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|
+++
date = 2023-06-28
title = "Getting Started with Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage"
description = ""
draft = false
+++
# Overview
Backblaze [B2 Cloud
Storage](https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage.html) is an
inexpensive and reliable on-demand cloud storage and backup solution.
The service starts at \$5/TB/month (\$0.005/GB/month) with a download
rate of \$0.01/GB/month.
However, there are free tiers:
- The first 10 GB of storage is free.
- The first 1 GB of data downloaded each day is free.
- Class A transactions are free.
- The first 2500 Class B transactions each day are free.
- The first 2500 Class C transactions each day are free.
You can see which API calls fall into categories A, B, or C here:
[Pricing Organized by API
Calls](https://www.backblaze.com/b2/b2-transactions-price.html).
For someone like me, who wants an offsite backup of their server\'s
`/home/` directory and various other server configs that fall
under 10 GB total, Backblaze is a great solution from a financial
perspective.
# Create An Account
To start with Backblaze, you\'ll need to [create a free
account](https://www.backblaze.com/b2/sign-up.html) - no payment method
is required to sign up.
Once you have an account, you can test out the service with their web
GUI, their mobile app, or their CLI tool. I\'m going to use the CLI tool
below to test a file upload and then sync an entire directory to my
Backblaze bucket.
# Create a Bucket
Before you can start uploading, you need to create a bucket. If you\'re
familiar with other object storage services, this will feel familiar. If
not, it\'s pretty simple to create one.
As their webpage says:
> A bucket is a container that holds files that are uploaded into B2
> Cloud Storage. The bucket name must be globally unique and must have a
> minimum of 6 characters. A limit of 100 buckets may be created per
> account. An unlimited number of files may be uploaded into a bucket.
Once you click the `Create a Bucket` button on their webpage
or mobile app, you need to provide the following:
- Bucket Unique Name
- Files in Bucket are: `Private` or `Public`
- Default Encryption: `Disable` or `Enable`
- Object Lock: `Disable` or `Enable`
For my bucket, I created a private bucket with encryption enabled and
object lock disabled.
Once your bucket is created, you can test the upload/download feature on
their web GUI or mobile app! At this point, you have a fully functional
bucket and account.
# Linux CLI Tool
## Installation
To install the `b2` CLI tool, you\'ll need to download it
from the [CLI
Tools](https://www.backblaze.com/docs/cloud-storage-command-line-tools)
page. I recommend copying the URL from the link that says
`Linux` and using wget to download it, as shown below.
Once downloaded, make the file executable and move it to a location on
your `$PATH`, so that you can execute that command from
anywhere on the machine.
```sh
wget <b2_cli_url>
chmod +x b2_linux
mv b2_linux /usr/bin/b2
```
## Log In
The first step after installation is to log in. To do this, execute the
following command and provide your `<applicationKeyId>` and
`<applicationKey>`.
If you don\'t want to provide these values in the command itself, you
can simply execute the base command and it will request them in an
interactive prompt.
```sh
# if you want to provide the keys directly:
b2 authorize-account [<applicationKeyId>] [<applicationKey>]
# or, if you don't want your keys in your shell history:
b2 authorize-account
```
## Upload a Test File
In order to test the functionality of the CLI tool, I\'ll start by
uploading a single test file to the bucket I created above. We can do
this with the `upload_file` function.
The command is issued as follows:
```sh
b2 upload_file <bucket_name> <local_file> <remote_file>
```
In my situation, I executed the following command with my username.
```sh
b2 upload_file my_unique_bucket /home/<user>/test.md test.md
```
To confirm that the file was uploaded successfully, list the files in
your bucket:
```sh
b2 ls <bucket_name>
```
``` txt
test.md
```
## Sync a Directory
If you have numerous files, you can use the `sync` function
to perform functionality similar to `rsync`, where you can
check what\'s in your bucket and sync anything that is new or modified.
The command is issued as follows:
```sh
b2 sync <source file location> <B2 bucket destination>
```
In my case, I can sync my user\'s entire home directory to my bucket
without specifying any of the files directly:
```sh
b2 sync /home/<user>/ "b2://<bucketName>/home/<user>"
```
# Caveats
## Timing of Updates to the Web GUI
When performing actions over a bucket, there is a slight delay in the
web GUI when inspecting a bucket or its file. Note that simple actions
such as uploading or deleting files may have a delay of a few minutes up
to 24 hours. In my experience (\<10 GB and \~20,000 files), any actions
took only a few minutes to update across clients.
## Symlinks
Note that symlinks are resolved by b2, so if you have a link from
`/home/<user>/nas-storage` that symlinks out to a
`/mnt/nas-storage` folder that has 10TB of data,
`b2` will resolve that link and start uploading all 10TB of
data linked within the folder.
If you\'re not sure if you have any symlinks, a symlink will look like
this (note the `->` symbol):
```sh
> ls -lha
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Jun 28 13:32 nas -> /mnt/nas-storage/
```
You can recursively find symlink in a path with the following command:
```sh
ls -lR /path/to/search | grep '^l'
```
|
