Author Topic: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine  (Read 22508 times)

jerzakie

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 6
How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« on: January 10, 2009, 09:06:09 AM »
   

Here's how to make this work. It's a pretty simple process. I pieced this together from posts on this forum. This is working (and has been for a week) on two Mac notebooks (but it will work for any mac with Time Machine).

 

http://www.jerzakie.com/post/Using-Time-Machine-with-a-Buffalo-LinkStation-(CHCL-Series).aspx

(link doesn't work, Paul posted the article below) 

 

Let me know if you have success.

 

-Mike

Message Edited by jerzakie on 06-25-2009 06:44 PM
Message Edited by jerzakie on 06-25-2009 06:45 PM

Paul

  • Big Bull
  • *****
  • Posts: 1223
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2009, 09:06:23 AM »
Things You Will Need (and need to do):
  1. A Buffalo LinkStation that natively supports Time Machine (CL/CH series)
  2. A Mac (or two) with OSX 10.5.6 or higher
  3. A lot of time for your computer to sit.
  4. SHUT TIME MACHINE OFF ON YOUR MAC
  5. Delete the share you created on your NAS 5 hours ago that you haven’t gotten to successfully work yet.
  6. Go into the Time Machine tab in the NAS and disable it.

Creating your image file

Because you aren’t using an actual Apple Time Capsule you will have to do a couple of things yourself. Not hard..
You need to create a disk image to backup to. Weird, I know, but it’s how Time Machine works.

Open Terminal on the Mac (go to Spotlight and type Terminal… there it is). Type the following line

ifconfig | grep ether

You will get 1-2 lines, the first or only line is the MAC address ofthe WIRED Ethernet port. Regardless of which you will use to backup(wired or wireless) Time Machine needs the MAC of the WIRED port.

Copy that to TextEdit or something.. or write it down.

Now, go into System Preferences > Sharing
In the box at the top you see your computer’s name, below it is thename you will need to use for TM (Time Machine). If it’s complicatedand stupid, click EDIT and change it to something easier. I used“MikesMBP” it will automatically add .local on it, that’s fine, let itbe.

Now.. here’s where we create the image (sparsebundle).
Open your new friend Terminal again. Type the following…

hdiutil create -size [SIZE IN GIGS]g -fs HFS+J -volname"[VOLUME NAME]" /[COMPUTER NAME]_[MAC ADDRESS WITH NOCOLONS].sparsebundle

WTF?!

Ok…
  • SIZE IN GIGS : You can set a max size for the bundle, I used 200 that seemed like plenty.
  • VOLUME NAME : Anything you want, I used “Mikes Backup” very creative, I know.
  • COMPUTER NAME: This is the name from above (the one below the box that you may haveedited) don’t add the .local so just “MikesMBP” in my case
  • MAC ADDRESS WITH NO COLONS :Ok, that crazy crap you copied to Text Edit, it’s that… when you removethe colons it should look like 00b443e684f2 or something… so.. the lineabove, when you are done should look something like this…

hdiutil create -size 200g -fs HFS+J -volname "Backup of Mikes Computer" /MikesMBP_0019e5582bd1.sparsebundle


After you hit enter it will sit for a minute then say that the file is created … TADA!

Setting up the NAS

Very little actually needs to be done on the NAS, thankfully.

First, make sure that your NAS will work with the Mac. Click on SharedFolders > Service Setup and make sure that Apple Talk is on.

Open the NAS admin, go to Shared Folders. Create a new folder called“TimeMachine” or something , it doesn’t matter. Make sure that theshare is accessibly via Apple Talk. Save your changes… da da da.

Go back to your Mac. In Finder go to Network, browse to the NAS, youwill see the folder you just created. Open it and copy in thesparsebundle file you created above. DELETE THE SPARSEBUNDLE FROM YOUR MAC WHEN IT’S DONE COPYING.

** NOTE ** I have two Macs, to use both in TM, just create asparsebundle unique to each machine and upload them to the folder. Dothis for BOTH machines before moving to the next step.

Back to the NAS web interface…

Click on the Time Machine tab in the NAS. Click the Enable option andselect the folder you created a minute ago. Hit apply .. tada.. donewith the NAS.

Wait about 2-3 minutes before moving on. This may be a good time to get something to drink.

Getting Time Machine Working


Ok… open Time Machine on the Mac, turn it on.. it will ask you where tobackup to, it should find the TM share on the NAS by itself. Once itdoes, just let ‘er rip. It will be “preparing” for a long time, minewere 10-20 minutes (on a wireless connection).

The backups will start, and it’s on like Donkey Kong.
The backups on wireless are slow, but after the initial sync they are incremental and shouldn’t take so long.

Goggleboy

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2009, 05:00:03 PM »
   

Hi,

 

Thanks for taking the time to post this fix.

I am a first time Mac and Buffalo owner.

I have just tried to get this to work with my LS-CHL with no luck.

Time Machine just does not pick up the new Backup folder on the NAS Drive.

 

I followed your directions to the word :( 

 

Loving the MAC big time but the Buffalo drive is getting on my t*ts.

 

I will keep on looking for a fix before I pay the huge amout of money apple want for thier NAS drive.

 

Cheers,

          Doug


STUSTOCK

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2009, 06:21:20 PM »
   

This worked great....to start with.  i left it running over night and in the omring I found the backup had failed (I left it at 3%) and now I can't see the Timemachine folder (which I created to store the backups) even though i can see them on the Buffalo setup program (acces through my browser.  I do notice the ip address of the server has changed - would this affect it?

 


jerzakie

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 6
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2009, 08:59:19 PM »
   

Paul: Thank you, I should ahve probably done that in the first place.

 

Goggle..: That sounds like a NAS issue. Please go back to the NAS and verify that you turned Time Machine back on, that you have AppleTalk enabled on the NAS itself and on the TimeMachine share that you created. When those are both done, you should be able to go into Finder, go to GO (at the top in the toolbar) and you should see the NAS itself and another network share for your Time Machine share (In my case, I have one icon, looks like a blue monitor says LS-CLF19, that is the NAS, the other icon looks like a Time Capsule, or a mac mini or something and says LS-CLF19-TimeMachine). if TM and AppleTalk aren't on on the NAS then TM on the Mac won't recognize the NAS as a TM compatible device.

 

Stustock: Restart your backup and make sure that in System Preferences you don't have the computer going to sleep. Make sure you get one good backup. I use notebooks and will often have a bad backup becuase the notebook went into sleep mode. You can click on the TM  icon near the clock in your OSX tool bar and select "Back Up Now" that shoudl get things back on track. If that fails or is reporting errors you can delete the files on the NAS and start over, but I doubt you will have to. 

 

** Also, important to note that if you've messed with the default permission to the NAS, or you have put custom permissions on the Time Machine share it makes things a bit more complicated, I am connecting as guest on this. If you HAVE to use permissions, it's best to make the usernames and password on your Mac and your NAS the same, you can tell Time Machine to use a different username and password to connect to the share. I didn't put any time into making that work, but I didn't not have success with it when I tried ** 

Message Edited by jerzakie on 01-18-2009 09:22 PM

STUSTOCK

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2009, 07:07:13 AM »
   Thanks both Paul and jerzakie.  I have tried to restart the backup but now can't see the folder i created on the NAS for the TM backup files (I also called it "TimeMachine").  I checked and the NAS and TM are still set up as per instructions.  Interestingly I no longer have the 2nd icon in Finder you describe (the TM one) nor can I see the "TimeMachine" folder when I open the 1st Network share (only share, info and another folder I'd created).  I'll try redoing the whole thing but would like to know what's gone wrong & where the "TimeMachine" folder has gone.  If that would remount then I would have thought the backup would start again! but I cant even see it let alone remount it. 

STUSTOCK

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2009, 07:14:45 AM »
   Sorry forgot to mention as well that I had made sure it wouldn't go to sleep.  do you think this has got anything to do with the IP address and whether fixing the IP address (presumably you have to do this on both the Router and the NAS) rather than having it automatically aquired by DHCP would affect anything.

jerzakie

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 6
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2009, 08:19:51 AM »
   

STU:

As far as I know the IP *shouldn't* matter, as long as you can browse to the NAS. I have my NAS set with a static IP (doesn't change).

 

If you can't see the TM share anymore that is an issue. you may want to set the IP on the NAS, reboot the Mac after that is done and browse the the NAS, see if that helps. During my initial setup I had to reboot a few times becuase the Mac would not forget the original path to the NAS and it was inaccessible. I am sure there is a command from the command prompt to fix this, but I didn't know it, so I rebooted.

 

If that fails, backup your sparesbundle file nuke your TM share on the NAS and redo the NAS portion of the instructions.


STUSTOCK

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2009, 08:29:35 AM »
   

Thanks - will try resetting NAS with a fixed IP.  

 

Yes I also had problems with macbook not forgetting original path and have consequently rebooted a couple more time since failed backup to see if i can get the TM share back to no avail.

 

Problem with "backing up sparsebundle" is that I can't see the TM share so can't copy the files out of it before nuking it and starting again!

 

As I said if I can get the TM share back I think my problems would be solved!! 


Goggleboy

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2009, 02:10:01 PM »
   

Hi Jerzakie,

 

Thanks for the feedback.

Late last night I changed how I connect to the NAS. The Buffalo set-up guide suggests smb but I switched to afp and it works! Although when going to the GO drop down in the finder I don't see the NAS or the Time capsule... but hey it works.

 

Cheers for the help.


STUSTOCK

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2009, 04:57:58 AM »
   

Rebooted the NAS last night and that seemed to do the trick though is running painfully slow.  Is backing up 212GB of data and after 12 hours is 40% through!  Surely should not be that slow!? In hindsight what I should have done is an ethernet connection for the initial backup and then do the incremental ones wireless but hey-ho!

 

Thanks for your help jerzakie and paul.   


wtmonroe

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 1
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #11 on: May 31, 2009, 09:38:34 AM »
   

Paul,

 

Thanks for the tutorial!  I followed your instructions to the letter and now have two Macbooks using Time Machine to backup to my LS-CHL.

 

I'd like to verify that the OSX DVD will recognize the TM backup.  What I've read so far indicates that the OSX DVD will recognize TM backups on NAS devces that are running AFP.  It appears that the LS-CHL supports this protocol.

 

Has anyone actually tried restoring after backing up using the method outlined here?

 

Will


pixelwrangler

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #12 on: June 25, 2009, 03:22:37 PM »
   
Hi Paul and Gang -

 

I followed your set-up and seemed to get everything initially to look as it should from the start, but I haven't been able to get any initial backup from the get-go. I keep getting the error "The backup disk image could not be created." While logged into my Shared drives in Finder, I can see during the backup during the "preparing" phase Time Machine mounting a sparsebundle right above the one I had placed on the drive, both with the same numbers, one the tmp and the other the local. As soon as the error warning comes up, the tmp file deletes and gives me the above message. It will try for about 2 minutes and fail.

Am I missing some on/off switch in my LS-CHL web setup page? I followed your setup to the letter as far as I know, which should have been included by Buffalo with their weak install instructions for TM, but I must be missing something. I can't tell if something is incorrect in my Shared Folders much less something else in the web management page in all of its settings.

I don't know if I should start from scratch and ditch what I have or hope for setting change I need to make since it starts creating a sparsebundle on the drive and then fails. Seems like I'm close to having it work.

If I try reselecting the drive as my backup, it asks to be logged into again and gives me the default "guest" or my name with password request. If I change that to "admin" and "password" it will eventually fail with the above error message while preparing my backup. If I choose guest, it gives me the error "Operation could not be completed. (OSStatus error -6602.)"

My sparsebundle folder consists of a bands folder, info.bckup, info.plist, and token.

If I really knew what question to ask, I could fill in the obvious info needed to see what's working in my setup and what isn't. It would have been nice if it had worked right out of the box like any Mac product without jumping through hoops as if I were on a PC with their inherent install obstacle courses.

I can fill in more info if asked the right questions to fill in any holes. Just frustrated right now. I'm glad you guys got yours working.  I see light at the end of the tunnel. Still looking for my Donkey Kong.

Thanks,
-Apostolos

jerzakie

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 6
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #13 on: June 25, 2009, 06:43:45 PM »
   

Pixel,

    When I was going through this initially and wrote the article I had to completely blow away the configuration and files (sparsebundles, shares, Time Machine configuration on the mac) before starting the process.

 

    It sounds like it's not using the sparsebundle that you created and is attempting to create another. Make sure you are using the MAC address of your WIRED (eth0) network interface and are spelling you machine name right when naming the sparsebundle.

 

Make sure you're starting fresh, check to make sure you're using the right MAC address. It's really picky :)

 

-Jerz 


jessekoury

  • Calf
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: How to get your LinkStation CH/CL to work with Time Machine
« Reply #14 on: June 26, 2009, 07:29:55 PM »
   i got everything working except for some reason it is saying the folder i created has a capacity of 200g (just like i specified when creating the sparsebundle) but in the time machine preferences it says only 4.8gb available.  this is the only thing stopping me now because when i backup it will work but there is just not enough space.  thanks for the help!!