VPN/AFP server for centralized TimeMachine backups

Posted by Keith Johnson on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Keith Johnson
Published on 2011-11-17T20:02:19Z Indexed on 2011/11/19 17:57 UTC
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time-machine

I am a sysadmin for a small group of about 7 people who prefer Apple machines for their work. These machines are currently either a) not backed up at all, or b) backed up using Retrospect(Which I'm not very fond of).

I don't really have the budget for anything fancy, and I'd like to keep it as user friendly as possible.

Ideally I am thinking of a VPN server they can connect to(to keep the traffic secure, and because they work from home frequently) along with an AFP server for use with TimeMachine. The goal would be to get better backup coverage, along with user-initiated restores and overall ease of use. Does this seem like a reasonable idea? Has anyone done this before? Are there any obvious problems I've overlooked?

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