Mac OSX Time Machine drives on FreeNAS Server, Part 1

This is just a background of my experience, skip to Part 2 if you have FreeNAS already setup somewhere.

Here's my dilemma: i have two Mac Book Pro laptops, each with a separate external 200GB hard drive for backups through the Apple Time Machine application. If you haven't used this software and don't know what it's about, check this page out. i will give Apple props for this application, amazing incremental backup that can be setup for a specific time between backups. The application automagically takes care of everything and when i say that, i mean EVERYTHING! Pruning old incremental backups to make room for new backups, graphically allowing the user to go "back in time" to an early "snapshot" of any folder or file on the machine allowing them to bring it "to the present" through a luscious graphical interface.

The issue is that i don't want to be strapped to these external hard drives and have to plug in every so many days to perform a backup. This requirement kind of takes the "autonomous" out of the autonomous backup process. So i went looking at Apple's Time Capsules. They are self-contained 1TB or 2TB (at the time of this writing) backup drives that have an ethernet and/or wireless interface so that a Mac will automagically backup whenever the drive is in range, and it is time to perform a backup. However, the issue is....the Price. For the two MBP that i have, where i'd want the 2TB drive each, i'd spend well over $1000 *just* on backup drives!!!

Another option: build my own NAS server, install the Bonjour and/or AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) and purchase generic 2TB external drives that this NAS server provides access to the MBP. Here's the specs for the NAS Server i am building, plus links to Newegg.

1. Foxconn Barebone Mini Tower
• Atom D425, 1.8GHz
• Up to 2GB DDR2 800/667
• x1 SATA 3Gbps port (internal)
2. 1GB DDR2 667 SODIMM RAM
3. 250GB Seagate 3.0Gbps SATA Drive
4. x2 2TB External Western Digital Elements Drive(s)

Total cost, around $375 for the entire system.

i also had done lots of reading beforehand, that several other MBP users had used FreeNAS as the required services and packages for interfacing with OSX, are already installed. If you follow the above list of hardware path, you will need to use an external CD/DVD drive to install FreeNAS (it will easily fit on a single CD) or try and play around with UNetbootin, another open source software app that one can image an ISO onto a thumbdrive.

i installed FreeNAS on the mini tower and proceeded to stumble through several "tutorials" about how to setup FreeNAS and the external HDD to link with the MBPs. However, none that i could find have specific enough steps on how to do this, for the first time user.

Stay tuned, as i will document these *exhaustive* steps in Part 2.