After deciding to use Mozy as my preferred online backup solution, I thought it would be only fair to have a recap on how it is performing on my current system.  I decided to scrap the initial backup I did (10GB of files) and restart using my own symmetric key to have more peace of mind on the safety of my files.  Since I already use asymmetric keys generated by puttygen, I decided to simply generate a set of keys and only use the public key as my key for Mozy.  A weird way to do it, but at least the key is nice and random.

I started uploading my files again, and let Mozy run for around a week.  This process ran at mostly 45KB/s on my limited 60KB/s upload speed which isn’t too bad.  One thing you will notice is that the interface for the Mozy backup application is pretty limited and could use a lot of work with regards to the UX.  During the backup I came to the realisation that there may be a limitation with Mozy.  Since your backup sets are linked to your computer and not your account, having your computer crash would cause Mozy to think upon reinstall of Windows that your computer is a new machine and subsequently your backups would be removed.  Cue much reading of the documentation (again, pretty limited) and finally chatting to a support tech on their live chat system who kindly said there is a procedure for this such use case although it requires you to download your entire set of backups which is just madness.

Now me not being the forward thinking guy I normally am, I ran the entire 29GB backup without testing a restore.  With the Pro version of Mozy there are three ways of restoring files.  One is via a contextual explorer window which allows you to right click on a file or folder on your drive and restoring directly.  The other two methods require logging into your Mozy account in a browser and chosing the files you want to restore.  From there you have two options, one of which is to receive a DVD set of the backup you want to restore (currently unavailable and pretty expensive) or to have a web restore which generates zip files for you to download.  The zip files contain the encrypted versions of your files; in the case of your own symmetric key; and are broken up into 1.9GB.

In my tests, the explorer contextual menu restores worked like a charm.  A little slow for my liking but none the less it worked.  Watching filemon, Mozy does not ever touch your symmetric key on the harddrive but constantly reads from its state files which would mean that they store the symmetric key for you.  With regards to the web restore method, I’ve come up with a blank.  Downloading the zip file, extracting the files to a temporary location, I then have to run a decryptor tool on the files as they can’t seem to do the automatic decryption for you.  Once you’ve started the tool, which looks like it was written in VB6 by a monkey with no fingers, you get to chose your symmetric key and the location of your encrypted files.

And this is where I scream and curse Mozy.  Not because of the horrible decryption tool but because my symmetric key is not recognised.  And yes, my symmetric key has not changed, moved or otherwise been touched other than by Mozy itself.  I simply cannot decrypt the files using the key that I used to encrypt the files with.  In other words, I have 29GB of useless data and no backups to speak of.  Contacting their live support team, I was presented with the following question: “Can I please have a copy of your key and some of the encrypted zip files.”  Yes, jokes aside, Mozy themselves asked for a copy of my key.  It’s like giving my PIN number to my bank and once given means your key is completely insecure.  They’ve promised an email once they’ve looked into the problem but I’m not expecting anything from them. 

I’m at a bit of a juncture now with regards to my off site backup solution.  Mozy has proven itself untrustworthy and currently no other vendor provides the same sort of options that Mozy does itself.  What are my options for safe and secure (and cost effective) backups?  I have a server in the US that I can use, however I would prefer to store my files at a company whose primary business concern is the backup business.

Next I have an article in the works regarding Mozy’s state and config files.  Interesting little nuggets of information in there.

Tags: , ,