I have a friend that is receiving the message that her Mac won't be able to use the current TimeMachine disk. Would a networked Raskpberry Pi (acting as an NAS) running Samba 4.17 and an external drive with an ext4 format work for TimeMachine in future MacOS releases?
MacBook Pro (2021)
The terminology around this issue is very confusing. You need to read carefully to understand exactly what is being retired.
When you back up to a Server, you use a Server communication protocol to talk to the Server. Examples of Server communication Protocols are Apple File Protocol (AFP) and Server Message Block (SMB).
On the Backup drive, you use whatever disk format the Server uses for its native disk format. Using a Server launders out the actual format of the drive. the actual drive format is a "don't care"
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What is being retired is every version of Apple File Protocol (AFP), which should rightly be called Apple File [Server] Protocol. this is not to be confused with Hierarchical File System Extended (HFS+) MacOS Extended, or Apple File System (APFS). AFP is a server communication protocol, NOT A Disk Format.
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As long as you can create and maintain a sparse bundle disk image file, that is all that is required. Disk Formats of drives for MacOS and Linux and many others are just fine.
A space bundle disk image is like an entire filesystem inside one single extensible file on the Host.
SAMBA is an OpenSource implementation of Server Message Block protocol. Versions of SMB older than version 3 are also deprecated, so it is important to use a recent version if you use SAMBA, to implement at least version 3 of SMB.
The terminology around this issue is very confusing. You need to read carefully to understand exactly what is being retired.
When you back up to a Server, you use a Server communication protocol to talk to the Server. Examples of Server communication Protocols are Apple File Protocol (AFP) and Server Message Block (SMB).
On the Backup drive, you use whatever disk format the Server uses for its native disk format. Using a Server launders out the actual format of the drive. the actual drive format is a "don't care"
--------
What is being retired is every version of Apple File Protocol (AFP), which should rightly be called Apple File [Server] Protocol. this is not to be confused with Hierarchical File System Extended (HFS+) MacOS Extended, or Apple File System (APFS). AFP is a server communication protocol, NOT A Disk Format.
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As long as you can create and maintain a sparse bundle disk image file, that is all that is required. Disk Formats of drives for MacOS and Linux and many others are just fine.
A space bundle disk image is like an entire filesystem inside one single extensible file on the Host.
SAMBA is an OpenSource implementation of Server Message Block protocol. Versions of SMB older than version 3 are also deprecated, so it is important to use a recent version if you use SAMBA, to implement at least version 3 of SMB.
CheapSeats wrote:
I have a friend that is receiving the message that her Mac won't be able to use the current TimeMachine disk. Would a networked Raskpberry Pi (acting as an NAS) running Samba 4.17 and an external drive with an ext4 format work for TimeMachine in future MacOS releases?
Time Capsule (a now obsolete Router for Macs that included a backup disk) uses AFP, and that Server Protocol is what is being retired.
You can use MANY forms of Network-Attached Storage (NAS), Provided they can create and maintain and extensible file called a sparse bundle disk image file.
Another Macintosh computer running MacOS 10.13 or later can also be used as a Network Attached Storage device. All that needs to happen is to create shared backup destination folder(s) using Mac File Sharing.
A Linux device can be used as well. Any Disk format is acceptable, provided it can create and maintain an extensible sparse bundle disk image file.
Disk format for future TimeMachine backups
