Time Machine Network Backups

[forrie]

This is an older topic, however prior to Catalina (at least) you used to be able to tweak MacOS so that Time Machine could back up to an NFS drive. That appears to no longer be the case and frankly I'm surprised that Apple hasn't implemented features that will allow Time Machine to back up to (for example) cloud-based drives (ie: Wasabi, et al).

Add to that, Server.app was summarily stripped of its useful features.

Other than buying a local Synology NAS, I wonder what folks are using out there. Or if I'm missing another way to convince Time Machine to backup to a network drive (ie: not iSCSI, as I've not tried that).

I know Apple is pushing iCloud, but I'd much prefer to make my own choices for cloud provisioning -- especially network home directories.

Thanks.

 

[DarkSel]

I use a Raspberry Pi 4 with a 10 TB HDD attached running avahi-daemon and samba. avahi allows OS X to see the drive as Time Machine compatible, while samba runs the actual file server.

 

[LuisN]

Raspberry pi 4 with openmediavault and external usb 3 drive

 

[forrie]

I was experimenting with sharing an external drive off my Mac, upstairs, via SMB and my Macbook Pro (both running Catalina) would not see the volume as being available. I do have the switch for unsupported drives turned on (I forget the setting).

I found when enabling file sharing on the Mac, it suddenly just shared everything.

I was hoping to get this part at least working, so that I could keep the portable drive upstairs on my Mac Pro. Perhaps I missed something?
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Never heard of this product, thanks for the pointer.

I also wonder if there's a way to create an iSCSI target on the LAN, by isolating the drive. I doubt it, not in this configuration.

Raspberry pi 4 with openmediavault and external usb 3 drive

 

[mmomega]

At home I have a QNAP with 30TB with a 4TB volume dedicated to Time Machine backups for 6 computers.

At one work office I have a DIY built Unraid with 8TB dedicated to Time Machine for 4 computers.

At my other office I have a FreeNAS machine dedicated to my iMac Pro.

All but one of the computers are running Catalina, the other is Mojave.