Initial / experimental support for time machine over SMB

anodos

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On one of my Macs, I’ve had success since upgrading to U2... on another, I got the dreaded “start new backup” message right after completing the first backup. So, it appears to be a mixed bag for me. And, yes, the backup over SMB is WAY slower.
Are you using a wired or wireless connection for the initial backup?
 

NineFingers

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I’m 100% wired.
 

keson

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Jan 24, 2019
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Team, Anodos, I can confirm the new SMB setup seems to work for me, unlike TM over AFP, I was able to finish the TM backup over SMB and what is more important, I can add to the backup, it does not get corrupted.
As of the speed, It run the initial backup or some 10 hours - 160 GB, but I would not consider it WAY slower as the previous one over AFP took some 8 hours or so anyway. The subsequent backups are as always kind of fast and as it happens on the fly, I do not care much how fast they are.
Main thing is that the TM works in FreeNAS 11.2-U2. And I can confirm, the AFP conflict in the name was resolved by the trick presented several comments above.
Thanks again Anodos for your great hep!
 

adrianwi

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Oct 15, 2013
Messages
1,231
Help!

I've upgraded to U2 and managed to get Time Machine to backup to a SMB share on my imac running 10.13 High Sierra.

I'm struggling with my MacBook running 10.14 Mojave and was beginning to think it was MacOS related as I'd checked and double checked the dataset and share options and permissions. When I looked a little closer though, the imac folder has some different ACL stuff going on. Any idea how I set this on the mb1 dataset?

Code:
root@freenas1:/mnt/APEpool1/time_machine # getfacl mb1
# file: mb1
# owner: timemach
# group: timemach
            owner@:rwxp--aARWcCos:-------:allow
            group@:rwxp--a-R-c--s:-------:allow
         everyone@:r-x---a-R-c--s:-------:allow
root@freenas1:/mnt/APEpool1/time_machine # getfacl imac
# file: imac
# owner: timemach
# group: timemach
            owner@:rwxpDdaARWcCos:fdi---I:allow
            group@:rwxpDdaARWcCos:fdi---I:allow
         everyone@:r-x---a-R-c---:fdi---I:allow
            owner@:rwxp--aARWcCos:-------:allow
            group@:rwxp--a-R-c--s:-------:allow
         everyone@:r-x---a-R-c--s:-------:allow


Thanks

UPDATE:

I've fixed it! Checked the Default Permissions box on the mb1 share (which wasn't checked for the imac share) and it's now backing up. Going back and checking the mb1 share the Default Permissions isn't ticked either now, but that's what fixed it. Is that a bug?
 
Last edited:

anodos

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Messages
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Help!

I've upgraded to U2 and managed to get Time Machine to backup to a SMB share on my imac running 10.13 High Sierra.

I'm struggling with my MacBook running 10.14 Mojave and was beginning to think it was MacOS related as I'd checked and double checked the dataset and share options and permissions. When I looked a little closer though, the imac folder has some different ACL stuff going on. Any idea how I set this on the mb1 dataset?

Code:
root@freenas1:/mnt/APEpool1/time_machine # getfacl mb1
# file: mb1
# owner: timemach
# group: timemach
            owner@:rwxp--aARWcCos:-------:allow
            group@:rwxp--a-R-c--s:-------:allow
         everyone@:r-x---a-R-c--s:-------:allow
root@freenas1:/mnt/APEpool1/time_machine # getfacl imac
# file: imac
# owner: timemach
# group: timemach
            owner@:rwxpDdaARWcCos:fdi---I:allow
            group@:rwxpDdaARWcCos:fdi---I:allow
         everyone@:r-x---a-R-c---:fdi---I:allow
            owner@:rwxp--aARWcCos:-------:allow
            group@:rwxp--a-R-c--s:-------:allow
         everyone@:r-x---a-R-c--s:-------:allow


Thanks

UPDATE:

I've fixed it! Checked the Default Permissions box on the mb1 share (which wasn't checked for the imac share) and it's now backing up. Going back and checking the mb1 share the Default Permissions isn't ticked either now, but that's what fixed it. Is that a bug?
No. The "Default Permissions" checkbox is a foot-gun. Originally, it was designed such that you couldn't tell what would happen if the box was checked (permissions would be reset (1) if the box was checked and (2) the state of the box changed since the last time the form was saved). We made the decision a while back that the box being checked should _always_ mean that permissions would be reset.
 

bollar

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Oct 28, 2012
Messages
411
This is working for me now. @anodos, thanks for getting this done!
 

NineFingers

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Messages
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I'm happy to report that it appears to be working for me, now, as well. I created the storage and share from square one for the Mac that had an issue... it's been working fine since. Not sure what I had wrong the first time, but it's working... for now, anyway.
 

adrianwi

Guru
Joined
Oct 15, 2013
Messages
1,231
Not quite as successful for me. I did my imac (hardwired) first and that still seems to be working nicely, although it did stop backing up at one point until I logged out and back in. Next was my macbook and after some permissions issues and about 17 hours the first backup completed and subsequent hour backups started. I'd done the first backup on a wired connection but my macbook lives on wifi so I disconnected and within a couple of hours had this dreaded message :-(

Screenshot 2019-02-23 at 08.46.37.png


I clicked Start New Backup (still on wifi) and after 45 minutes it's still 'Preparing backup...'

It did eventually start backing up again somewhere between 60-90 minutes, and now has another 17 hours to go. Will see how it fairs completing the first backup on wifi, although should that really make a difference?
 
Last edited:

keson

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Jan 24, 2019
Messages
12
Not quite as successful for me. I did my imac (hardwired) first and that still seems to be working nicely, although it did stop backing up at one point until I logged out and back in. Next was my macbook and after some permissions issues and about 17 hours the first backup completed and subsequent hour backups started. I'd done the first backup on a wired connection but my macbook lives on wifi so I disconnected and within a couple of hours had this dreaded message :-(

--screenshot--

I clicked Start New Backup (still on wifi) and after 45 minutes it's still 'Preparing backup...'

It did eventually start backing up again somewhere between 60-90 minutes, and now has another 17 hours to go. Will see how it fairs completing the first backup on wifi, although should that really make a difference?

My experience (not only from FreeNAS) was that whenever I got this Time Machine backup corruption message (on qnap for example), I rather deleted the whole backup and start over on a fresh empty storage rather than letting the thing check the whole backup. Exactly because I did not want the "preparing backup" take ages.
Important to say: I always did delete the Time Machine backup when I was sure I will not need need (which is kind of hard to say, right?)
 

NineFingers

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After running successfully for about ten days, one of my macs got the dreaded verification message. I guess I’m still waiting for a real solution.
 

anodos

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After running successfully for about ten days, one of my macs got the dreaded verification message. I guess I’m still waiting for a real solution.
If you can glean any information from logs about what happened, that would be helpful. My home backup has been chugging along for about four or five months now without issue. I haven't been able to reproduce the issue, and I'm not sure if there's a fix to be had in Samba. Does our behavior differ from a Linux time machine target?
 

NineFingers

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Messages
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If you can glean any information from logs about what happened, that would be helpful. My home backup has been chugging along for about four or five months now without issue. I haven't been able to reproduce the issue, and I'm not sure if there's a fix to be had in Samba. Does our behavior differ from a Linux time machine target?
You asked if the behavior is any different from a Linux time machine target. Is it possible to backup a time machine to a Linux (Unix) file share?
 

NineFingers

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Messages
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No, but you can install samba and configure time machine support on a Linux server VM and see if the behavior is different.
ok... understood now. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a linux box with enough space to do that.
 

NineFingers

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Messages
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You could install a linux VM on your FreeNAS box (hardware permitting).
Good point. I'm pretty much a FreeNAS newbie myself, so thanks for pointing that out. I'll see if I can get that done tonight.
 

seanm

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Messages
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Just a little note to say that I completed a successful TM backup the other day, and it's been updating fine all weekend. I'm also able to restore individual files that I deleted. Next I'll try the more interesting test of restoring the whole thing to a different Mac...
 

NineFingers

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Lucky you! I’ve got three macs that fail after periods varying from 2 days to 2 weeks.
 

seanm

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Well, it's only been a few days, we'll see how it goes over the coming weeks...
 
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