Automatic Server Backups to Cloud-A Bulk Storage

If you’re looking for a cost effective, Canadian backup solution for your Windows desktops and servers, look no further! Our Bulk Storage service is an ultra-reliable, low-cost, and 100% Canadian hosted object storage service. When teamed with CloudBerry Labs’ Backup software, it allows administrators to easily backup their systems.

CloudBerry offers two types of backup products: CloudBerry Backup and CloudBerry Managed Backup. Today we’re going to be using their basic Backup product, however many of the settings we’re going to be going over will translate over to the managed product as well.

Install CloudBerry Backup

To get started, visit https://www.cloudberrylab.com/solutions/clouda and download the Backup software onto the machine you wish to backup. Once the download has completed, you may be asked to install Microsoft Visual C++. You should go ahead and do so. Once that has been downloaded and installed, you’ll need to re-run the CloudBerry Backup setup.


Once setup is complete, click on the Finish button and CloudBerry Backup will launch. Initially, you’ll be asked if you would like to use the free trial or activate a paid license. If you have paid for CloudBerry already, go ahead and input your license information. Otherwise, you can continue with the free trial for now. Once you’ve completed that step, the CloudBerry app will open and you’ll be able to start setting everything up.

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Running an OpenVPN Server on Cloud-A

The cloud is great for hosting internet-facing applications, but what if you require something that can only be accessed by a set list of users? Sure, you can maintain security groups with those users’ IP addresses, or use login pages to block access to unauthorized users. An alternative and more secure solution is the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between a user’s local network and your Cloud-A private network. There are several VPN solutions available, both free and commercial. We’re going to show you how to use one of the most popular free VPNs available, OpenVPN.

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2-Factor Authentication for Cloud-A

With the growth and adoption of Cloud-A’s infrastructure services around the world, having thousands of active projects, and twice that number of active users — our responsibility to provide a secure entry point into the services that store your application’s private data, that help run your businesses day-to-day, is greater than ever. With online threats growing, more advanced phishing techniques, and identity theft, ensuring secure access to any service becomes difficult. It doesn’t matter how long or complex your password is, your account is at risk of being breached if it were to somehow fall into the wrong hands.

1faTo this end, we are very pleased to announce the general availability of two-factor authentication for Cloud-A accounts. Our development team had been working on building an OTP solution into Keystone, our authentication service, and released it into beta late last year. After months of end-user testing, and security auditing by third parties, we are enabling the feature for all users.

Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, by its definition allows you to secure your account via a second “factor” rather than just a password. Because passwords can be read or stolen, and are a single piece of information that any malicious person needs to access your account, a second factor called One Time Passwords or OTP are used and linked to a physical device that is on your person — so you know that the person logging in is truly you. This added security will thwart would-be attackers even if they know your account password.

Available Today

otp-configuration

2FA for Cloud-A allows you enable 2FA from within your Cloud-A Account Settings in the client portal. This will generate your private key and show you your QR code and recovery codes, as well as provide you with a quick OTP test mechanism to confirm your settings. Once enabled, you can use our 2FA with any Google Authenticator compatible mobile application. We highly recommend FreeOTP for managing your OTP credentials. It is free, secure, standards-compliant, and open source. The app is available for download on Google Play for Android, as well as the App Store for iOS devices.

As previously noted, Cloud-A’s 2FA architecture is built into Keystone, meaning that two-factor authentication is available at both the web dashboard level and also at the API layer. The result is a completely new architecture, and new way to approach OpenStack authentication. We hope that this not only shows our commitment to on-going product development for our customers, but our commitment to the OpenStack project as a whole.

Users will not be forced to enable OTP on their accounts, however we highly recommend setting it up. You can read more information on the configuration process in our documentation portal. Taking a few minutes to enable this feature on your account could mean the difference between an adversary accessing your account and gaining access to your cloud infrastructure, and stopping them right at the door.

If you have any questions or concerns about configuring 2FA on your account, we’d love to hear from you! You can reach our support team quickly and easily by emailing support@clouda.ca.