Time Machine OS X server weirdness

Is this anything to worry about?
My external Time Machine drive is connected to a 2014 MBP through OS X sever software and shows file size "zero bytes" for this MBP's sparsebundle when I open the drive in a finder window, yet from within the server program Time Machine Backups it shows the backup size as I'd expect.The other MBP and the iMac show sparse bundle sizes in the finder window that are appropriate.
Details: I just installed OS X server on my 2010 MacPro to use an external 3TB Seagate drive for three other macs (2 MBP, 1 iMac). I "think" Time Machine is working because entering TM seems to work on all three macs. BUT, opening the backup drive in finder is weird. The 2009 MBP shows "Bob MBP 2009.sparsebundle" with 44 GB size, the iMac shows "iMac 2007" with no ".sparsebundle" after it and a file size of 175GB, and the "MBP 2014" shows "zero bytes" also with no ".sparsebundle" following. I've deleted this zero bytes sparse bundle and re-backedup, but get the same results.
All three initial backups were made with direct connection to the MacPro. The older machines used FW800, and the 2014 MBP used a Thunderbolt to FW800 adapter. Subsequent backups are done wirelessly.
All machines have current software versions.

In my experience Time Machine will only work on the same VLAN, unless you have IP helpers on your routers pointing to your TM server. You could always put the sharepoint as an auto mount upon login. Either force it on the local machine, or if your using Leo server with OD, just do it via group control.

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HT201250 Can I do a backup using Time Machine on a server, or it needs an external drive only?

Can I do a backup using Time Machine on a server, or it needs an external drive only?

Time Machine can back up to a server. The drive or partition used still needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
(65169)

Backups, time machine and share server screen

I've used Time Machine for point in time server backups, and a firewire external drive with Silverkeeper for cloning.
Firstly, Silverkeeper will not be supported in Lion... so maybe I should be mocing to something else? Intego Backup assistant came with the drive... as well as Silverkeeper.... I have no idea how reliable these are for cloning the drive, nor why I would need both... but no doubt Intego is a light version of something I would need to buy... so the quesiton would become... what should I buy?
Secondly..... Share Server Screen...
When I entered time machine using "Share Server Screen" from my imac (running lion).. time machine seems to run ok.. but the graphic interface isnt really usable... the time line down the side for instance..... does not appear.... and neither does the "today" bar across the bottom.... and of course... none of those star trek style flying stars we have all come to love so much.... So... I'm thinking that time machine is not compatible with "share server screen".... or I have doen something silly.... so which is it? :+)
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A lot of people prefer and use Carbon Copy Cloner for cloning drives, it is Lion compatible.
The animation (graphics) when you enter Time Machine is quite demanding, I have managed to view it using Timbuktu Pro a remote control package similar to Screen Sharing but it did struggle. Have you tried this more than once to confirm it is not working? A smaller screen resolution might help it cope.

Time machine on Leopard server..

I'm considering having my clients (only 10) use Time Machine to perform backups of their User directories using Leopard Server. The current configuration has them using OD Mobile Accounts with Portable Home Directories.
My question is how Time Machine would be implemented.
Would I have to revert to Local Home Directories?
I would like each user to be able to use the Time Machine space view, allowing them to view previous versions of files and/or deleted files.
Thanks!

I'd also really like to know more about Time Machine on Leopard Server. I just purchased a copy of Server and am trying to figure out a good backup system. I haven't yet installed it, but once I do I'm interested in setting things up so that users can have their home directories on the server and log in from any machine. I've never really figured out if that will require Portable Home Directories or what.
At any rate, I'm not sure if users will have to set up their machines individually to target the server as a Time Machine destination (and then I'd just exclude those home directories from the server's Time Machine setup), or if I can just set the server to run Time Machine and then the users will be able to access all of their histories.
I really hope that it's the latter, because that would make changing things like the drive configuration on the server so much easier.
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Time Machine with OSX Server; what happened to the free disk space?

Hello all,
I am trying to do something that should be pretty simple. I have an iMac, with Mountain Lion and Server installed. My wife has a Mac Air. The goal was to get her to Time Machine backup through the wifi to my external hardrive. I think it is working, but here is the small catch. Last night, while getting it all going, it was saying "making buckup disk ready" through the night until now. Now it is actually doing the backup normally, i.e. I can see the data transferring. BUT, here is the question, in the mean time the external hardrive lost about 300gb of space which is the size of MY iMac backup. So I hope that when I turned on Time Machine it dosnt back up one time as my computer and another as a server. That may not make any sence at all.
Here is a screen shot of my external hardrive:
636.33 GB, before yesterday it was half that. But my wife's hardrive is 100 GB of Data.
Just a note, I had my hardrive wiped clean the other day before Mountain Lion was installed, and I have a "carbon copy" from before that on another hardrive. Can I delete the backup of MY machine and start over?
Thanks, I hope this is clear.
Best,
Justin

Hello all,
I am trying to do something that should be pretty simple. I have an iMac, with Mountain Lion and Server installed. My wife has a Mac Air. The goal was to get her to Time Machine backup through the wifi to my external hardrive. I think it is working, but here is the small catch. Last night, while getting it all going, it was saying "making buckup disk ready" through the night until now. Now it is actually doing the backup normally, i.e. I can see the data transferring. BUT, here is the question, in the mean time the external hardrive lost about 300gb of space which is the size of MY iMac backup. So I hope that when I turned on Time Machine it dosnt back up one time as my computer and another as a server. That may not make any sence at all.
Here is a screen shot of my external hardrive:
636.33 GB, before yesterday it was half that. But my wife's hardrive is 100 GB of Data.
Just a note, I had my hardrive wiped clean the other day before Mountain Lion was installed, and I have a "carbon copy" from before that on another hardrive. Can I delete the backup of MY machine and start over?
Thanks, I hope this is clear.
Best,
Justin

Can no longer connect to Time Machine as a server

Have been using an external drive connected to the Time Machine to store my iTunes media files. All of a sudden, the computers on my home network can no longer access the drive as they now have problems connecting to the Time Machine server. However, the wireless router works just fine. Is anyone else experiencing this problem and if so, any advice on how to solve the problem? I can no longer access any of the content on the external drive through the Time Machine, although it appears in the Finder as a shared drive.

I presume you are on Mountain Lion.. it does have some network issues..
Try just rebooting.. and restart everything in the correct order..
Modem.. router/TC.. USB drive.. clients.. 2min gap between each.
If you still have issues do a verify of the drive.
See A5 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Capsule both: Time machine and file server

Hi!
We have 3 macs that has access to a Time Capsule we use just as a file server.
Now, I'll like to do backups of all the data, and I was thinking about using Time Machine in all the computers to backup in Time Capsule.
My question is, can I use Time Capsule as both? With Time Machine and also as a file server?
Thanks,
Júlia

Time Machine can be used to backup your Macs to the Time Capsule. You set this up on each Mac by opening System Preferences (gear icon) on the dock and then opening Time Machine to select the Time Capsule as the destination for backups.
Time Machine will keep separate files for each Mac on the Time Capsule and your regular files on the TC will be left alone. Ideally, Time Machine needs about twice as much space for each Mac to allow for a good history of future backups.
Backup each Mac one at a time since the first backup will copy everything from the Mac over.
Things will go 3-5 times faster if you connect the Mac to the Time Capsule using an Ethernet cable for this procedure.
Once the "master" backup is completed for each, you can switch back to wireless to backup incremental changes since these will only take a few minutes on average.
As you know, Time Machine cannot be used to backup the regular files that you already have on the Time Capsule disk. If you need to backup these files, post back for a few suggestions on applications that can handle this task.

How do I switch off Time Machine in Lion Server remotely?

So here's what I want to do:
I have a mac mini with OSX Lion Server running providing wireless backups for the laptops in the house. I want to rsync these backups, as sparsebundle images, to a machine at my work.
I have the rsync working over ssh correctly, and have verified that if I rsync a sparsebundle there and back again then everything works fine. However, this only works if the sparsebundle wasn't mounted at the time of the sync.
I can use 'ssh xxx@xxx "hdiutil info"' to determine if the image is mounted, but I would like ideally to be able to switch off time machine remotely for the duration of the rsync copy.
Does anyone know of a command-line way of switching off Time Machine in OSX Lion Server from the command line.
As an extra question, for bonus marks, is there any way of verifying that a sparsebundle is mountable from a windows machine?

I'm going to answer my own question:
I was more or less completely on the wrong track. When performing a networked time-machine backup the sparse bundle is mounted on the remote machine for one thing. So hdiutil won't tell me if the backup is going on.
Also, backing up the sparsebundle is probably a bad idea in general, since if it's corrupt then none of the files will be easily recoverable.
So instead I've written a bash script that
a) mounts the sparse bundle on the server machine. If this fails, then a backup is in progress. The script exits in this case, but I guess it could always try again
b) Performs an rsync on the contents of the sparsebundle
c) ejects the sparsebundle.
For those interested, here's the script. Note that I had to build rsync 3.0.9 to get this to work, the bundled rsync barfs on the hardlinks in time machine backups.
(go here http://www.behindtherack.com/?p=308 for the rsync build instructions).
And here's the script
#!/bin/bash
user=dave
remotehost=your.home.machine
remoteport=5050
sshkeyfile=~/ssh.key.file
imagepath="/Volumes/tmachine/Shared Items/Backups/machine-name.sparsebundle"
remotepath="/Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backups/Backups.backupdb/machine-name/Latest/"
localpath=~/Local-backup-path
# mount path
mountresult=`ssh $user@$remotehost -p$remoteport -i $sshkeyfile "hdiutil mount \"$imagepath\" -readonly"`
devpath=${mountresult%% *}
# did the mount work out?
if [[ "$devpath" == /dev/disk* ]]
then
          echo "Mount succeeded, remote disk mounted to $devpath"
else
          echo $mountresult
          echo $devpath
          echo "Remote mount failed, exiting"
          exit
fi
# now run the rsync
/usr/local/bin/rsync -rv --rsync-path="/usr/local/bin/rsync" --rsh="ssh -p$remoteport -i $sshkeyfile -l $user" "$user@$remotehost:$remotepath" $localpath
# unmount sparsebundle
ssh $user@$remotehost -p$remoteport -i $sshkeyfile "hdiutil eject $devpath"

After Time Machine restore, Lion Server doesn't have services

My poor old server finally died, so I replaced it with new hardware. I wiped the hard drive, installed Lion fresh, and did a restore from Time Machine. However, when I run the Server Admin app, it says it was unable to connect to the machine.
I re-ran the Server Admin Tools install, and I also tried to connect via IP address.
I must have missed something, hopefully someone will have a tip. Thanks!

Not from Time Machine which is backing up only a file, not its individual contents. Either you restore iPhoto Library or not.
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Get an external hard drive on which to store some of your files after which you can
erase the data from your internal drive to free up space.
5. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
6. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
7. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

Time Machine, OS X Server, and VLANs

Hi all,
I have a Time Machine share set up on my OS X server and am successfully running Time Machine backups from several Macs that are on the same VLAN as the server.
I want to be able to bring some other Macs into the fold, but they are on a different VLAN. Bonjour does not traverse routing segments, so the machines on the other VLAN do not see the server as a valid backup point.
Ideas?

In my experience Time Machine will only work on the same VLAN, unless you have IP helpers on your routers pointing to your TM server. You could always put the sharepoint as an auto mount upon login. Either force it on the local machine, or if your using Leo server with OD, just do it via group control.

Migrating Time machine files to Server

We have installed Lion Server on a system at home and we want to use it to hold all of the Time Machine backups from our other workstations.
I have a iMac that I have recently upgraded from a Macbook Pro and therefore I have a Time Machine backup on an external (USB) disk that goes back for a couple of years.
I've looked around and I can see how to set up the Time Machine service on the server, but I want to transfer the backup I had previously to the server and I can't see any mention of how to perform this migration. I really don't want to start a fresh backup if I can avoid it
Can some kind soul please point me in the right direction?
Thanks
Susan

Time Machine Backups are stored in Sparse-Images. You should use an own partition or a seperate harddrive on your server to store the backups. The problem is, that there's no way to set any kind of quota to the backups of the seperate users or machines, so take care to have enough free space on your backupdisk. I have migrated all timemachine backups from one disk to a new (bigger) one by cloning it with "Carbon Copy Cloner" to preserve all owner and access rights.
Backups are stored in a directory path "Shared Items -> Backups".
Try the following.
Attach a new disk to your server. Configure the TimeMachine Service to use this disk for Backups.
Switch off the TimeMachine Service.
Be aware that there's also the "normal" TimeMachine Backup for the Server itself, but we are speaking about the Service that provides backup for your network
Attache your old USB-Disk to the server and clone your old Backups to the new backupdisk on your server with CCC.
Unmount your old backupdisk and enable the TimeMachine Service.
You will need the same User on your server that you have on the machine where the old backup comes from.
Doublecheck that the Backup-Image belongs to the right user. This is important.
After this configure the Time Machine Backup on your client machine to use the backups on your server.
You should now be able to make new backups to the old Image on the server. Also try to restore an old file from your backup to make sure that you have access to files older then your migration date.
Best regards,
Mario Keller.

New user needs help with time machine and mac server.

I am a new mac user and got a new mac mini running server. I have time machine enabled on the server and a back up folder created. My macbook will not see the server when trying to set up time machine from the macbook. What am I missing? Thanks.

Unfortunately even though Apple had touted the AEBS USB2 HD use with TimeMachine (TM) they pulled it from the Leopard TM feature list about 1 week before releasing Leopard GNBuild 9A581.
At this time Apple does not support use of the AEBS USB HD for use TM.
I strongly suspect we will see this feature return in one of the next two updates Apple releases for Leopard.
In the meantime be patient and I don't recommend you use a hack to circumvent the current TM limitation.

Time Machine Permissions with Server Update 2.2

I rebuilt our Mac Mini server and did it using the latest version of Server (v. 2.2) just released. I noticed that when I activate the Time Machine service on OS X Server that my clients could not connect in (receiving OSStatus Error (5) on those machines). So, when looking at the permissions for the "Backups" share in File Sharing on the Server (using the Server app), I noticed that there were no permissions for anyone other than the Administrator.
I added a group of employees and then those machines are able to successfully use Time Machine and backup to the server's external Time Machine disk. The problem is that those backups do not appear with the little red "minus" sign next to them. So, someone could grab someone else's backup and copy it.
It seems this new version of Server Update may have changed the way permissions are provisioned for clients to be able to backup to.
Anyone else seeing this behavior or have any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Bob

Solved this permissions issue. Use the Mac's Disk Utility to format the backup drive - do not use the vendor's supplied disk management utility to format it. I am running a thunderbolt Drobo now and had the same issue using Drobo's software. Once you format the drive using the Mac's Disk Utility, you will see a group of "staff" with read/write permissions. Other network users will not have access to other time machine backups.

Is there Time machine compatible PC server software?

I'm a photographer and running a dual hard drive Macbook Pro and I've reached the point where my NAS backup drive is not big enough for Time Machine to backup to. In order for me to upgrade the backup drive I'm looking at about £500 ($750) as I need one big enough not just big enough.
I have an old PC that is currently running Windows Server and is connected to my network, which obviously isn't Time Machine compatible. As buying HDD is cheaper than pre-boxed NAS drives, I wanted to use this instead.
Is there any server software that is compatible with Time Machine and I can use to build a home server? If not, I'd best start saving and hope my laptop doesn't crash or get stolen.
Thanks in advance.

No, there's no supported means to target archival storage onto a Windows box with Time Machine.
As you're likely aware, Time Machine only supports specific devices as targets, and the file server are currently OS X Server, Time Capsule devices, and the most recent generation of AirPort Extreme devices with attached disks. Not Windows Server boxes, Linux or other gear.
More than a few folks and a few discussions and various hackery have allowed random devices to appear to work (and it's possible your NAS device has seen this same hackery), but whether those configurations will continue to work or will react appropriately during the inevitable network and device glitches is very far from certain. Among these sequences, whole-disk installs and related system restorations are key, but are also something that doesn't necessarily get thoroughly tested.
A Mac Mini running OS X Server can host a fair amount of connected storage, if you decide to replace or supplement your NAS.
For more information on Time Machine, start reading here.
It is possible to roll your own backups and to use third-party tools to perform the backups onto remote devices, and one of the more common recommendations here are based on a command line tool known as rsync. Copy your files over, and either acquire or custom-create your own archival processing. (If you're interested, search for previous discussions of rsync and backups for some of the available options, and there are tools and scripts available. rsync is pretty ugly to get going initially — it's arcane — but it works pretty well, and various folks have already figured out the syntax and posted example scripts.) Carbon Copy Cloner is an alternative to Time Machine, and there are others.
On the subject of creating your own custom software for these and related tasks, it's also possible to use software that targets photo studios and their related processing, and that manages the photos and videos and other assets, and that can manage backups and related processing, and various of these will deal with reprints and purchases and related. That's a bit further along than a backup device or a Time Machine backup, but it's something that might replace the requirements. (You probably don't care nearly as much about OS X and most other stuff here as that can be re-downloaded or reinstalled, it's your photos and your customer data that are key here, and that are not replaceable. That stuff is the core target for your backups.)

Time Machine on 4tb Server

Hi guys,
We're looking at setting up a Mac Pro server with four 2TB HDDs in RAID 1+0 so there'd be 4TB space total.
We'd also like to have timemachine backups of the entire server however how would we be able to do this considering typical USB harddrives stop at 2TB and something like a Promise NAS is pretty expensive...
Thanks!

There are many companies that produce great FireWire and even USB 3 drives that go up to 4 TB for single drive units and much more with a drive array.
Check out the Qx2 drive at OWC.
Also, consider using Crashplan Pro E for backup. It may not as pretty as time machine but is far more capable.
You can even combine it with a SuperDuper! clone to an equally large drive.

Time Machine OS X server weirdness

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