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Forum Discussion
How-to: Setup multi-Mac backup shares with quotas. Easy.
Over the last couple years, I've been backing up each of my Macs to the default ReadyNAS Time Machine share. It's been OK, aside from having to hack my sparse bundles to stop them from increasing in size on their own. For some reason, as of Lion, I've had trouble getting that trick to work reliably.
After a weekend of research and playing around I finally put together a good Time Machine setup for my three Macs. Rather than have all three computers backup to the default ReadyNAS Time Machine share, I've setup specific user accounts with quotas to limit the size of the Time Machine backups and I backup each computer to the respective user account home folder. Turns out with the latest 4.2.19 update (I have an x86 NAS) it's a pretty easy setup. I've now tested it with two Lion and one Leopard OS. (And as a test, I found that SSH and Unix know-how isn't necessary.) Figured I'd try to contribute something back to the forum.
These steps assume that Time Machine support is already enabled on the ReadyNAS.
1.) Go into FrontView. Under Security > User Accounts I added a user account for each computer with a quota. (I tend to allocate 1.5x my computer's hard drive space for backups.)
2.) For each user, only two files needed to be created. Repeat the following steps for each user you create:
3.) Open a Finder window and open the AFP (or CIFS) representation of your ReadyNAS in the sidebar or Network folder.
4.) You'll probably be connected as "Guest" and might see any shares that are publicly accessible. Click the "Connect As" button at the top of the window and connect using one of the user accounts you created earlier.
5.) A folder should show up with the name of the user that you logged on as. That's the user's home folder.
6.) Using your favorite plain-text editor create a new plain-text file with a single line containing:
Replace <username> with the exact spelling of the user you're connected as. (It should match the folder name in case and spelling.) Save this file as .AppleVolumes in the user's home folder.
7.) Create an empty file called .com.apple.timemachine.supported and save it in the user's home folder.
Note: both the files start with a . which won't show up in the Finder normally. Eject the ReadyNAS share when you're done creating those two files and connect as the next user if necessary. I found I didn't have to reboot the system to make the changes work for the next step. But it doesn't hurt.
8.) On your Mac, go into the Time Machine preferences. If Time Machine was already setup, go to Select Disk and choose "Do Not Backup" (this makes it forget the previous username/password that was saved). Then do Select Disk again and choose your ReadyNAS like usual. When asked for a username and password, connect using the user and password you setup for that particular computer.
That should be it. Like I said, worked on three computers without a problem. No special settings had to be made on the computers.
Sources:
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=57003
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=55738
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=55166
After a weekend of research and playing around I finally put together a good Time Machine setup for my three Macs. Rather than have all three computers backup to the default ReadyNAS Time Machine share, I've setup specific user accounts with quotas to limit the size of the Time Machine backups and I backup each computer to the respective user account home folder. Turns out with the latest 4.2.19 update (I have an x86 NAS) it's a pretty easy setup. I've now tested it with two Lion and one Leopard OS. (And as a test, I found that SSH and Unix know-how isn't necessary.) Figured I'd try to contribute something back to the forum.
These steps assume that Time Machine support is already enabled on the ReadyNAS.
1.) Go into FrontView. Under Security > User Accounts I added a user account for each computer with a quota. (I tend to allocate 1.5x my computer's hard drive space for backups.)
2.) For each user, only two files needed to be created. Repeat the following steps for each user you create:
3.) Open a Finder window and open the AFP (or CIFS) representation of your ReadyNAS in the sidebar or Network folder.
4.) You'll probably be connected as "Guest" and might see any shares that are publicly accessible. Click the "Connect As" button at the top of the window and connect using one of the user accounts you created earlier.
5.) A folder should show up with the name of the user that you logged on as. That's the user's home folder.
6.) Using your favorite plain-text editor create a new plain-text file with a single line containing:
/c/home/<username> ReadyNAS cnidscheme:dbd allow:<username> options:tm
Replace <username> with the exact spelling of the user you're connected as. (It should match the folder name in case and spelling.) Save this file as .AppleVolumes in the user's home folder.
7.) Create an empty file called .com.apple.timemachine.supported and save it in the user's home folder.
Note: both the files start with a . which won't show up in the Finder normally. Eject the ReadyNAS share when you're done creating those two files and connect as the next user if necessary. I found I didn't have to reboot the system to make the changes work for the next step. But it doesn't hurt.
8.) On your Mac, go into the Time Machine preferences. If Time Machine was already setup, go to Select Disk and choose "Do Not Backup" (this makes it forget the previous username/password that was saved). Then do Select Disk again and choose your ReadyNAS like usual. When asked for a username and password, connect using the user and password you setup for that particular computer.
That should be it. Like I said, worked on three computers without a problem. No special settings had to be made on the computers.
Sources:
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=57003
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=55738
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=55166
64 Replies
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- Sorry, I forgot to ever follow-up on this. Did you have luck getting both of the computers working OK?
- Thanks for writing this guide, it appears to have worked; at least, I set-up my g/f as a user with a 500GB allowance and her initial back up via TM is progressing as I type.
Am finding that the speed of writing to the ReadyNAS Ultra 2 is a little on the slow side at <10MB/s but that is a separate issue to this topic as I've been experiencing the same speed when copying music files across from my laptop as well so will look into that separately.
My experience in setting this up was that all went smoothly. I set up user accounts for both myself and my g/f on the ReadyNAS however there was a slight hitch when I wanted to check the username that I had used in file .AppleVolumes as I wasn't sure if I had used correct capitalisation on one of them and found that every time I tried to connect via AFP in Finder with the username & p/w that I'd set up for the account, I got a "Connection denied" error message. Re-booting the NAS and my laptop didn't fix it and I was only able to connect using my Admin login & p/w, navigate to the home folders of the respective user and open up the .AppleVolumes file and check. After disconnecting, I was then able to connect via AFP in Finder with the respective user names I'd set up.
Just to add, if you would rather save bashing in some terminal commands to reveal/hide hidden files in Finder, then Unhidden is a great piece of freeware that makes the process as quick as a click of a mouse button:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/38136/unhidden - Will this work with a SPARC based system (X6) running 4.1.8? I just want to make sure before I make any changes to the 6 machines backing up to it.
Thanks! - Before I jump in.....
I'm still a bit confused with the <username> part.
If I have a Mac with 3 users, do I need to have the same 3 users setup on my ReadyNAS?
Also, now what if I have two Macs and each Mac there is a user with the same name (I am the "admin' on both machines)?
Will this process still work for my setup?
Thanks in advance to everyone who has contributed. - I still can't get this to work. I can connect to the ReadyNAS backup volume using the admin uname and pw but can't connect using the user I set up (keep getting the (OSStatus error 2.). I can see the folder for the user I set up and see the .AppleVolumes and .com.apple.timemachine.supported in there but still can't connect. Any suggestions?
- Hello,
Im a bit confused by User and Share Quotas and how best to setup Time Machine Backups.
I just changed over from Share to User Security Mode. I am trying to create dedicated Time Machine Shares for 2 Machines, as well as allow 2 users to access other shares on the ReadyNAS. Here is a breakdown:
Users and Machines:
2 Users
2 Machines
User 1 has a MBP Retina with 768GB SSD
User 2 has a MBA with 256GB SSD
Desired Shares:
Time Machine Backup for User 1 (MBP Retina) - (1.5TB Quota) (User 1 has access only)
Time Machine Backup for User 2 (MBA) - (384GB Quota) (User 1 & 2 have access)
Videos - (No Quota) (User 1 and 2 have access)
Music - (No Quota) (User 1 and 2 have access)
User 1 Personal - (No Quota) (User 1 has access only)
User 2 Shared - (100GB Quota) (User 1 and 2 have access)
My questions are:
1) I want to confirm that once setup, I can delete the ReadyNAS standard Time Machine Backup Share "Backup" and disable the setting in Frontview?
2) Is the best method to use to setup the 2 new dedicated backup shares the method described in this post? I am wondering if I should be using the old 15 step method instead?
3) I am confused that using this method, you assign a quota to a USER and not a SHARE. Does this mean that I should create 2 User permissions in the ReadyNAS for each physical user. Example: User 1 would have two ReadyNAS User Accounts (1 for the Time Machine access with a 1.5TB quota and another with no quota for accessing the other shares)?
4) How do I assign a (100GB Quota) to the Share: "User 2 Shared"
Thank you for your help! - I now have a new problem. PC's and my iMac are backing up without any apparent problem.
However my for wife's MacBook, Time Machine starts goes through making disc available, preparing items, and the cleaning up - but then an pop up box appears "Time Machine could not complete the backup" (While this is going on my RaedyNAS is active, I can hear the NAS drives working.) Latest Backup: FAILED. If I look at the sparsebundle it's showing that its been updated with today's date & time. The red info tells me The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disc utility to repair your backup disk.
Time Machine should have been making weekly back ups (using TimeMachineEditor) and the last one was made on June 10, and I've just noticed that this failure has been happening
Any suggestions? - I followed the instruction for this also and setup unique users with home folders for myself and my wife. When I try to backup my machine or her machine, neither will connect and both are given the same message "The operation could not be completed. (OSStatus error 2.)"
I've checked and re-checked to make sure I did everything correctly, yet inevitably I get this message. Please help!
Also, are we supposed to keep time machine support "Enabled" in settings? Mine currently is. I'm afraid to disable it in case I lose all our backups prior to being able to create new ones? - Can anyone help with this problem? Original posted July 3rd!
I now have a new problem. PC's and my iMac are backing up without any apparent problem.
However my for wife's MacBook, Time Machine starts goes through making disc available, preparing items, and the cleaning up - but then an pop up box appears "Time Machine could not complete the backup" (While this is going on my ReadyNAS is active, I can hear the NAS drives working.) Latest Backup: FAILED. If I look at the sparsebundle it's showing that its been updated with today's date & time. The read info tells me The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disc utility to repair your backup disk.
Time Machine should have been making weekly back ups (using TimeMachineEditor) and the last one was made on June 10, and I've just noticed that this failure has been happening
Any suggestions? - I have to admit I really don't understand the relation between the users created and the ReadyNAS share... :x Anyway, following that method I get OSSTatus error 2 "the Machine Can't access the backup disk "ReadyNAS" " :( Files and users are created though... :x
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