FreeBSD, AFP, Time Machine »

Published on January 21, 2012.

About two years ago, I wrote a post about setting up an AFP server to host a Time Machine backup on a FreeBSD box. However time passed and Netatalk (the software which provide the AFP server) and the AFP specfication evolved, making the first article outdated. So here is a brand new version based on the remarks Jörg Wunsch and the commenters sent me. This configuration has been tester on a FreeBSD 8.2 running on VirtualBox, and a Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) client.

On the FreeBSD server »

I assume you have a working FreeBSD installation and the ports tree.

First, let's start by installing Netatalk (as root):

cd /usr/ports/net/netatalk/ && make install clean

Now add the following to your /etc/rc.conf file:

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

(For those who read the old post: note the new cnid_metad_enable setting)

It is time to add a line to /usr/local/etc/AppleVolumes.default. Assuming you want to share the folder /home/thomas/tm/ as Time machine to the UNIX user thomas:

/home/thomas/tm/ "Time Machine" allow:thomas cnidscheme:dbd options:usedots,upriv,tm

(For those who read the old post: note the new options and the cnidscheme argument; they are required!)

Finally add the following to /usr/local/etc/afpd.conf (making the same assumptions as before):

"Time Machine" -uamlist uams_dhx2_passwd.so

You are ready to go!

On the client side »

(If you've read the old version, you may have noticed the "Howl" section disappeared. In fact, new versions of Netatalk implement the Apple's Bonjour protocol.)

By default, Time Machine only allows you to use an AirPort-based system if you want to backup your data throught your network. So we need to ask it politely to enable the support for every network drive. Grab your terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

You also need to create a disk image in order to make Time Machine happy with your disk share. Open a terminal, cd to the correct /Volumes/Time\ Machine directory and fire

hdiutil create -size 512g -fs HFS+J -volname "Time Machine" `grep -A1 LocalHostName /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist | tail -n1 | awk 'BEGIN { FS = "|" } ; { print $2 }'`_`ifconfig en0 | grep ether | awk 'BEGIN { FS = ":" } ; {print $1$2$3$4$5$6}' | awk {'print $2'}`.sparsebundle

(Source: Steffen L. Norgren)

Basically, this command create a 512 GB journaled HFS+ sparsebundle image named after your machine name and the MAC address of your en0 network interface.

Conclusion »

That should be enough – it worked for me. If you think a point needs more explanations, or if you can't make it work, please send me an email: I would be more than happy to help to figure out a solution!