Monitoring Backups

Reviewing the Backup Sets of Client Macs

The list of all network backups currently stored by the Time Machine server can be reviewed any time. It will consider all sharing protocols and backup destinations. The table on the tab item Backups contains the following items:

• the computer name of the Mac in the network.
• the name of the owner of the backup. This is the complete name of the user account on the server the client has used to authenticate.
• Date and time when the last backup has been performed.
• the storage size of the complete backup set, i.e. all Time Machine snapshots the client has stored on the server at the moment.
• if technically possible, a small icon depicting the type of the client Mac.

The table can be sorted by each of the items in forward or backward order, after clicking on the headline of the respective column. In case you manage a high number of backups, you can filter entries by specifying parts of computer names in the field Search.

By clicking the button with the refresh icon, the table can be updated to get the latest data.

Determining the size of a backup set can be a laborious procedure. If it takes too long to compute the size (in most cases, 30 seconds per backup set are considered acceptable), the application will show the message Unknown instead of a byte value by default. You can press the refresh button later to retry the operation.

You can change this default behavior in the Settings window which can be opened via the menu item Backup Server Control > Settings… or by pressing the key combination ⌘ + ,. To allow an unlimited time for computing the contents of the table, click the radio button at List of Backup Sets: Always wait until size has been determined.

In older versions of macOS, Settings are called Preferences.

Erasing a Backup Set

When a Mac from your network has been decommissioned, you may like to remove its backup as well. This can be done easily:

1. Switch to the tab item Backups in the main window of Backup Server Control.
2. Choose the backup that should be deleted in the table.
3. Click the button – below the table or select the menu item Configuration > Remove Backup Set….
4. Confirm that the chosen backup can actually be deleted.

This step cannot be undone. The complete backup set of the selected client, i.e. all Time Machine snapshots of the chosen computer stored onto this server will be lost.

Inspecting a Backup Set

If you like, you can retrieve more details about each entry in the table. Double-click onto the respective line, or use the button with the pen icon below the table. You can also select the menu item Configuration > Inspect Backup Set.

A dialog sheet will be shown, listing the following items:

• computer name and type icon of the client, together with time and size of the last Time Machine snapshot,
• backup owner, i.e. the account on the server used to manage access permissions for the backup,
• storage location of the backup as Unix path,
• date and time of the last snapshot stored,
• date and time of the earliest snapshot still stored,
• total size of the backup set (all snapshots),
• security level, indicating whether the backup is stored in encrypted fashion,
• number of snapshots created in the last 7 days,
• client compatibility information.

The sheet can be closed by clicking the OK button. The button View Share Point can be used to open a Finder window that presents the storage location for the backup on the server.