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Backing Up macOS via Time Machine to a network SMB share
Is there a proper way to backup macOS via Time Machine to a network SMB share? I prefer to use a Windows share. If it's not possible, which OS would support Time Machine backup to a network SMB share?
Thank you.
EDIT I think I should clarify the things I have. So I have 1 Mac Mini with about 230GB used that's currently running Mojave that has APFS. I don't want to purchase additional hardware, because the hyperconverged 3-node cluster that I have has 40TB of usable space (about 1/3 of that space is used right now). With this hypercoverged 3-node cluster, I could use any Windows and Linux OS's. We set up data protection and it has its own node failover. I have a backup solution for this cluster as well. So basically, I would be backing up the Mac Mini on to a VM and then backing up the VM on to a backup drive.
I've set up the sparse bundle image and successfully backed it up via Time Machine on a Windows SMB share. Unfortunately, I was not able to restore the backup to a different Mac device that I'm testing right now.
I would like to know if there's an easier way to backup the Mac Mini without purchasing additional hardware.
Thanks again.
you can also use a synology device: https://www.synology.com/en-uk/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Backup_Restore/How_to_back_up_files_from_Mac_to_Synology_NAS_with_Time_Machine
Synology Time Machine is more stable than Apple Server Time Machine ever was.
Though I find that afp actually works better than SMB.
I spent a lot of time working on this. Basically, nope. I ended up with a virtual ubuntu box running netatalk (on hyper-v), but the share was still AFP. Scaled nicely with users, worked with quotas and AD. I've been told later version of time machine can use SMB shares (i did this 3 years ago) but haven't tested it myself. Reliability is the key. I've had marginal successes with SMB 3.0, but lots of failures where the entire backup needed to be redone. every month. which defeats the purpose of time machine, which is to allow time travel.
You can pickup an old xServe and xRAID pretty cheap used on eBay. The ability to make them a network time machine is built in.
It's also built into almost any NAS nowadays. Not to mention you can hook up drives to many routers that will also work.
Thinking most folks won't want to run a loud Xserve at their house...or in general. If you really want to go the macOS route, you could just get a mini and install Server. But if you really want to homelab it up with a 1U server...cool.
That is an out-of-date kludge.
macOS by default uses SMB. Also, any Mac can now be the destination for time machine. I haven't tested this out, but that leaves me to believe that time machine works well with SMB, yes.
Please let me know what you arrive with, I'm in a near identical situation. It sounds like Ubuntu 18.04 LTS does not have the new samba 4.8 with the associated fruit extensions, but 18.10 does. I'm trying to setup an 18.10 target with the proper samba extensions this week loosely following this guide
https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/83vkaz/howto_make_time_machine_backups_on_a_samba/
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FreeNAS (or similar) to create a TimeMachine compatible share.
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Mount an image on the share, like yobilltechno suggested (https://www.reddit.com/r/macsysadmin/comments/a35rsc/backing_up_macos_via_time_machine_to_a_network/eb3lzgn/)
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Use rsync to sync to the share (create a script that mounts the share before the sync) https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup
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Use 2 external drives and swap them out every week
