[tahoe-dev] Potential use for personal backup

[Saint Germain]

On Wed, 23 May 2012 00:39:23 +0200, Guido Witmond <guido at wtmnd.nl>
wrote :

> On 22-05-12 22:16, Saint Germain wrote:
> > On Tue, 22 May 2012 13:01:58 -0600, "Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn"
> > <zooko at zooko.com> wrote :
> >
> >> I hope this helps! I would very much like to read a letter from
> >> you to the tahoe-dev list saying whether you tried to use
> >> Tahoe-LAFS, and how you tried to use it, and how well it worked.
> >>
> >
> > Indeed what I had in mind was not possible with tahoe. It was mainly
> > because I couldn't imagine such a radical different approach.
> >
> > So as I understand it makes no real sense to have a node on my home
> > computer and it makes no real sense either to have a single node on
> > my remote server. So I have indeed to participate in some kind of
> > VolunteerGrid2 (I don't know anyone else as curious as me).
> > It's quite a psychological step to "give" your backups to people you
> > don't know, even if it is encrypted. But I _do_ understand all the
> > advantages.
> > 
> It still can be a good idea to run a storage node at home, it's part
> of the total network and has the advantage of quick access (low
> latency in technical terms). If you run you at 1-of-2, it gives you
> the best of both worlds, redundant storage *and* fast access.
> Although to be sure, you should run your node on a separate
> hard-disk, just to be sure.
> 

Yes quick access for reading. For writing it will be slow.
I was hoping to use it like Dropbox, but the writing speed would be too
uncomfortable.
So I will only use tahoe for backup (not for "synchronization").

> > I suppose that it is possible that I contribute one node to
> > VolunteerGrid2 which can be used by my whole family and friends,
> > each having its private encrypted store ?
> > 
> The VolunteerGrid2 requests you operate a node for longer time. As the
> other participants will store their data on your node, they would like
> to be sure that the churn in nodes is not too high. Otherwise, they
> would have to increase their K-of-N ratio to lower the chance of
> losing data when you turn off your node. And by increasing the ratio,
> they would increase the amount of data to be stored or transferred.
> That's why you'ld want a stable grid with low churn.
> 

No problem. If I make the jump, it will be a "professionnal" remote
server 24h/24 online with very good availability.

> > The only problem I see, is that I will be limited by the storage
> > capacity. The remote server I intend to rent has 2 TB and I was
> > already thinking that it was too small for my "group" (5-10
> > people). I understant that it is better on VolunteerGrid2 if I
> > contribute between 500 GB and 1 TB ?
> 
> > As for testing, I don't have the remote server yet (I am evaluating
> > different backup strategy/solutions before doing the jump). So
> > unfortunately it would be difficult for me to test right now (I only
> > have my laptop which is only connected when I am using it).
> > 
> I can offer you a 25 GB storage node for testing for a short while,
> say a month. It's on my home-adsl with 10Mb/1Mb up- and download
> speeds. Don't expect miracles but it should give you an idea what to
> expect.
> 

Ok many thanks for the offer. Is it part of a VolunteerGrid2-type
network ?
I'm not sure when I can make the test, but as soon as I got some time,
I will contact you !

Bye