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Set Up Network-Attached Storage (NAS) with Backblaze B2
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    Set Up Network-Attached Storage (NAS) with Backblaze B2

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      Article Summary

      Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage device that you can connect to a cloud storage service.

      This article provides the basic steps to set up a NAS with Backblaze B2.

      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

      For your first bucket, you may want to select the least restrictive settings so you have more flexibility when you initially test your set up. These settings cannot be changed later, but you can create a new bucket with the settings that you need.

      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

      For your first application key, you may want to select full permissions. You can always generate a more restrictive key later.

      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.

      Set Up NAS Backup and Sync Software

      The following steps serve as a general reference. Your software and hardware may require additional steps to set up.

      Your NAS device may come preloaded with cloud backup/sync software or have proprietary software available for download. When you run the software, you are prompted to choose a backup or sync destination. Backblaze B2 may appear as a readily available option. If only Amazon S3 is available, you can configure it to connect with Backblaze B2 using a few special settings.

      If you are not using built-in or proprietary software, you may need to configure everything manually.

      1. Select Backblaze B2 as the service, if available, or manually set an API URL.
      2. Enter the applicationKey and keyID that you generated.
      3. Select the destination bucket and specify a folder, for example, bucket1/backupfolder.
      4. Schedule automatic jobs and tasks.
      5. Complete additional configurations.

      Click here for articles that provide more information about how to set up the most popular NAS software options with Backblaze B2. The software that you use may also provide documentation for Backblaze B2-specific setup.

      Test the NAS Backup and Sync Setup

      If your setup is correct, you should be able to test a backup/sync and verify whether your files transfer to and from Backblaze B2 as expected. The cloud backup/sync software that you use on your NAS should allow you to view your local files and compare them with what you uploaded to Backblaze B2.

      If you want to check your buckets and their contents in the Backblaze web UI as well, sign in to your Backblaze account and click Browse Files in the left navigation menu.

      After you test and confirm that your NAS is successfully set up with Backblaze B2, you can adjust your settings and permissions in Backblaze B2 and in your NAS software to fit your needs.

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