How to set up and manage Backblaze B2 or Wasabi as a low-cost offsite cloud backup for your small business

Summary

This guide helps you troubleshoot and resolve: How to set up and manage Backblaze B2 or Wasabi as a low-cost offsite cloud backup for your small business. Follow the steps below to fix the issue.

Common Causes

Offsite backup is one of the most important safeguards you can put in place for your small business. Local drives fail, ransomware encrypts everything in reach, and natural events can damage your premises. Storing a copy of your critical data in a separate, geographically distant location protects you against all of these scenarios.

The good news is that cloud storage no longer has to be expensive. Services like Backblaze B2 and Wasabi offer S3-compatible object storage at a fraction of the cost of the big-name hyperscalers, making them ideal destinations for business backups. When paired with a capable backup client such as Duplicati (free, cross-platform) or Veeam (paid, Windows-based), you can build a robust, automated offsite backup solution for just a few dollars per month per terabyte.

This guide walks you through choosing a provider, creating the storage destination, configuring your backup software, and verifying that your data is recoverable.

Choosing a Cloud Storage Provider

Both Backblaze B2 and Wasabi are excellent choices, but they suit slightly different needs.

Backblaze B2

• Pricing: Around USD $6 per TB per month for storage, plus download and transaction fees.
• Best for: Smaller datasets, infrequent restores, customers who want a generous free tier (first 10 GB free).
• Region: Has an Australian endpoint (s3.ap-southeast-002.backblazeb2.com) which reduces latency and egress costs for local customers.

Wasabi

• Pricing: Around USD $7 per TB per month with no egress fees and no transaction charges.
• Best for: Larger datasets, frequent restores, customers who want predictable monthly billing.
• Region: Has an Australian region (ap-southeast-1) for data sovereignty and speed.

Creating Your Storage Bucket

Before configuring your backup software, you need to create a bucket in your chosen provider and generate access keys.

Backblaze B2

1. Sign in to your Backblaze account and navigate to B2 Cloud Storage.
2. Click Buckets in the left menu, then click Create a Bucket.
3. Enter a unique bucket name (lowercase, no spaces).
4. Set Files in Bucket to Private.
5. Choose ap-southeast-002 as the region if you are based in Australia.
6. Click Create Bucket.
7. Go to Application Keys in the left menu and click Add a New Application Key.
8. Give the key a name, restrict it to the bucket you just created, and set the required access (read and write).
9. Click Create Key and copy both the keyID and applicationKey somewhere safe. You will not see the application key again.

Wasabi

1. Sign in to the Wasabi console and select Buckets from the left menu.
2. Click Create Bucket.
3. Enter a bucket name and choose the ap-southeast-1 (Sydney) region.
4. Click Create Bucket.
5. Navigate to Access Keys in the left menu and click Create Access Key.
6. Select Wasabi S3 User, assign read and write permissions, and click Create.
7. Download or copy the Access Key and Secret Key. Store them securely.

Configuring Duplicati as Your Backup Client

Duplicati is a free, open-source backup client that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and any other S3-compatible service.

Installation

1. Download the Duplicati installer from the official website and run it.
2. During installation, choose whether to install as a Windows service (recommended for servers) or as a user application (recommended for desktops).
3. Once installed, open the Duplicati web interface (usually http://localhost:8200) or the desktop client.

Creating a Backup Job

1. Click Add backup on the home screen.
2. Enter a meaningful Name for the job, such as Daily-Business-Documents.
3. Set the Encryption passphrase. Use a long, unique passphrase and store it in your password manager. Without this passphrase, your backups cannot be restored.
4. Under Destination, select S3 Compatible.
5. Configure the destination settings:
   • Server: Paste the S3 endpoint for your provider (for example, https://s3.ap-southeast-002.backblazeb2.com or https://s3.ap-southeast-1.wasabisys.com).
   • Bucket name: The bucket you created earlier.
   • AWS Access ID: Your access key.
   • AWS Access Key: Your secret key.
6. Click Test connection to confirm Duplicati can reach the bucket.
7. Under Source Data, click + Add folder or + Add file and select what you want to back up.
8. Configure the Schedule. For most businesses, a daily backup running outside business hours is appropriate.
9. Review the options on the Options screen. Recommended settings:
   • Retention: Keep at least 30 daily, 12 monthly, and 5 yearly versions.
   • Upload volume size: 50 MB is a sensible default.
   • Throttle bandwidth if you have a limited internet connection.
10. Click Save.

Configuring Veeam as Your Backup Client

If you are running Windows Server or a virtualised environment, Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition (free for up to 10 workloads) is a powerful option.

Adding the Cloud Repository

1. Open the Veeam console and click Backup Infrastructure in the lower-left corner.
2. Right-click Backup Repositories and choose Add backup repository.
3. Select Object storage, then S3 Compatible.
4. On the Name screen, enter a descriptive name such as Backblaze-Offsite.
5. On the Service provider screen, choose S3 Compatible (Other).
6. Enter the following details:
   • Service endpoint: The S3 endpoint URL for your provider.
   • Region: The region you selected when creating the bucket.
   • Access key and Secret key: The credentials you generated earlier.
7. Click Apply, then browse to and select your bucket.
8. Choose a folder within the bucket if desired, then click Next.
9. Review the summary and click Finish.

Creating a Backup Job in Veeam

1. From the Veeam console, click Home and then Backup Job > Virtual Machine (or Windows Computer for physical servers).
2. Follow the wizard to add the machines or files you want to back up.
3. When prompted for the backup repository, select the S3-compatible repository you created earlier.
4. Configure the schedule and retention policy to suit your business needs.
5. Tick Run the job when I click Finish to perform an initial backup immediately.

Verifying Your Backups

Creating backups is only half the job. You need to confirm regularly that your data can actually be restored.

For Duplicati

1. Open the Duplicati web interface and select the backup job.
2. Click Restore files and choose a version from the list.
3. Restore to a temporary folder and confirm the files open and match the originals.

For Veeam

1. Open the Veeam console and navigate to Home > Backups.
2. Right-click a backup and choose Restore entire VM or Restore files.
3. Perform a test restore to an isolated environment at least once per quarter.

Ongoing Maintenance

To keep your offsite backup healthy over time:

• Review your storage usage and costs monthly to avoid bill shock.
• Rotate access keys every 12 months and remove any that are no longer in use.
• Update your backup software whenever a new stable version is released.
• Re-test restores after any major change to your environment.

With the right provider, a sensible backup schedule, and regular restore testing, Backblaze B2 or Wasabi can give your small business enterprise-grade offsite protection at a price that suits a small-business budget.

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