How To Make A Windows Time Machine Server

[Unregistered]

Windows file system / share

Hi Kevin

Very elegant solution! Just one wish: Would it be possible to use the Windows file system or a Windows share to store the Time Machines backups? It would be easier to manage the backup sets than from the linux vm.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[kevinherring]

Hi, you definitely can't use the windows share, but some VMs (VMWare Workstation for example) do let you use an entire 'raw' disk/partition. But I can't recommend it for this exercise as I don't think VB supports raw yet.
Thanks
Kevin

 

[Kazie]

My Time Machine's Back

Hi Kevin,

I just stopped by to say thank you. Your article perfectly helped me to get my Time Machine working again.

I've been looking for a solution since the lion broke the machine in my Windows "server" (just an XP box w/ RAID5.) And I've got a VMWare Server running several Debian's. So, when I ran into your article, it was truly an 'Ah..!' moment. Not surprisingly your solution works with VMWare too. And in my case I mounted one NTFS directory in Windows onto Debian in VM via CIFS. So essentially the Debian VM is bridging the TM data from my Mac to the Windows. I'm not too sure about the reliability of this setup, though.

The initial back up is running right now and 14 more hours to go... Thank you so much!

//Kazie

 

[kevinherring]

You are welcome Kazie.

Although what you have said proves me a liar about me previous post! So you have used a Windows share as the location for the backups? I would be interested in how reliable it is. Please keep us posted of any problems.

Chris: Please ignore my previous post, apparently what you ask is possible!

Thanks
Kevin

 

[Unregistered]

CIFS was a failure, but...

It turned out my CIFS attempt was a failure. I can't exactly remember any more but the backup failed around 90GB. And now I'm just backing it up to a virtual HDD. It's been about a week and it hasn't failed once.

However, before the successful backup, I had numerous failures even with a VM HDD. It turns out VMware (quite possibly any VMs) doesn't run very well in a compressed NTFS directory. I didn't know, but the current stable backup with the VM on a plain NTFS proves the point.

So then, I noticed there's one more thing I havn't done: backing up via a VM on plain NTFS to a Windows share on a plain NTFS. I'll try it and let you know the result.

//Kazie

You are welcome Kazie.

Although what you have said proves me a liar about me previous post! So you have used a Windows share as the location for the backups? I would be interested in how reliable it is. Please keep us posted of any problems.

Chris: Please ignore my previous post, apparently what you ask is possible!

Thanks
Kevin

 

[Kazie]

No, CIFS doesn't do it

As I mentioned in the previous post, I made an attempt on an uncompressed NTFS share via a VM on uncompressed NTFS. No good. Failed at around 11GB of 150GB. There could be some tweaks, but I am not currently interested in spending time on it. So I stick with the virtual HDD. Beaides, I have a plan to move on to a hypervisor. Migration can be easier this way.

So Kevin, you didn't lie to Chris

//Kazie

 

[giax25]

lan config

after i corrected the Network settings to get the VM to pair with my NIC,

Hi, can you explain what do you mean with this? I've started my timecapsule appliance correctly but I can't see any driver from my mac. maybe something it's wrong about my lan configuration 'cause I can't ping any device on my lan. Can you help me?

 

[kevinherring]

Hi, can you explain what do you mean with this? I've started my timecapsule appliance correctly but I can't see any driver from my mac. maybe something it's wrong about my lan configuration 'cause I can't ping any device on my lan. Can you help me?

Hi
I think we need a bit more info. Have you tried starting the VM normally? i.e. not via the headless service? Can you log in to the VM using root? What is the output of the command ifconfig? When you say you can't ping other devices on your lan, I assume you mean from the VM?
In your VirtualBox VM settings under Network, is your Wireless or Ethernet adapter listed?
Thanks
Kevin

 

[giax25]

Something wrong with the volume's CNID DB, using temporary CNID DB instead.Check serv

Now it works and I'm able to see the MyTimeCapsule disk.
The problem now is the message in the title: "Something wrong with the volume's CNID DB, using temporary CNID DB instead.Check server messages for details. Switching to read-only mode."
I'm using an external USB 500gb drive formatted ext4 and when I try to connect to my drive with my mac I see this message.
I've tried to restart all services, I've checked every configuration in netatalk config but nothing!! (((

 

[kevinherring]

Sounds similar to the problem in post 4/5 but that should have been fixed. Please try the solution in post 5 and report back.

p.s. when something starts working it is helpful to other people to post what you did in order to get it working. That way other people can learn from your experience. Posting along the lines of "Don't worry about it, I got it working" will get you bad karma.

 

[giax25]

More details about the CNID DB Error

I have a new installation with mytimecapsule_11_15_11.ova downloaded from your url.
Then I add an USB device in VirtualBox setting
I start the VM with .ova
I plug the USB Hard Disk (500gb Verbatim)
With fdisk -l I can see this:

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107861504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6e0bd3f5

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 60802 488386583 b W95 FAT32

I change in /etc/fstab this: /dev/sdc1 /mnt/MyTimeCapsuleData vfat defaults 0 0
I mount the sdc1 with mount /mnt/MyTimeCapsuleData

I verify the netatalk AppleVolume.default (/mnt/MyTimeCapsuleData MyTimeCapsule allow:tmuser cnidscheme:dbd options:tm)

I restart services
I try to connect from my mac (OSX 10.7.2) with afp://192.168.1.106

Now I can see 2 volumes: Home directory & MyTimeCapsule. The first one works correctly but it's not right for me: I want use the USB Hard Drive (MyTimeCapsule)

If I select this, after 30 sec I see this error message: "Something wrong with the volume's CNID DB, using temporary CNID DB instead.Check server messages for details. Switching to read-only mode."

Where is the mistake!? It's really frustrating, anyone can help me?

 

[giax25]

p.s. when something starts working it is helpful to other people to post what you did in order to get it working. That way other people can learn from your experience. Posting along the lines of "Don't worry about it, I got it working" will get you bad karma.

Of course!! Sorry!!
The first problem was about a wrong setting on lan configuration in VirtualBox.
I changed inadvertently in "Generic Driver"

 

[giax25]

I've tried with post #5 solution (chmod 777) but it doesn't work again!

 

[giax25]

[UPDATE] I've initialized my USB Hard drive with a MacOS partition (not journaled) then I mounted it.
Now I can connect correctly from my mac to MyTimeCapsule BUT I see only 206MB instead of 500GB!

 

[kevinherring]

hmmmm, I was going to suggest formatting it. Can you format it as ext4 within the VM?

Thanks for the update about your first problem!

Kevin

 

[giax25]

I've formatted again with ext4. Same problem. Again!
Unfortunately I don't have another linux machine so I have to format from VM.
But I don't think it would be the problem...

 

[kevinherring]

can you write to it at all? can you write as the regular user? what about as root?

 

[giax25]

Yes I can write as root and as tmuser...

 

[kevinherring]

I think I am stumped. Try this:
remove options:tm from your AppleVolume.default file.
Restart networking
Now you should be able to see the share MyTimeCpasule as a regular Mac share. Can you write to it now?

 

[giax25]

Same error. Can I write you on private?