Arq 4 is out – Mac backup to S3/Glacier

I discovered Arq a couple years ago and have been using it ever since. I highly recommend it. The thing that sold me was that the file format is documented and I was able to write code to read the backups directly. So even if somehow Arq does disappear, I can still read my data. <a href="http://godoc.org/code.google.com/p/rsc/arq" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;godoc.org&#x2F;code.google.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;rsc&#x2F;arq</a>

As always, we&#x27;re very happy to see that in addition to S3&#x2F;Glacier&#x2F;DreamCloudStartupOfTheWeek, Arq supports plain old SFTP.<p>This means that, of course, it works perfectly with rsync.net and that we have yet another chance to offer the HN readers discount, which you may email us to find out about.

Quick endorsement: buy this. Arq has allowed me to be insanely careless about backups and has never failed. Makes the whole backup thing cost effective, too with Amazon being dirt cheap these days.

Can someone using S3 Glacier as a backup destination please provide some concrete costs? Even if no retrieval is involved, I&#x27;d just love to see: &quot;I pay $XYZ and am backing up ###GB worth of data.&quot;<p>I see the calculator floating around in the comments, but it&#x27;s not formatted in a backup-friendly fashion &#x2F; use case (ie. set storage size with XYZ% churn for changed files, or continuously expanding snapshots with aged snapshot deletion).<p>I&#x27;ve always been curious for usage for backup storage. The costs for retrieval are expensive enough (in the time frames I&#x27;d care to see for a personal computer) that I think I&#x27;ll still avoid that aspect for the time being.

Arq has been part of my backup systems since version 2. This upgrade looks very good. Especially the expansion beyond relying solely on Amazon S3 and use number of other services including SSH.<p>Having used the past Glacier support, the new S3 Glacier Lifecycle will be much better.<p>I am wondering about when (if?) the open source arq_restore and format documentation will be updated.

Wonderful piece of software - highly recommended. Awesome upgrade also, have been waiting for S3 alternatives for a long time.<p>It&#x27;s unfortunate a few things appear to be backwards - why can you include wifi APs, yet not exclude them - despite the example suggesting you exclude from tethered devices.<p>Likewise, why can you email on success, but not failure.

Could you change the upgrade system on macs please? I got a message telling me to install the latest update -- so I did. I was on a paid version of Arq 3, and now I&#x27;m on a trial version of Arq 4 :-&#x2F;

I&#x27;ve regularly been curious about this, but Crashplan has a stable reputation and seems much less expensive for large backups. For those who have researched Crashplan, why did you choose Arq instead?

Pretty awesome to see this. When I used a Mac for work, I used Arq and set it up on my coworkers&#x27; computers (they were completely non-technical). It was very easy to use.<p>I&#x27;m curious what backup tools people use on Linux if they want to back up files on Glacier. I use git-annex[0] for certain files (it works well for pictures and media). The rest of my backup process is a fairly rudimentary (though effective) rsync script, but it doesn&#x27;t use Glacier.<p>My current setup works fine for me, but I imagine there are better tools out there.<p>[0] <a href="https://git-annex.branchable.com/" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;git-annex.branchable.com&#x2F;</a>

I&#x27;m using Arq since 2011 to backup my most important data to Amazon S3+Glacier and can highly recommend it.<p>Today v4 has been released and comes with new storage options (GreenQloud, DreamObjects, Google Cloud Storage, SFTP aka your own server), multiple backup targets, unified budget across S3 and S3&#x2F;Glacier, Email notifications and many more clever features.

I love the addition of SFTP, and I hope to buy the update soon.<p>Can anyone recommend a SFTP backup provider?<p>My Arq backups are designed to be worst-case. I have other, local backup options in case of failure. I was using Glacier, but I ran into Arq3 sync problems and I need to re-upload all my data. Glacier is very slow from where I live. I assume SFTP will be a bit faster.

BTW, another great product from the same developers have recently become available:<p>It&#x27;s called Filosync and is like Dropbox but secure and with your own (or with Amazon) servers. Check out <a href="http://www.filosync.com/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.filosync.com&#x2F;</a> for more information. And be warned, it&#x27;s pricey!

Site is down&#x2F;slow for me. Google Cache: <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.haystacksoftware.com/blog/2014/03/arq-4-is-out/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;webcache.googleusercontent.com&#x2F;search?q=cache:http:&#x2F;&#x2F;...</a>

I like the idea of using Glacier as a Backup solution for ones devices. However one thing worries me: Looking at the Glacier pricing table[1] there is a section &#x27;Request pricing&#x27;. This looks to me like there is a price of 5.5 cents per 1000 upload request. Considering Arq will upload multiple times an hour, this looks like it could amount to quite a bit. With two uploads per hour I arrive at 5$ per month, but there could be significantly more uploads. Even 5$ would already be a 50% price increase compared to only the storage pricing for 1TB of data.<p>Could anyone clarify whether my calculation is wrong?<p>[1] <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/pricing/" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aws.amazon.com&#x2F;glacier&#x2F;pricing&#x2F;</a>

What I couldn&#x27;t find is whether Arq encrypts the data client side before uploading it. This has prevented me from using several other backup tools. Does anybody know?

How does this compare to say using Tarsnap (apart from cost)?

Am I the only one that would like to be able to setup a time range when it&#x27;s allowed to use my bandwidth?<p>I&#x27;m traveling in hotels with shitty wifi most of the time. It&#x27;s hard enough to browse so I&#x27;d really only like to backup while I&#x27;m sleeping. Also, in the interest of not hogging all the bandwidth I&#x27;d like it to stop by say 6am so that as guests are waking up they can use the bad internet.

Big fan, the inclusion of DreamHost&#x27;s DreamObjects is a huge improvement also. In most cases they are cheaper than Amazon&#x27;s S3 storage. Still more expensive than Glacier...but DreamObjects doesn&#x27;t have any of the crazy slow retrieval times or costs that Glacier does.

Two questions for Arq users:<p>1. In former versions, it was difficult to see what was actually part of the backup. Has that changed?<p>2. Is there any reliable way of calculating how much an Arq backup will cost? Storage costs are easy to calculate but with Amazon S3, changes etc. are a major cost factor.

Can someone tell me why I shouldn&#x27;t be using BitTorrent Sync as a multi-location backup plan?<p>In other words, can someone sell me on the idea of paying for AWS storage when I have dirt cheap storage around my house and even a remote location that I can stuff a huge drive in.

I was looking at Arq the other day and couldn&#x27;t find if it had a bootable backup feature (like CC Cloner). Anyone know something about this?

Anyone using duplicity or duplicati as open-source alternatives to arq?

The purchase link is incredibly well hidden. Anyone find it?

But... Tarsnap...