Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Time Machine Backups - Multiple Users

J

JonnyAlpha

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 30, 2008
141
0
Hi;

I have an iMac Desktop with three users setup:

Administrator - Me
user 1 - Also Me (Thinks its the same setup as Admin)
User 2 - My wife

I also have a Macbook Pro running Mavericks with 1 x User

I have just rigged up a NAS partition to use as a Time Machine Backup and have successfully backed up my Macbook pro to it using Time Machine. I would now like to backup my iMac to the NAS as well.

For general file sharing I am using a CIFS share but for the Time Machine I am using an AFP share. However due to a problem that I have yet to solve I have to mount the NAS when using CIFS by using the 'Connect to Server' option.

Questions:

1. Can I backup two different machines to the same partition or will time Machine get confused?

2. When I backup the iMac does it matter which account i access the server from e.g. if I am logged in as User 1 and I run Time Machine will it only backup User 1 or will it backup the whole machine?

Many thanks
 
Using a TC i back up two Macs without any issues at all...As far as accounts go, that won't matter as TM will just backup the entire machine minus any folders you have excluded.

I can't see why your setup shouldn't work the same way mine does although I'm using a Time Capsule.
 
Macman45 said:
Using a TC i back up two Macs without any issues at all...As far as accounts go, that won't matter as TM will just backup the entire machine minus any folders you have excluded.

I can't see why your setup shouldn't work the same way mine does although I'm using a Time Capsule.
Click to expand...

Thanks - yep it appears to have worked fine.
Sorry for the delay in responding - been very busy.

----------
toronado455 said:
What do you mean by a NAS "partition"? Where does this partition live?
Click to expand...

A NAS - is an abbreviation for Network Storage Device, basically a large Hard Drive attached to and accesses over your Network, in my case I have a 'Home Brew' NAS built out of old PC parts using FreeNAS software which is a custom open source UNIX operating system based on FreeBSD.

Very good, secure and safe, but all backups need a backup so everything on the NAS will be periodically backed up to a 3TB Seagate HDD.

----------
Weaselboy said:
1. That will work just fine.

2. It will backup everything on the machine including all user data.
Click to expand...

Once again, Thanks - yep it appears to have worked fine.
Sorry for the delay in responding - been very busy.
 
Last edited:
JonnyAlpha said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by toronado455
What do you mean by a NAS "partition"? Where does this partition live?
Click to expand...

A NAS - is an abbreviation for Network Storage Device, basically a large Hard Drive attached to and accesses over your Network, in my case I have a 'Home Brew' NAS built out of old PC parts using FreeNAS software which is a custom open source UNIX operating system based on FreeBSD.
Click to expand...

I am familiar with NAS and have used both FreeNAS and OpenFiler. My question was referring specifically to your use of the term "partition" because it seemed ambiguous to me as to where or on what machine said partition was located, but you have explained that now. Perhaps it was a silly question on my part.
 
toronado455 said:
I am familiar with NAS and have used both FreeNAS and OpenFiler. My question was referring specifically to your use of the term "partition" because it seemed ambiguous to me as to where or on what machine said partition was located, but you have explained that now. Perhaps it was a silly question on my part.
Click to expand...

No such thing as a silly question, I ask them all the time :)
What I have done now, based on advice on the FreeNAS Forums, is I have created a separate backup partition or to use its correct term 'dataset', on the NAS for each of my Mac Devices. And to avoid confusion I named them TM_Backup_iMac and TM_Backup_Macbook.

I then went into Time Machine on each Mac and selected the relevant dataset as the Time Machine Backup Hard Drive.

As suggested in this and other Mac Forums it may not be required for Time Machine but it keeps things neat.
 
JonnyAlpha said:
What I have done now, based on advice on the FreeNAS Forums, is I have created a separate backup partition or to use its correct term 'dataset', on the NAS for each of my Mac Devices.
Click to expand...
Thank you. This is usefull info. I am planning on doing this once I get my new server built.
 
Weaselboy said:
Thread jack! :)

How is FreeNAS working out for you? What are you using for hardware?

The inner nerd in me really wants to try this out. :D
Click to expand...

I think FreeNAS is fantastic but I am not an experienced user, I built it with the only mobo I had laying around with three SATA ports as I wanted to at least use SATA HDD's. So its built on an old PC and I only have 2GB RAM which is NOT recommended but it works for me.

I did however by 3 x new WD 1TB HDDs set up in a ZFS version of RAID, I made a mistake and bought WD Greens but after finding a fix to stop them spinning down (The Green Option) called WDIdle, they are running fine (One did die but its been swapped for a Toshiba (Could not get another WD - long story) but since then its been cool. Remember though - always make a backup of a backup!!!

I do intend on upgrading it and using one of my better motherboards and increasing the RAM to the minimum recommended.

Like I said it works fine and I am using a mix Mac and PC Network (couple of small tweaks required). My only restriction at the moment is that my NAS Server is in the garage networked using DLINK Power Line AV500's but because of the wiring and more than likely occasional line interference the throughput is not as good as I'd like it. Saying that I can normally stream a film OK, with the very occasional buffering. On a GBit LAN it would fly I'm sure.

If you have an old PC spare give it a go its free!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back