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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
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- however, I do see you're using a different ReadyNAS than mine :-)
- Think I might abandon Time Machine altogether and use something like SuperDuper.... It can backup to a Sparse
Grif wrote: Hi Eric,
Tired this but alas won't work and still get the Error. Here's what I chucked into the .AppleVolumes file:
"/c/home/Mark" "Mark" cnidscheme:dbd allow:Mark options:tm
Where the name of user is "Mark"
Are you still having problems? (Sorry, sometimes I don't get the emails when someone posts here.) I've been meaning to update this thread with some photos or something, to make everything clear. It looks like you did it correctly, but I'll have more time to analyze it later this week.- (Side note, my posts earlier about weird quotas and corruption problems turned out to be two failing disks at the same time.)
- Hey guys,
So far this solution is working great. I have 3 staff members backing up to their home shares - all running Mountain Lion.
I have a LOT of people to put on the readyNAS, so I decided to write up an AppleScript that automatically connects to the home share, adds the .AppleVolumes and .com.apple.timemachined.supported files to the home share (and writes the appropriate username into .AppleVolumes), then disconnects. If anybody would like this, please send me a PM or something.
However a weird problem has come up..
I can no longer add any files to the home share root directory, on ANY user. In fact, for one user, their home share is no longer listed and only the "readyNAS" share is. If I try to add a file, I am asked to enter my laptop's user password, and then it tells me I don't have permission to read the contents. However, if I create a folder, it works, and then I can drag files into that folder. Just not the root directory.
Thoughts?
-Rhys - Hey all,
I built an AppleScript app that automatically puts the files into a share that you have created. I used it as I needed to create the files for multiple staff members.
Firstly, you need to create all the users in ReadyNAS FrontView.
Then, open this app and simply enter the username. Once it closes, open it again and move onto the next user.
You need Applescript editor to build an app out of the code.
Make sure you change <adminPassword> and <readynasIP> to the correct values.
Hope this is useful to some of you.--READYNAS TIME MACHINE PREPARER
--AUTHOR: RHYS ANDREWS
--VERSION: 1.0
--Ask for username
repeat
set username to display dialog "Enter ReadyNAS Username" with title "ReadyNAS Time Machine Preparer" with icon caution default answer "" buttons {"Continue", "Quit"} default button {"Continue"}
set user to text returned of username
set bypass to button returned of username
if user is not "" and bypass is "Continue" then
exit repeat
end if
if bypass is "Quit" then
error number -128
end if
end repeat
tell application "Finder"
delay 0.3
try
-- Mount volume for logging
mount volume "afp://admin:<adminPassword>@<readynasIP>/homes"
on error
display dialog "Login Failed."
error number -128
end try
end tell
delay 2
set AVtext to {"/c/home/" & user & " ReadyNAS cnidscheme:dbd allow:" & user & " options:tm "}
do shell script "echo " & AVtext & " > '/Volumes/homes/" & user & "/.AppleVolumes'"
do shell script "echo > '/Volumes/homes/" & user & "/.com.apple.timemachined.supported'" - Also,
I have 2 ReadyNAS Pro's, and I got it working with the original instructions on the first NAS, but a year later, I tried to set it up on the 2nd NAS, which is the same model but had older firmware (which I have since updated), and I couldn't get it to work.
I soon found the recent instructions that you should, before setting up the disk, MOUNT the share as the user you want to backup with, then use that MOUNT as the time machine disk, not the Bonjour-found disk. Not sure why this wasn't a problem for the 1st NAS.
And yes, .com.apple.timemachinesupported or whatever is not needed. Just .AppleVolumes.
-Rhys - Morning all,
I previously used the instructions here to set up separate Time Machine backups for myself and g/f's macbooks. Then she updated her OS from Lion to Mountain Lion and her new OS was unable to see the NAS and I never got around to nor had the time to troubleshoot it; in the meantime, I continued successfully backing up with my macbook using Lion. Fast forward to present day and we've upgraded both our macbooks and the OS on each machine to Mavericks (10.9.1) and I need to get us both backing up to the NAS using Time Machine.
I have updated the Firmware on the NAS to RAIDiator 4.2.25, my questions are:- are the instructions in this thread to set up multi-Mac backup shares still applicable when using Mavericks?
- although not essential, can I 'take over' the Time Machine backups that are on the NAS from my previous macbook and continue using the same share and Time Machine configuration with my present macbook?
Thanks in advance for any replies. ChunkySocks wrote: I have updated the Firmware on the NAS to RAIDiator 4.2.25, my questions are: - are the instructions in this thread to set up multi-Mac backup shares still applicable when using Mavericks?
- although not essential, can I 'take over' the Time Machine backups that are on the NAS from my previous macbook and continue using the same share and Time Machine configuration with my present macbook?
I didn't set it up completely new, but the TimeMachine shares still work for my Mavericks MBP. I also updated my MBP from 10.8 to 10.9.x and the Backups still run smoothly against the NAS - the only difference that I see with 4.4.25 is that the free space no longer shows the quota cap of the user but the total free space of the NAS.- Does the method posted by bct still work with Mountain Lion. I set up multiple user accounts and added the two files as indicated in only one account. Then tried to connect via time machine preference pane but the time machine volume is not listed. i am not able to add a disk …the option is not available. Do I have to uncheck my regular timemachine volume from frontview?
Also once the two files are added, I no longer can log into that share on afp.
thanks.
jai
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