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Backup-zone

Content Moved:

https://staff.eecis.udel.edu/docs/timemachine/

1.  The Time Machine / Windows Backup Zone

Faculty members can request 100GB of storage for backups, accessible through AFP or SMB on the timemachine1 zone. This allows backups of Apple machines (running OSX version 10.5 and higher) using AFP and Time Machine on the ECE/CIS network. The same space allows backup of Windows machines (running XP or Vista) using SMB and the Windows built in Backup Program. To request this you will need to put in a help request ticket, but please read the rest of the page first!

1.1  MacOS 1.7 (Lion) caveats

MacOS version 1.7, known as Lion, has enhanced Timemachine backups, but has caused some issues with our non-Apple server setup. Please check the Lion specific issues below if you are a current ECECIS Timemachine Server client and are planning to upgrade to Lion.

2.  How Time Machine on OS X Works

A brief summary of Time Machine from Apple:

Using Time Machine allows you to keep backups similar to how the ZFS Snapshot system works, albeit a little less configurable. However note you may need to exclude directories in Time Machine since your hard drive may be larger than the 100GB allocated to you; continue reading to see how this can be achieved.

By default, Time Machine will perform an automatic backup every hour. If you want to enable automatic backups at a different frequency, please see How To Change the Time Machine Backup Frequency documentation page.

3.  Setting up the Disk Image

If you want to setup the disk image yourself you can enable various options such as encryption, however if you chose this route and forget your password labstaff will not be able to recover any data from your backup.

• (Lion) MacOS Lion no longer requires a disk image to pre-exist before running Timemachine. If you are using Timemachine for the first time on a Lion system, just jump directly to the "Mount the AFP network drive" section below.

3.1 How to request for labstaff to create the disk image

First you'll need to get the required information for the disk image name. This is in the format of MachineName_MAC. You can get this information from the GUI or from a terminal. To get the information from the GUI:

• Click on your desktop to make Finder the active application and then select the Apple Menu in the top left. On the drop down select "System Preferences"

• Then select the "Sharing" settings

• Your Machine Name can be found at the top of the settings. Record this exactly as it appears including any spaces or punctuation

• Next we need the MAC Address, so click the back button and then select the Network settings in the System Preferences pane

• Then select the Advanced settings button

• Choose the Ethernet tab in the advanced settings pane

• Finally you will see your MAC address, record this again exactly as it appears

Getting this information from the terminal is also quite simple:

• scutil --get ComputerName
• ifconfig [ether interface]

Once you have this information please post it to a ticket in the following form:

• Machine Name:
• MAC Address:

ex:

• Machine Name: MacName
• MAC Address: 00:11:22:33:44:55

Please note it is your WIRED (en0) MAC Address, even if you are using the wireless!

3.2 How to create the image yourself

Open the Applications folder, and select Utilities sub-folder. The Disk Utility program is located there.

Using the Computer's Name and MAC Address obtained above, create a disk image by using the New Image button at the top or by selecting it from the menu, and entering the info in the popup, in the order highlighted in Red.

3.3 After Labstaff or You create the disk image and AFP Server diskspace

Mount your Timemachine diskspace from the server: timemachine1.eecis.udel.edu using the AFP instructions found here

Once the diskspace mounts successfully, you should see the sparsebundle if Labstaff created it, or you can copy the sparsebundle file you just made, to the AFP diskmount.

By default, MacOS doesn't show network disks as available for time machine backup disks. To make them available, open a shell terminal on the Mac, and Read/Write the below variable:

$ defaults read com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes
2008-12-06 15:12:37.248 defaults[10027:10b]
The domain/default pair of (com.apple.systempreferences, TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes) does not exist

$ defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

$ defaults read com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes
1

The disk image should now be ready for Time Machine to use it.

4.  Backing up with Time Machine

4.1  Mount the AFP network drive

Use the Finder->Go->Connect to Server to mount your AFP timemachine space as documented above.

4.2  Open the TimeMachine Preferences.

Either through the toolbar at the top of your desktop, or through the System Preferences folder:

4.3  Configure TimeMachine to use your AFP disk as the backup Disk

In the TimeMachine Preference Window, select the Change Disk... button, and select your timemachine AFP disk as your Backup Drive. (If the drive is not an option, double-check that you set the TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes variable properly above)

4.4  Configure TimeMachine to exclude folders/files that won't be backed up.

In the TimeMachine Preference Window, select the Options... button to access the Exclude list. Use the "+" button to browse and select folders to exclude from TimeMachine.

4.5  Caveat - FileVault

During testing, it was found that Timemachine can get confused when data being backed up, are under the Apple Encrypted Feature of FileVault. The symptoms were that a small file change resulted in a large amount of data to backup, and the Timemachine volume wasn't large enough. Normally Timemachine would remove older copies to make space, but the FileVault mechanism appeared to thwart this.

4.6  Remote Access Reading/Writing Backups

If you need to Read or Write your backups from outside of the dept. network, you should use the OpenVPN service as described in the Remote Access link of the WIKI.

4.7  Caveat - MacOS Lion upgrade (v10.7)

If you are planning on upgrading to Lion from a previous version AND use the Timemachine server described here, you should take an extra step before upgrading. Either way you'll lose all the backup history from Timemachine, but you can make a backup of your current data that will be accessible in Lion if you first delete the old and start a new full backup before upgrading. You can do this by turning off Timemachine, mounting the AFP disk and removing the sparseimage file. You can also request Labstaff to do this for you via the Help System. (We have found no method to preserve all the backup history as our non-Apple server wasn't preserving some state information that Lion requires) Once the full backup runs on the old MacOS, you can upgrade to Lion, then mount the AFP share as documented above. You may have to run a Timemachine backup once on the new Lion system before you can access the backup history.

4.8  Troubleshooting

In the event that you are experiencing issues with your Timemachine backup, please read the Debugging & Fixes for Timemachine.

5.  Backup up with Windows Backup

  (NOTE: You still need to request the creation of Server space before network backups will work.  The info above, documents the initial request.)

5.1  For Windows7

• Select START, and enter "backup" into the search box. The "Backup and Restore" program should be found and you can select that. (Located in Control Panel -> System and Security -> Backup and Restore if search doesn't work)
• Select the link to setup backups, a box should pop up asking where you'd like to save your backup. Click the "Save on a network..." button.
• Enter \\timemachine1.eecis.udel.edu\USERNAME in the Network location box, and enter your SAMBA Username & password in the appropriate boxes and click OK.
• Set a backup schedule that typically works within days/times that you'll have the Win7 system attached to the network and click OK.
• Highlight the network backup destination you just created, and click NEXT.
• Use the recommended setting (unless you want/need to customize the files being backed up).
• Save the settings and exit.
• The "Back up now" button should be present and can be used to immediately run a backup.

5.2  Older versions of Windows

• Use the same Network drive mounting instructions found here:, But use the Server timemachine1.eecis.udel.edu\USERNAME
• Select START, and open "My Computer".
• Right-click on your Hard Disk (Normally C:/), and select Properties.
• Select the Tools tab, and the Backup button.
• The Backup Wizard should start, and allow you select backup types, and files to backup. Customize these selections to your preference.
• When you come to Choosing a place to save your backup, Select the Drive Letter you mounted the Network Drive onto, or Browse for it.
• For WinXP, it will do a one-time backup, either Full or Incremental.
• For Vista, you can schedule the backup daily, for some hour that your machine is always on and lightly loaded.
• At this point you should be finished, and the backup will start/run, either one-time (XP) or scheduled (Vista)
• [Caveat 1] If running XP, you'll have to manually mount the network drive, and startup the backup in the future, or schedule a task to run it for you daily.
• [Caveat 2] Both XP and Vista will not automatically remove old backup data from the network drive. You will have to manually remove older Backup Sets when your backup drive gets full.

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