ per month for 1TB and you can acess it via SSH vor WebDav.
Hetzner will increase their prices by April, still a good value
https://www.hetzner.com/pressroom/statement-price-adjustment/
Another +1 for Hetzner.
I did an initial backup of my music (so I wasn’t concerned about encryption) with plain old
rsyncto get a feel for the system first, do a restore, etc. to feel comfortable with it all - and see if there were any hidden costs.Then I wiped all that and moved over to
rcloneto encrypt my data into different chunks (photos, music, work, etc)It all worked well and they even skipped charging me 1 month becuase I hadn’t exceeded their minimum charge (rolls up to the following month)
I’ve had proactive emails from them notifying me of work which might have reduced my ability to access their system, but ad it was outside the time of my backups, then no issue.
+1 for Hetzner Storage Boxes, even thought with the general increase in pricing for hardware I don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep them so cheap.
To back up the data automatically, I use BackRest (it’s a nice web interface that uses restic under the hood).
borg backup + ms office family, it comes with 6*1TB (split in 6 accounts)
(split in 6 accounts)
This makes it not really suitable for this.
Backblaze desktop is your best option.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters IP Internet Protocol NFS Network File System, a Unix-based file-sharing protocol known for performance and efficiency SMB Server Message Block protocol for file and printer sharing; Windows-native SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access ZFS Solaris/Linux filesystem focusing on data integrity
5 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 8 acronyms.
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I’ve been using Backblaze buckets to hold data I serve to friends with GameVault, and a few other things. Sitting at just shy of 1TB if memory serves? I’m paying about 4 bucks a month.
If you serve it through cloudflare, you aren’t charged for bandwidth. Which works out nicely because I use a cloudflare worker to redirect all download requests in GameVault. Super speedy downloads for my users, zero bandwidth coming off my home network.
And ideally the storage will be encrypted and have basic privacy assurances.
Do it locally with cryptomator or similar so the cloud will only see encrypted data.
Borgbase has good options for Borg and restic backups.
I highly recommend using one of these 2 for proper backups. Borg with borgmatic scripts are fantastic
Buy two 4tb extern drives. Copy your photos onto both. Leave on at your mom’s house in a closet. Leave the other in a locker at work or a safety deposit box.
No monthly fees, no techbro cloud capitalists.
This is the way
Time is money, and the time it would take to keep those backups up to date is not worth it over cloud backups.
Pcloud has lifetime deals with encryption.
I’ve had it for a very long time and paid once long ago. It works on Linux as well.
Hetzner storage box plus borgbackup (also to save on storage since it dedups).
I also use Hetzner, but with restic (through the web interface BackRest) instead of borg.
Is restic fine? Or should I migrate to Borg?
I use filen.io. encrypted and the barrier to entry is really low. Only gripe is that the CLI tool doesn’t support cron jobs yet.
I just recently setup kopia to backup my next cloud data and have it sync to idrivee2 seems to be reasonable price for s3 compatible storage









