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Configuring the Raspberry Pi as a TimeMachine Backup
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.. important:: This article is OUTDATED. Newer Samba distributions have incorporated the required functionality to act as a TimeMachine target disk. Netatalk is no longer required. I hope to update this page in the near future (Jan 2021)

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The Raspberry Pi and derivatives are attractive low-cost alternatives to Apple's pricey AirPort Time Capsule devices. Unfortunately, the version of Netatalk that ships with raspbian is 2.2.5-2 as of this writing. To get the full benefit of the current Netatalk feature set, it is necessary to upgrade to version 3.11. This page documents the steps I used to get Netatalk 3.1.11-1 up and running on a Rock64 single-board computer running DietPi, a stripped down version of raspbian. These steps should work on a Raspberry Pi 3, but the Rock64 offers USB3 for disk performance, and 1 Gbps Ethernet for network performance. The Rock64 is connected to a Gbps Ethernet switch serving my home network, and a USB 3 external drive bay housing a 3.5 inch 4 TB drive.

I am grateful to Daniel Lange and his excellent `page summarizing steps he used to get this running on Linux <https://daniel-lange.com/archives/102-Apple-Timemachine-backups-on-Debian-8-Jessie.html>`_ and Adrian Knoth for the work he put into the `Debian Netatalk packages <https://github.com/adiknoth>`_. I have added additional steps for getting things running under raspbian for Raspberry Pi and derivative systems.

#. Install the requisite development tools::

    apt-get install \
    build-essential \
    devscripts \
    debhelper \
    cdbs \
    autotools-dev \
    dh-buildinfo \
    libdb-dev \
    libwrap0-dev \
    libpam0g-dev \
    libcups2-dev \
    libkrb5-dev \
    libltdl3-dev \
    libgcrypt11-dev \
    libcrack2-dev \
    libavahi-client-dev \
    libldap2-dev \
    libacl1-dev \
    libevent-dev \
    d-shlibs \
    dh-systemd \
    fakeroot \
    licensecheck

#. Download the ``netatalk 3.1.11`` debian source code::

    git clone https://github.com/adiknoth/netatalk-debian

#. Navigate into the debian source directory::

    cd netatalk-debian

#. build the ``.deb`` installation packages::

    debuild -b -uc -us

#. Install the new ``.deb`` packages::

    dpkg -i libatalk18_3.1.11-1_arm64.deb netatalk_3.1.11-1_arm64.deb

#. Edit the netatalk configuration::

    nano /etc/netatalk/afp.conf

    Here's the configuration I used for a 2 TB network backup target::

        [TimeMachine for iMac]
        mimic model = TimeCapsule6,106
        path = /path/to/timemachine/
        time machine = yes
        vol size limit = 2000000

#. Restart the netatalk service::

    sudo systemctl restart netatalk

#. Verify the netatalk service is running::

    sudo systemctl status netatalk

Last edited on Aug 29, 2021. Last build on |today|.

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