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TimeMachine to Samba NAS
- Thread starter TrickyRick
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In order to use Netatalk for Time Machine backups, you will need Netatalk 2.2b4 or higher. Problem is, it's still in beta, so there might be bugs that might break the system.
In order to use Netatalk for Time Machine backups, you will need Netatalk 2.2b4 or higher. Problem is, it's still in beta, so there might be bugs that might break the system.
Yeah. This grinds my gears a bit. I have a mixed Mac/Windows network at home, with a WHS box that WAS managing backups of ALL machines, but once the Macs get Lion, they can no longer back up to it, so now I'm back to two separate backup solutions.
A Time Capsule isn't a solution for everyone (it's a poor solution for automated Windows backups).
My temporary workaround until I or someone else comes up with a fix is to separate my NAS (Which is an external drive) into two partitions. One Ext3 which is used for the NAS and one HFS+ which I connect through USB for backups. Problem is that it's not automated, I have to switch between having it connected to my router as a NAS and to my MBP as a TM backup. It's better than nothing though, for the time being.
Just tossing ideas around since I was using my Windows Server 2008 box to host all my backups, both Windows and Mac...
I'm thinking about sharing an external drive on my iMac and backing up all Macs in the house to it and then have Carbon Copy Cloner backup my external drive each night to my Windows Server.
I'm thinking about sharing an external drive on my iMac and backing up all Macs in the house to it and then have Carbon Copy Cloner backup my external drive each night to my Windows Server.
Obviously a better workaround than mine. Problem is I don't have a spare iMac
Do you have any Mac's that just stay in an office or anything in the house? Or all laptops?
Also I'm not sure CCC will backup a time machine volume so I'm still checking into that.
EDIT: Turns out that CCC probably isn't the best solution. I was going to try using this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045N3H7Q in RAID1 so I could take 1 disk offsite but that could get dicey also because you don't easily know if any Mac's in the house are currently doing a TM backup so just pulling the disk could corrupt the backup. And there isn't any reason to have an offsite backup if it isn't any good!
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I like this solution, but remember that the only supported way of getting your mac's restored if they have a catastrophic drive failure is to use time machine. So that drive is going to have to be dedicated, formatted as HFS+ and large enough for all of the mac's backups.
Well, that applies to whatever drive you use.
It does however not have to be HFS+ because you can restore from the Time Machine image on the iMac.
It does however not have to be HFS+ because you can restore from the Time Machine image on the iMac.
It has to be a Mac formatted drive (HFS+, HFS +Journaled or Xsan) now with Lion.
That's why I'm sure that I'll end up with the Time Capsule. I don't want a drive hanging off my iMac all the time, it's an all in one computer. I don't want to give up a 2TB drive to Time Machine. As I need to change to a gigabit router, the cost is about the same and I have Apple support. Long term maybe a nice Mac Mini Server will come my way.
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I was considering getting a Time Capsule... but it's just so much pricier than all other NASes.
I decided to get a cheap portable USB drive as a temp measure, and enabled local snapshots, until WD update the MyBook World in August (fingers crossed).
I decided to get a cheap portable USB drive as a temp measure, and enabled local snapshots, until WD update the MyBook World in August (fingers crossed).
What version of FreeNAS are you on? 7 or 8? i'm guessing since us 7 users didn't even get an upgrade path, they'll only fix it in 8.
Netatalk, buggy
I tried Netatalk 2.1.5 with Time Machine and Snow Leopard. I got intermittent authentication failures (using PAM for authentication), and if a Mac was put to sleep during a backup, it would hang hard.
I reported these bugs to the netatalk developers, and their response was refusal to even consider addressing these problems unless they got companies to pay them for the development.
I have no confidence in them at all.
A the same time, I have no confidence in Time Capsules. They contain single drives (no RAID), making them a single point of failure.
The solution I'm looking into is finding a USB RAID1 enclosure. None of the current NAS boxes are going to work, so the next best thing is a USB drive connected to my AEBS.
Anyone have any suggestions on USB RAID1 enclosures? Something that can support two 2TB drives would be nice, and something that doesn't have terrible ratings (because most of them do).
I tried Netatalk 2.1.5 with Time Machine and Snow Leopard. I got intermittent authentication failures (using PAM for authentication), and if a Mac was put to sleep during a backup, it would hang hard.
I reported these bugs to the netatalk developers, and their response was refusal to even consider addressing these problems unless they got companies to pay them for the development.
I have no confidence in them at all.
A the same time, I have no confidence in Time Capsules. They contain single drives (no RAID), making them a single point of failure.
The solution I'm looking into is finding a USB RAID1 enclosure. None of the current NAS boxes are going to work, so the next best thing is a USB drive connected to my AEBS.
Anyone have any suggestions on USB RAID1 enclosures? Something that can support two 2TB drives would be nice, and something that doesn't have terrible ratings (because most of them do).
No, that won't work. Since TM requires things specified in the 3.3 version of AFP which is only implemented in Netatalk 2.2. I read that apparently the dev is charging people for 2.2 which some people claimed was a violation of the GPL it is licensed under.
Great news http://www.netafp.com/open-letter-to-the-netatalk-community-501/ Scroll down to the "update" section.
Netatalk 2.2 will probably be on sourceforge soon.
Netatalk 2.2 will probably be on sourceforge soon.
Good news for those running FreeNAS as well as those using devices from NetGear, Data Robotics, Western Digital Corporation and QNAP...
B
I'm running the latest FreeNAS 8 beta but I cannot back up anything to it! Maybe I have some config issues I haven't noticed though...? I can see the share but cannot write anything to it. I'm not bothered about Time Machine, but I do need to be able to write to my share.
This is indeed good news...
Netgear has ReadyNas support out: http://www.readynas.com/?p=5742
Meanwhile I purchased a Time Capsule yesterday and of course it "just worked".
Meanwhile I purchased a Time Capsule yesterday and of course it "just worked".