NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
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
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- A question regarding:
5.) A folder should show up with the name of the user that you logged on as. That's the user's home folder.
I see no such folder. I log in with my backup user, but the only folders available are the public "backup" and "media" folders. Is this because of updated firmware, or am I doing something wrong? Help would appreciated!
Well, if the user name is "backup", then you obviously have a problem, since the NAS can't advertise two shares with the same name. So you should probably create a new "backup" user with a different name.AndersBK wrote: A question regarding: 5.) A folder should show up with the name of the user that you logged on as. That's the user's home folder.
I see no such folder. I log in with my backup user, but the only folders available are the public "backup" and "media" folders. Is this because of updated firmware, or am I doing something wrong? Help would appreciated!
Also, log into frontview, click on "security" then "user and group accounts". Choose "Preferences" from the pulldown in the upper right. Double check that "Private home shares for users" is enabled.- I needed to turn on private home shares. And I needed to turn off time machine in frontview. It seems to work now. Thanks!
Now my problem is that backing up is REALLY slow. Can anyone link me in the right direction? - What version of RAIDiator are you running?
How many Macs are you backing up simultaneously?
Are your Macs connected to your network via ethernet or wireless?
Do also remember that full backups take quite some time. After that the hourly backups should be relatively quick. - Did it, worked perfectly! I just got an error on one of the macs, I believe because the system can only backup one system at a time, will check otherwise if there's something wrong in the config.
Just to understand better: where's the old backup gone? Is it still somewhere or has it been deleted?
Thank you ! - The error went away alone and I could verify the backup can run simultaneous with no hiccup from the readynas. Great!
Still have the doubt if and where the old backup is and if still there, how to get rid of it.
Thank you! - Look for the hidden ".timemachine" folder on the C volume accessible when you login to CIFS as the "admin" user.
- Thank you again, am I supposed to remove the xxxxx.sparsebundle to get rid of the old backup without causing trouble?
:wink: - If you want to free that space then yes. If you have disabled the Time Machine service in Frontview then I can't see having that file still there causing issues.
- This worked like a dream for me. I'm using this method to back up 3 Mac's all running Mountain Lion.
Just one thing....
Can I change the quota values at any time or are they set in stone at the initial stage.
I have set one of my quota values at 750Gb and I want to reduce this to 500Gb.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
