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DIY Time Machine Server

The fine netatalk folks have done it again: added Time Machine support to their software! It even works!

If you’re looking to roll your own Time Machine server, and don’t want to shell out for one of Apple’s Time Capsules (say, if you want to integrate Time Machine into your existing storage array), this is how you do it:

What you need:

1. A FreeBSD or Linux server with some spare disk space.
2. A network of some sort.

The how:

Note, the installation and activation (1 and 2) steps are for FreeBSD. If you’re using Linux, your vendor/distribution most likely has a package pre-made for you. Try “apt-get install netatalk”, “yum install netatalk”, or consult your distribution’s documentation. Alternatively, you can install directly from source!

1. Install netatalk

   # cd /usr/ports/net/netatalk
   # make all install
   

2. Activate it on boot, by adding these lines to /etc/rc.conf

   netatalk_enable="YES"
   afpd_enable="YES"
   cnid_metad_enable="YES"
   

3. Configure a Time Machine volume, by editing /usr/local/etc/AppleVolumes.default:

   # first is the path, second is the display name, remaining are the options
   /data/tm "Time Machine" options:nostat,tm cnidscheme:dbd
   

4. Start it up:

   # /usr/local/etc/rc.d/netatalk start
   

   On Linux, try:

   # /etc/init.d/netatalk start
   

5. You’re set. On your Mac, just connect to your server (Finder, Go -> Connect to Server, then enter afp://yourserverip), log in, and mount the Time Machine volume. Then just hit the Time Machine prefpane (Apple -> System Preferences -> Time Machine) and turn it on!

For auto-discovery of your file server, you might install avahi and add an _afpovertcp._tcp service, see this link for more info.

Caveats:

Time Machine will consume all the space on the partition /data/tm lives on. It’s a good idea to create a storage-capped volume specifically for Time Machine, so you don’t accidentally fill up your disk with constant backups!