Re:ThinMachine – A $25 Thin Client macOS Time Machine Appliance
by bwbmr on Sunday June 25, 2023 @09:15PM
(#36474522)
Is it possible to have a Linux server provide an APFS-formatted network share? Or does it require a Mac Mini + external drive in a closet?
Re:ThinMachine – A $25 Thin Client macOS Time Machine Appliance
by pseudalopex on Sunday June 25, 2023 @10:41PM
(#36475115)
Time Machine creates an APFS sparse bundle on any network share. Even if the disk is APFS.
Re:ThinMachine – A $25 Thin Client macOS Time Machine Appliance
by graybies on Monday June 26, 2023 @07:16AM
(#36478226)
Yes, I use truenas to serve an apfs bundle over smb on a zfs pool. Works perfectly with no issues.
Re:ThinMachine – A $25 Thin Client macOS Time Machine Appliance
by smcleod on Monday June 26, 2023 @08:24AM
(#36478803)
Yeah you can use any Linux or BSD system. That includes NAS devices like QNAP, Sinology etc… that serve up a network share via Samba or NFS.
Re:ThinMachine – A $25 Thin Client macOS Time Machine Appliance
by smcleod on Monday June 26, 2023 @12:26AM
(#36475718)
I use TM with both a local usb SSD and a samba network share on my home server which works great - I use XFS on the server but because it’s encrypted by TM it creates an APFS sparse container within the share.
If you backup to an APFS-formatted network share, Time Machine is quite good and much more reliable than it was when backing up to HFS+ volumes. There was a lot of hackery going on to make HFS+ act like a modern file system emulating snapshots, which it didn't have. You could end up with millions of hard links; turns out that was kinda fragile…
APFS supports snapshots and a bunch of other features that makes Time Machine faster and more reliable.