How to allow Time Machine service to back up to a NAS?

I have Mavericks and OS Server 3 installed and working without too much trouble (slight Caching Server 2 question) but want to tweak the Time Machine service.
I have two private networks in my setup each with their own routers, but the server can see both to service Time Machine. I was previously using Time Machine on a Synology DiskStation but it was hard wired to one of the subnets only, so to get all the clients to back up theu had to switch networks.
I tried setting up the TM destination on the NAS, but the clients could not actually back up and the destination folder was "(null)" instead of "Time Machine" (that I created and pointed at). I would really like to use this setup to allow clients on both networks to use a single Time Machine setup, but would prefer that (at least) the sparsebundles are on the NAS for a little RAID 5 love.
Any solutions?

hello people ...
same scenario and problems here.
http://wp.me/aD60V-2Zk
I have a Mac Mini Server with the Mavericks and running, but I can not define how disk for TimeMachine folders in there NAS (/ Volume_1) here. They appear to "Zero KB"!
But I can effectively define an external drive (/ TM_Caparica) connected directly to the Mac Mini via USB port for TimeMachine.
Beginning to believe that not - in fact - we can use a mapped drive for the server on the local network as the destination for the backup TimeMachine.
What a shame ...

Similar Messages

Time Machine Can't Back Up to Samba NAS

Hi,
I have a Samba NAS on my local network which I can mount manually, copy files to/from etc. quite OK. However, I can't get TM to use it! Here's the log:
06/01/2009 12:09:32 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Starting standard backup
06/01/2009 12:09:36 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Mounted network destination using URL: smb://[email protected]/admin
06/01/2009 12:09:36 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Backup destination mounted at path: /Volumes/admin-1
06/01/2009 12:09:36 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Creating disk image /Volumes/admin-1/Oberon_002241326ac3.sparsebundle
06/01/2009 12:10:26 kernel hfs: Initializing the journal (joffset 0xe51000 sz 0x2800000)...
06/01/2009 12:11:04 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Error 45 creating backup disk image
06/01/2009 12:11:04 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Failed to create disk image
06/01/2009 12:11:09 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[687] Backup failed with error: 20
NB - because I need to access another Samba server for work via VPN, I do have a file called nsmb containing:
[default]
minauth=none
Thoughts anyone...?

Thanks - that worked - although the solution requires a little updating which was mentioned further down that post. In summary it is now this:
1. Create a sparsebundle image manually on your local system. Open a terminal window and enter:
hdiutil create -size $SIZESPEC -fs HFS+J -type SPARSEBUNDLE -volname "Backup of $MACHINENAME" $MACHINENAME_$MACADDRESS.sparsebundle
Where $SIZESPEC is the size of the backup volume (followed by the lowercase letter g if Gigabytes, e.g. 100g), and $MACHINENAME_$MAC_ADRESS is your Mac's name followed by an underscore and then your Mac's MAC Address (otherwise known as its Ethernet ID; visible in the Network System Preferences panel), but without the colons. So if your Mac is named MyMac, and the Network System Preferences panel lists your Ethernet ID as 00:18:b3:11:84:dd, then you would use MyMac_0018b31184dd for the name of the sparsebundle.
The -size parameter can probably be as large as you want, now that Apple has evidently fixed the sparsebundle issues that were causing all but the most recent backup to be dumped. However, you can also specify a smaller size if you (like me) want to create a hard limit for the amount of space your Time Machine backups will take on your network drive. hdiutil does have a -resize option if you need to utilize that later.
2. Create and set permissions on your network share. Just make sure you have read/write permissions set on whichever SMB/AFP share you're going to dump this to.
3. Copy the sparsebundle to the network share root. Easy enough. Mount your network share and copy it over. I used this Terminal command after the MyBackup share was mounted: cp -r mymachine_0017f2c8426b.sparsebundle /Volumes/MyBackup/. Or just use the regular UI to copy and paste (it worked for me).

How to stop Time Machine from backing up Temp Files?

Hi folks!
I am trying to find out how to stop Time Machine from constantly backing up 'useless' temporary files accumulated from web browsing? Although I don't change or add large files to my HD, Time Machine backs up hundreds of MBs every hour. Those file amounts make sense when I consider that I browse a lot to YouTube, SoundCloud, etc to watch videos or listen to music - I just don't want them to be backed up.
Under Time Machine Options I already excluded the following items from backups:
~/Library/Caches
/Library/Caches
~/Downloads
But even though I did this weeks ago, Time Machine stills finds large files to be backed up every hour and my only guess is that I am still missing a location where either Safari or Firefox - the two web browsers I use - store temporary files.
Can you help?
Thanks a lot in advance!

oas2103 wrote:
they come from my anti-virus software
Are you sure you need that? There are no viruses that run on OSX. None. Zip. Zero.
If you're running Windoze on your Mac, that's the same as running it on a PC, so it needs all the same anti-everything stuff you'd use on a PC.
There is some "malware," such as Trojans, for Macs, though. But (unlike viruses that can get onto your system without your knowledge), you must approve their installation (via your Admin password) and/or operation (via the "This application was downloaded from the internet ..." prompt).
Appropriately enough, some of these Trojans are included in pirated versions of Apple software, such as iWork!
For the gory details, see Thomas Reed's [Mac Virus Guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/macvirus].
Thanks a lot again!
You're quite welcome, and thanks for posting back.

Time Machine will not back up to My Passport Edge for Mac. How do I delete the aliases to make room?

Time Machine after running for a few weeks says 'Time Machine couldn't back up 'My Passport Edge for Mac', also new. It needs 365.05 GB only 49.94 are available.
When I click on the My Passport Edge for Mac, I see that it has alias for each file. How do I delete the alias in order to backup my Time Machine???

You do not ever delete anything on the Time Machine drive using the Finder.
Those Alias files are essential to the internal operation of Time machine, and is what allows it to keep only one copy of a file that appears, unmodified, in multiple Backup Sets. If you modify them in any way, you risk Time Machine losing ALL your data.
I expect your backup drive is simply not large enough to do what you are trying to do.
To learn about Time machine, start on this page and keep clicking on the ( next page ) links for additional pages in the linked articles:
How Time machine works its magic
Your best short term solution may be to start a new backup, which will be smaller that the multiple backups on your existing drive. In the long run a Drive 2.5 to 3 times the size of what you want to backup is recommended.

I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. with the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see the work?

I'm running Pages version 5.2 on a Desktop Mac version 10.9.2. With the Pages app open how do I use the Time Machine to go back five hours to see my page? Can I access Time Machine within an app like Pages? How do I enter Time Machine within the application? It always takes me to the Finder. I apolgise for the mumbo jumbo. I simply do not know how to use Time Machine. It makes sense when I follow the Tutorial but then I lose it.

OK. You've kind of skipped over the reason why you want to go back five hours, but my assumption would be that you've made changes to a Pages file that you want to revert.
There are two ways to tackle this. From Pages itself, open the current version of your document, and from the File menu, click Revert To, and Browse All Versions. You'll then be in the Time Machine interface for that file, and can browse back to the version you want.
Or, outside of Pages, you can select the file (or the folder it was originally in, if you've since deleted it) and enter Time Machine from the TM menu (it sounds like you've already tried this?)
best
Matt

How to transfer time machine back up to new hard drive

How to transfer time machine back up to new hard drive?

You may like to take a look at this thread... https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4207670?start=0&tstart=0

How do I redirect time machine to current back up?

I just sent my Powerbook to Applecare for a repair (screen, fans, and keyboard), and I just received it yesterday. The first thing I did was click time machine to go back into time to retrieve some files that I didn't want to be somehow (purposely or more likely accidentally) affected by Apple's repair. Only the problem is, there is nothing there. Can't go back in time. Then an error pops up telling me that my disk has 1.99 GB's left to use and it needs 77 to create a new back up. The issue here is the fact that my partition has 200 GB's to back up on, and the reason that I only have 1.99 is because everything is already currently backed up to the backup bundle already created and used before sending it to Applecare. How do I make Time Machine recognize the current back up again (which has been in use since October) so that I can actually access all the files and continue to back up? I know the files are there, and I know the .sparsebundle still exists (I'm looking at), so how do I make Time Machine recognize and utilize it like nothing has happened?

Thanks a lot for responding, I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. I did check the computer name and it is the same. There are no new backups since I've received my computer back from Applecare so I'm not afraid to loose and current saves, all the ones I want are in that bundle. Once I saw that it tried to create whole new back up (sparsebundle) and couldn't because it didn't have enough space, I turned time machine off to make sure nothing changes from what was previously set. It's just a matter of figuring out how to make Time Machine recognize all the backups again so that I can access the them and continue to back up on it.
I'm not sure if I wrote this in already, but thought I would to see if it helps. My external hard drive is set up with the backups on it. When I access the external hard drive in finder, it shows a file that says "Kagan Buck's Powerbook G4's backups.sparsebundle" (not exact, but you get the drift). And it's trying to create a new one of those. So my basic question how do I make Time Machine access the current bundle again to utilize it like it always used too.
Sorry again if I'm being repetitious, but I feel like that's the first time I've actually correctly described the issue.
Thanks a lot.

My Time machine won't back up. Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5. Error message is as follows: "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use." What is wrong and how do I fix it? Thanks.

My Time machine won't back up. Recently updated to OS x 10.7.5. Error message is as follows: "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Scott’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use." What is wrong and how do I fix it? Thanks.

Have you tried restarting the computer? Also, see Time Machine Error from this pages sidebar under More Like This.

How to use time machine to back up

how to use time machine to back up files

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
See > http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
To set up Time Machine, open System Preferences > Time Machine > Select Disk, and choose the external disk you want to use to make the backups. Time Machine will start making its first backup just after selecting your external drive.
If you have more questions about Time Machine, see this website > http://pondini.org

HT3275 I can't unlock my setting to allow Time Machine. How do I fix this?

I can't unlock my setting to allow Time Machine. How do I fix this?

What happens when you click the LOCK? You should get a prompt asking for account name and password that has Administrative Priveleges on the Mac. Sometimes this prompt window is hidden behind other open windows.
Perhaps you are logged into an account with even more severe restrictions set by another administrator suing Parental Controls.
Can you unlock any other preferences in System Preferences ? A good think to try would be unlocking security and privacy settings.
Hope this helps.

How to use Time Machine to back up and restore from 2 external hard drives

Hi I need some help
I am about to switch internal hard drives and kept a time machine back up to an external hard drive until I had filled it up. That was a few months ago and in order to make space I deleted some files from my internal drive. In the last few months I have filled that space (About 50GBs)on my internal drive. Needless to say those new files aren't backed up.
What I want to do is after switching internal hard drives restore everything including the new files apps and updates etc via time machine
Can I back up my most recent computer situation as it is to a new external hard drive using TM and then restore that to the new internal hard drive and then restore specific folders from my first external TM hard drive?
Thanks a million
Rotang

I am sorry, i am confused about what exactly you are trying to say here.
well, Time machine works on very simple concept. it backs up either all the data from your computer or only selected data(customized) from the computer.
to restore you can follow these steps as mentioned below
To restore files:
Open a window for the item you want to restore.
For example, if you accidentally deleted a file from your Documents folder, open the Documents folder. If you want to recover an email message, open your inbox in Mail.
If you’re missing an item from the desktop, you don’t need to open a window.
Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock.
If Time Machine isn’t in the Dock, look for it in the Applications folder.
Use the arrows or the timeline along the right side of your screen to browse through all the backups Time Machine has created.
If you need more information about an item, double-click to preview it.
The windows behave just like Finder windows, so you can open folders, click items in the sidebar, and use the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it and then click Restore.
You can restore individual items, multiple items, folders, or your entire hard disk.
If an item you restore has the same name as another item on your computer, you’re asked if you want to keep the current item, the restored item, or both.
The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if it is found in the Documents folder, it is returned to the Documents folder. Time Machine may ask if you want to re-create one or more folders in order to return a restored item to its original location.
And with regards to your question,
Can I back up my most recent computer situation as it is to a new external hard drive using TM and then restore that to the new internal hard drive and then restore specific folders from my first external TM hard drive?
yes, you can do that but but this can be done only by navigating into the Time machine restore folder and then copying the uptdated folder to the destination folder(drive) manually..
http://mac-support.blogspot.com

Time Machine doesn't back everything up

Having a quirky issue with Time Machine - it's only backing up the 'Users' folder from the OS hard drive, not the 'Applications', 'Library' or 'System' folders. Therefore, if I ever needed it to reinstall it wouldn't have enough of the data.
Any ideas how to tell Time Machine to back up all folders on the OS drive? Nothing I can see in Time Machine settings/preferences with such an option...
For info, the OS is on a 250GB inernal SSD and Time Machine is backing up to a 2TB external drive.
Thanks!

Just as an update, I tried deleting the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file and effectively 'resetting' Time Machine but it made no difference. I ran the diagnostic and reported it as a Bug to Apple. For your info, details of report are below.
Thanks
Andy
20-Aug-2013 10:42 AM Andy Worby:
Summary:
Time Machine is failing to back up all top-level folders present on the main OS hard disc, even though they do not appear in the 'Exclusions' list within Time Machine preferences. As a result, 'System', 'Library' and 'Applications' top-level folders are not backed up. The only folder being backed up is 'Users'.
Upon investigation, the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file contains exclusions for above mentioned top-level folders (see screenshot 1), although they have 'not' been purposefully added to the 'Exclusions' list via the Time Machine preferences window.
Deleting the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file and then setting up Time Machine once again via the preferences window does not change the result - the three affected folders still fail to back up.
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Delete com.apple.TimeMachine.plist preferences file to perform a full reset of Time Machine.
2. Enter Time Machine preferences window.
3. Select backup hard disc ( in this case, I am using an external 2TB hard disc via Firewire 800 connection).
4. Click options
5. Ensure that only the backup hard disc is selected in 'Exclusions' list.
6. Click Save
7. Commence a Time Machine backup.
8. Allow backup process to complete.
9. Go directly into the backup hard disc.
10. View top-level folders that have been backed up from the OS hard disc.
Expected Results:
All top-level folders from the OS hard disc should have been backed up.
Actual Results:
Only the 'Users' top-level folder from the OS hard disc has been backed up.
Regression:
Problem is continuous, and has occurred for some time, although I do not know from which exact date.
Notes:
I have included the following attachments:
1. Study iMac.tmdiagnostic.zip
2.Screen shot 1 - this is a screenshot of the Time Machine preferences file
3. Screen shot 2 - this is a screenshot of the top level folders within my OS hard disc

Time machine no longer backs up after cloning startup disk

I cloned my startup disk (250 mb) in April 2013 to a 500 mb disk and replaced it with the cloned disk. Before the clone, Time Machine was backing up properly to the 6tb external drive designated for backup. Since installing the clone Time Machine has not backed up anything. Everything (all the apps) is working properly on the cloned disk except, apparently, Time Machine. In fact, I cannot get Time Machine to allow me to make any adjustments to the settings. I went on the Apple Support website to see if I can reinstall Time Machine, but could not find anything. Any suggestions?
Model Name:          Mac Pro
Model Identifier:          MacPro1,1
Processor Name:          Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed:          2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors:          2
Total Number Of Cores:          4
L2 Cache (per processor):          4 MB
Memory:          12 GB
Bus Speed:          1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version:          MP11.005C.B08
SMC Version (system):          1.7f10

If only the system was cloned with CCC it should work, though if you change names who knows.
Delete the plist and turn off and on.
they don't make 6TB so you're using some kind of array or JBOD.
http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine
subsection in Mac OS X forum.
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Lion Recovry & TimeMachine
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/
Time Machine’s Gory Details:
https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
How To Restore Your System
http://pondini.org/TM/14.htmlMac OS X v10.7 Lion
Back-In-Time 2: Unleash the power of Time Machine
Restore Time Machine data: Time Machine is a great basic backup tool. But the options for locating and restoring data are quite limited. Back-In-Time gives you total flexibility in discovering and recovering your data to any location on your Mac. See more...

Time Machine isn't backing up VMWare Fusion

Hello,
I understand Time Machine is supposed to backup Fusion Virtual Machines. It doesn't seem to happen for me. I was running Fusion 1.1.3 and my father inadvertently selected "Revert to Previous Snapshot" and lost all my latest files. I assumed I could just restore from yesterday's Time Machine backup--but it's not there. When I launch Time Machine, the 'virtual machines' folder is empty. I upgraded to Fusion 2.0 and it still doesn't seem to backup ('virtual machines' folder is still empty in TM). Anyone have an answer? How does Time Machine store these files?

This from VMWares' web site:
+"VMware Fusion 1.1.2 and Mac OS X Leopard Time Machine Issue Resolved
A bug in the Mac OS X 10.5-10.5.1 operating systems caused the system to fail if Time Machine attempted to back up live virtual machines. *To avoid this, VMware Fusion 1.1 excluded all virtual machines from Time Machine backups.* Apple resolved the Time Machine bug in Mac OS X 10.5.2, so VMware Fusion 1.1.2 now allows Time Machine backups of virtual machines if the Mac is running Mac OS X 10.5.2 or higher. This may result in larger Time Machine backups. If the backups are now too large, you can manually exclude your virtual machines from Time Machine backup and copy them separately to your backup disk.+
I realize you are running 10.5.5 and you have upgraded to Fusion 3. However, any chance you still have some Fusion 1.1 components still installed on the Mac that might be preventing TM from backing up Fusion?
Alternatively, others have not excluded anything in the TM Prefs Pane, yet certain files/folders were not being backed up. They cleared this up by deleting the following .plist.
*Delete Time Machine Preference .plist*
Go to --> Macintosh HD / Library / Preferences (Note: NOT Home / Library / Preferences).
Drag the .plist file labeled,
com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
to the root level of your Macs’ hard drive.
Reboot your computer.
This .plist file is automatically recreated at startup if it is missing.
Now try choosing the external HD in the TM Prefs for backup again.
Perform a backup and see if the missing file now appears in the last backup.
Glenn

Meverckics time machine does not back up wiki

I am using a Mac Pro mid 2013 as a server for my team. I use it only for wiki (no other service like mail server or website host). I started using in October 2013. December 2013, the Time Machine informed me that it runs out of space (my working HD is 1 TB, at that time it is more than 500 Gb in use. The HD for Time Machine is 3TB). I just let the Time Machine keep running ( it said that it woud arrange to delete old backups to make room for new ones).
Yesterday, the wiki database is corrupted and I fully restore from TM. to my horror, the wiki is only restored to December 2013. Which means we lost the works of the last 6 months. I check the backup files in Time Machine and found out that the last wiki database (Library/Server/Wiki) was updated to December 2013 only, even though other files were updated to yesterday. I checked the TM preference and wiki database is not in list of files excluding from backing up.
My questions:
1. Does any one know why the Time Machine doesn't back up wiki while it backs up other files?
2. In future, how can I prevent this happen again?
3. Can I recover the works of last six months (in other words, does Mavericks server keep wiki database where else other than Library/Server/Wiki?
many thanks in advance!
infor:
Mac Pro mid 2013. 12Gb ram?
working HD: 1TB
time machine HD: 3TB
server service used: only wiki!

Time machine no longer working: Apple Support Communities

How to allow Time Machine service to back up to a NAS?

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