How To Make A Windows Time Machine Server

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

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

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

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by AutoAym

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]

Originally Posted by giax25

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]

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.