Network Time Machine

Prerequisites
  • Macintosh Sierra (10.12) or newer
Drive size / currently used

Email help@physics.wisc.edu letting us know the total drive size and the amount used. “X GB free of Y GB” as displayed by About this Mac (howto). We’ll let you know when to proceed with the following steps.

Connect to the time machine server

Finder -> Connect to Server (Command-K)

Server Address:

smb://tardis.physics.wisc.edu/PhysicsDeptTimeCap

Select “Connect”

A window pops up:

“You are attempting to connect to the server tardis.physics.wisc.edu”

Choose “Connect”

Next window:

Enter your name and password for the server “tardis.physics.wisc.edu”

Connect As: Registered User

Name: (Physics Username)

Password: (Physics password)

Check the box “Remember this password in my keychain”

Choose “Connect”

Move keys around

Open “Keychain Access” (E.g. Command-Space, type “Keychain Access”)

Select the ‘login’ keychain, then search for “tardis.physics.wisc.edu”, then drag and drop it into ‘System’.  If prompted for a password, enter the password for logging in to your Macintosh. (The image below shows the key when it is in the login keychain, prior to dragging it into the System keychain.)

Close Keychain Access

 

Add network drive to Time Machine

Open System Preferences -> Time Machine

Select Backup Disk…

Choose PhysicsDeptTimeCap

A window pops up:
“You are attempting to connect to the server tardis.physics.wisc.edu”
Choose “Connect”

In the Time Machine preferences:
Check “Back Up Automatically”
(recommended) Check “Show Time Machine in menu bar”
Close Time Machine preferences.

Skip System Files and Applications

To conserve space on the server, please set Time Machine to Skip System Files and Applications. These are files which were installed with macOS and we can recover them from the installation media. In Time Machine preferences, click Options, then the plus sign, then open Finder and drag the directory named System into the Time Machine directory selection box and click Exclude. Do the same for Applications.

If you have any trouble, please send an email to help@physics.wisc.edu