Seeding Data

Introduction

Despite MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup is an efficient tool for frequent backup routines, the initial full backup may take significant time depending on the backup data size and available bandwidth.

For example, backing up terabytes of data can become an overwhelming burden for users with limited or low bandwidth. In such a case, it is quicker and possibly cheaper to use a faster computer or data transmission services like AWS Snowball Edge or Azure Import to perform the initial full backup. Once backup data is successfully uploaded to the backup storage, all subsequent incremental backups will be done on the original computer.

MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup is capable of performing such an operation. Although, some preparations are needed to be taken due to the backup data structure. If done properly, the initial backup will be performed on the 'fast PC' and the 'slow PC' will subsequently pick up the following backups.

The external storage referred to in this article may be a regular SSD or data transport solution like AWS Snowball Edge. Similarly, the 'fast PC' may represent another computer with a faster connection or using services like AWS Snowball Edge or Azure Import.

In any case, seeding data implies the following steps:

1. Backing up data to an external storage device.
2. Transferring data from the external storage device to the required cloud storage with a fast PC (or data transport service).
3. Synchronizing the repository to match the local and the cloud data.

This section covers the following data seeding solutions:

• AWS Snowball Edge
• Azure Import
• BlackBlaze B2 Fireball
• Another computer (New backup format
• Another computer (Legacy backup format
• Wasabi Ball