TimeMachine not working no matter what I do

[drjustice]

Hey there. I am on 21.08 Beta.1

I just bought a new mac for my wife and trying to setup TM.

- Credentials -> Local Groups -> add new group named "timemachine", permit Sudo [x]; Samba authentication [x]

- Credentials -> Local Users -> add new user named "wife", Samba authentication [x]; primary group: "timemachine"; all RWX permissions checked (but group write & other write don't stick -- bug?)

- Storage -> Created a dataset as child of my system dataset pool, named "backups". All options = default.

- Shares -> Add share to my backups path, named "backups"; purpose "multi user time machine", other options = default; no auxiliary parameters.

- Start SMB service.

- On the MAC, I can see the time machine share show up. I select it. It gets asked for username: "wife" + password.

Result: "The selected network backup disk does not support the required capabilities - please choose a differnt network backup disk"

- Storage -> tank -> backups, I see a dataset called "wife" (228.97 kib) but nothing in it.

Now this is the state of where I'm at now.

I screwed around trying to set "Legacy AFP compatibility" and this seemed to have helped in the sense that, once or maybe twice, I didn't get the above error, but I did get a failure when trying to perform the actual backup.

Tried on the share: "use apple-style character encoding" -- no dice.
Tried on the share: "legacy AFP compatibility" -- no dice.

Clues?

Was this worked on since 21.08 Beta.1, perhaps fixes on 21.10?

(and when is 21.10 supposed to be out anyway?)

 

[drjustice]

I'm surprised nobody picked up on this -- Time machine being broken seems to be a recurring topic recently if I look at the threads.

Anybody has a definitive procedure for making this work?

 

[anodos]

It works in nightlies. There were a few issues in 21.08 regarding mDNS and SMB config.

 

[blanchet]

I cannot tell for TrueNAS Scale, but Timemachine works well with TrueNAS Core 12u5.

I run TrueNAS Core in a bhyve virtual machine (because I do not want to join my main TrueNAS server to Active Directory) and I backup 25 MacBooks with TimeMachine.

 

[drjustice]

I installed 21.10 (Oct 4) nightly and I did notice several changes from 21.08 but still cannot use Time Machine.


But I was able to go further with a more consistent (but bad) outcome when trying to set up Time machine than with 21.08.

Here's what I did:

After I updated to nightly and rebooted, I started the procedure afresh:

PREPARATION:
- Deleted local timemachine group
- Deleted local users
- Deleted share
- Deleted backup dataset that used to be shared.

- Created a new group (timemachine)
- Created a new user (wife)
- Created a new dataset as tank/backups
- Created a new share (pointing to tank/backups, name=backups, purpose=multi user time machine)


ATTEMPT 1:

- Go back to the mac, settings, time machine.
- Select disk ("backups" on pengo.local)
- Enter user: wife + password

- NO COMPLAINTS! (used to say: selected network backup disk does not support the required capabilities - please choose a different network backup disk)

- initial backup to start in 120 seconds. 119, 118, 117... down to 0.

- Mac says: "Looking for backup disk"... for a good minute or two... uh ho.
- Error: Backup disk is not available. Try backing up again when "Pengo.local" is available" [details].
- I click [details].
- A window pops up and says: "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Pengo.local". The backup disk is not available. Make sure the backup disk is connected or select a different backup disk".

Crap.


ATTEMPT #2:

Go to the mac:
- Delete the backup disk from timemachine.
- Select disk. I choose "backups" on "Pengo.local" again of course.
- Prompt to auth. "wife" + "password", but cannot even auth anymore.

Error: "Time Machine can't connect to the backup disk. There was an error authenticating with the provided username or password"

Try again twice. No go. But I know the credentials (user+password) are correct.

So I go to Truenas, go to Storage, I see that I have a dataset under tank/backups, namely: tank/backups/wife. I delete the wife dataset, such that I only have tank/backups now.

Back to the mac:

- Select disk: "backups" on "PEngo.local"
- Prompt to auth: "wife" + "password" -- this time it works after I deleted the wife dataset!

Countdown 120, 119, 118, 117... down to 0.
- Mac says: "Looking for backup disk..." for about a minute or two,
- Mac cannot start the backup, same complaint as above.

ATTEMPT #3:

Back to TrueNAS.

- Modify the time machine share so that in advanced settings I select "Use Apple style character encoding". I accept the warning.
- Try the procedure again
- Can't auth.
- Delete wife dataset under tank/backups
- Now I can auth.
- But still stuck at "Looking for backup disk" and it fails by saying the disk is not available.


Still no go.

Thoughts?

 

[drjustice]

Note that I am using APFS on the Mac. This is a brand new mac running the latest Big Sur

 

[Toiffel]

can you paste a screen shot of your shares ?

 

[anodos]

Can you PM me a debug?

 

[Toiffel]

I just did this and works like a charm...

 

[drjustice]

I just tested this on another Mac I had (my kid's mac). This one is a little older, it's a 2012 Macbook Pro and is running Catalina (macOS 10.15.7)

On THAT computer it works fine (also APFS)

I can auth as "kids" + password, and the backup starts just fine.
I can auth as "wife" + password, and the backup starts just fine.

So it looks to be something going on maybe with the new MBP 13" M1 running Big Sur.

 

[Toiffel]

I just tested this on another Mac I had (my kid's mac). This one is a little older, it's a 2012 Macbook Pro and is running Catalina (macOS 10.15.7)

On THAT computer it works fine (also APFS)

I can auth as "kids" + password, and the backup starts just fine.
I can auth as "wife" + password, and the backup starts just fine.

So it looks to be something going on maybe with the new MBP 13" M1 running Big Sur.

I'm running Big Sur as well, maybe try a SMB share....

 

[drjustice]

Can you PM me a debug?

Sorry for he noob question, how do I enable a debug, and where would I find this debug file to send you?

 

[anodos]

GUI has an option to generate a debug.

 

[drjustice]

I just found the option -- sent you a debug file right now with some insights. Thanks for looking into it.

 

[drjustice]

Just following up with others who might be interested in this -- I sent a debug file to @anodos however I've year to hear anything back at all.

 

[marhei89]

I had also some trouble. what helped me was to create a share with “no preset” and check Time Machine plus activate Apple Capabilities. then I checked the Avahi Service ( service avahi-daemon status ). It was not running/activated. I had to restart it.
Big Sur 11.6 and SMB

 

[drjustice]

on my side avahi seems to be loaded and active(running), but in the logs I sent @anodos I think (though I'm no expert) some processes die in the early stages of the backup process, and then can't respond.

 

[drjustice]

@anodos sad about the radio silence :(

 

[heshsum]

@drjustice I had the exact same problem as you did here. Time Machine worked until I upgraded to Big Sur. Then, it failed showing an error that the target is not available. I could also mount the share but it showed 0 capacity.

Today, I found a solution, at least for my problem (I actually created this account in order to share it). I simply added a "quota for the dataset all children". Now Finder shows a capacity >0 and Time Machine works just fine.

So I guess the problem is that macOS fails to detect the correct amount of free space on the child dataset and simply fails because there seems to be no space (even after clearing out old backups). Funnily enough this only happens for Time Machine. Other SMB shares work just fine.

Hope this helps.

 

[drjustice]

Thanks I will try this out