

Time Machine for OSX Lion 10.7 using Debian 6.0 Squeeze - danielwozniak
http://www.mikepalmer.net/build-a-netatalk-time-machine-for-osx-lion-using-debian-6-0-squeeze/
Build your own time machine using open-source software.
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pilif
While I appreciate the fun of getting this to work, overall, I really wonder
whether saving $300 for a Time Capsule is worth it if it means that your
backup solution is now relying on you typing a command like

    
    
        defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
    

The "unsupported" would give me pause when setting up a solution I will need
to be there when the worst happens. There must be a reason for this preference
to be there.

Granted, it could just be Apple wanting to sell their products and thus doing
some public key magic for it to work without the switch. Or it could be that
TM relies on some very rarely used feature in AFP which is not or at least not
perfectly implemented in netatalk.

Are you willing to bet your backup on this flag being needed for the former
reason and not the latter?

~~~
latchkey
Apple put that in there so that they could sell more TC's. They also seem to
make backwards incompatibile changes to the protocol for every OS release.

That said, the netatalk (and other vendors such as Drobo) have been pretty
good at staying on top of the changes. You can safely ignore this as an issue.

~~~
wooster
> Apple put that in there so that they could sell more TC's.

Not only is that pure speculation on your part, it's also not true.

~~~
latchkey
Ok, cool, you worked on TM. Care to explain why Apple purposely made it
difficult to setup TM using any other third party product other than a
TimeCapsule?

'Because we didn't want to get support issues'?

~~~
wooster
We needed certain guarantees on the remote end in order to ensure reliable
backups, that's all.

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fpgeek
I found the title a bit unclear. The first time I read it, it sounded like
Apple was using Debian Squeeze as part of Time Machine somehow, rather than
someone interfacing to Time Machine using squeeze. Both stories would have
been interesting, I just wanted to know which one to expect.

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latchkey
One addition, use my little automator action (Create Backup Volume) [1] to
generate the sparsebundle for each machine you are backing up. It sets up the
sparsebundle with better arguments, namely a larger sparse-band-size=131072
which greatly improves the speed of the backups since it is fewer files being
opened in the sparsebundle.

Don't worry about the size you give the bundle since newer versions of osx
will just resize the bundle to the size of the shared volume in netatalk
(something which was neglected in the blog authors post).

[1] <http://code.google.com/p/backmyfruitup/downloads/list>

------
0x0
I had this running (except with netatalk 2.2.x I don't think all that
"unsupported" prefs setting and xml hacking was necessary), anyway after a
month or so Mac OS started complaining that the backup couldn't be "verified"
or somesuch, and then proceeded to re-do the whole backup. As this started
happening every couple of days I gave up and switched to running rdiff-backup
manually across ssh instead. Makes browsing the backup repository much easier
too, especially if I only need something from the last run.

~~~
mkhpalm
I think you're right about netatalk 2.2 avahi stuff.

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g0atbutt
It appears to be down. Here's the Google Cache
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:a7H_n-e...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:a7H_n-
eKm-4J:www.mikepalmer.net/build-a-netatalk-timemachine-for-osx-lion-using-
debian-6-0-squeeze/+mikepalmer+Time+Machine+for+OSX+Lion+10.7+using+Debian+6.0+Squeez&hl=en&client=safari&gl=us&strip=1)

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Thrymr
An older page on doing this with a lot more detail:

[http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-
serve...](http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-
time-machine-volume/)

Not all of it is necessary anymore with Lion (and maybe with more recent
Debian/Ubuntu, I'm not sure), but it is a nice overview of the pieces.

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mikehoward
Plug a 1T LaCie all terrain HD into the FW 800 port. Works a lot faster than
the wireless and it's easy to back up the backup (portably)

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drewr
Another data point. If you already have a regular Airport Extreme, you can
plug a drive into the USB port, share it, and set it as your Time Machine
target. I didn't see the need to spend the extra money for the Time Capsule.

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latchkey
I use Backblaze (<http://goo.gl/LKYIq>) in case my house burns down and I do
TM backups to a DroboShare FS in case I need the data immediately. The TM
backups are also full backups so that if I need to just restore a whole
machine I have that option too. I also have PreyProject installed in case
someone steals my laptop.

Having lost data in the past, I can only say that setting up some sort of
backup/recovery system is very important. Hard disks and SSD's are like life,
they have a 100% guaranteed failure rate. =)

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hmottestad
Here is another alternative.

Get a second-hand mac mini and attach an external hdd. Then share the hdd on
the network and use it from timemachine.Now you also have a normal web server
with apache and php, install your favorite db and you're done.

Or you can create a hackintosh from an old laptop. Though this is potentially
quite unstable.

~~~
jonhendry
And that way you could use a RAID configuration of your choice, rather than
being limited to what Apple provides in Time Capsules, which I don't think are
even RAID.

~~~
wmf
Getting a little off the topic, I find it interesting that so many people RAID
their backups but not their primary storage.

~~~
catch23
most people's primary storage is the laptop hard drive. doubt it is useful to
have raid on 1 drive.

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smackfu
To be honest, I'd probably just get a refurb 2 GB Time Capsule for $260,
considering the bare drive would run you $160.

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jws
Can't see site, but it all "just works" if you can go to wheezy on your debian
machine.

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aeontech
is there a mirror?

~~~
danielwozniak
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:S1ltAY9...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:S1ltAY9SAgsJ:www.mikepalmer.net/archives/208+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

