Using a Raspberry Pi as a Time Machine

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beard666

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#197897 16-Jun-2016 23:00

Hey Guys

I'm planning on following this tutorial during the weekend to build a $100 Time Machine wannabe based on the Raspberry Pi 3.

I had never heard of Netatalk and I must confess I've been away from Linux for quite some time now.

Has anyone done anything similar? If so, how reliable is the thing? This is my main concern.

Any tips will be much appreciated.

I'll do my best to share some photos of the process. :)

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/dev/null
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#1575419 16-Jun-2016 23:24

The Raspberry Pi will make a pretty crappy time machine, hardly any room to even support a human being.

On a more serious note it'll be slow - I wouldn't recommend it personally only due to the fact a backup will take forever, also in my experience the Linux counterparts for time machine are pretty unreliable.

timmmay

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#1575456 17-Jun-2016 07:29

A R.Pi3 isn't a slow computer. Sure it's not an i7, but it should do basic stuff just fine. It's more about I/O, I think. Interesting experiment anyway.

frankv

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#1575468 17-Jun-2016 08:21

beard666:

I'm planning on following this tutorial during the weekend to build a $100 Time Machine wannabe based on the Raspberry Pi 3.

Ummm... what tutorial? What's a "$100 Time Machine"?

Presumably you don't start with a De Lorean.

beard666

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#1575542 17-Jun-2016 10:29

Tutorial should be linked in my first message. Here it go

https://raymii.org/s/articles/Build_a_35_dollar_Time_Capsule_-_Raspberry_Pi_Time_Machine.html

A $100 Time Machine is what the Raspberry Pi 3 will cost (board, case, heatsinks and power supply). Ofc I'm not considering HDs.

timmmay

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#1575547 17-Jun-2016 10:34

You could just use CrashPlan, it does versions.

beard666

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#1575550 17-Jun-2016 10:45

As you said yourself, timmmay: An interesting experiment.

timmmay

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#1575630 17-Jun-2016 11:27

Let me know how you get on. I have a Pi.v1 lying around that I was going to turn into a VPN proxy but I lost interest part way through. The v1 is pretty slow, though it runs Kodi ok.

frankv

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#1575634 17-Jun-2016 11:33

This will be more I/O-bound than CPU-bound... i.e. it depends on the speed of the network; 10/100 for the built-in Ethernet connector. From http://www.jeffgeerling.com/blogs/jeff-geerling/getting-gigabit-networking, note that the Pi2 and B+ saturate the Ethernet connection at about 95Mb/sec, the same as the Pi3.

http://www.jeffgeerling.com/blogs/jeff-geerling/raspberry-pi-microsd-card says SD cards are limited to about 34MB/sec. Probably 20MB/sec is more typical for SD cards or USB sticks. http://www.mikronauts.com/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-2-usb-hard-drive-and-adapter-tests/ says about the same for HDD and SSD for a Pi2. Maybe you would get more from a Pi3, but you'll also need a Gigabit Ethernet adapter to get that performance (about 200Mbps).

If the encryption is done by the Pi rather than the Mac, and is sufficiently complex, you might get better performance from a Pi3.

michaelmurfy

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#1575843 17-Jun-2016 16:06

timmmay:

A R.Pi3 isn't a slow computer. Sure it's not an i7, but it should do basic stuff just fine. It's more about I/O, I think. Interesting experiment anyway.

I use one as my DNS server - it is fine for that, however have played around with the Linux counterparts for Time Machine and have found it to be quite unreliable. But agreed it is not a slow computer, but it isn't fast either.

malpasolan

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#1575961 17-Jun-2016 18:16

RPi's networking isn't all that fast but I find they make a pretty good cheap media center setup using Kodi.

hio77

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#1575967 17-Jun-2016 18:30

malpasolan:

RPi's networking isn't all that fast but I find they make a pretty good cheap media center setup using Kodi.

throw raw bluray sources at them and they struggle a tad.

im looking at picking up the slightly more powerful odriod to use for kodi.

Mine runs as a gateway device for my less powerful ESP8266 chips to aggregate the data in nice formats

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

malpasolan

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#1576029 17-Jun-2016 21:24

My RPi is a Model B v1 but is quite happy playing 720 and 1080 movies off my Debian NAS via Samba.

lxsw20

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#1576033 17-Jun-2016 21:30

IIRC the main issue is that Ethernet and USB share the same USB BUS, so for things like a NAS where you're utilizing USB and Ethernet, it will be slow.

richms

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#1576037 17-Jun-2016 21:36

malpasolan:

My RPi is a Model B v1 but is quite happy playing 720 and 1080 movies off my Debian NAS via Samba.

I found that my rpi 2 was not able to play an actual bluray rip properly over ethernet. It was actually slightly better over an AC wifi stick, but still was not able to keep up and seeking was dog slow.

For less than the total cost of a raspi and sd card, wireless mouse/keyboard, case, power supply you can get an android based settop box with kodi already installed on it with a remote and power brick etc. Sure, not a nice fast 4k supporting one, but it plays stuff a hell of a lot better than the pi does.

Richard rich.ms

malpasolan

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#1576038 17-Jun-2016 21:38

Yeah, if you use USB then your network throughput will suffer.

I did try it as a NAS for a bit of a laugh using 2x 16GB thumb drives in RAID 1 format. Needless to say it didn't last long.

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