Archive and cold storage tiers
Cloud providers sell storage in tiers. The colder the tier, the less you pay to keep data there - and the more it costs, in money or in waiting, to read it back. Nyx Backup supports the cold tiers, and treats the ones that cannot be read on demand as a first-class case rather than a failure.
Which tiers need a retrieval step
The distinction that matters is not “cheap or expensive”, it is can this be read right now.
| Provider | Read immediately | Needs retrieval first |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon S3 (and S3-compatible) | Standard, Standard-IA, Intelligent-Tiering, Glacier Instant Retrieval | Glacier Flexible Retrieval, Deep Archive |
| Azure Blob | Hot, Cool, Cold | Archive |
| Google Cloud Storage | Standard, Nearline, Coldline | Archive |
| Backblaze B2 | All native tiers | Only if a bucket lifecycle rule has moved objects to cold |
Glacier Instant Retrieval is worth calling out: despite the name it reads like Standard storage, just billed differently. Nyx treats it as hot, so a restore from it needs no extra step. Nearline and Coldline are likewise immediately readable - you pay more per operation, not in waiting.
What happens when you restore from an archive tier
Nyx does not simply fail. When a restore needs packs that are archived, it reports which ones and can start the provider’s retrieval for them. Retrieval is not instant - depending on tier and provider it ranges from minutes to hours - so the app tracks progress and the restore continues once the data is readable.
Choosing a tier
Archive tiers suit a long-term second copy that you hope never to read. They suit a primary backup badly: the first time you need it will be the worst time to discover a multi-hour retrieval, and providers usually add a minimum storage duration, so deleting or replacing data early is charged as though you had kept it for the full period. Retention pruning on an archive tier can therefore cost more than it saves.
A common arrangement is a hot tier for the backup you would actually restore from, and a second set to an archive tier for depth. Nyx supports multiple sets to different destinations, and separate sets can safely share one bucket.
Cost, in general
Nyx never marks up storage - you pay your provider directly, at their prices, and can see what a set is using in the app. Restores from Nyx are always free of any charge from us; what a cold-tier restore costs is entirely your provider’s retrieval and egress pricing, which is worth reading before choosing a tier.