PLATFORM - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This section provides a collection of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and detailed answers related to the CrashPlan platform and its products. It is designed to help users quickly find information about platform capabilities, deployment, administration, backup and recovery workflows, licensing, troubleshooting, security, and best practices. Whether you are evaluating CrashPlan, deploying a new environment, or managing day-to-day operations, these FAQs offer guidance to address common questions and streamline your experience with the platform.

We offer a fully hosted SaaS solution, also known as Backup as a Service (BaaS). We also allow you to license our software using a Bring Your Own License (BYOL) model and host it on your own cloud or on premises.

Does the CrashPlan Platform integrate with Identity Management providers like Active Directory?

Yes. CrashPlan is integrated with Active Directory, Azure Active Directory and Okta. CrashPlan can leverage these for authentication (single sign-on) as well as for automated provisioning and de-provisioning of users (via security groups).

Does the CrashPlan Platform have role-based privileges?

Yes, we have three roles: Users, Delegated Administrators and Administrators. These roles can be managed and privileges assigned and configured in the CrashPlan Platform console.

Data and storage

What storage targets does CrashPlan support?

We support all major cloud storage providers like AWS S3, MS Azure blob storage, GCP cloud storage, IBM cloud object storage, Backblaze, Wasabi etc. We also support on-premises disk storage and business cloud storage solutions like OneDrive and Google Workspace.

Where is my data physically stored?

This depends on your particular tenant and storage type. We support a wide array of storage providers that offer storage on multiple continents and regions.

Can data be migrated into or out of your platform?

Yes. Our infrastructure is stateless. Backup data is stored in your storage of choice and metadata is kept in MongoDB. To migrate data into our platform you can spin up a VM and install our software to import your data.

What happens to my data if my subscription or contract expires?

We preserve data and metadata for 30 days after contract termination. After this period, all data and metadata will be purged. If the customer provides their own storage, CrashPlan purges the metadata, but the customer will be responsible for purging their own storage.

Security

How does CrashPlan protect authentication information?

You can integrate the CrashPlan Platform with existing identity providers. Your users can log in using your SSO instead of storing their credentials with us. We support Active Directory, Entra ID, Okta and OneLogin for SSO with the CrashPlan Platform.

What kind of encryption does the CrashPlan Platform use?

The CrashPlan Platform uses AES-256 encryption. Traffic is encrypted end to end with TLS 1.2 during backup and restore, and the stored data is also encrypted when stored.

Can I control my own encryption keys?

Yes. The CrashPlan Platform uses a key management approach that doesn’t require keys to be stored anywhere. Keys are generated on demand as required for encryption or decryption that are kept only in memory and deleted afterwards. We store a string called an Initialization Vector (IV) that can be chosen and edited at-will by the customer in the CrashPlan Platform. The IV is part of the algorithm that generates our temporary keys. The IV does not need to be remembered by the admin. By editing the IV, the administrator can essentially regenerate the encryption keys. Even if the IV is acquired by an outside actor, it can’t be used to extrapolate the true encryption keys.

What level of security and isolation is employed for CrashPlan’s infrastructure?

The CrashPlan Platform is hosted on infrastructure provided by Microsoft Azure and Akamai (Linode) who are reputed providers with a global presence and proven security credentials. We host data on all continents to provide the best user experience for our customers. Our infrastructure is secured to a high standard with firewalls, reverse proxy and WAF. Customer data and meta-data is entirely isolated at all times both during transmission and when stored. Our hosting providers have state of the art security and are SOC2 and ISO 27001 certified.

What type of user data is stored and how is it used?

We log user activity within our products and retain it in yearly intervals. Only administrators of the product can view user activity history. Activity history includes policy changes, data restores, deletion or removal of users, devices, policies and other elements.

Does CrashPlan support multi-factor authentication?

Yes, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is built-in.. For users who are part of AD/AAD/Okta, CrashPlan can use Single Sign-on and piggyback on the MFA enforced by your identity manager. For non-AD/AAD/Okta users, it is possible to enforce MFA and generate a 6-digit One-Time Password each time they login. File accesses by recipients in CrashPlan Sync can also be mandated to require MFA the same way.

CrashPlan Vault

How does backup work?

When launched for the first time, the endpoint agent scans the entire system where it is installed and will back up folders identified by the backup policy it is assigned. If interrupted, the backup will resume automatically and continue from the last file before the interruption. During incremental backups, the agent can use modified timestamps to identify if it has changed and can parse the file to identify the file segments that have changed, backing up only the new and changed data.

Can I alter the backup and retention periods?

Yes, both can be configured in the CrashPlan Platform console by adjusting the settings for the policies assigned to your assets in Policy Management.

Is system state backup supported?

Yes, CrashPlan supports system state backup and recovery – which includes vital operating system data including the registry, event logs, Active Directory, etc.

Does CrashPlan back up metadata?

Yes. We back up an encrypted copy of the metadata database to an offsite datacenter at regular intervals.

Are backups deduplicated?

Yes. CrashPlan performs variable length block-level de-duplication, initiated at the endpoint level.

Does the CrashPlan Platform support PST files?

Yes. We can parse and deduplicate the file during backup to include only the changed data and can back it up even if it is locked by Outlook.

How does the restore process work?

Our restore process refers to the backup metadata to identify chunks of data. These will be retrieved, decrypted and used to reassemble the original files to stream to the endpoint. The entire transmission process is encrypted via TLS.

Is the CrashPlan agent required to be installed to restore data?

Yes. Restores only work on an endpoint with an active CrashPlan Platform agent running on it.

How can I monitor the status of the endpoint agent?

Endpoint agents report their status to the server at periodic intervals. You can track this status through the CrashPlan Platform’s alerts and reports.

Does CrashPlan support NAS/SAN backup?

Yes. SAN/NAS storage attached to the server can be backed up as Managed Data.

CrashPlan Sync

Usage and management

Can multiple users work on the same file simultaneously?

No. Users must download files to their endpoint to edit them.

Can a user access certain files without downloading them?

Yes. For certain file types like PDFs and office documents, it is possible to configure view-only access.

Is there a way to automatically purge uploaded files?

Yes. Administrators can configure file retention periods after which files are deleted.

CrashPlan imposes no restrictions on file size for sharing. All file sizes and extensions are permitted for sharing through CrashPlan Sync. However, administrators can limit sharing by file type, size and other criteria by configuring a policy.

Yes. You can configure periodic email reports that inform an administrator of all activity on a mini-cloud.

Yes. One simple way to automated file synchronization is to install the CrashPlan agent on the user endpoint. This agent seamlessly synchronizes data with the cloud at predefined intervals, making it easy on end-users. CrashPlan also has an API which allows for file upload and sharing operations which you can use to integrate with your organization’s workflow.

Sharing

CrashPlan transfers files using a secure TLS 1.2 channel over https. We do not support FTP or SFTP.

Can a user share a single file with an external recipient?

Yes, this is a configurable feature of the product. You can allow users to right click files to share them with external users via email. This file can be password and MFA protected, and the file can have sharing permissions (for example, being made read only).

Can users share a folder with an external recipient?

Yes, you can configure shared folders called “Mini clouds” with specific membership rules. You can create a username for an external user and add them to the folder so they can access its data. This access can be set to expire, and the guest user account can be set to expire as well.

Managed File Transfer: No. Only the sender needs to have a valid user license.
Secure Collaboration: Yes. Both parties will need a license.

Can administrators delegate specific shared folder access to another user?

Yes, administrators can appoint a user to administer a specific MiniCloud. They will be able to add and delete users to that specific MiniCloud. This access can be reverted or set to expire.

Can administrators view a user’s file sharing history?

Yes, administrators can do this via the audit log.

When a file is shared, how can I ensure that the recipient only has access for a limited time?

When files are shared, they are emailed to the recipient as a secure link/URL. This URL can be configured to self-destruct after a specific time period. The sender can specify a date/time (down to the minute) until when the file will remain accessible. It is also possible to revoke access to the shared file at any time, even before the expiration date.

Can files be shared with read-only access?

Yes, while sharing a file, users can choose whether to allow only View privileges or also Download. If “Download” is disabled, the file will be shared as read-only, and the recipient is only allowed to view the file in the browser.

Permissions and security

Can an end user be restricted to a single folder?

Yes. By default each user gets access to their own folder to keep private data. It is possible to configure access to any given folder for specific access by certain users.

An Administrator can configure a user to have read only access to data.

Yes. Administrators can add specific users to a policy and enable file sharing in that policy.

Password protection and multi-factor authentication are supported for individual files to restrict access. It is also possible to restrict interactions with the file, such as allowing users to view the file without being able to print it or download it.

Is it possible to control which email domains/addresses that users can share files with?

Yes, administrators can use CrashPlan’s policies to provide a list of allowed email domains or a list of disallowed email domains. If there needs to be an exception made for specific user email IDs that need to be allowed from a disallowed email domain – that is also configurable.

How does CrashPlan ensure that an external user doesn’t upload an infected file?

The CrashPlan platform has an anti-malware engine that scans all files as they are being uploaded. Any files that are suspect are identified and prevented from being uploaded into the repository. The end user is notified, and the file is quarantined for administrators to examine.

I have questions not covered by this article

You can contact our support team for assistance.

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