Time Machine Backup -- Rough Start

[Skormy]

Greetings. I have a new Synology DS213J and one of the reasons I bought the NAS is to migrate Time Machine from my DAS to the NAS. I have been following the instructions I've found online. The first thing I did was create a user and a shared folder on my second volume. I turned off Time Machine, copied the backups.backupsdb folder and went to paste it on my shared folder and the following message displayed: Volume is wrong format for backup.

It is formatted as basic (without data protection), ext4, with just a name of volume 2. I can copy "regular" files to the NAS volume.

Is there a formatting setting I missed? I'm a newbie here.

Also, I am able to login and figured out how to mount on startup. However, with two different volumes, I haven't figured out how to mount them both. I'm using the following command to connect to the server:

afp://[diskname]:local

Is there an additional parameter to connect to a specific folder/volume?

Thanks in advance.

 

[stevech]

no need to command line/telnet/SSH.
On my DS212, I originally config'd two volumes, no hybrid RAID, no RAID1. Gave each a name. And the DSM just formatted them as ext4 volumes.
On the DSM browser access, click on Storage Manager. From there, you'll see a list item for each volume, displayed on the left. Mine shows 2, named 'Volume 1' and 'Volume 2'. Those were my choices. Both are type 'Basic' (non-RAID); both are ext4 file system format.

for me, both volumes get mounted automatically at bootup. You'll have to create one or more shared folders on the second drive. You can set its attributes to be 'hidden' from SMB and the LAN. I do that, and do so for certain other folders.

After launching the Time Backup app, top right of screen, mine shows the destination folder (directory) for Time Backup to use is a shared folder on the desired volume. The shared folder is created by you, using the control panel's shared folder tool where you can create/delete shared folders. I keep 3 months of all file versions.

Once setup, you use Time Backup to set the desired schedule and which folders are in the source list (e.g., the ones you want to be backed up). For me, that's all folders except where I store big disk images that came from PC's backup programs..

Hope this helps.

 

[Skormy]

I was trying to copy my existing backup file to the NAS and that's where my problem occurred. Is that what you did? You say Time Backup -- is that something other than Time Machine?

Thanks for your assistance.

 

[stevech]

I was trying to copy my existing backup file to the NAS and that's where my problem occurred. Is that what you did? You say Time Backup -- is that something other than Time Machine?

Thanks for your assistance.

Time Backup is the name of the utility in Synology's DSM. It keeps the last x weeks of all file versions of whatever folders you specify, including folders shared by other computers on your LAN/WiFi.

Time Machine may be an apple utility that does the same sort of thing, but only for their products, unlike Time Backup.

 

[canuckle]

What you're trying to do I understand, as I have mine set up to do Time Machine Backups, it does work flawlessly.

I think your problem is that you're trying to move your existing HFS+ formatted data from your DAS over to the Synology, which is formatted ext3 or ext4.

I would start fresh with the Synology, let it do it's initial backup, and if you can, hang on to the DAS backup files for awhile until you're comfortable you don't need them.

Be aware of a couple of things...I'm pretty sure the Synology doesn't allow for deleting the oldest backups when space runs out. Also, make sure you mount the volume/folder you want for your Mac (connect it as a server) so that it automatically connects when you reboot or sign in. You need to stay signed in to the user that's generating the backups.

All in all though, it works flawlessly for me.

Mike

 

[Skormy]

Mike,

Thanks for your reply. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Yes, the DAS Time Machine backup folder would not copy over. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong. I believe there is a way to access old Time Machine files; I'll need to research that.

Second question. I have been logging into the server and figured out how to automatically log in on boot. I have different volumes within the server and I'm trying to figure out how to log all of them in since they have different credentials as they point to different volumes. Any ideas here? Much appreciated.

 

[canuckle]

I logged in to each volume or folder by using -> Finder>Go>Connect to Server ( or words to that effect, going from memory as I'm not near my Mac right now).

edit:
OK once you get Connect to Server, hit browse, find your folder, and you're home free. BTW, did you set up a folder specifically assigned to Time Machine on the Synology?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Skormy]

I have two physical drives and for testing purposes have created a shared folder on each of the drives. I am able to log into either of them just fine. The problem arises when I wish to log into both of them. The only work around I've figured out is to log into one of them as afp and the other as smb. Seems very clunky to me. I'm wondering if there is a setting or parameter (on either the mac or the NAS) that I need to tinker with. Anybody have any ideas here? Thanks.

 

[stevech]

Why can't you simply use SMB sharing?
No matter Apple, Windows, Linux, Android.

 

[Skormy]

That's what I think I've been doing. I type smb://[diskname]:local and am presented with an option of which share to connect to. The problem is that if I want to connect to the other share (on a different physical drive) I get an error message: "There was a problem connecting to [diskstation], please contact your administrator. " Are there any settings on the Mac or NAS I need to tinker with? This one has me stumped. Thanks for your prompt responses.

 

[stevech]

I don't use MAC PC/laptop, but I do use Windows and Linux and iPAD, Raspberry Pi with my NAS. I just use the GUI or (linux) fstab edits to mount shares created on the NAS and set for access on the LAN.
There's no notion of mounting volumes.. just using or mounting shared folders (directories).

Maybe Apple's Time Machine wants to own a volume. I don't think common NASes will permit that. You can have the NAS share a folder with a huge quota.

Me, I use the Synology Time Backup to keep old versions of files no matter what OS/computer created them via SMB.

 

[kamina]

Why can't you simply use SMB sharing?
No matter Apple, Windows, Linux, Android.

I've always gotten better performance with afp then smb on a mac. Don't think it's a protocol thing as such, rather how it's implemented (either in my synology or mac).