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Integrate Arq 7 Immutable Backups with Backblaze B2
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    Integrate Arq 7 Immutable Backups with Backblaze B2

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      Article Summary

      Arq is cloud backup software for Windows and Mac. Arq version 7 supports Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Object Lock with the new Immutable Backup option.

      This article provides the steps to configure an Arq Backup Plan using Backblaze B2, the S3-Compatible API, and Object Lock.

      If you are a Backblaze Fireball customer and you want to use Arq in combination with the Backblaze Fireball Rapid Ingest program, please see Arq's blog post. 

      Enable Backblaze B2

      Before you begin: You must have a Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage account. You can sign up here. If you already have a Backblaze account and the left navigation menu contains a B2 Cloud Storage section, your account is already enabled for Backblaze B2.

      1. Sign in to your Backblaze account.
      2. In the left navigation menu under Account, click My Settings.
      3. Under Enabled Products, select the checkbox to enable B2 Cloud Storage.
      4. Review the Terms and Conditions, and click OK to accept them. 

      Create a Bucket

      You can use an existing bucket, or you can create a new one, but your bucket must have Object Lock enabled.

      1. Sign in to your Backblaze account.
      2. In the left navigation menu under B2 Cloud Storage, click Buckets.
      3. Click Create a Bucket.
      4. Enter a name for your bucket.
        Bucket names must be at least six characters and globally unique. A message is displayed if your bucket name is already in use.
      5. Select a privacy setting: Private or Public.
        Files that are in a private bucket require authentication to perform an action, for example, downloading. Public buckets do not require authentication so you can easily share files. You can change a bucket's privacy settings at any time.
      6. If applicable, enable a Backblaze B2 server-side encryption key.
      7. Enable Object Lock to restrict a file from being modified or deleted for a specified period of time.
      8. Click Create a Bucket, and copy the value that is in the Endpoint field; you may need this value for other processes.
      9. Click Lifecycle Settings to control how long to keep the files in your new bucket.

      Create an Application Key

      Application keys control access to your Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage account and the buckets that are contained in your account.

      1. Sign in to your Backblaze account.
      2. In the left navigation menu under Account, click Application Keys.
      3. Click Add a New Application Key, and enter an app key name.
            You cannot search an app key by this name; therefore, app key names are not required to be globally unique.
      4. Select All or a specific bucket in the Allow Access to Bucket(s) dropdown menu.
      5. Optionally, select your access type (Read and Write, Read Only, or Write Only).
      6. Optionally, select the Allow List All Bucket Names checkbox (required for the B2 Native API b2_list_buckets and the S3-Compatible API S3 List Buckets operations).
      7. Optionally, enter a file name prefix to restrict application key access only to files with that prefix. Depending on what you selected in step #4, this limits application key access to files with the specified prefix for all buckets or just the selected bucket.
      8. Optionally, enter a positive integer to limit the time, in seconds, before the application key expires. The value must be less than 1000 days (in seconds).
      9. Click Create New Key, and note the resulting keyID and applicationKey values.
      Note
      When you create a new app key, the response contains the actual key string, for example N2Zug0evLcHDlh_L0Z0AJhiGGdY. You can always find the keyID on this page, but for security, the applicationKey appears only once. Make sure you copy and securely save this value elsewhere.

      Configure Arq7 with Backblaze B2

      Before you begin: You must download and install Arq 7 software for Mac or Windows.

      1. Open Arq 7, and select Create a backup plan.
      2. Click Add Storage Location, and select S3-Compatible Server.
        Backblaze B2 (the Native API) appears in the list, but it is not compatible with the Arq Immutable Backups feature. Therefore, for this configuration, do not select this option.
      3. Click Continue.
      4. Enter your Backblaze B2 connection details.
        1. Enter your bucket's endpoint URL in the Server URL field.
        2. Enter your application key ID in the Access Key ID field.
        3. Enter your application key in the Secret Access Key field.
        4. Enter a simplified version of your server URL in the Region field, for example, us-west-000.
        5. Click Continue.
      5. Select the bucket that you created in a previous task, and click Continue. 
      6. Select your storage location, for example, https://s3.us-west-000.backblazeb2.com, and click Continue.
      7. Select a backup setting, and click Create Backup Plan.
        There are three default options. You can make more adjustments to your settings after you create the Backup Plan.

      Enable Immutable Backups

      Arq offers multiple settings that you can adjust to take advantage of Immutable Backups, multi-threaded upload, bandwidth throttling, file exclusions, retention, encryption, and more.

      1. Highlight your backup, and click Edit.
      2. In the Immutable tab, select Make latest backup record immutable for # day(s), and enter the number of days in which to make your files immutable. 
      3. Click Save.

      Enable Multi-Threaded Uploads

      If you use more threads, it can improve the upload performance if you have a faster Internet connection.

      1. Highlight your backup, and click Edit.
      2. In the Options tab, adjust the Maximum # thread(s) for upload value. 
      3. Click Save.
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