QNap alternative to Time Machine

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ovbg
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QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by ovbg »

Unfortunately, as wonderful as Time Machine seems to be, it just keeps failing on my Qnap. Once again I'm faced with wiping it all out and starting again.

So, what alternatives do I have with my QNAP TS-453 Pro?

Is there an on-board backup that can do everything I need, and is reliable?

* Make a full backup of EVERYTHING from my iMac which is on the same network.
* Increment backups of every change, every few hours like Time Machine does.
* Access backups easily by date. Time Machine was great at this, so is there also an easy UI where if I loose a file, I can not only go back a few days to restore it, but I could if I wanted, go back a few months easily and restore an even older version?
* Back up my external HD that is directly connected to my iMac as well
* And, back up my MacBook Pro as well, which is connected via WiFi to the same Network.
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pwilson
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by pwilson »

ovbg wrote:Unfortunately, as wonderful as Time Machine seems to be, it just keeps failing on my Qnap. Once again I'm faced with wiping it all out and starting again.

So, what alternatives do I have with my QNAP TS-453 Pro?

Is there an on-board backup that can do everything I need, and is reliable?

* Make a full backup of EVERYTHING from my iMac which is on the same network.
* Increment backups of every change, every few hours like Time Machine does.
* Access backups easily by date. Time Machine was great at this, so is there also an easy UI where if I loose a file, I can not only go back a few days to restore it, but I could if I wanted, go back a few months easily and restore an even older version?
* Back up my external HD that is directly connected to my iMac as well
* And, back up my MacBook Pro as well, which is connected via WiFi to the same Network.
No. There is not.

Patrick M. Wilson
Victoria, BC Canada
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ovbg
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by ovbg »

Thanks Patrick.

So, is there a 3rd party backup solution that I can use on my NAS which doesn't cost a lot of money, since nether Apple nor Qnap have one that fits my needs.

(Just out of interest, which points does any QNAP backup solution fail on from my list?)
ovbg
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by ovbg »

Ok everyone. Accepting that it can't do everything that I would like from the list below. What is the best alternative to Time Machine to back up my Mac? I don't mind if it costs a little bit, but my budget isn't terribly high.

* Make a full backup of everything from my iMac which is on the same network.
* Increment backups of every change, every few hours like Time Machine does. (Or at least once a day)
* Access backups easily by date. Time Machine was great at this, so is there also an easy UI where if I loose a file, I can not only go back a few days to restore it, but I could if I wanted, go back a few months easily and restore an even older version?
* Back up my external HD that is directly connected to my iMac as well
P3R
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by P3R »

ovbg wrote:What is the best alternative to Time Machine to back up my Mac?
Your question can only be answered by people with experience and and interest in the Mac platform. I don't fit that description.

Unfortunately the Mac-owners that show up here seem to not be very helpful. In other threads I've asked Apple-users to chime in with Mac-specific knowledge but most that come here seem to be here only to request help or complain and very rarely do they bring any knowledge back to the community... :roll:

I think you should try your question for a great third party backup application for Macs (supporting a general SMB or AFP file server as a backup destination) in a forum dedicated to the Mac platform. Hopefully you'll get more assistance there.
RAID have never ever been a replacement for backups. Without backups on a different system (preferably placed at another site), you will eventually lose data!

A non-RAID configuration (including RAID 0, which isn't really RAID) with a backup on a separate media protects your data far better than any RAID-volume without backup.

All data storage consists of both the primary storage and the backups. It's your money and your data, spend the storage budget wisely or pay with your data!
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Trexx
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by Trexx »

While I am a MAC user, I have had relatively stable results with TimeMachine usage in QNAP, so I haven't investigated other options.

How is your MAC connecting to your QNAP .. via WiFi or Ethernet? Network stability will have a big impact on how stable things are. Occasionally I have a backup fail, but usually either a reboot of the MAC or worst case the QNAP seems to resolve the issues. You don't provide any information regarding you QNAP QTS versions, iMac OS version, etc. so troubleshooting your stability issues is challenging.

Have you tried opening a support ticket up with QNAP on the issue?

While the 3rd party backup to NAS part is relatively easy (CrashPlan, etc.), getting the TimeMachine type functions (revisioning, UI, etc.) is going to more challenging.
Paul

Model: TS-877-1600 FW: 4.5.3.x
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Data (HDD): [RAID-5] 6 x 3TB HGST DeskStar
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Ext. (HDD): TR-004 [Raid-5] 4 x 4TB HGST Ultastor
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 64GB DDR4-2666
UPS: CP AVR1350

Model:TVS-673 32GB & TS-228a Offline[/color]
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ovbg
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by ovbg »

Hi Trexx, thanks for replying.

My computer is connected via Ethernet to the QNAP.

I got the following dreaded error message (it looks so Innocent, but it really means all of my backups going back a year are now gone!)
Time Machine completed a verification of your backups on “EOD-NAS(TimeMachine)”. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

I've tried rebooting everything, but that doesn't help. It just won't back up.

to answer your other questions, the iMac is running the latest OS, and fully up to date.
QNAP is TS-453, running V4.1.4.
ovbg
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by ovbg »

Is it possible to just start a new Time Machine backup on the QNAP (maybe give it a different name), and this will keep the old backup that I can at least restore things from?
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Trexx
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by Trexx »

I believe the new backup will keep the same name as the old one (it uses the computer's name) and over-write your existing Time Machine backup. I guess my question would be... if you haven't had a need to restore a previous version of a file from the past year, are you really "losing" data by just creating a new time machine backup?

You could try googling about "repairing" a time machine backup file, and see if that maybe makes it happy enough to continue using the sparsebundle file that you currently have.
Paul

Model: TS-877-1600 FW: 4.5.3.x
QTS (SSD): [RAID-1] 2 x 1TB WD Blue m.2's
Data (HDD): [RAID-5] 6 x 3TB HGST DeskStar
VMs (SSD): [RAID-1] 2 x1TB SK Hynix Gold
Ext. (HDD): TR-004 [Raid-5] 4 x 4TB HGST Ultastor
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 64GB DDR4-2666
UPS: CP AVR1350

Model:TVS-673 32GB & TS-228a Offline[/color]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018 Plex NAS Compatibility Guide | QNAP Plex FAQ | Moogle's QNAP Faq
farba000
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by farba000 »

ovbg wrote:Is it possible to just start a new Time Machine backup on the QNAP (maybe give it a different name), and this will keep the old backup that I can at least restore things from?

Yes it is possible but You must have some terminal skills :)
And you don't need TimeMachine server from qnap to make backup mac, really :)
You need make share folder with quora user ( eg. 60 GB like me ) and choise it in TimeMachine disk location on Mac.
It's simple :)


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ovbg
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by ovbg »

Thanks guys,

The thing is, I sometimes find I do need to find things from an old backup. It is also peace of mind - the reason I do a backup like this in the first place.

If it is too difficult, I will just start from scratch again, but it really is a bit of a shame if I have to do that.

So, I've used terminal before, but I would need a bit of a guide on what to do.
farba000
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by farba000 »

You must find timemachine file on qnap machine and manually recover important file - how do it you find on Apple forum: find "recover file from sparsebundle TM file" topic.
On qnap this file should be on /share/M0_DATA/.timemachine.


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southpaw
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Re: QNap alternative to Time Machine

Post by southpaw »

Hello all, I've been using a product call 'Chronosync' for years as a great TimeMachine alternative. Currently I'm backing up to a combination of DASD and other NAS solutions but will be transitioning everything to a TS-251 shortly.
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