[GUIDE] Setting up a TimeMachine server

Hi all,

I set up a Time Machine server on Volumio with netatalk, it’s very simple, so now my mac backups to my 1TB USB drive. I lack the skills to make a plugin, but maybe someone who knows feels like doing it.

Here we go:

  1. wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/netatalk/netatalk-3.1.10.tar.gz
    The current version of netatalk used by Volumio is too old. On my system it was so slow, making backing up impossible. The latest version is faster.

  2. apt-get install build-essential libevent-dev libssl-dev libgcrypt11-dev libkrb5-dev libpam0g-dev libwrap0-dev libdb-dev libtdb-dev libmysqlclient-dev avahi-daemon libavahi-client-dev libacl1-dev libldap2-dev libcrack2-dev systemtap-sdt-dev libdbus-1-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libglib2.0-dev libio-socket-inet6-perl tracker libtracker-sparql-1.0-dev libtracker-miner-1.0-dev

To get all de dependencies.

  1. tar -vxf netatalk-3.1.10.tar.gz
  2. cd netatalk-3.1.10 ./configure --with-init-style=debian-systemd --without-libevent --without-tdb--with-cracklib --enable-krbV-uam --with-dbussysconf-dir=/etc/dbus-1/system.d --with-tracker-pkgconfig-version=1.0 sudo make sudo make install
  3. sudo afpd -V
    Version should be: afpd 3.1.10 - Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) daemon of Netatalk
  4. sudo nano /etc/avahi/services/afpd.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>_afpovertcp._tcp</type>
        <port>548</port>
    </service>
    <service>
        <type>_device-info._tcp</type>
        <port>0</port>
        <txt-record>model=Xserve</txt-record>
    </service>
</service-group>

You can also use a different model type if you prefer

  1. sudo nano /usr/local/etc/afp.conf

[code];
; Netatalk 3.x configuration file
;

[Global]
; Global server settings
mimic model = TimeCapsule6,106
log level = default:warn
log file = /var/log/afpd.log

[Homes]
basedir regex = /home

; [My AFP Volume]
; path = /path/to/volume

[TimeMachine Volumio]
path = /media/teraback/TimeMachine
time machine = yes

[/code]

Edit: path = /media/teraback/TimeMachine to whatever path you want.

Several notes on this:
-> You need enough power for the USB-disk, a separate power USB-hub will work if you have problems. Make sure /boot/config.txt has: max_usb_current=1 (default on Volumio).
-> This will share both the homedir and make the Time Machine available over the network. But you can add other shares as well, to work with afp. It’ll be way faster than the current implementation on Volumio, at least at my system, so you can copy your FLACS over the air.
-> If you configure your mac, it’ll make automatic incremental backups to Volumio every hour (I think), if you’re within wifi range.