Network Time Machine solution after discontinuation of Apple Routers?
tl;dr
No more Apple routers, but people keep saying "only use Apple routers for network Time Machine backup," so what to do?
Word on the street for ages is "don't use a non-apple anything for Time Machine".
The explanation is that AFP is proprietary and so non-Apple implementations like Netatalk are simply not reliable, despite having been under development and widespread use for 10 years (i.e. since the release of the original Time Capsule). AFAIK, Apple has stayed silent on the issue of whether or not to simply steer clear of third party network Time Machine solutions, presumedly because that would be a blow to the dozens of such commercial solutions available, and would likely lead to a strong push for them to simply license AFP or open-source it to solve the issue permanently. Then again, since when has Apple shown a single sign of interest in what its users want. Only company I know of that actually hosts a support forum that they, apparently as a rule, don't look at themselves!
Now, however, we seem to be at an impasse: the "solution" to third party network Time Machine use is still "no", but Apple has laid the issue bare by discontinuing the the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule.
If third party network Time Machine is simply not to be used, then how is this any different from Apple saying "don't use Time Machine over a network, ever, period"? Seems like "only use Apple routers for Time Machine backup" should now be read as "only use nothing," since they'll no longer be made!
Among the posts of people claiming (since Apple won't clarify this for us) that you shouldn't use third party network Time Machine solutions, are the posts of people who have been using them for years without a problem, and an ever increasing list of such third party NAS products, each claiming to offer Time Machine support.
Personally, I use a 8-drive NAS as my office to backup about a dozen Macs for a few years now, and haven't had a single issue. By contrast, I used to subscribe to the idea that third party NASs shouldn't be used for Time Machine, so I instead elected to run macOS server on a dedicated Mac and run Time Machine from there, but the unreliability of the server machine itself (2013 Mac Pro) precluded any chance it had at being a reliable backup destination. At my house I use an AirPort Extreme 802.11ac for Time Machine, and I've had to replace it 3 times in the 4 years I've owned it. Seems that whatever unreliability will result from a third party solution couldn't be any worse than what I've experienced with the ONLY two "officially supported" network Time Machine solutions.
To conclude: where do we go from here for network Time Machine backup? Has "only use Apple" necessarily changed to "only use nothing"? iMore goes over a few options: use the discontinued Apple Routers until they're end-of-lifed (not a great solution), use a macOS server machine (tried it; not great and not feasible for most), or use a *gasp* third party NAS that supports AFP and Time Machine.
