Do I need two separate Datasets for Time Machine and 2 x Macs

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi;

I have 2 x Macs, a couple of PC's and an Apple TV amongst other things.
I have just successfully set up a dataset for Time Machine and have backed up one of my Macs.

I don't think I created the dataset at the correct level as it is visible from my CIFS share / dataset that holds all my other data (I think I need to re-organize anyway to separate my Videos / Music etc onto separate datasets for each)?

FYI I have the following datasets:

/mnt/FreeNAS
/mnt/FreeNAS/NAS_Storage
/mnt/FreeNAS/NAS_Storage/Time_Machine_Macbook

I have the following shares:

AFP - Share Name is - TM_Backup_Mackbook, path is - /mnt/FreeNAS/NAS_Storage/Time_Machine_Macbook, Allow List is - TM_Backup1

CIFS - Share name is - FreeNAS, path is /mnt/FreeNAS/NAS_Storage, Check Boxes are - Browsable to Network Clients, Inherit Permissions, Allow Guest Access.

I have one user setup with the Home Directory /mnt/FreeNAS/NAS_Storage and one user with the Home Directory /mnt/FreeNAS/NAS_Storage/Time_Machine_Macbook

Questions:

1. Do I need a separate dataset for each Time Machine Backcup for each Mac?
2. Do I need a separate user for each Time Machine Dataset or can I use one for both?
3. The dataset that I created for the Time Machine Backup is visible in the CIFS share that I already had, is it because I created it as a subset of /mnt/FreeNAS/NAS_Storage and should I create a new one / two as a subset of /mnt/FreeNAS

Thanks in advance

 

[JonnyAlpha]

Forgot to mention that I have set my AFP settings as follows:

Server Name: FreeNAS_AFP
Guest Access: Not Checked
Guest Account: TM_Backup1 (The name of the second user) I guess I did not need to specify this as Guest Access is Not Checked???

 

[dlavigne]

1. Do I need a separate dataset for each Time Machine Backcup for each Mac?
2. Do I need a separate user for each Time Machine Dataset or can I use one for both?
3. The dataset that I created for the Time Machine Backup is visible in the CIFS share that I already had, is it because I created it as a subset of /mnt/FreeNAS/NAS_Storage and should I create a new one / two as a subset of /mnt/FreeNAS

Yes is the recommended answer for all three questions.

 

[JonnyAlpha]

Yes is the recommended answer for all three questions.

Thanks for the reply, looks like I'm starting understand, just need the confirmation

 

[trey22]

This has me confused. Just for clarification, if you setup a volume and share the entire volume as CIFS, then create a AFP dataset inside that volume... that is not the proper setup?

Currently, I have:

Initially, all I had was /mnt/media shared as CIFS, then I decided to backup my wife's new iMac via TimeMachine. So I created a AFP dataset on media (/mnt/media/timemachine), then created a AFP share. It's been working, but I rather re-do the entire setup (creating datasets for my media CIFS and TM AFP) and follow best practices (I started off as a noobie w/ non-ECC RAM, no UPS, no ZFS setup... all since been corrected) and avoid any potential issues.

Ignore the JAILS dataset stuff, I've since uninstalled/deleted phpVirtualBox (still tinkering!).

 

[dlavigne]

Yes, it is better to create datasets off of the pool, and to separate which datasets are used for CIFS and which for AFP. Also, you can use TimeMachine over CIFS, it does not have to be AFP.

 

[JonnyAlpha]

I'll check tonight but following the advice I received in this thread I setup two extra datasets, one for each Mac. I have then shared them using AFP however I am now on Mavericks on my Macbook Pro and it does not automatically recognise the Share so I have to use the 'Connect To Server' option in the Go Menu in Finder :-(

 

[JaimieV]

Jonny, did you tick the box labelled "Time Machine" in the AFP share config panel? That makes the share advertise itself to the Time Machine prefs panel (and also to the Migration Assistant so you can get to the TM after doing a reinstall on a new disk or whatever).

(There used to be a bug - squashed now, I believe - where having more than one share advertised as a TM destination didn't work well)

Unlike the other advice, I run my four Macs into one TM share. It doesn't give me any trouble - they handle the "running out of disk space" perfectly. One share is how Apple's own Time Capsule's work.

 

[fracai]

I personally dislike the single share method as it allows one device to impact the available storage of the others. You could get into a situation where one backup hogs all the space.

 

[JaimieV]

Yes, it's horses for courses. Works well for us. I was just offering up a different viewpoint since it was all a bit monoculture!

 

[bbox]

As the topic is still relevant, didn't want to create a new thread.

My situation is likely the same + 2 more Macs.

@dlavigne stated – the recommended answer is yes, every TM requires separate dataset. But @JaimieV brought some play into this "monoculture", by offering to use one share (one path to one dataset, I guess) on 4 Mac computers.

Moreover, I've read an article, offering 'separate share to every user' approach, since setting up per-user quotas is available via LUI.

Now, I've ended up with situation, where I have one TM dataset and four shares for separate users, which seems to work fine, but there is one undesirable peculiarity – everyone in their personal share can see each others backup file archive (.sparsebundle), even though it is not accessible, since in every share permissions are set only for the owner.

I wonder why would that happen? And how should I proceed, if I want to create individual share for every home user/ their Time Machine back-ups?

 

[bbox]

Jonny, did you tick the box labelled "Time Machine" in the AFP share config panel? That makes the share advertise itself to the Time Machine prefs panel (and also to the Migration Assistant so you can get to the TM after doing a reinstall on a new disk or whatever).

(There used to be a bug - squashed now, I believe - where having more than one share advertised as a TM destination didn't work well)

Unlike the other advice, I run my four Macs into one TM share. It doesn't give me any trouble - they handle the "running out of disk space" perfectly. One share is how Apple's own Time Capsule's work.

Hey, @JaimieV. Let me check if I understood You right.

Did You create one dataset and one share for all of Your macs?
How did You add multiple users to the share?
How did You set permissions? Everyone must be able to see each other backups, mustn't they?