Time Machine Server, Part 1
A few months ago, I installed a new Time Machine server at work. There were a bunch of users who were buying firewire drives and backing up their machines at their desks. We wanted to provide them with a way of using Time Machine, but to have their data backed up on a server. We had just purchased a new Xserve and Nexsan’s SATABeast Xi and put Time Machine server to the test.
SATABeast is a high capacity RAID storage system that can be filled with 42 1TB drives (for now we have 14) in a 4U design. This gives us plenty of room for right now, but will also allow us to grow over time. Another reason we went with the SATABeast Xi is Nexsan’s Automaid technology, which automatically reduces power consumptions and heat generation when the drives are idle. We’ve been trying to make a push for green storage and this feature really impressed us.
The installation of the Xserve and SATABeast was pretty simple and within a few hours we had our server racked and ready to be configured.
Coming Next: Configuration of OS X Server
