Benjamin Sherman » time machine http://holyarmy.org I have to have a tagline? Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:06:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Bonjour Avahi Addendum http://holyarmy.org/2008/11/bonjour-avahi-addendum/ http://holyarmy.org/2008/11/bonjour-avahi-addendum/#comments Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:23:53 +0000 benjamin http://holyarmy.org/?p=325 A while back I wrote about advertising Linux services via Avahi/Bonjour. Since then I’ve made a few changes to my setup.

First, I nixed netatalk for direct AFP support. My primary reason for using it was to gain a more Mac-like network filesystem which would make Time Machine happier. Well, Time Machine uses a sparse bundle disk image on it’s target; after learning about that, using AFP seemed a bit unnecessary. Also, Samba CIFS/SMB seemed to perform better. I don’t have solid benchmarks for this, but simple file copies seemed to be consistenly faster with Samba. One of the biggest annoyances about netatalk was all the extra hidden files and folders it created. I run a hybrid network, I have more Mac machines, but also Windows, plus I browse file systems on the command line quite often; and those excess files pushed me over the edge.

Second, I nixed Time Machine. Just when I thought everything was working perfectly, it completely blew up and could no longer access its data store. Not good for a backup solution. I plan to write about my new home backup solution sometime, but it’s basically rsync with a few key points.

Lastly, I streamlined my Linux avahi config using some pointers here, suggested to me by George the commenter on my above linked post.

Previously i had a service config file for each service, but this resulted in my server having multiple entries in the OS X Finder, one host for Samba, one host for AFP (when I had it), and one host for RFB. So, I merged all of those files into one.

multi.service

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
<service>
<type>_smb._tcp</type>
<port>139</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_rfb._tcp</type>
<port>5901</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_device-info._tcp</type>
<port>0</port>
<txt-record>model=RackMac</txt-record>
</service>
<service>
<type>_http._tcp</type>
<port>80</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_ssh._tcp</type>
<port>22</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_sftp-ssh._tcp</type>
<port>22</port>
</service>
</service-group>

Now everything that can show up in the OS X finder, shows up on one host entry. Plus thanks to the tip I linked to above, the “_device-info._tcp” section sets an icon for the server in OS X Finder.

Enjoy!

]]> http://holyarmy.org/2008/11/bonjour-avahi-addendum/feed/ 6 Time Machine backup to Linux via Netatalk http://holyarmy.org/2008/01/time-machine-backup-to-linux-via-netatalk/ http://holyarmy.org/2008/01/time-machine-backup-to-linux-via-netatalk/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:26:49 +0000 benjamin http://sherman.bz/2008/01/24/time-machine-backup-to-linux-via-netatalk/ So, when I got the upgrade from Tiger to Leopard on my MacBook Pro, I was looking for a good backup solution. I’ve used rsync in the past, but when I saw that Apple had a new Time Machine backup tool, I was curious to give it a shot. The catch is you basically needed an external USB or Firewire drive, until they recently came out with the Time Capsule. Anyway, tonight I got the itch to really see if I could make Time Machine work without buying extra hardware. I mean, seriously, I’ve got a good hunk of mirrored disk sitting on my home server; that seems like a good place to do backups.
Some googling found me this link to a blogger who’d done it!
I’ll make my own version of this post, since I had a few differences from the original I where I found the info.

First, netatalk is the Apple File Protocol server for Linux. My home server is running Ubuntu Linux 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon release. The default Debian/Ubuntu netatalk package doesn’t cut it, though, as it isn’t compiled against ssl, and Leopard has more stringent security requirements than its predecessors, so we have to custom compile a more secure version of netatalk. (Yes, you could reduce the security requirements, but I’d rather not.)

  1. Follow the instructions in this ubuntu forum post to compile and install netatalk. After, run “echo “netatalk hold” | sudo dpkg –set-selections” to ensure that your package is not auto-upgraded (thus breaking your install).
  2. Edit the netatalk configuration to include your backup storage location. The file /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default is where the file server paths are configured. The last line of the default config grants access to home directories and looks like: (~/ “Home Directory”). You’ll need to add a line specifying where you are storing your backups; mine looks like: (/backup/time_machine/ “Time Machine”). Note: I removed the “Home Directory” line, as in general I’m happier using CIFS(Samba) to access my network shares.
  3. Modify avahi/zeroconf to advertise AFP so that Mac Bonjour will see the fileserver. I followed these directions exactly.
  4. Each Mac user needing access to the server has to have a corresponding user on the server, and each user needs a .passwd file in their home directory. Follow these instructions for Ubuntu only as it explains the creation of the .passwd file. Note: This is not needed, as far as I can tell, so I wouldn’t do it. I don’t like the idea of having my password in plaintext on my server.
  5. Create a file named “.com.apple.timemachine.supported” at the root of the intended shared backup volume. (Discussed here in more detail.)
  6. On your Mac, open a Terminal window and type: “defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1″
I rebooted, but it might not be necessary. After a bit of time, my server showed up under the “Shared” section in Finder’s left column navigation window. I did have to type in my username and password to get it to work, which can be saved in the keychain.
I added my other common shared folders (which I’d previously been accessing via Samba/CIFS). Now I’m backing up with Time Machine AND using my shared files via AFP. My Mac is happy, and I am too.
(see next post for explanation of strikeouts, but note, I don’t recommend you do the struck out actions.)
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