Docker container for CrashPlan

This is a Docker container for CrashPlan.

The GUI of the application is accessed through a modern web browser (no installation or configuration needed on the client side) or via any VNC client.

IMPORTANT: CrashPlan for Home, the version implemented by this container, is being decommissioned. One of the choice users have is to migrate to CrashPlan PRO (aka CrashPlan for Small Business).

To do so, the jlesage/crashplan-pro Docker container can be used. Make sure to read the related documentation for a smooth transition.

CrashPlan makes it easy to protect your digital life, so you can get back to what’s important in real life. Only CrashPlan offers totally free local and offsite backup. A subscription to the cloud backup service gets you continuous backup, mobile file access and lots more. For the ultimate in computer backup, get all three, from the same easy application.

Table of Content

Docker container for CrashPlan

Quick Start

NOTE: The Docker command provided in this quick start is given as an example and parameters should be adjusted to your need.

Launch the CrashPlan docker container with the following command:

docker run -d \
    --name=crashplan \
    -p 5800:5800 \
    -v /docker/appdata/crashplan:/config:rw \
    -v $HOME:/storage:ro \
    jlesage/crashplan

Where:

/docker/appdata/crashplan: This is where the application stores its configuration, log and any files needing persistency.
$HOME: This location contains files from your host that need to be accessible by the application.

Browse to http://your-host-ip:5800 to access the CrashPlan GUI. Files from the host appear under the /storage folder in the container.

Usage

docker run [-d] \
    --name=crashplan \
    [-e <VARIABLE_NAME>=<VALUE>]... \
    [-v <HOST_DIR>:<CONTAINER_DIR>[:PERMISSIONS]]... \
    [-p <HOST_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT>]... \
    jlesage/crashplan

Parameter	Description
-d	Run the container in the background. If not set, the container runs in the foreground.
-e	Pass an environment variable to the container. See the Environment Variables section for more details.
-v	Set a volume mapping (allows to share a folder/file between the host and the container). See the Data Volumes section for more details.
-p	Set a network port mapping (exposes an internal container port to the host). See the Ports section for more details.

Environment Variables

To customize some properties of the container, the following environment variables can be passed via the -e parameter (one for each variable). Value of this parameter has the format <VARIABLE_NAME>=<VALUE>.

Variable	Description	Default
`USER_ID`	ID of the user the application runs as. See User/Group IDs to better understand when this should be set.	`1000`
`GROUP_ID`	ID of the group the application runs as. See User/Group IDs to better understand when this should be set.	`1000`
`SUP_GROUP_IDS`	Comma-separated list of supplementary group IDs of the application.	(unset)
`UMASK`	Mask that controls how file permissions are set for newly created files. The value of the mask is in octal notation. By default, this variable is not set and the default umask of `022` is used, meaning that newly created files are readable by everyone, but only writable by the owner. See the following online umask calculator: http://wintelguy.com/umask-calc.pl	(unset)
`TZ`	TimeZone of the container. Timezone can also be set by mapping `/etc/localtime` between the host and the container.	`Etc/UTC`
`KEEP_APP_RUNNING`	When set to `1`, the application will be automatically restarted if it crashes or if a user quits it.	`0`
`APP_NICENESS`	Priority at which the application should run. A niceness value of -20 is the highest priority and 19 is the lowest priority. By default, niceness is not set, meaning that the default niceness of 0 is used. NOTE: A negative niceness (priority increase) requires additional permissions. In this case, the container should be run with the docker option `--cap-add=SYS_NICE`.	(unset)
`CLEAN_TMP_DIR`	When set to `1`, all files in the `/tmp` directory are deleted during the container startup.	`1`
`DISPLAY_WIDTH`	Width (in pixels) of the application's window.	`1280`
`DISPLAY_HEIGHT`	Height (in pixels) of the application's window.	`768`
`SECURE_CONNECTION`	When set to `1`, an encrypted connection is used to access the application's GUI (either via a web browser or VNC client). See the Security section for more details.	`0`
`VNC_PASSWORD`	Password needed to connect to the application's GUI. See the VNC Password section for more details.	(unset)
`X11VNC_EXTRA_OPTS`	Extra options to pass to the x11vnc server running in the Docker container. WARNING: For advanced users. Do not use unless you know what you are doing.	(unset)
`ENABLE_CJK_FONT`	When set to `1`, open-source computer font `WenQuanYi Zen Hei` is installed. This font contains a large range of Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters.	`0`
`CRASHPLAN_SRV_MAX_MEM`	Maximum amount of memory the CrashPlan Engine is allowed to use. One of the following memory unit (case insensitive) should be added as a suffix to the size: `G`, `M` or `K`. By default, when this variable is not set, a maximum of 1024MB (`1024M`) of memory is allowed. NOTE: Setting this variable as the same effect as running the `java mx VALUE, restart` command from the CrashPlan command line.	(unset)

Data Volumes

The following table describes data volumes used by the container. The mappings are set via the -v parameter. Each mapping is specified with the following format: <HOST_DIR>:<CONTAINER_DIR>[:PERMISSIONS].

Container path	Permissions	Description
`/config`	rw	This is where the application stores its configuration, log and any files needing persistency.
`/storage`	ro	This location contains files from your host that need to be accessible by the application.
`/backupArchives`	rw	This is where inbound backups are stored.

Ports

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

Port	Mapping to host	Description
5800	Mandatory	Port used to access the application's GUI via the web interface.
5900	Optional	Port used to access the application's GUI via the VNC protocol. Optional if no VNC client is used.
4242	Optional	Port used by CrashPlan for computer-to-computer backups. No need to expose this port if this feature is not used. NOTE: Because this port is reported by CrashPlan to other devices signed to your account, the port mapped on the host side must be the same (i.e. 4242).

Changing Parameters of a Running Container

As can be seen, environment variables, volume and port mappings are all specified while creating the container.

The following steps describe the method used to add, remove or update parameter(s) of an existing container. The general idea is to destroy and re-create the container:

Stop the container (if it is running):

docker stop crashplan

Remove the container:

docker rm crashplan

Create/start the container using the docker run command, by adjusting parameters as needed.

NOTE: Since all application's data is saved under the /config container folder, destroying and re-creating a container is not a problem: nothing is lost and the application comes back with the same state (as long as the mapping of the /config folder remains the same).

Docker Compose File

Here is an example of a docker-compose.yml file that can be used with Docker Compose.

Make sure to adjust according to your needs. Note that only mandatory network ports are part of the example.

version: '3'
services:
  crashplan:
    image: jlesage/crashplan
    ports:
      - "5800:5800"
    volumes:
      - "/docker/appdata/crashplan:/config:rw"
      - "$HOME:/storage:ro"

Docker Image Update

Because features are added, issues are fixed, or simply because a new version of the containerized application is integrated, the Docker image is regularly updated. Different methods can be used to update the Docker image.

The system used to run the container may have a built-in way to update containers. If so, this could be your primary way to update Docker images.

An other way is to have the image be automatically updated with Watchtower. Watchtower is a container-based solution for automating Docker image updates. This is a "set and forget" type of solution: once a new image is available, Watchtower will seamlessly perform the necessary steps to update the container.

Finally, the Docker image can be manually updated with these steps:

Fetch the latest image:

docker pull jlesage/crashplan

Stop the container:

docker stop crashplan

Remove the container:

docker rm crashplan

Create and start the container using the docker run command, with the the same parameters that were used when it was deployed initially.

Synology

For owners of a Synology NAS, the following steps can be used to update a container image.

Open the Docker application.
Click on Registry in the left pane.
In the search bar, type the name of the container (jlesage/crashplan).
Select the image, click Download and then choose the latest tag.
Wait for the download to complete. A notification will appear once done.
Click on Container in the left pane.
Select your CrashPlan container.
Stop it by clicking Action->Stop.
Clear the container by clicking Action->Reset (or Action->Clear if you don't have the latest Docker application). This removes the container while keeping its configuration.
Start the container again by clicking Action->Start. NOTE: The container may temporarily disappear from the list while it is re-created.

unRAID

For unRAID, a container image can be updated by following these steps:

Select the Docker tab.
Click the Check for Updates button at the bottom of the page.
Click the update ready link of the container to be updated.

User/Group IDs

When using data volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can occur between the host and the container. For example, the user within the container may not exist on the host. This could prevent the host from properly accessing files and folders on the shared volume.

To avoid any problem, you can specify the user the application should run as.

This is done by passing the user ID and group ID to the container via the USER_ID and GROUP_ID environment variables.

To find the right IDs to use, issue the following command on the host, with the user owning the data volume on the host:

id <username>

Which gives an output like this one:

uid=1000(myuser) gid=1000(myuser) groups=1000(myuser),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),46(plugdev),113(lpadmin)

The value of uid (user ID) and gid (group ID) are the ones that you should be given the container.

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 convenience, an unofficial 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 official 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.

Container Path	Purpose	Content
`/config/certs/vnc-server.pem`	VNC connection encryption.	VNC server's private key and certificate, bundled with any root and intermediate certificates.
`/config/certs/web-privkey.pem`	HTTPs connection encryption.	Web server's private key.
`/config/certs/web-fullchain.pem`	HTTPs connection encryption.	Web server's certificate, bundled with any root and intermediate 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 contain 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 the 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.

ATTENTION: Password is limited to 8 characters. This limitation comes from the Remote Framebuffer Protocol RFC (see section 7.2.2). Any characters beyond the limit are ignored.

Reverse Proxy

The following sections contain NGINX configurations that need to be added in order to reverse proxy to this container.

A reverse proxy server can route HTTP requests based on the hostname or the URL path.

Routing Based on Hostname

In this scenario, each hostname is routed to a different application/container.

For example, let's say the reverse proxy server is running on the same machine as this container. The server would proxy all HTTP requests sent to crashplan.domain.tld to the container at 127.0.0.1:5800.

Here are the relevant configuration elements that would be added to the NGINX configuration:

map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
	default upgrade;
	''      close;
}

upstream docker-crashplan {
	# If the reverse proxy server is not running on the same machine as the
	# Docker container, use the IP of the Docker host here.
	# Make sure to adjust the port according to how port 5800 of the
	# container has been mapped on the host.
	server 127.0.0.1:5800;
}

server {
	[...]

	server_name crashplan.domain.tld;

	location / {
	        proxy_pass http://docker-crashplan;
	}

	location /websockify {
		proxy_pass http://docker-crashplan;
		proxy_http_version 1.1;
		proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
		proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
		proxy_read_timeout 86400;
	}
}

Routing Based on URL Path

In this scenario, the hostname is the same, but different URL paths are used to route to different applications/containers.

For example, let's say the reverse proxy server is running on the same machine as this container. The server would proxy all HTTP requests for server.domain.tld/crashplan to the container at 127.0.0.1:5800.

Here are the relevant configuration elements that would be added to the NGINX configuration:

map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
	default upgrade;
	''      close;
}

upstream docker-crashplan {
	# If the reverse proxy server is not running on the same machine as the
	# Docker container, use the IP of the Docker host here.
	# Make sure to adjust the port according to how port 5800 of the
	# container has been mapped on the host.
	server 127.0.0.1:5800;
}

server {
	[...]

	location = /crashplan {return 301 $scheme://$http_host/crashplan/;}
	location /crashplan/ {
		proxy_pass http://docker-crashplan/;
		location /crashplan/websockify {
			proxy_pass http://docker-crashplan/websockify/;
			proxy_http_version 1.1;
			proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
			proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
			proxy_read_timeout 86400;
		}
	}
}

Shell Access

To get shell access to the running container, execute the following command:

docker exec -ti CONTAINER sh

Where CONTAINER is the ID or the name of the container used during its creation (e.g. crashplan-pro).

Networking

By default, the container runs in bridge mode networking. This is the best way to go, unless your CrashPlan container is the backup destination of other devices on your local network (LAN).

In this network mode, a private IP address on an isolated subnet is assigned to containers. For example, devices on your LAN may have IP addresses in the 192.168.1.x subnet, while containers have IP addresses in the 172.17.x.x range. Thus, CrashPlan detects and reports a local/internal IP address in the 172.17.x.x subnet, something that other devices on your LAN cannot reach.

NOTE: The problem described here doesn't affect the scenario where your CrashPlan container is the backup destination of other devices located outside your LAN (i.e. over the Internet). In this case, CrashPlan uses your public IP address, which is properly detected no matter the networking mode.

The first solution to this issue is to add a static route on your router to allow other devices to reach your CrashPlan container. The way to configure routes is different for each router, but here is the route information you will need:

Subnet IP address:  172.17.0.0
Subnet mask:        255.255.0.0
Subnet prefix size: /16
Gateway:            IP address of your Docker host

The second solution is to run the container in host mode networking. This mode effectively disables network isolation of a Docker container. The container shares the networking namespace of the host, meaning that it shares the same IP address and is directly exposed to your LAN. Consequently, port mappings are note used/needed. Note that this mode increases chances to conflict with other containers or services running on the host. To enable the host mode networking, run the container with the --net=host parameter.

For more information, see the Docker container networking documentation.

Taking Over Existing Backup

If this container is replacing a CrashPlan installation (from Linux, Windows, MAC or another Docker container), your existing backup can be taken over to avoid re-uploading all your data.

To proceed, make sure to carefully read the official documentation.

Here is a summary of what needs to be done:

Start CrashPlan Docker container. Make sure the configuration directory if not mapped to a folder used by a different CrashPlan container.
Sign in to your account.
Perform an adoption. There is a gray banner asking you to do so.
Once done, you will probably see missing items in the file selection. This is normal, since path to your files is different in the container.
Update the file selection by re-adding your files. Do not unselect missing items yet.
Perform a backup. Because of deduplication, files will not be uploaded again.
Once the backup is terminated, you can remove missing items if you don't care about file versions. Else, keep missing items.
If you are the destination for other computers, you have to adjust the location of previous backup archives. In the Inbound section, if some of your friends have the message Backup disabled - backup location is not accessible: click on the name, then update the location. It should be under /backupArchives/<Computer ID>.

Troubleshooting

Crashes / Maximum Amount of Allocated Memory

If CrashPlan crashes unexpectedly with large backups, try to increase the maximum amount of memory CrashPlan is allowed to use. This can be done by:

Setting the CRASHPLAN_SRV_MAX_MEM environment variable. See the Environment Variables section for more details.
Using the solution provided by CrashPlan from its support site.

Inotify's Watch Limit

If CrashPlan exceeds inotify's max watch limit, real-time file watching cannot work properly and the inotify watch limit needs to be increased on the host, not the container.

For more details, see the CrashPlan's Linux real-time file watching errors article.

Synology

On Synology NAS, the instuctions provided by the article mentioned in the previous section apply, except that the inotify's max watch limit must be set in /etc.defaults/sysctl.conf (instead of /etc/sysctl.conf) to make the setting permanent.

NOTE: After an upgrade of the DSM software, verify that the content of the file has not been overwritten.

Connection Between Computers

If you have connection issues between your computers, make sure to read the [Connection between computers] article from CrashPlan support site.

When changing the inbound backup port from CrashPlan settings, don't forget to also add the proper port mapping when running the container. For example, if the listening port is changed to 12345, the option -p 12345:12345 needs to be added to the docker run command.

Command-Line Interface Disappears After Running Command

After entering a command in the command-line interface, the window immediately disappear. This is a known issue, but it should be noted that the requested command is still executed as requested.

If the result and/or output of the command is needed, consult the log file located at log/service.log.0 in the config directory of container. Here is an example of log messages produced when running the version command:

[03.05.18 06:03:17.179 INFO  MQ-UI-1      backup42.service.ui.UIController] UserActionRequest: CommandMessage[version]
[03.05.18 06:03:17.179 INFO  MQ-UI-1      kup42.common.command.CliExecutor] RUN COMMAND: version  >  CommandResult@1111973668[ version, success=true, result=4.8.4 - 1436674800484 (2015-07-12T04:20:00:484+0000) - Build: 15 ]

The list of available commands can be consulted online.

Forcing Sign-In When Access To CrashPlan Requires Password

CrashPlan can be configured to require a password to access the application. Enabling this option ensures no one else can make changes to settings or restore files without the account password.

Sign-in is needed when the application is started. Since the application is always running in this container, a manual step is required to replace the action of closing the application:

Double click on the CrashPlan logo to open the command-line interface.
Type exit and then press the Enter key.

After a few seconds, the CrashPlan application closes and then automatically restarts. At this point, password of the account is required to continue.

Upgrade Failed Error Message

Because the CrashPlan's self-upgrade feature is disabled in this container, an error message about failed upgrade can be seen when a new CrashPlan version is released.

To fix this, updating the container's image to the latest version will also bring the latest version of CrashPlan.

Support or Contact

Having troubles with the container or have questions? Please create a new issue.

For other great Dockerized applications, see https://jlesage.github.io/docker-apps.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 164 Commits
.github		.github
hooks		hooks
rootfs		rootfs
.drone.yml		.drone.yml
.travis.yml		.travis.yml
DOCKERHUB.md		DOCKERHUB.md
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
README.md		README.md
appdefs.xml		appdefs.xml

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Docker container for CrashPlan

Table of Content

Quick Start

Usage

Environment Variables

Data Volumes

Ports

Changing Parameters of a Running Container

Docker Compose File

Docker Image Update

Synology

unRAID

User/Group IDs

Accessing the GUI

Security

SSVNC

Certificates

VNC Password

Reverse Proxy

Routing Based on Hostname

Routing Based on URL Path

Shell Access

Networking

Taking Over Existing Backup

Troubleshooting

Crashes / Maximum Amount of Allocated Memory

Inotify's Watch Limit

Synology

Connection Between Computers

Command-Line Interface Disappears After Running Command

Forcing Sign-In When Access To CrashPlan Requires Password

Upgrade Failed Error Message

Support or Contact

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