Backblaze Personal Wine Community Container

This Docker container runs the Backblaze personal backup client via WINE, so that you can back up your files with the separation and portability capabilities of Docker on Linux.

It runs the Backblaze client and starts a virtual X server and a VNC server with Web GUI, so that you can interact with it.

⚠️ This project is not affiliated with Backblaze Inc. ⚠️

Table of Content

• Backblaze Personal Wine Container
  • Table of Content
  • Project Status
  • Docker Images
    • Content
    • Tags
    • Platforms
  • Environment Variables
  • Config Directory
  • Ports
  • Volumes
  • Accessing the GUI
  • Security
    • SSVNC
    • Certificates
    • VNC Password
    • DH Parameters
  • Installation Guide
  • Additional Information
  • Credits

Project Status

This docker should just work for most people. But if you for example have a complex permissions setup in the filesystem you are trying to back up you will need good knowledge of docker to get it set up.

Still please be attentive during the install process: The docker by design has read/write access to all the data you are trying to back up and if you make a grave mistake you could delete stuff.

Docker Images

Content

Here are the main components of this image:

• S6-overlay, a process supervisor for containers.
• x11vnc, a X11 VNC server.
• xvfb, a X virtual framebuffer display server.
• openbox, a windows manager.
• noVNC, a HTML5 VNC client.
• NGINX, a high-performance HTTP server.
• stunnel, a proxy encrypting arbitrary TCP connections with SSL/TLS.
• WINE, a compatibility layer for windows applications on Linux
• Winetricks is a helper script to download and install various redistributable runtime libraries needed to run some programs in Wine
• Backblaze Personal Backup

Tags

The previous ubuntu18 and ubuntu20 images are end-of-life and are no longer built.

Platforms

As Backblaze runs on Windows and MacOS, there is no point in supporting these platforms.

Environment Variables

Environment variables can be set by adding one or more arguments -e "<VAR>=<VALUE>" to the docker run command.

Config Directory

Inside the container, wine's configuration and with it Backblaze's configuration is stored in the /config/wine/ directory.

This directory is also used to store the VNC password. See the VNC Pasword section for more details.

Ports

Here is the list of ports used by container. They can be mapped to the host via the -p <HOST_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT> parameter. The port number inside the container cannot be changed, but you are free to use any port on the host side.

Volumes

The container always needs the config volume, plus at least one drive to back up:

• /config - where Wine and the Backblaze client are installed and keep their state. Mount a persistent volume or host directory here.
• One or more backup drives - the data you want to back up. How you provide them depends on whether the source is a local folder or a network share - see the two options below.

Which option do I need?

• Backing up folders on the Docker host's own disks → Option 1 (nothing special required).
• Backing up an NFS/SMB share from a NAS (TrueNAS, Synology, Unraid user share, …) → Option 2 (a few extra lines required).

Option 1 - Local folders (default)

Mount any local host directory as /drive_<letter> (anything from d to z). It is exposed to Backblaze automatically as the matching drive letter - /drive_d → D:, /drive_e → E:, and so on. Nothing else is required.

Local folders must be mounted read-write (the default): Backblaze writes a small .bzvol marker into the root of every drive it backs up, so a read-only mount will not work here.

services:
  backblaze:
    image: tessypowder/backblaze-personal-wine:latest
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - /srv/photos:/drive_d        # local folder, read-write
      - /srv/documents:/drive_e     # local folder, read-write
    ports:
      - "5800:5800"

After the first start, open the web UI and tick the drive(s) under Settings → "Select Hard Drives to Backup".

Option 2 - Network shares (NAS / NFS / SMB / CIFS)

Backblaze deliberately refuses to back up network drives, and Wine reports any NFS/SMB/CIFS mount as a network drive - so a plain network mount shows up but is skipped (the long-standing issues #43 / #67).

When ENABLE_NETWORK_MOUNT_MASKING=true, the container works around this by transparently overlaying the network mount with a local overlayfs, so Wine - and therefore Backblaze - sees a normal fixed disk and backs it up.

Mount the share as /drive_<letter> just like a local folder, and add the three highlighted lines:

services:
  backblaze:
    image: tessypowder/backblaze-personal-wine:latest
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - /mnt/nas/media:/drive_d:ro        # NFS/SMB share, mounted read-only
    ports:
      - "5800:5800"
    environment:
      - ENABLE_NETWORK_MOUNT_MASKING=true # <-- enables the workaround
    cap_add:
      - SYS_ADMIN                         # <-- required to perform the overlay mount
    security_opt:
      - apparmor:unconfined               # <-- required to perform the overlay mount

Important:

• Only network shares need this. If you back up local folders (Option 1), do not add these privileges.
• SYS_ADMIN + apparmor:unconfined are required so the container is allowed to run the overlay mount(2). They widen the container's privileges - add them only when you actually back up a network share.
• Mount network shares read-only (:ro) - recommended. The share is only ever read, and Backblaze's own bookkeeping (the .bzvol marker) is written into /config, never onto the share. Mounting read-only guarantees Backblaze can never modify or delete your NAS data.
• If the feature is left off (or the privileges are missing), the container still starts normally and local drives keep working - the network share is just skipped.

Mounting a drive at a custom path (advanced)

If your data is mounted somewhere other than /drive_<letter>, you can link it into Wine manually instead:

1. Add your storage path as a wine drive, so Backblaze can access it

    docker exec --user app backblaze_personal_backup ln -s /backup_volume/ /config/wine/dosdevices/d:

2. Restart the docker to get Backblaze to recognize the new drive

    docker restart backblaze_personal_backup

3. Reload the Web Interface

   

Accessing the GUI

Assuming that container's ports are mapped to the same host's ports, the graphical interface of the application can be accessed via:

• A web browser:

  http://<HOST IP ADDR>:5800

• Any VNC client:

  <HOST IP ADDR>:5900

Security

By default, access to the application's GUI is done over an unencrypted connection (HTTP or VNC).

Secure connection can be enabled via the SECURE_CONNECTION environment variable. See the Environment Variables section for more details on how to set an environment variable.

When enabled, application's GUI is performed over an HTTPs connection when accessed with a browser. All HTTP accesses are automatically redirected to HTTPs.

When using a VNC client, the VNC connection is performed over SSL. Note that few VNC clients support this method. SSVNC is one of them.

SSVNC

SSVNC is a VNC viewer that adds encryption security to VNC connections.

While the Linux version of SSVNC works well, the Windows version has some issues. At the time of writing, the latest version 1.0.30 is not functional, as a connection fails with the following error:

ReadExact: Socket error while reading

However, for your convienence, an unoffical and working version is provided here:

https://github.com/jlesage/docker-baseimage-gui/raw/master/tools/ssvnc_windows_only-1.0.30-r1.zip

The only difference with the offical package is that the bundled version of stunnel has been upgraded to version 5.49, which fixes the connection problems.

Certificates

Here are the certificate files needed by the container. By default, when they are missing, self-signed certificates are generated and used. All files have PEM encoded, x509 certificates.

NOTE: To prevent any certificate validity warnings/errors from the browser or VNC client, make sure to supply your own valid certificates.

NOTE: Certificate files are monitored and relevant daemons are automatically restarted when changes are detected.

VNC Password

To restrict access to your application, a password can be specified. This can be done via two methods:

• By using the VNC_PASSWORD environment variable.
• By creating a .vncpass_clear file at the root of the /config volume. This file should contains the password in clear-text. During the container startup, content of the file is obfuscated and moved to .vncpass.

The level of security provided by the VNC password depends on two things:

• The type of communication channel (encrypted/unencrypted).
• How secure access to the host is.

When using a VNC password, it is highly desirable to enable the secure connection to prevent sending the password in clear over an unencrypted channel.

Access to the host by unexpected users with sufficient privileges can be dangerous as they can retrieve the password with the following methods:

• By looking at the VNC_PASSWORD environment variable value via the docker inspect command. By defaut, the docker command can be run only by the root user. However, it is possible to configure the system to allow the docker command to be run by any users part of a specific group.
• By decrypting the /config/.vncpass file. This requires the user to have the appropriate permission to read the file: it has to be root or be the user defined by the USER_ID environment variable. Also, to be able to retrieve the correct decryption key, one needs to know that the content of the file was generated by x11vnc.

DH Parameters

Diffie-Hellman (DH) parameters define how the DH key-exchange is performed. More details about this algorithm can be found on the OpenSSL Wiki.

DH Parameters are saved into the PEM encoded file located inside the container at /config/certs/dhparam.pem. By default, when this file is missing, 2048 bits DH parameters are automatically generated. Note that this one-time operation takes some time to perform and increases the startup time of the container.

Installation Guide:

1. Understand, that this docker is a volunteer project, not a commercial product. Some thinkering is to be expected, community based solution finding is encouraged in the issues. If something does not work: look for an open issue about the topic, if there isn't create one. If there is one read through it to see if somebody has found a workaround/fix. If you are a developer I highly encourage you to turn your fix into a Pull Request to allow others to benefit from it.

2. Check for yourself if using this docker complies with the Backblaze terms of service

3. Modify the following for your setup (in terms of ports, volumes and environment variables) and run it

   (for Unraid users, instead of running this command navigate to the Apps tab, search for this docker and install it)

   NOTE: root priviliges may be needed

    docker run \
        -p 8080:5800 \
        --init \
        --name backblaze_personal_backup \
        -v "[backup folder]/:/drive_d/" \
        -v "[config folder]/:/config/" \
        tessypowder/backblaze-personal-wine:latest

4. Open the Web Interface (on the port you specified in the docker run command, in this example 8080):

5. On the very first start the container downloads and installs the Backblaze client. The Wine environment with .NET is already prepared inside the image, so this only takes a couple of minutes. The screen may be black/empty while this runs.

6. The UI of the first step of the Backblaze installer is broken on wine, but it doesn't matter, just insert the email to your backblaze account into the input field. (If the UI does not load for you, look in the top left corner for a white pixel. Move your mouse pointer over that pixel, the pixel will go away, and the UI should load.)

   

7. Press Enter

   

8. Insert your password (important: keyboard locale mismatches can mess up your inputs)

   • TIP: You can use the clipboard function of the web interface, but some passwords will still not get transferred correctly, i would reccommend setting your backblaze password to a long string without special characters

   

9. Press Enter

   

10. Wait for Backblaze to analyze your drives

    

11. Click Ok

    

12. If your [config folder] is somewehere inside the [backup folder] on the docker host side (which is the case for the Unraid template) in order to prevent an infinite loop of config file uploads, because those uploads change bz_done* files in [config folder]/wine/drive_c/ProgramData/Backblaze/bzdata/bzbackup/bzdatacenter open the web interface, open the Backblaze settings, open the "Exclusions" tab, click on "Add Folder" and in the popup navigate to My Computer -> (D:) and naviagate to the config folder inside. For unraid template installs this is My Computer -> (D:) -> appdata -> backblaze_personal_backup. Click on OK and close the Backblaze Settings.

13. The Installation is done 🎉

14. Buy a license for your Computer in the Backblaze Dashboard, just like for a normal Windows/Mac installation

Troubleshooting

• The Backblaze Installer says it recognized a server operating system

  

  • Explanation: I don't know what can cause this, it seems to randomly occur on some installations

  • Solution: Stop the docker, delete the config directory, restart installation from beginning

  • (Speculation: I think this only happens, when no volume is mounted at /config/ and docker manages the folder instead of the volume)

• The backup folder mounted as drive D is not being backed up

  • Explanation: Depending on when you added drive D to your wine configuration, the Backblaze installer might not recognize it

  • Solution:

    • Open the Backblaze settings
    • In the section "Hard Drives" in the first tab "Settings" enable the checkbox for next to the drive D:\

  • Still not working:

    • Run

      docker exec --user app backblaze_personal_backup ls -la /config/wine/dosdevices/

    • The output should look like this:

        drwxr-xr-x 2 app app 4096 Jan 16 13:43 .
        drwxr-xr-x 4 app app 4096 Jan 16 14:08 ..
        lrwxrwxrwx 1 app app   10 Jan 16 13:43 c: -> ../drive_c
        lrwxrwxrwx 1 app app   10 Jan 16 13:43 d: -> /drive_d/
        lrwxrwxrwx 1 app app    1 Jan 16 13:43 z: -> /

    • If it doesn't confirm you've mounted the volume in the container correctly for automatic attachment or followed the manual instructions in volumes

• I can only see a black screen when I start the container

  • Explanation: The Docker container may have insufficient permissions to download and install Backblaze.

  • Solution:

    • Try a different run command where you explicitly pass the root ID 0 to the container:

    docker run \
        -p 8080:5800 \
        --init \
        -e USER_ID=0 \
        -e GROUP_ID=0 \
        --name backblaze_personal_backup \
        -v "[backup folder]/:/drive_d/" \
        -v "[config folder]/:/config/" \
        tessypowder/backblaze-personal-wine:latest

  • Additional 'black screen' troubleshooting for Synology devices:

    • It may be necessary to run the container with even higher permissions (--privileged)

    docker run \
        -p 8080:5800 \
        --init \
        --privileged \
        -e USER_ID=0 \
        -e GROUP_ID=0 \
        --name backblaze_personal_backup \
        -v "[backup folder]/:/drive_d/" \
        -v "[config folder]/:/config/" \
        tessypowder/backblaze-personal-wine:latest

  • For More Information: See #98, #99

Additional Information

1. Warning: The Backblaze client is not an init system (who knew) and doesn't clean up its zombie children. This will cause it to fill up your system's PID limit within a few hours which prevents new processes from being created system-wide, would not recommend.
   The --init flag installs a tiny process that can actually do a few init things like wait()ing children in place of the backblaze client as PID 1.
2. Backblaze will create a .bzvol directory in the root of every hard drive it's configured to back up in which it'll store a full copy of files >100M split into 10M parts. Mount accordingly if you want to preserve SSD erase cycles.
3. You can browse the files accessible to Backblaze using:

    docker exec --user app backblaze_personal_backup wine explorer

4. You can open the Wine Config using:

    docker exec --user app backblaze_personal_backup winecfg

5. Wine's virtual desktop mode is disabled by default (DISABLE_VIRTUAL_DESKTOP=true); the Backblaze window is shown directly. If you enable it (DISABLE_VIRTUAL_DESKTOP=false), a virtual desktop of 900x700 pixels is used (larger than the Backblaze UI window to leave room for the restore app). You can change the size with DISPLAY_WIDTH and DISPLAY_HEIGHT:

    docker run ... -e "DISPLAY_WIDTH=1280" -e "DISPLAY_HEIGHT=800" ...

Credits

This was originally developed by @Atemu (https://github.com/Atemu/backblaze-personal-wine-container).

The Backblaze name, logo and application is the property of Backblaze, Inc.

This docker does not redistribute the Backblaze application. It gets downloaded from the official Backblaze Servers during the install process.

This docker image is based on @jlesage 's excellent base image.

Contributors:

This project was made by: