I generated the above image using some PHP imaging functions, Geo IP and the scraping of the pirate bay tracker over few days. I think it gives quite a interesting graphical representation of the global issue with piracy.
Ok you can now do ad-hoc Time Machine backups up to your newly mounted network sparsebundle, but you want to leave Time Machine running continuously;
How do we get this sparse bundle image to mount automatically without having to double click on the sparse image each time we reboot the box?
The traditional method of mounting the network drive, by dragging the network share into system preferences -> users & groups -> your account -> Login Items, followed by adding a small apple script to mount the sparsebundle image has the annoying side effect that your newly mounted shares will automatically open finder at login, so my preferred solution is to use automator to do the work silently in the background
In my last post, my network drive was GUEST:@mkdrive/NETBACKUP with a mount point of /Volumes/NetBACKUP on my mac. The sparsebundle image file in that directory was called macbook_backup.sparsebundle.
The format of the command you would type in terminal rather than double clicking on sparsebundle image file to mount would be “hdiutil attach -quiet -nobrowse -mountpoint TM_sparsebundle_mount_point ”
So in my example it would be
“hdiutil attach -quiet -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/macbook_backup /Volumes/NETBACKUP/macbook_backup.sparsebundle”
N.B. I use the -nobrowse option so that my sparse image does not show up in finder, if you would rather see this in finder just remove this option.
Using Terminal, you can test this command replacing the mount point and sparsebundle image filename name with your own.
Once tested, we can use a single automator workflow to do all of this, mount your network drive without opening finder, mounting the sparsebundle image, all in the background.
Above the first part of the automator workflow lists the address of the shared folder / network drive you wish to connect to, the second part of the workflow connects to the server, and finally the last part of the work flow runs the shell command we worked out earlier.
Clicking on the above image will download a example workflow which you can open in automator, modify and save if you wish.
Once you have edited the workflow, click save in automator, making sure you save the file as an applicaiton.
We now need to get this application to run at login, this is easily done
Mac OS X 10.3 or later
Simple as that, now when you log into that users account, the network drive and the sparsebundle will be mounted automatically.
You can now go into Time Machine , and move the slider to “on” and you are done..
It’s always annoyed me that since moving to Lion, I’ve had problems using Time Machine over a network drive. As with all things Apple, the need to simplify actually restricts; the user interface of Time Machine does not have the option to use network storage, only that of direct attached disks or Apple Time Capsules.
After a lot of Googling and playing, I finally got it working and have written it up so even my Mother could follow it. I’ve put the directions first and more detailed help further down.
In order to create a Time Machine backup on a network folder you need to follow these four steps:
tmutil command to tell TM where it is (that’s the import bit!).
Now this is the bit that catches people out, and where you get conflicting advice across the net. The most common mistake is people mounting the network drive rather than the sparsebundle image, when Time Machine will not support network filesystems. Or trying to get Time Machine via tmutil to point at sparse bundle filename, rather than the mounted sparse bundle mount point.
In this example I have a shared network drive of //mkdrive/NETBACKUP and I have placed my newly created macbook_backup.sparse bundle into this directory.
Make sure that the disk image is in its permanent home before you use tmutil don’t change the server name or shared folder name after Time Machine uses it as your backup volume.
udo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/{mounted-disk-image} Be sure to replace {mounted-disk-image} with the appropriate name for your new disk image. So in my example I would of typed ”sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/macbook_backup/“, You will be prompted for your password, this is normal.
Ok now we have Time Machine setup, lets check everything is working correctly.
In my next post we will be looking at how we can automate the mounting of the sparse bundle so that Time Machine can schedule automatic backups.
My 5 year old asked what computer games did I play when i was younger, the answer is Sleepless Nights. I was hooked to MUDs in my teens and through university, and still host the MUD I started in the 80′s, its been running it for over 23 years!
You can stuff your world of warcraft, and modern warfare, and HD games, with the power of the written word..
My wife has started making and selling brownies, it going great, and I get to eat all the edges.
