Apple Time Machine

rvassar

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I've been experimenting with Apple's Time Machine backup on my scratch pool (3x2Tb raidz). I set up a AFP share, set a 500Gb quota, and configured it on my Mac, and it worked quite well for a six weeks or so. The problem I have is Time Machine seems to know the pool size, and is not trimming the older backups to stay in the 500Gb quota size I set. So when the quota limit was enforced, the backup failed.

Since I don't plan on keeping the scratch pool long term (one of the disks is at 56k hours...) I'd like to figure out how to limit TM's use to the quota, so I can move it to the main pool.

Anyone have any tricks/tips?
 

rvassar

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What size disk do you have on the Mac?

It's a 500Gb SSD, with a little less than 300 Gb in use. I had been backing it up to a 500Gb USB external disk for the last several years, hence the initial 500Gb quota. But the problem is TM has no idea what the quota is, and manages based on the reported volume size. So I'm probably going to try a 500Gb "contraption" later today, unless someone has a better idea.
 
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Have you set the quota on the dataset or are you using TM quotas?
 

garm

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Okey, then something else is going on. My AFP share with quota showed up just fine in TimeMachine. But with 300GB on the Mac and 500 GB on the quota, you should not need any trimming unless you regularly cycle through hundreds of GB?
 
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Also if using TM quotas you have to re-mount the share before it will show the quoted size so try moving the TM share rebooting and adding it again.
 

rvassar

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Also if using TM quotas you have to re-mount the share before it will show the quoted size so try moving the TM share rebooting and adding it again.

Re-mount the share from the Mac? Or re-import the pool / reboot the NAS?
 

Constantin

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I had a similar issue. Setting the quota correctly solved the problem.
 
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Re-mount the share from the Mac? Or re-import the pool / reboot the NAS?
re-mount the share on the Mac with a reboot of the client machine in between disconnecting it and re-mounting it just in case. So basically start as new from the client end.
 

LazarX

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I've been experimenting with Apple's Time Machine backup on my scratch pool (3x2Tb raidz). I set up a AFP share, set a 500Gb quota, and configured it on my Mac, and it worked quite well for a six weeks or so. The problem I have is Time Machine seems to know the pool size, and is not trimming the older backups to stay in the 500Gb quota size I set. So when the quota limit was enforced, the backup failed.

Since I don't plan on keeping the scratch pool long term (one of the disks is at 56k hours...) I'd like to figure out how to limit TM's use to the quota, so I can move it to the main pool.

Anyone have any tricks/tips?

I believe that your first mistake was in setting up the AFP share. AFP is deprecated even by Apple's standards. You can set up Timeshare in an SMB share which is the recommended protocol for Macs these days. There really is no longer a good reason to use AFP on any Mac modern enough to run Time Machine.
 

Constantin

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Not sure I fully agree.

The last time I tried using SMB based TM targets all sorts of stuff went sideways. My Mojave systems on the other hand are relatively stable with only the occasional TM consistency check causing a rebuild when using AFP. I say use whatever works best. For me, that’s AFP, deprecated or not.
 

anodos

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Not sure I fully agree.

The last time I tried using SMB based TM targets all sorts of stuff went sideways. My Mojave systems on the other hand are relatively stable with only the occasional TM consistency check causing a rebuild when using AFP. I say use whatever works best. For me, that’s AFP, deprecated or not.
If you don't mind, can you PM me about what went sideways. I try to fix Time Machine issues whenever I can reliably reproduce them.
 

rvassar

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I believe that your first mistake was in setting up the AFP share. AFP is deprecated even by Apple's standards. You can set up Timeshare in an SMB share which is the recommended protocol for Macs these days. There really is no longer a good reason to use AFP on any Mac modern enough to run Time Machine.

Unfortunately, when you reply to a year old thread, the details get lost. Indeed there was some reason I went to AFP over SMB, but at this point I've forgotten what it was... Furthermore, I've been RIF'ed from that position, and the Mac is sitting in a storage room in a data center collecting dust. I can't even repeat the experiment. :)
 

Constantin

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If you don't mind, can you PM me about what went sideways. I try to fix Time Machine issues whenever I can reliably reproduce them.
I’d be delighted to retry tonight. For all I know, the issues have been resolved.

One other sore spot was the shorter allowed file path name in SMB vs. AFP. All sorts of stuff got hornswoggled.

When I found out that AFP still worked in Mojave I just smiled and went back.
 
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