backupmacmacosnassamba
I'd like to find an (semi-)automated way to backup my whole MacBook Pro system and data to a network attached storage. The external storage is a Windows share I can access using Samba.
I can't use Time Machine, because it asks for a Time Capsule device – or is there a way to use Time Machine without a Time Capsule?
Thanks!
Does your NAS have an rsync service set up? Some support it (e.g. ReadyNAS). If so, you can do something like this:
#!/bin/sh
DEST=xx.xx.xx.xx::backup/swilliams/
RSYNC_OPTS='-vaC --exclude ".DS_Store"'
/usr/bin/rsync $RSYNC_OPTS --exclude "build/" --exclude "dist/" --exclude "*.pyc" ~/code $DEST
/usr/bin/rsync $RSYNC_OPTS ~/Music $DEST
/usr/bin/rsync $RSYNC_OPTS ~/Pictures $DEST
/usr/bin/rsync $RSYNC_OPTS --exclude "Virtual Machines*" ~/Documents $DEST
You'll need to change DEST to the IP address of your NAS, and change paths and stuff to suit.
If you save that as, say, ~/bin/backup.sh (and be sure to do chmod a+x ~/bin/backup.sh) then you can run it nighly using cron. Run crontab -e and add this line:
0 0 * * * $HOME/bin/backup.sh > $HOME/logs/backup.log 2>&1
(0 0 * * * means: run at midnight every day, every month. First column is minutes, so 3am is 0 3 * * *. This will write logs in ~/logs so make sure that directory exists, or put them somewhere else)
If your NAS doesn't support rsync as a service then I think it should work if you change the start to this:
#!/bin/sh
mount_smbfs //user:password@xx.xx.xx.xx/backup /Volumes/backup
DEST=/Volumes/backup
and at the end:
umount /Volumes/backup
(if your share is open, you can leave off user and password)
If you want timestamped backups, you can experiment with the date command. e.g.
DATE=`date +%Y%m%d`
then access $DATE in your script.
If anything here isn't clear to you, just ask.
First of all it puzzles me a bit too that you say you cannot reach the web interface (HTTP) of the NAS via the browser.
But regarding SMB shares this might be related to some Windows 7 settings in combination to older SAMBA versions (don't know which version is run by your Qnap NAS).
First of all you should open the Network and Sharing Center of Windows 7. Then make sure your network is listed to be a "Home network" - and not a "Work network or "Public network".
If this is correctly set and it still does not work you might have to check your network policies. On Windows 7 Pro just launch Local Security Policy from your start menu and check the following values:
Local Policies -> Security Options -> Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communication (always)
Local Policies -> Security Options -> Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (if server agrees)
Local Policies -> Security Options -> Microsoft network client: Send unencrypted password to third-party SMB servers
Regarding the web interface. You said you can ping your NAS IP. What is the IP? Is it possible there is some IP conflict in your network? If no, then you might try telnet to test whether your NAS web-server answers:
telnet <NAS-IP> 80
Caution: The telnet client is not installed by default on Windows 7. So either install it or use alternative telnet clients like PuTTY.
To install the Windows 7 telnet client you might either do this via control panel/Programs or via elevated command line prompt:
pkgmgr /iu:"TelnetClient"
Before I did not have time for a research on the registry values. If you would like to enable plain text passwords sent to 3rd party SMB servers or change the other policies I was referring to you can of course do this on Windows 7 home too. But you need to edit registry values since the security policy editor is not available in home premium or basic version of Windows 7 (according to my knowledge).
So here are the values which I've described above. Just copy the contents of this file to a *.reg file (e.g. call it SMB-security.reg and then import it with elevated permissions.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters]
; Microsoft network client: Send unencrypted password to third-party SMB servers
; If this option is enabled then passwords are sent in plain over the network
; Only disable if you're running a really really old SMB server (e.g. old NAS)
; which does not support encrypted passwords:
; Default Value:
"EnablePlainTextPassword"=dword:00000000
; Enable sending of unencrypted passwords over the network
; "EnablePlainTextPassword"=dword:00000001
; Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (if server agrees)
; This enables digitally signed communication between SMB/CIFS clients and
; servers if the server supports it. If the server does not support it, then
; unsigned communication might still be established.
; Default:
"EnableSecuritySignature"=dword:00000001
; Disable digitally signed communication (even if server would allow it)
; "EnableSecuritySignature"=dword:00000000
; Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communication (always)
; This enables the requirement for digitally signed communication between
; SMB/CFS clients and servers. If the server does not support digitally signed
; communication, then connection will fail in case this option is enabled.
; Default:
"RequireSecuritySignature"=dword:00000000
; Enable required signature - communication will fail if server does not support
; signed communication
; "RequireSecuritySignature"=dword:00000001
; Disable requirement for DNS name resolution:
; Setting this option to 0 might be required if you use Samba as a domain
; controller
; Default:
; "DNSNameResolutionRequired"=dword:00000001
; Disable requirement for DNS resolution for server communication
; "DNSNameResolutionRequired"=dword:00000000
Best Answer
You can 'force' Time Machine to backup to other mounted network shares. In Terminal, run the following:
This should then allow you to backup to your SMB, AFP and NFS network shares. If they do not initially show up in Time Machine, mount them and then re-check.