Leopard Server Time Machine Questions

We've been running Time Machine to backup client data for about 20 users for a number of months. We've set this up with Time Machine saving to a 750GB RAID 1 external drive mounted as a share point. Each user has a maximum disk quota on the share point (set up using 'edquota'). We now have some questions about how Time Machine is supposed to work:
1) We're starting to get errors that Time Machine has run out of space for individual users. We understood that Time Machine would simply delete the oldest backups and then continue (as it does with standard Time Machine on an individual Mac) but this doesn't seem to happen. Instead we get a warning that there isn't enough space. Is this correct for Server-based Time Machine or is there something we can/should do to make Time Machine behave 'normally' and auto-delete oldest backups to make space for new backups?
2) We've used 'edquota', 'quotacheck' and 'repquota' commands to create our user quotas on a share point. However we can't find any way of removing an individual user's quota completely - it seems we can change their quota but we can't remove them and start again without removing the user completely from the server. Is there any way of resetting and/or removing a user's disk quota on a share point, including clearing down all their data? For example, we have one user that has 3GB of 10GB quota 'in use' even when all their data has been removed manually. There are no hidden folders/files etc. but 'quotacheck says they are still using 3GB!
3) We have an HP Ultrium 960 LTO-3 SCSI tape drive. Does anyone know how we can backup our Time Machine data onto these tapes for off-site archives? We've looked at EMC Retrospect 8.1 but this doesn't seem to work properly with Time Machine data (and seems to be generally flakey!). Does anyone know of general OS X/Unix drivers for this type of device that would allow us to use Unix commands ('tar' etc.). Alternatively can anyone recommend a backup software solution that actually works with Time Machine data?
4) Can anyone recommend a known working solution to keeping long term archives of Time Machine data?
Thanks for any help!

Thanks for a quick response!
We only backup selected client data, excluding system, apps, music, photos etc. i.e. only company data not personal data or general system data (our client systems are built from a common standard build brick). So 10GB-25GB is fine for many months of Time Machine backups for our user population.
We like Time Machine because the user doesn't have to do anything for backing up, it works automatically and the user can recover their 'oops' files without tech support help. So we're keen to get the benefits of Time Machine for several months of immediate backups that users can deal with themselves, but also we'd like some kind of longer term off-site archive capability - this is why we'd like to tape the Time Machine data.
We don't have a working tape solution at present. We have an old Retrospect 6 licence which explicitly does nothing (but complain!) with Time Machine data. We tried a trial licence of Retrospect 8.1 but it seems flakey in general and did not cope reliably with Time Machine data. We wondered about Bru but we'd have to remove Retrospect 6 (which we're keeping in case we need to recover from old archive tapes).
Currently our server is backed up using a combination of techniques:
1) Time Machine of the server itself (system and data)
2) Time Machine of the company data share point onto an external 750GB RAID 1 drive (2 active disks mirrored + 1 spare disk)
3) Weekly 'breaking' of RAID 1 mirror using a spare drive (i.e. weekly rotation of mirror drive)
4) Weekly clones of server system material (but not data) onto FireWire external drive
5) Monthly clone of RAID 1 onto another external FireWire drive (we intend to rotate this with another identical drive)
Can you confirm the situation regarding Time Machine when it runs out of space - how do we get it to 'roll over' old backup data?
Thanks again

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Leopard Server - Time Machine Backup - Full

IHi, I have Leopard Server (10.5.2) running on a Mac Pro. Its is setup with 1 Boot Drive and a pair Mirrored Data Drives. It also has a large External Drive that the Data from the Mirrored Drives is backed up onto via Time Machine. The Boot Drive is excluded from the Time Machine Backup. After a couple of weeks Time Machine reported that the External Drive was full and Time Machine stopped working. I was under the impression Time Machine would delete older files and replace them with new files. To get around this I have replaced the External with an even larger drive, but guess this will report the same problem soon. Has anyone got any ideas why Time Machine isn't doing what its meant to? Cheers.

No - Leopard Server acting as a File Sharer and Retrospect Backup Server. No false volume/data sizes are listed. Its just filled the external Lacie RAID Drive and is refusing to discard old TM data to create enough room for newer TM data.
I've tried reformatting external since first posted and all works great until the disk is full and the problem reoccurs.
The reason TM filling drive up fast is because the server is accessed my a group of designers storing a lot of data. It would just be great to give designers ability to recover files at various stages through a job process.

Snow Leopard and Time Machine question

Running on snow leopard, trying back up files in order to upgrade OS using an external hard drive and time machine. Previously said "don't use" on accident with this hard drive; any way to reverse this?

Hello cinstar,
The following article provides steps for setting up Time Machine. The process of choosing a drive should not omit any drives that have been previously 'ignored' when first connected.
Mac OS X 10.6: Setting up and adjusting Time Machine
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6299
Cheers,
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I am using 10.5 server as an OD master. It is also the primary user home directory location. I am using time machine to backup all of the user directories. While using the time machine interface I can browse to any folder and any file. However, as soon as I go 'back in time' all of the user folders become unaccessible and have a red circle with a white line in it (the 'do not enter' sign). I am logged in as an admin that has full posix permissions on all folders. Any thoughts how to solve this?

Munroe Sollog wrote:
Do you know how it is kept separate?
The same way it's kept separate on their Macs. Each user account has a password and files have permissions; the structure of TM backups is the same (the permissions are stored differently, but the effect is the same).
. . . I don't see how having them give me their password and then having them reset once I am done having full access to their account is any more secure/private.
That wouldn't be my first choice either, but since you've already said you don't want them doing their own restores, that's about the only other choice.

Best Setup for Lion Server Time Machine Backup with Drobo?

I've been thinking about this a lot, yet I don't feel I have a good solution for this, so I'm going to throw it out to the community.
I have a home server setup using a Mac Mini running Lion Server 10.7.2 with a Firewire 800 Drobo attached. The Drobo is used for both Time Machine backups and files. I also have a Powerbook G4 running Leopard and a MacBook 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with Lion 10.7.2 which connect to the Server and the Drobo wirelessly thorugh an Airport Extreme.
I want to use Time Machine to have all of my computers back up to the server & Drobo, but realize there are several ways to go, each with their pluses and minuses:
Server Time Machine Backup:
+ Centralizes backup process, rules, and other elements
+ Currently Mac Mini is backing up to the Drobo correctly using this process
+ Have setup size limit on Server backup so that it does not eat up file space
- Would combine laptop backups with server backup into one sparse image: this would lead to the computer with the largest backup needs taking up too much space
Client-Driven Time Machine Backup:
+ Allows for customization of backup processes by computer
+ Can setup specific space requirements for each computer
+ Backups are separate from each other
- Wireless backup from laptops to Drobo is not functioning currently
Any thoughts or experiences on how best to set this up? I tend to do most of my work on the MacBook, hence I am concerned about it having it's backup space eaten up by the server, but that may be more of a theoretical issue than a real one.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Well I'm not sure if I am following you but I will explain how I set mine up. When I got the Drobo I inserted 2 drives and selected the highest available volume I could (16TB). My drives are 4 TB each and I knew I would soon add 2 more. Then Drobo did its thing and prepared these drives. The Drobo shows up on my mini desktop as an external drive. When I log into my server from my other computer I can see the mini server volume and the Drobo volume. I can access each no problem. They act as regular volumes. Soon after I added the second two drives and everything stayed the same meaning I could still see and access the Drobo on the desktop of my mini. So it sounds like you used the Drobo dashboard to partition yours for two volumes? Are they both showing on the desktop?
"Maybe the Drobo needs to be mounted on the desktop to be considered AFP feature enabled." I could be wrong and hopefully someone will correct me but I think the Drobo (or volumes) have to be mounted on the desktop to work with AFP.

Lion Server Time Machine sparsebundles

Subject indicates where I think my problem lies, but for background:
MacBook Pro got bit by Thunderbolt firmware upgrade snafu last week. Contacted Apple Store the next morning, saw Genius at 11:00. Concuded hardware and firmware were OK and because I had a Time Machine backup less than an hour old I gave permission to install a fresh 10.7.3 image on my bare metal.
Got home and booted Command-R. Happily saw my Time Machine shares on Mac Mini Server running Lion Server 10.7.4. Yes, "shares." A Backup and Backup-1.
As a Lion Server novice I found a tip here to "defaults write /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sharepoints/Backups timeMachineBackup '(1)' to make my shared mountpoint work with Time Machine over the network. Perhaps thats how one does it if one doesn't have Server. I later found the Time Machine panel in Server and turning that on gave me a Backups-1 share as well.
So back with Command-R my MacBook Pro saw both the Backups and Backups-1, I navigated to Backups and it saw its previous Time Machine archive. I started a bare metal restore and happily went to bed. Next morning found the restore stopped at about 20% of the progress bar and message instructing me to reboot the computer. Repeated, same results.
Back to Command-R I reinstalled a new copy of Lion from Apple over the internet. Did minimal configuration until I could get into Time Machine and try to manually pull files. Again it quit unexpectedly no matter holding the Option key to Verify Backups passed.
So back to the Mac Mini Server I turn off Sharing from System Preferences and Time Machine from Server. The /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sharepoints/Backups file disappears when Server Time Machine is turned off.
I have attempted to move "David Kelly's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" from "/Volumes/Macintosh HD2/Backups" to "/Volumes/Macintosh HD2/Shared Items/Backups" where Server Time Machine seems to expect it. The problem now is that the MacBook Pro doesn't see this Time Machine archive in that location, or see it at all.
I have performed the Disk Utility verify tasks listed in the Time Machine FAQ with no errors found or repaired.
I have seen a -6584 error this week but don't remember exactly when: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3123920?start=0&tstart=0
How can I get the sparsebundle back under Time Machine Server?

Finally figured it out on my own 2 weeks later.
You have to open the Lion Server app and then turn on Time Machine on the server.
It will then ask what disk you want to use, which in my case was an external 2tb USB.
My confusion was that this is not they way you had to do it on Snow Leopard Server.
On SLS, I never used Time Machine, but had to partition my external disk individually for each user. e.g. 2tb disk was partioned into 4 separate volumes. This was necessary to keep one user's Time Machine backup from taking up the whole disk and not leaving room for the other users.
You then setup these partitions as Time Machine Sharepoint which would then show up as a choice on the users machine under Time Machine preferences, select disks.
Therefore, under SLS, a user could select from any number of partions to backup to on the server. On Lion Server, it appears you do not have a choice and can only backup to the one disk you selected on the Server App.
At the risk of carrying on a conversation with myself online, my concern is now about limiting the size of the individual user's sparse bundle to again keep one user from taking up the entire disk for their Time Machine. I guess that is another fight for another day.

Restore from time machine questions

Since update from snow leopard to time machine mac mini runs very slow. Too much beach ball. I want to do a clean install of lion and restore from time machine and have multiple questions.
1. I'm not sure if my time capsule password is the same as my airport, and if it is not where can I find it
2. If I install the os can I just tell the time machine that I am migrating to a new machine and that would be the most simple and painless? And if I did would that just restore broken extensions?
3. Will my keychain be restored?
4.What do I restore? Documents? All my files? Macintosh HD? Applications? Documents?
5. I'm using parallels primarily to run the windows version of Quicken. Will time machine restore that or do need to reinstall parallels and windows etc?
6. If I restore Applications folder will programs work or do I need to reinstall the programs?
7. Do I install Ilife or Iwork? Mobile me? Widgets? Printers, keyboard, etc?

Since update from snow leopard to time machine mac mini runs very slow. Too much beach ball. I want to do a clean install of lion and restore from time machine and have multiple questions.
1. I'm not sure if my time capsule password is the same as my airport, and if it is not where can I find it
2. If I install the os can I just tell the time machine that I am migrating to a new machine and that would be the most simple and painless? And if I did would that just restore broken extensions?
3. Will my keychain be restored?
4.What do I restore? Documents? All my files? Macintosh HD? Applications? Documents?
5. I'm using parallels primarily to run the windows version of Quicken. Will time machine restore that or do need to reinstall parallels and windows etc?
6. If I restore Applications folder will programs work or do I need to reinstall the programs?
7. Do I install Ilife or Iwork? Mobile me? Widgets? Printers, keyboard, etc?

Restore Lion OS from Lion Server Time Machine Backup?

I am running a Intel Imac 2008 clean install SL then Lion upgrade, followed by Lion Server install. I have multiple home macs, and intnded the server as a way to monitor and restrict kids internet use. In short, it has changes/screwed up multiple programs, and complicated home sharing issues considerably. Mail on the server machine has permission problems (cannot send mail, unable to sign), Spotlight in mail is non-functioning, finder spotlight searches are inconsistent, etc. I want to revert to plain old Lion.
I have done disk utility/verify disk and verified/repaired permissions, and have 'fiddled' (i'm not an expert) in the keychain/certificates areas, but I think the best solution is a clean install of Lion. QUESTION: When I backup to TIme Machine, is there a way to pull a 'Lion' version of my disk image back, and just not upgrade to Server? I understand I can disable Server and turn off applications in Server, but it doesn't fix my buggy machine. My options are to back up my 250GB of music, 100GB of photos, 100GB of movies, etc on to external drives, and clean install and then reimport everything, but even that will probably mean I cant reinstall my single user licesnse of MS office, VMware fusion, etc that I didn't buy on the App store. I'd really love to be able to do this with Time machine. Any chance? or do I need to do the dark deed of 2 days of backup?

Sorry, I don't mean to be stupid, but I want to be sure. My impresion of Time machine disk images (I'm not a computer genius, but I'm , lets say, an expert novice) is that disk images (my term for the 'total view' of a computers main disk), differ depending on the OS. I assume that applications and preferences referenced under SL could not be seamlessly imported into a Lion environment. I'm assumng that the upgrade to Lion server has irrevocaby altered my startup/main volume into a "Lion Server" volume, and that if I try to pull my applications/data/preferences/mailboxes back onto a fresh Lion interface, it won't work. Are you saying I'm wrong, and that I can simply erase my disc, clean install Lion via an internet connection, and re-import my "lion Server- altered' stuff back from aLion-server Time Machine disk image, seamlessly, into a Lion OS environment? Sorry to be so concrete, but my wife will kill me if I %$@ the bed on this. I appreciatre your help.

Server Time Machine vs File Sharing TM

For a couple of years I have used file sharing on my Mac Mini to provide Time Machine backup space for the Mac Books in my collection. This has worked well, with multiple hard drives and partitions providing redundant backup space (every Mac has at least two concurrent Time Machine backups, each in different hard drives attached to the MM). I have been examining OS X Server, and am wondering what benefit Server Time Machine service offers over my current arrangement. I can see no functional difference. Is there any?

Functionally, I don't believe so. If you're able to back up and restore your Macs over your LAN using File Sharing then the Time Machine Service in OS X Server won't do you any good.
I use OS X Server and the Time Machine Service for back ups/restore. I know I can restore any Mac client as long as the server (Mac Mini) is up and running. I simply select the network back up while in the Recovery HD of the client, log into it and select the date I want to restore. I don't know how File Sharing works if you have to restore one of your Macs from the Recovery HD.

Where to Post Time Machine Question?

My question title says it all. How do I find the area in which to post a Time Machine question? Or do I just do it here? Thanks.

There is no place to post a question on Time Machine

Snow leopard and time machine

Hi, I'm using an iMac 21.5" middle 2010 with Mac OS X snow leopard and Time machine on a Time Capsule with 2 GB.
Since yesterday the control light is permanantly flashing yellow, but nevertheless time machine is working an signed a complete bachup, last 2 hrs before.
I'm not sure, if all is correct. Can anybody help?
Many thanks
scharamer

It may just be telling you about the latest firmware update.
Start AirPort Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
Click Manual Setup
Click directly on the word Status (2nd line) and AirPort Utility will indicate what's wrong.
If your network seems to be working OK, the flashing light might indicate that an update for your AirPort device is now available.

Leopard / Time Machine question

Hiya
Being a Mac virgin, just got a new iMac which has to be replaced. If Time Machine has backed up all my data onto my external HD, how easy is it to restore it all on the new computer when it arrives? Or do I have to back things up manually as well?
Cheers
j

It's not difficult all you have to do is boot to the 10.5 install disk and from the Utilities menu select Restore. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html However I did attempt to restore my system after I exchanged my iMac but it said that I could not restore. I'm not really sure why it would not work for me but my backup plan was that I had made a Carbon Copy Clone of my system. I find it works well to clone your system to an external drive, then boot to the cloned drive on the new machine and clone the system back to the new drive.http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Time Machine questions: Handling backups for multiple Macs to one FW drive

I am reviewing the Time Machine thread and seeing a lot of helpful information, but I would like to ask something I haven't quite found yet.
We have 2 Leopard Macs, a MacBook Pro and an intel iMac... with plans to upgrade another MBP from Tiger to Leopard at some point.
In planning for Time Machine, we set up a 1 TB drive, attached it via FW 800 to the iMac, partitioned it GUID for Intel, and made 3 partitions, one for each planned Mac we want to back up to it.
I started Time Machine on the iMac first and the first backup of about 100 gb took maybe 4 hours.
Then we tried to start the Time Machine backup for the MBP over the network (wireless). It was understandably much slower and quit with some error last evening, so I took advantage of the pause to move the notebook to a wired ethernet connection. It got even slower so this morning I directly connected it FW 800, erased what had been backed up, and started over. So far, so good. 6GB out of 100 in 10 minutes or so. The idea being, if we can get the first backup completed faster over wired connection, maybe doing the incrementals over wireless network will be okay. Sounds like some folks are doing that successfully. I am hoping that works out.
Questions: Was it necessary to partition my 1TB drive into a partition for each Mac's Time Machine backup? I did make each partition bigger than the hard drive it is designated for.
To get the MBP to mount the external FW drive on its desktop, I had to disconnect the drive from the iMac. Is there any way I can connect the FW drive to both the MBP and the iMac (the drive has two FW 800 out connections, so it is physically possible)? I'm thinking (from reading posts of others with notebooks) that one strategy is to connect your notebook to your Time Machine drive at night and let it back up, but it'd be great if I could leave the iMac connected while doing so. Is there a way the volumes on the drive can mount on both desktops?
When I try wireless again, I'm seeing mixed posts regarding whether the MBP will need a password to log in to the remote volume each time, or only the first time when the Time Machine backup is established... if I could get clarification on that, it would be helpful.
Thanks!
thanks

What do you see on your notebook when you click on your TimeMachine icon in the Dock?
My notebook is mounting the backup drive on an hourly basis, running a backup, and looking like it is doing something... but when I then look at TimeMachine, I can't see the backups. (On my iMac with the drive directly attached, I see a progression of windows showing all the hourly backups the last 24 hours, etc.) I just called Apple to ask why this is so, and they told me they couldn't help me because wireless Time Machine backups aren't supported.
I know backups to a hard drive attached to an Airport Express Base Station are not supported. But when they say "You can designate just about any HFS+ formatted FireWire or USB drive connected to a Mac as a Time Machine backup drive. +Time Machine can also back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, Leopard Server, or Xsan storage devices+"... well, how can you DO that?

Server Time Machine Needs Fileshare Mount

I've got a Server set up as a Time Machine host. I can see it in the Time Machine preferences on clients if it's volume is mounted via fileshare first, but if I dismount it, I can't see it anymore.
Once it's selected as the backup source, the client will automatically mount the share during it's regular backup. However, now that I'm trying to restore from backup, I boot from the install disk, go to restore system from backup, and it can't see the server backup. I can't mount the fileshare manually like I do from a normal OS, and I can't boot off another drive and use the Install Disk's restore option.
I thought perhaps I could use the "mount_afp" command via Terminal, but this mounts the share as unreadable, and inaccessible again via Time Machine.
1. How do I get Time Machine to show the server's backup volume, without manually mounting it via fileshare?
2. Barring that, is there any way of doing a complete Time Machine restore, that allows me to first mount a fileshare volume?

Everyone in my company is having the exact same problem. We bought an Xserve and Xserve RAID with the sole intention of using it for backups and calendar/contact sharing. This Time Machine problem makes the application next to useless for most of the users, as they aren't going to remember to mount the AFP share every single login.
Coupled with the inability of iCal Server to handle event invitations to individuals not in LDAP, we're questioning sticking with Apple products in the future. This release of Leopard/Leopard Server seems to be missing some major features for some of the most simple workgroup applications.

Re-Purpose Power Mac G5 - Media Server, Time Machine & HD Video Playback?

apologies if this is a novice ill-informed post. i tried to find more info via a search, but didn't find a succinct answer for this.
i have a Power Mac Dual G5 2.0Ghz PCI-X w/ 3GBs Ram running Leopard. i am looking at getting a new Mac Pro or iMac Quad Cor 27" after the new year. i am also considering getting an Apple TV in the near future as well. My wife has an Intel MacBook running Leopard (upgrade to SL when I uprgade to a new machine) and we run a Airport Extreme Wireless network.
my question is this: can my G5 Tower be a good machine to pull triple duty as a media server (Itunes, Photos, etc..), Time Machine BU destination and HD Video playback to my rear projection HD TV?
i notice that it has trouble playing back HD Video. so it seems like a Video Card upgrade would be needed (Radeon X850 XT 8X AGP?), as well as, Drive Expansion (like the Sonnet G5 Drive) to facilitate additional storage.
i hate to dump my G5, if i could re-purpose. on the other hand, i don't want to invest much into an end of lifed product.
any advice or other thoughts to consider appreciated.
thanks,
lance

Well, It has so many options,but people that can only punch a TV remote get turned off.
I can create a Bootable clones, I can only update changed files or everything, or only certain folders, I can Time it for whenever, I can have it wait until an external Network or other drive is connected to do it's thing, it gives me far better reports of any problem(s)... I think it'll be 10 years or more before any other Bacjup APP catches up to where TB was 10 years ago!
I have a choice of about 20 different Backup options, including Apple's Time Machine... there is no comparison though many other than Apple's provisions can be quite useful & do work, just that none do as good or are updated as fast!
Even TM works if you're a drone or something!
In which case TriEdre has an even better inerface to TM clled Back in Time.

Leopard Server Time Machine Questions

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