An external drive on Ubuntu Server can be made accessible to other machines by mounting as a Samba share drive. In this case we add the drive as a TimeMachine accessible Samba share.

Summary

  1. echo -e "[my_pwd]\n[my_pwd]\n" | sudo smbpasswd -a [my_user] - Add Samba user
  2. sudo vim /etc/samba/smb.conf - Edit Samba configuration to add Timemachine readable share for external drive.
  3. service smbd restart - Restart Samba service.
  4. fw allow samba - Open Samba ports in firewall.
  5. ufw --force enable - Restart firewall.

Procedure

Add Samba user

Add the user owning /media/[drive] as a samba user.

echo -e "[my_pwd]\n[my_pwd]\n" | smbpasswd -a [my_user]

Add share to Samba conf

DRV_SIZE=1.8T
DRV_NAME=seagate1-${DRV_SIZE//./_}
cat >> /etc/samba/smb.conf <<'EEOF'

[${DRV_NAME}]
    comment = Backups (${DRV_NAME})
    path = /media/${DRV_NAME}
    valid users = [my_user]
    read only = no
    vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr
    fruit:time machine = yes
EEOF

Confirm samba configuration with:

tail /etc/samba/smb.conf

Now restart Samba daemon

service smbd restart

Update firewall

Open ports for Samba in firewall.

ufw allow samba
ufw --force enable

References