Time Machine Servers

[link92]

Any idea of what the server has to be running for it to work with Time Machine?

 

[jsw]

Any idea of what the server has to be running for it to work with Time Machine?

I suspect it merely needs to provide network-accessible storage, possibly limited to being able to be mounted under OS X, hopefully allowing ftp/sftp/scp/etc. access, meaning it would merely need to be accessible via remote connection.

 

[whooleytoo]

The second he mentioned a server, I immediately assumed he was going to mention .Mac; but the quality of service is nowhere near good enough for this kind of work.

That said, if Apple were to improve .Mac to the point where it could be used for this, it would be a superb selling point for the service.

 

[gauchogolfer]

The second he mentioned a server, I immediately assumed he was going to mention .Mac; but the quality of service is nowhere near good enough for this kind of work.

That said, if Apple were to improve .Mac to the point where it could be used for this, it would be a superb selling point for the service.

Ooh, I like this idea. I just don't like the idea of uploading a 70GB copy of my hard drive for the first clone...

 

[whooleytoo]

Ooh, I like this idea. I just don't like the idea of uploading a 70GB copy of my hard drive for the first clone...

Supposedly, Time Machine only backs up the changes made, not the entire files; so if Apple are clever they might be able to avoid thousands of users all cloning their copies of OSX and the massive iLife apps etc.

"Ideally", Time Machine only needs to send anything on your Mac that you've changed.

 

[Edot]

Supposedly, Time Machine only backs up the changes made, not the entire files; so if Apple are clever they might be able to avoid thousands of users all cloning their copies of OSX and the massive iLife apps etc.

"Ideally", Time Machine only needs to send anything on your Mac that you've changed.

That wouldn't really be a backup. For reverting to older versions of files this may be all that is required, but to recover from a backup to a blank disk all of the data would need to be backed up to the server.

 

[whooleytoo]

That wouldn't really be a backup. For reverting to older versions of files this may be all that is required, but to recover from a backup to a blank disk all of the data would need to be backed up to the server.

But having lots of users backing up identical system files & applications would be enormously redundant.

It's probably unlikely Apple will attempt this for a while (if ever), but if they did I would assume they would simply restore the system files & applications from a master copy on .Mac; then restore any changes to the system the user may have made and the user's other files & applications from the user's backup.

 

[gauchogolfer]

But having lots of users backing up identical system files & applications would be enormously redundant.

It's probably unlikely Apple will attempt this for a while (if ever), but if they did I would assume they would simply restore the system files & applications from a master copy on .Mac; then restore any changes to the system the user may have made and the user's other files & applications from the user's backup.

I see where you're coming from with the 'reinstall from a master copy' for applications and system (OS) software. Unfortunately for me, what's most important are my music, picture, and movies that I've made, and those are what take up all of the space. I just don't think we're quite ready for Internet-based backups.

 

[whooleytoo]

I see where you're coming from with the 'reinstall from a master copy' for applications and system (OS) software. Unfortunately for me, what's most important are my music, picture, and movies that I've made, and those are what take up all of the space. I just don't think we're quite ready for Internet-based backups.

Pah! Most of the music probably came from iTunes, so they could restore from the iTMS servers. As for the por...er.. "photos and videos", they could get those off the Internet... 😛

No, you're right, we're nowhere near ready yet. Having said that, in 4 years my upload rate has gone from 28kbps (dial up) to 3Mbps, if it keeps going at that rate, we mightn't have to wait long.

 

[jsw]

The Time Machine FAQ should address most of these issues, so, to consolidate discussion, I'll close this thread and ask people to move to that thread. I won't merge threads because I think it'd just be confusing.

If you feel there's a compelling reason to re-open this, please PM me.