I have TimeMachine on a Ubiquity NAS and it seems to be working fine for two machines.
Iāve got 2 Sequoia Macs doing TM network backups to an Intel Mini with an OWC ātoasterā holding 2 cheap internal drives. I rotate them for redundancy. Also do an offsite backup. Network TM works fine, although the restore browser is get-a-cuppa-coffee-while-it-loads slow. About once a week I get a ācouldnāt back upā alert. I ignore that, and within a few hours I notice that itās backing up again.
A few times (yearly-ish) Iāve had to un-configure the shared backup folder and re-log in from the client Macs.
Iāve never seen a Mac Mini (back to PowerPC) that required a dongle to run headless, but maybe some models do. If running headless, thereās a fdesetup command you can use to reboot a FileVault-enabled Mac. [ed: insert link
That reminds me, International Verify Your Backups Day is next month!
I went back and read this entire thread. I have never used Time Machine but have always been interested in a network backup until I look at the cost.
I am reevaluating my backup flow. I use Chronosync and have been very happy with it.
I have a 2T USB drive that I move from machine to machine to back up user data. (MyPassport)
I also have two older 4T drives (MyBook) that I was backing up entire machines on (one was a backup of the backup). They are both pretty full now, I think I got them in 2016. They also have copies of other backup drives I had over the years from the beginning of time (thankfully those are way smaller)
I have a separate Lightroom drive (4T) and have bought an identical drive to back that up on (plus Iāve copied them to one of the older 4Ts as another backup). In the meantime my LR library went corrupt so thatās on my list.
Oh and I also have one of toaster docks (recommended from here a few years ago). I just have two drives for it and one is a bootable backup for the laptop. They are small though and boy have they gone up in price!
I am thinking of getting a newer drive and putting the MyBooks in storage. But I struggle with the thought of a larger drive that could go bad and cause me to lose everything.
I believe CS will backup over the network but I havenāt tried it yet. If it works I may hang a drive or two off the 2014 Mini.
So if I have a question, this would be it. What kind of drive sizes do you use if youāre not using a RAID type of system?
And considering I now have multiple technologies, is there anything I need to watch out for? 2015 MBPr on Sierra, 2011 iMac on Sierra, M4 Mini on Sequoia. The 2T MyPassport that Iāve had for a few years works fine on the Mini.
Iāve started buying 6TB (3.5ā) drives, although Iām still getting along fine with mostly 4TB, backing up a 2TB work Mac and a 512MB home mac. I assume that any one drive may fail at any time, so rotation of multiple drives is important. Plus, it is preferable to run a second, completely separate other backup system. If your toaster has two slots, you can have two drives set to back up to and theyāll just alternate.
My backup host Mac has always been older than the client Macs. Sierra is a lot older than anything I have involving backup, so YMMV.
There are better backup experts around here than me, though!
You are right that it is not strictly required, but using a headless dongle can make an enormous difference in performance and available display resolutions. At US $5-15 per dongle, itās 100% worthwhile, especially for older, slower machines.