Setting up Time machine on a NAS

I wanted to use my little NAS as a TimeCapsule, because Time Machine on Mac does look very impressive. My NAS has a Debian 6 install base and my Mac has Lion on it.

So I started out browsing to find some ideas on how to approach this.

The best howto document I found is this one: http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/

I first tried to connect to the NAS over CIFS (Samba), but that didn't work. You get a report of Time machine that there is no support for AFP (Apple Filing Protocol). For this to work you need to install the Netatalk package. In Debian 6 there is however only a Netatalk 2.1.x package. Seems like you need a 2.2 verion because this one supports more SSL features which are needed by OS X Lion.

After doing some more digging I found some usable configuration on the following site: http://routerjockey.com/2009/08/28/setting-up-apple-filing-protocol-and-bonjour-under-debian/
This site proposes to build Netatalk 2.2.x from source. I'm however not a fan of that since I need to install plenty of stuff for that (gcc + loads of dev packages). I consider my NAS box to be a server, not a development machine. I did however find a backport of Netatalk 2.2 here: http://www.mikepalmer.net/build-a-netatalk-time-machine-for-osx-lion-using-debian-6-0-squeeze/

Once you install and get Netatalk running you will get an error with OS X Lion stating that the version is not supported. This site tells the following: http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/

For all of you that have OSX lion installed and get a error message about wrong server version.
Add uams_dhx2.so to your config line in the file:
/etc/netatalk/afpd.conf
And the correct line should be:
- -transall -uamlist uams_randnum.so,uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so -nosavepassword -advertise_ssh

Before you connect to the AFP share make sure to run the following command on your mac:

$ defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

If you do not do this, you can only connect to an official Time Capsule.

A good advice is to also install Avahi. This will make sure that your NAS shares are autodiscovered. Howto do this is also in the very first link (kremalicious.com).

HP Proliant Microserver case fan

For starters: I found a great review on silent PC review for the Microserver. It gets some pretty good reviews: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1193-page1.html

There is however something small that annoys me: the fan in this case keeps on running at minimum 1000 RPM. This is strange since the CPU is passive cooled. Also the temperature stays around 30°C, which is very low. Wondering if I could get it down. I mean if the disc is not spinning and the CPU is passive cooled, why is it running?

But seems like I won't be able to do it from software since the sensor is not under software control. It is mentioned on this forum: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=60236
But I'm still waiting for final confirmation of that from HP. This guy asked the same question I wanted to, see if it gets a response: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-HP-Consumer-Products-and/HP-ProLiant-Microserver-N40L-fancontrol-with-Debian-6/td-p/1228957

Another option is to go hardware :-)
The following article talks about installing another fan. But I guess I'm not that desperate yet.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1193-page7.html