Time Machine - Need central reporting for several macs.

several mac's on a network all backing up to a network Hard drive, now I need centralized reporting to make everyone happy.

Install OS X Server and activate the Time Machine service.

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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?

HT1178 i can't connect the time capsule with my mac using the aiport utility. i want to use the time capsule to make backup for my mac book pro. the time capsule is giving a flashed amber light. please advice me

the time capsule is giving flashed amber light and i cant connect it to my mac book pro. i want to use it with the time machine to make backup for my mac. please advice me.

To do the setup, plug it in via ethernet.. do not try to setup over wireless.. Once it is setup you can plug the TC into the network and use wireless.
Most likely you will use the TC in bridge to an existing modem router.. but we cannot help as you have no details of the network setup.
I do recommend in the setup of the TC you use SMB type names.. that means, short, no spaces pure alphanumeric.. as later Mac OS do have issues with long names, spaces and that apple shocker, the apostrophe.

HT201250 I have done my back up using time machine, now I have a new mac and I need to access the files that I had saved from my old mac. How can I do that?

I have done my back up using time machine, now I have a new mac and I need to access the files that I had saved from my old mac. How can I do that?

Use Migration Assistant on your new Mac:
Click Continue:
On the next screen, choose your Time Machine backup disk.
Don't bother to migrate Applications unless you know they will work on your new Mac. For example, PowerPC applications won't work. Just migrate your user account which will copy all your photos, music, movies, and other documents.
Note: you will not be able to migrate the information to same account in which you are already logged in. Migration Assistant will tell you that and recommend what to do. It can migrate the information to a new account, but you will have to give it a name you might want to change later. One way around this is to create a temporary account, log in to it, and run Migration Assistant which will replace your normal account. Then, log out of the temporary account, log in to your usual one, verify everyting works as you expect, and delete the temporary one.
All this can be avoided when you set up a brand new Mac by running Setup Assistant which essentially does the same thing to create your new account, but most people are too excited to do that and elect to migrate later.

Time Machine is not working for me

There is no way that Time Machine is working right for me. Backups are taking a split second and are reporting crazy small amounts. Example, I have added to my Mac 1 gig of movies and 1 gig of images. I backed up today and Time Machine reported 28k of material being backed up and it took less than 1 second to start and finish the backup. None of these files are in areas that Time Machine has been told to not back up.
How do I get Time Machine to work again? Please help me. TIA.

Agreed. This particular glitch doesn't affect a lot of users, apparenly, and Apple is aware of it and hopefully it will be fixed soon.
I've learned over the years (mostly the hard way, of course ), never to trust my backups to a single app or piece of hardware: no app is perfect, and all hardware fails, sooner or later.
Like many here, I keep both full Time Machine backups, plus a "bootable clone" on a separate external HD. I use CarbonCopyCloner, many use the similar SuperDuper. That gives me the best of both types of backups, plus of course a completely separate, independent backup.
CCC is donationware; SD has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling. Either is easily found via Google.
And/or, see Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product.
ps: glad it's sorted out, and thanks for the star.
Message was edited by: Pondini

How much space does Time Machine need?

My computer's hard drive is 100 GB, so I created a 100 GB partition on my external hard drive for Time Machine, before I really understood how it worked. Of course, I eventually got a message saying it was out of room. If I understand correctly, Time Machine will continue to back up changed files, but it can no longer maintain a complete series. Rather, it will be forced to delete older backups to make room for newer.
Anyway, do you think a 200 GB partition would be big enough? Or does it simply depend on how much work you do on your computer (or how many files you change and how big they are)?
I'm thinking of reformatting my 500 GB external hard drive into five partitions...
100 GB for cloned copy of my hard drive
200 GB for Time Machine
Three other partitions for quickly backing up and/or storing websites, graphics, music and things that take up too much space on my computer.
I still don't see a tremendous need for Time Machine, as I very, very seldom go searching for lost files. However, I suspect there may be occasions when it might come in handy.
Thanks.

Really depends how much stuff you do, how many files you change each day, how much stuff lands on your computer for a few days then is deleted (for example I have several GB of photos on my Mac for a few days until I do some work on them and drop them on the company server, so I have lots of stuff getting backed up into Time Machine that doesn't even stay on my Mac)... It doesn't hurt to have a backup of them locally in case something goes wrong on the company server...
So what I'm saying is, it totally depends on what you do with your Mac... I've got a 120GB drive, getting backed up to a 500GB drive, and I figure that gives me a year or two of not having to think about it. Drives are so cheap now you are best to just go a bit bigger for the convenience of letting it backup everything..

Time machine makes 30 backups for the last two days, no backups for any earlier times: is there a way to control it?

I've been running Time Machine in the background for as long as I've owned my current Mac--- a few months. It is a completely generic set-up: it's a desktop (rarely shut off or asleep) connected to an external hard drive that is much larger (1 TB) than my internal hard drive (0.5 TB), and Time Machine is configured to save backups of my whole internal drive to the external drive. The external is half-full, and the internal is a little more than half-full. I often hear my external crunching away, working on something.
I recently needed to access an old file, so I went into Time Machine mode on the folder where it had been deleted a few weeks ago. While I'm not upset that it isn't available (it's my own fault for deleting it), I didn't expect the Time Machine to have such a bad distribution of saved backups. There are 30 backup snapshots of the past two days, and nothing earlier. I was expecting something more like a few from today, a few from this week, a few from this month, and a few going all the way back in time--- a broader distribution.
I don't see any way to control this in the Time Machine Preferences (in fact, very little control at all). Is there a secret way to control it, or some tip to ensure a more useful distribution of saved snapshots?
Thanks,
-- Jim

Thanks, but it doesn't exactly address my question. TimeMachineEditor allows me to set the intervals or times when backups occur, but it doesn't control the algorithm that decides which snapshots should be deleted. My problem was that Time Machine chose to delete all of the old snapshots and keep only the most recent ones: I'd like it to keep more of the recent ones than the old ones, but still keep some old ones.
In fact, the (unmodifyable) text on the Time Machine control panel says that it keeps:
hourly backups for the past 24 hours
daily backups for the past month
weekly backups for all previous months
That would be perfect if it were true.
Perhaps the algorithm did the wrong thing because the size of my internal hard drive varied quite a lot a few days ago: a process got out of control and used up all of my internal disk space. I killed the process and deleted its output (several times), so my internal disk eventually went back down to normal. Perhaps in the intervening hours, Time Machine made a backup, once an hour, and used up all of the external drive space. When it had to choose between keeping "weekly backups of previous months" and "hourly backups of the past 24 hours", it chose to keep hourly backups of the past 24 hours. This was the wrong choice in my case (it was the unwanted output) and is probably the wrong choice in most cases.
Is there a way to control the algorithm that decides which backups to keep and which to delete? I would have it delete the hourly, daily, and weekly backups in a way that preserves their relative distribution.
By the way, while I have made it sound like my problem was a runaway log file (something that would be easy to put in an excluded directory with Time Machine's "Options" button), it was a VirtualBox snapshot merge. The data in question are precious, but were unnecessarily copied many times while VirtualBox failed to merge them properly. I can't simply exclude a directory: I'm talking about a more general problem.
Thanks!
-- Jim

Can I (or How can I) chain two Time Capsules on one network for two Macs?

Currently we have one dual-band TC connected to our cable modem. Mac 1 backs up to it. I also have an original TC (one-band) that I would set to 5GHz dedicated for Mac 2.
Would this plan work and provide Backup and Internet to both machines?
Cable Modem --->TC1--->TC2
Mac 1 would connect to TC1 for Time Machine function and Internet Access.
Mac 2 would connect to TC2 for Time Machine function and Internet Access.
(---> = Ethernet cable)

No changes needed on TC1, but you may need to use AirPort Utility - Manual Setup to note a few of the settings on TC1, such as the exact type of security that it is using now since that information will be used to configure TC2.
Connect an ethernet cable from one of the LAN <-> ports on TC1 to the WAN port (circle icon) on TC2*. Open AirPort Utility - Manual Setup and TC2 should appear. If not, you'll need to "hard reset" TC2 by holding in the reset button until the amber light begins to blink more quickly, hold another few seconds when you see this and then release
Click the Time Capsule tab below the icons to name your device, assign a device password and set Time Zone settings
Click the Wireless tab
Wireless Mode = Create a wireless network
Wireless Network Name = Same name as TC1 network**
No check mark needed next to Allow this network to be extended unless you plan to add more wireless device to extend the network
Radio Mode = 802.11n only 5 GHz
Channel = Automatic
Wireless Security = Same setting as TC1
Wireless Password = Same password as TC1
Confirm Password
Click the Internet icon
Connect Using = Ethernet
Connection Sharing = Off (Bridge Mode)
Update to save settings and let TC2 restart. Then power down the entire network. Power up the modem first, then TC1, then TC2, then each device one at a time. Allow a moment or two for each device to fully power up before you start the next.
*When the TC is in Bridge Mode, it really makes no difference which port you use to connect, as they all behave the same. I use the WAN port as a habit for connections like this so that I know at a glance where the connection is coming from. But, you could connect to one of the LAN ports on TC2 if you prefer.
**Assign a different name than TC1 if you want to log on separately to the network that TC2 provides
Be sure to setup Mac2 to backup to TC2 for Time Machine and you should be all set.

Does time machine need a dedicated external hard drive or can I partition it?

I am trying to figure out the best way to back up my husband's computer. He has too much data so I need to get about 80 GB off his computer on to an external drive and then need to back that up as well. Right now I have two external drives one dedicated to time machine and one that backs up as a carbon copy bootable backup. I think both external drives are 500GB, but he is on the computer and I don't want to fuss with having him get off right now. I ordered an additional external drive so I have some where for his 80 GB of his data. I can take one of the external drives currently used for time machine and partition it (mac OS journaled) and use one of the parts for time machine and the other for the 80 GB of data. Will this affect our ability to get data off of time machine in the event his 5 year old hard drive dies? The 80 GB of data includes important photos, so I would like them in two places. I would consider cloud, but he is running Leopard and I know that iCloud only works with Lion.

Thanks to everyone for all your opinions and thanks to baltwo for this TM FAQ website. Before asking this question, I browsed the internet and some people advised that a hard drive needed to be dedicated. It seems now that if I partition the external drive and have a big enough drive that I should be ok.

HT4413 Time Machine- moving files onto a new mac- compatibility issues?

If you use Time Machine to load files from a mac running snow leopard to a new mac running lion, will everything work normally in lion thereafter on the new mac? It won't try to revert the new computer to snow leopard, will it?
Also, I want to clear off the old computer once I do this (an 2008 Snow Leopard macbook) so my sister can use it for basic internet, etc. What is the best way to do this?
Last question: I have a 2008 Microsoft Office Suite program that I installed in 08 on the macbook. It came with 3 access codes total, and I split it 3 ways with 2 roomies and we each have one access code. If the office is uninstalled on this old computer and I try reinstalling it on the new one, can I use the same code as before or will it think that I am trying to use the same code on two computers? I don't need the program on the old computer anymore and just want to "switch" it to the new one.
Thanks so much for any ideas!

jlkazmiercza wrote:
If you use Time Machine to load files from a mac running snow leopard to a new mac running lion, will everything work normally in lion thereafter on the new mac? It won't try to revert the new computer to snow leopard, will it?
No, it can't revert Lion to Snow Leopard.
Your user data and preferences should be transferred without problem.
Applications, if you elect to copy them over, may need updates to work in Lion.
Some applications won't work at all - those written for use on earlier PPC Macs (the G3, G4, G5 series) won't run at all. That includes Appleworks, Office versions before 2008, and some Adobe Products.
You'll need to replace those applications with compatible current ones that can open the files created in them.
Also, I want to clear off the old computer once I do this (an 2008 Snow Leopard macbook) so my sister can use it for basic internet, etc. What is the best way to do this?
Boot from your grey installer DVD disc 1 (hold down the C key on startup or hold down Alt/option on start and choose the installer disc).
OK the language page (if present). From the installer screen, go to the menu bar and choose Disk Utility; depending on the OS version it may be in the Utilities menu or Tools menu.
Do not click 'Continue' yet!
In DU, select your internal drive in the sidebar (the top item with the makers name and serial no.). Run Repair Disk. If that comes up as disk OK, click the partition tab. Select the partiton from the drop-down above the graphic; 1 partiton is all you need. Go to the options button and ensure that the partition scheme is GUID and the file system to Mac OS Extended (Journalled). Name the partiton (usually Macintosh HD), click Apply.
This next step is optional;
When that's finished, select the new volume in the sidebar (indented to the right below the drive) and go to the Erase tab, select Security options and select zero data (one pass is more than sufficient). Click erase. That will take quite some time; probably measured in hours and dependant on the size of the drive.
(The purpose of this step is to ensure there is no recoverable data left on the drive).
When that's completed, close DU and continue with the installation.
When installation is complete, after the restart ignore the setup assistant and shut down the Mac (you may have to do this by holding down the power button).
The Mac is now ready for the new owner to personalise it as if new.
Be sure to pass on the original grey discs with the Mac, and the SL retail disc if you loaded SL.
You can use the Snow Leopard retail disc instead of the grey discs, but you won't be asked to load disc 2 and the iLife software on it in that case. If you use the grey discs first, you can simply follow up by installing SL over the top to upgrade the system files. It won't affect anything else (leave out the partition and erase steps of course!)
Last question: I have a 2008 Microsoft Office Suite program that I installed in 08 on the macbook. It came with 3 access codes total, and I split it 3 ways with 2 roomies and we each have one access code. If the office is uninstalled on this old computer and I try reinstalling it on the new one, can I use the same code as before or will it think that I am trying to use the same code on two computers? I don't need the program on the old computer anymore and just want to "switch" it to the new one
Sorry, you need to ask in the MS or Office forums for that.

HT201250 Backup too large & time machine not backed up for over a year.

Today I got this message:
This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 188.89 GB but only 73.07 GB are available.
Time Machine needs work space on the backup disk, in addition to the space required to store backups. Open Time Machine preferences to select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files.
Then when I go to preferences it said
73.1 GB of 320 GB available
Oldest backup July 10, 2011
Latest backup July 10, 2011
Next back up Today at 7:25pm
I was under the impression I had been backing up everyday and today was the first day I go the warning the backup was too large. Why is it that I have not had a back up for over a year? That worries me. I had a HD crash just over a year ago and the time machine saved my life. I thought everything was back to normal once I had my new HD installed, but wondering if that was the last back up it ever did for some reason.
Any suggestions? I am going out to get a new external HD of 1TB and hoping all will start backing up again.

Hi, what Mac Utilities is this you ran?
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imaging something not being covered there.

I used time machine to restore on a formatted MAC. Now the HDD space has reduced by 100GB but I cannot see any of the files. How do I find and delete those 100GB data from the HDD?

I used time machine to restore on a formatted MAC. Now the HDD space has reduced by 100GB but I cannot see any of the files. How do I find and delete those 100GB data from the HDD?

dglenn9000 wrote:
I created a new user account just to see if it was my user Library or if there was something wrong with my system. And the new user account is doing most of the same things so I will need to do a full restore anyway.
Not necessarily. I'd suggest downloading and installing the "combo" update. That's a combination (thus the clever name) of all the updates to Leopard since it was first released, so installing it should fix anything that's gone wrong since then, such as with one of the normal "point" updates. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacOS_X_10_5_8_ComboUpdate Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.

Time machine e-mail report

Hello,
i'm using Leopard and want to know if there is a way to get a time machine backup status report by e-mail
It's important for us to know every day if time machine was able to backup ok or if there are problems.
thanks for suggestions
Marco

In your other thread, you mention using the Server product. There may be a way to monitor such things there, but folks here aren't very familiar with it. Check the manual and/or Server forums.
If not, you could write an an Automator or Applescript for the server to check the status on each client. It would have to examine the hidden /Private/var/db/.TimeMachine.Results.plist file.

Do i need a antivirus for my mac pro?

do i need a antivirus for my mac pro?

do i need a antivirus for my mac pro?
At this time, you do not need it. There are ways that your Mac can get infected, but anti-virus software will not necessarily protect you, and certainly won't protect you better than other measures you could take instead. When it comes to anti-virus software, you have to balance the benefit of an added layer of security against the liklihood of problems caused by running anti-virus software, and have to also consider the effectiveness of the anti-virus software. See my Mac Malware Guide for more details. If, after reading that, you decide that you would like to use anti-virus software as an added layer of security, use one of the programs it recommends.

I purchased the entire season of The Pacific. After downloading 3 of 11 episodes I keep receiving an error message that the remaining episodes cannot be downloaded at thist time. This has continued for several days.

I purchased the entire season of the Pacific from the iTunes Store. After downloading 3 of 11 episodes, I continue to receive an error message that the remaining episodes could not be downloaded at this time. This has continued for several days. There is plenty of room on my iPad 2.

Hello and welcome to the forums;
Our phone support is open every day Monday through Sunday, although there are different hours of operation for the weekend. If after a webOS Doctor reset you are still experiencing the same problems, I would likely recommend replacement, either in a local store for your carrier or through our technical support department.
There may be additional technical support offered or suggested over the phone, this would need to be done first before a replacement could be issued.
Hope this helps,
TreoAide

Time Machine - Need central reporting for several macs.

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