Quickstart Guide for SoDA and Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage

Introduction

Soda is a SaaS application that allows users to transfer data from an on-premise storage device (NAS, SAN, private cloud, etc.) to cloud object storage. This walkthrough will help you understand the basics for configuring SoDA to transfer data between a NAS device and Backblaze B2 object storage.

SoDA Data Management

Prerequisites

• A Linux host is needed in the environment, either bare metal or virtual machine to host the SoDA Docker container. In this example, we are using a Ubuntu 18 virtual machine
• 1TB of storage for the root volume of the machine is needed
• You will need an Application Key, and Application Key ID from your Backblaze account with access to the target bucket you will be moving data to
• Bucket Name and Endpoint URL

Guide

Gathering Local Storage Information

• Make sure local network storage is mounted to your SoDA Linux machine
• Cat the /etc/fstab file and obtain the mount entry for the NFS mounted storage

freenas:/mnt/NFS1 /mnt/nfs1 nfs auto,nofail,noatime,nolock,intr,tcp,actimeo=1800 0 0

(NOTE: you will need this information late in the configuration.)

• IP Address of NAS device
• Export path
• Mount Options

Configuring SoDA

1. Login to the SoDA interface

2. Add Local and Backblaze B2 Storage Accounts to SoDA

3. Click Add Storage

4. Enter a friendly name for your B2 storage target, select Custom S3 as storage type, and enter the B2 Bucket Name 

5. Now click on your new storage target

6. Click on the + of Accessor

7. Enter the Endpoint URL, Application Key, and Application Key ID

Now that you have added all the credentials for both the source NAS device and your target Backblaze B2 Bucket, you can proceed with creating a transfer job

Creating a Quick Transfer

1. You have the option to do a Quick Transfer or set up a Policy to run transfers on a schedule

2. Choose Quick Transfer

3. You will need to choose a Source location

4. A method of transferring the data (Copy, Move, or Sync)

5. Select your B2 Bucket as your target Location

6. Once you have chosen your Source and Target locations, there are additional optional parameters you can manipulate to meet your needs. ie. Adding a Rule, or what to do with Conflict Handling

7. Now you can kick off your transfer by clicking Transfer Now, or if you would like to test out your configuration before you move data, click Dry Run

8. Now you can monitor the job from the Jobs Screen

9. Click on the active Job and get real-time statistics

Creating a Policy

1. Click New Policy from the Dashboard Screen

2. Choosing New Policy is almost the same as Quick Transfer, but with a scheduling component.

3. You will need to choose a Source location

4. A method of transferring the data (Copy, Move, or Sync)

5. Select your B2 Bucket as your target Location

6. Once you have chosen your Source and Target locations. Click Deploy, you will be brought to the Scheduling screen before you actually Deploy the policy

7. Now that you have set your schedule, you can click Deploy to set your Policy active

8. You can click on the new policy and see the details of the policy job