Hostname issue: How can I configure Time Machine to work remotely?

[BlackRockCity]

When I'm on the same LAN as my truenas core server, I can backup with Time Machine without problems. Time Machine client looks for truenas.local and proceeds to backup automatically. But when I'm remote and connect into the LAN via VPN, the Time Machine sparsebundle doesn't mount automatically. This seems like a DNS issue?

Here is the problem: When I am remote via VPN and I mount the Time Machine sparsebundle manually at the IP address of my remote Truenas server, the Time Machine volume image mounts but Time Machine client on my Mac won't backup to it because it complains that its looking for the hostname Truenas local. But the volume is not mounted as truenas.local it is mounted it as an IP address smb://IPaddress of my truenas-time machine server. Time Machine client shows that the disk is at truenas local in the System Preferences>Time Machine.

FYI I'm running pfSense on my LAN, if the issue has to do with router settings.

 

[sretalla]

create yourself a hosts entry for truenas.local... connect the mount by name when on VPN. Does that make the problem go away?

Maybe consider which DNS is used when you're on the VPN... is it the Internet DNS provided by the location where you are? in which case you may get success by specifying that when on the VPN, you need to use your pfSense IP as the DNS.

 

[BlackRockCity]

Thanks, I added the host name truenas.local to etc/hosts. That may or may not have corrected the error that said "try again when the disk XYZ is available".

But the next step was to go into Time Machine preferences and select 'add or remove backup disk', press the "use encrypted disk" button at the warning dialog. Then I got an OS error with a four digit code. Then I repeated this 'add disk' step and it worked on the second attempt. Then I right-clicked on the disk and chose "backup now" and it took about 3-4 hours to prepare for backup... and now its backing up at a rate that it will be finished in two weeks. But it IS backing up. Most likely due to my old operating system and old inefficient Time Machine code.

It seems like automatic backup still may not work due to the mDNS issue as mentioned in this article that others may find helpful. I haven't tried the solution yet:

How Do I Use Time Machine Through a VPN Connection? - SparkLabs

www.sparklabs.com