For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup +solution for use at home. My requirements are simple, it must be +cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption +keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files). +One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud +storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage, +writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail +service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space. On top +of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have +lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage. But +I never found time to implement such system. But the last few weeks I +have looked at a system called +S3QL, a locally +mounted network backed file system with the features I need.
+ +S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage, +handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3, +Google Drive or OpenStack API. There are heaps of such storage +providers. S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which +combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server. S3QL +include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots +and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as +a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local, +while the content is stored in the cloud as well. This allow me to +have a backup that should survive fire. The file system can not be +shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can +mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and +access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.
+ +It is simple to use. I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the +package is included already. So to get started, run apt-get +install s3ql. Next, pick a storage provider. I ended up picking +Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on +how +to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service, because I trust the laws +in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal +data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company +in Iceland. Another nice recipe is available from the article +S3QL +Filesystem for HPC Storage by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of +Admin magazine. When the provider is picked, figure out how to get +the API key needed to connect to the storage API. With Greencloud, +the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my +account.
+ +Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file +system. First, create a new bucket in the cloud. This bucket is the +file system storage area. I picked a bucket name reflecting the +machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do. +I'll refer to it as bucket-name below. In addition, one need +the API login and password, and a locally created password. Store it +all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this: + +
+ ++[s3c] +storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name +backend-login: API-login +backend-password: API-password +fs-passphrase: local-password +
I create my local passphrase using pwget 50 or similar, +but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it. +Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API +details and password to create it:
+ ++ ++# mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache +# mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \ + --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name +Enter backend login: +Enter backend password: +Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially +the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section. +Enter encryption password: +Confirm encryption password: +Generating random encryption key... +Creating metadata tables... +Dumping metadata... +..objects.. +..blocks.. +..inodes.. +..inode_blocks.. +..symlink_targets.. +..names.. +..contents.. +..ext_attributes.. +Compressing and uploading metadata... +Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata. +#
The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available. + +
+ ++# mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \ + --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql +Using 4 upload threads. +Downloading and decompressing metadata... +Reading metadata... +..objects.. +..blocks.. +..inodes.. +..inode_blocks.. +..symlink_targets.. +..names.. +..contents.. +..ext_attributes.. +Mounting filesystem... +# df -h /s3ql +Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on +s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name 1.0T 0 1.0T 0% /s3ql +# +
The file system is now ready for use. I use rsync to store my +backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at +mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by +running rsync. To unmount, one should not use the normal umount +command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but +instead running the umount.s3ql command like this: + +
+ ++# umount.s3ql /s3ql +# +
There is a fsck command available to check the file system and +correct any problems detected. This can be used if the local server +crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already +mounted" flag. This is what it look like when processing a working +file system:
+ ++ ++# fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name +Using cached metadata. +File system seems clean, checking anyway. +Checking DB integrity... +Creating temporary extra indices... +Checking lost+found... +Checking cached objects... +Checking names (refcounts)... +Checking contents (names)... +Checking contents (inodes)... +Checking contents (parent inodes)... +Checking objects (reference counts)... +Checking objects (backend)... +..processed 5000 objects so far.. +..processed 10000 objects so far.. +..processed 15000 objects so far.. +Checking objects (sizes)... +Checking blocks (referenced objects)... +Checking blocks (refcounts)... +Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)... +Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)... +Checking inodes (refcounts)... +Checking inodes (sizes)... +Checking extended attributes (names)... +Checking extended attributes (inodes)... +Checking symlinks (inodes)... +Checking directory reachability... +Checking unix conventions... +Checking referential integrity... +Dropping temporary indices... +Backing up old metadata... +Dumping metadata... +..objects.. +..blocks.. +..inodes.. +..inode_blocks.. +..symlink_targets.. +..names.. +..contents.. +..ext_attributes.. +Compressing and uploading metadata... +Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata. +# +
Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very +quick, about the same speed as local file access. Uploading large +amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my +house. Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s, +which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same +Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed. +Both were measured using dd. So for me, the bottleneck is my +network, not the file system code. I do not know what a good cache +size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your +working set.
+ +I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the +time. If another machine try, it is told that the file system is +busy:
+ ++ ++# mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \ + --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql +Using 8 upload threads. +Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting. +# +
The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the +metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default. To ensure the +file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the +file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using +s3qlctrl: + +
+ ++# s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql +# s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql +# +
If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the +cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the +storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get +a report:
+ ++ ++# s3qlstat /s3ql +Directory entries: 9141 +Inodes: 9143 +Data blocks: 8851 +Total data size: 22049.38 MB +After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total) +After compression: 21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated) +Database size: 2.39 MB (uncompressed) +(some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache) +# +
I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of +storage. I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least +Greenqloud, +Google Drive, +Amazon S3 web serivces, +Rackspace and +Crowncloud. The latter even +accept payment in Bitcoin. Pick one that suit your need. Some of +them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are +quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you +best.
+ +While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers +and posters discussing the S3QL file system. There are several, which +told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the +science community and increased my confidence in using it. One nice +poster is titled +"An +Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStackâs SwiftObject +Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach" by Hsing-Bung +Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields +and Pamela Smith. Please have a look.
+ +Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to +check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as +a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when +it come to locking and umask handling etc). Running +my +test code to check file system semantics, I was happy to discover that +no error was found. So the file system can be used for home +directories, if one chooses to do so.
+ +If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that +work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the +Tarsnap service, which also +provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client. It have +a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write +access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to +only read from it.
+ +As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.
+ +