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We have a NAS (a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+) in our office with tons of free space that we'd like to connect to our Mac Mini Server, mount as a disk and then use as a Time Machine Backup Destination.

This way the clients back up to the Mac Mini, while the data is actually saved to the NAS behind the scenes.

Problem is that I can't figure out how to make Server.app show anything other than the two built in drives. This is what I see in Server.app

I've tried mounting a share from the NAS with both SMB and AFP (it shows up fine in Finder). Maybe there's a way to use a "local" destination and NFS that directory?

Or is this not even possible?

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  • Apple hasn't updated it's article on which drives work as server-based Time Machine destinations in ages, but your best bet is editing in the exact NAS you are using and see if the vendor supports this use either in conjunction with Lion Server or in place of Lion Server. Direct attach storage (DAS) is my choice for both reliability and performance reasons. – bmike♦ Mar 9 '12 at 16:24
  • Thanks for your suggestion @bmike, i've edited in NAS model now. – Robert Sköld Mar 10 '12 at 7:54
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To use the Time Machine Server function in Lion Server, you'll need to use a built in drive. As long as the NAS is able to be seen on your network, you should be able to use it as a Time Machine backup destination on each client Mac. While you won't be able to configure this for all machines at once in WorkGroup Manager, you should still be able to set up each client Mac to back up to the NAS.

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I believe the readynas comes with its own built in time machine software.

http://www.readynas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ReadyNAS_Comparison_Home.pdf

instructions can be found here but as I don't have a net gear (mines an LG) I haven't been able to test them.

http://www.readynas.com/?p=1097

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  • It does but it works really badly so I was hoping I could use the Time Machine Server on my Mac Mini Server with the NAS as extra storage. – Robert Sköld Apr 18 '12 at 8:20

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