How to copy a networked TimeMachine backup to a USB drive and restore from it?

Hi,
I backup my MacBook Air with TimeMachine to my QNAP NAS which offers a TimeMachine backup service and I can restore data from it OK.
Working in IT, and being a bit paranoid about important data loss, I am concerned that if I was robbed or my house burnt down I would most likely lose both the MacBook and the TimeMachine Backup on my NAS :-(
To protect against this I have backup my (linux based) NAS to an external drive that I keep offsite. This drive is encrypted to keep my data secure with a Linux form of encryption (cryptsetup) and hence can't be plugged into a MacBook to try and restore from it - I doubt this would work either as the TimeMachine data is not located in the root of the drive.
So what I have done to test my restore process is to mount the encrypted NAS backup that include the TimeMachine backup folders on a Linux machine and then copy the TimeMachine data to the root of an HFS+ formatted external USB drive.
But, now I am stuck as how to try and restore something from this to my MacBook to see if the copy of the TimeMachine backup is good. If I press the Alt key on the TimeMachine icon, I can select an alternate backup device and when I enter TimeMachine to browse the data, I can browse the structure but there is no option to go back in time !! It seems like it is not possible to restore from this copy of the TimeMachine backup.
Does anyone know if this should be possible, and if so, what am I doing wrong here?
Rgds
Gary

For anyone else that may be in a similar situation, I can confirm that this does actually work.
I am unsure why I was not able to mount the original sparseimage that I copied to the USB drive before, but I have gone through the entire process again and I could successfully mount the TM sparseimage onto my MacBook and restore files from within it using TimeMachine to my Mac.
This is a Disaster Recovery solution only needed for if both my NAS and Macbook get stolen or damaged so I am happy with this solution for now.
I will try the restore process several more times from my monthly backups to reassure myself that the first failure to mount the sparse image was an anomaly.
This is the process that I have tested:
Configure MacBook to backup to TimeMachine Service running on QNAP NAS device.
Perform regular backup of QNAP NAS Device (Linux) including the TimeMachine backup data to an external USB drive with encryption enabled and store this device safely off-site
In time of loss of both NAS and MacBook, Time Machine data can be recovered to another Mac without the need of the NAS using the following process:
Mount the external drive containing the backup of the NAS filesystem (ext4) which is encrypted onto a Linux host so it is readable - use the cryptsetup luksOpen options to access the encrypted filesystem then mount it.
Mount a n empty HFS+ formatted USB drive on the Linux host
Use Rsync to copy the sparsebundle from the external NAS drive backup disk to the root of the USB Drive
Insert the HFS+ formatted USB containing the sparesbundle into the Mac's USB port
Double click the sparsebundle to mount it onto the Mac as a Volume
Using Alt button and the TimeMachine icon, select use alternative backup disk and you should see the TM backup in the sparsebundle
Enter TimeMachine and you should be able to restore any/all files
Hope that helps someone else and thanks to LaPastenague for pointing me in the direction of some of the answers I needed.
Rgds
Gary

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How to copy a networked TimeMachine backup to an external drive and restore from it?

Hi,
I backup my MacBook Air with TimeMachine to my QNAP NAS which offers a TimeMachine backup service and I can restore data from it OK.
Working in IT, and being a bit paranoid about important data loss, I am concerned that if I was robbed or my house burnt down I would most likely lose both the MacBook and the TimeMachine Backup on my NAS :-(
To protect against this I have backup my (linux based) NAS to an external drive that I keep offsite. This drive is encrypted to keep my data secure with a Linux form of encryption (cryptsetup) and hence can't be plugged into a MacBook to try and restore from it - I doubt this would work either as the TimeMachine data is not located in the root of the drive.
So what I have done to test my restore process is to mount the encrypted NAS backup that include the TimeMachine backup folders on a Linux machine and then copy the TimeMachine data to the root of an HFS+ formatted external USB drive.
But, now I am stuck as how to try and restore something from this to my MacBook to see if the copy of the TimeMachine backup is good. If I press the Alt key on the TimeMachine icon, I can select an alternate backup device and when I enter TimeMachine to browse the data, I can browse the structure but there is no option to go back in time !! It seems like it is not possible to restore from this copy of the TimeMachine backup.
Does anyone know if this should be possible, and if so, what am I doing wrong here?
Rgds
Gary

Try un-mounting the drive from the Linux computer and see if you can access it as NAS.

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How to copy a networked TimeMachine backup to a USB drive and restore from it?

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