[Guide] 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Time Machine backup to network share

[armyaircorp]

Great Job Mate!!! i needed this 2 days ago, Hade SL OS running perfect added something that screwed it up. Started all over again to install and still can't get it right as of 2 days. If only the TM worked then (or if I wrote my settings down)

But thanks mate

AAC

[Jerrek71]

Hi all,

I tried all the above and had a partial success initially, but then when Time Machine tried to do the backup it complained about a verification failure and tried to rewrite the whole sparse image. Which of course failed.

 

I then recopied the sparse image I'd made and tried a manual backup, but when it was verifying the backup, I clicked the icon in the menu bar and told it to skip verification. It's now backing up quite happily.

 

I'm not sure how a backup with zero in it can fail verification but I guess there's some extra data that's normally in the sparseimage to tell TM which files have changed and so on, and without that (under 10.6.4 at least) it fails.

 

Hope that helps someone.

[lusher00]

My understanding is that TM will allow me to restore my computer back to its previous state after I do a clean install of SL. Will I be able to do that under this setup or is that limited to USB drives and Time Capsule? And if so what all does it backup/restore. My machine is running really slow right now and it might be the drive. I want to throw another one in there and see if it improves things at all. If it is not the drive but rather a software issue, well I am curious if TM will be doing such a thorough backup that it will also back up whatever issues it is that I am seeing now.

[McJazzy]

Finally, this is the only source I could find on the web that was complete. Most others omit the step of adding the .plist information. This is why you get the -45 error if you follow the rest on the web!

 

Thanks so much!

[blacksmith_tb]

This looks very promising, but I've got a little hurdle to work around. I've got the sparsebundle in a directory I have write access to on our Win2003 NAS at work, but I don't have write access to the root of the NAS. I thought I might be able to trick Time Machine into thinking it was a different drive by symlinking to it in /Volumes, but no such luck. Can anyone suggest a way I can point TM at the specific dir on the mounted NAS? Thanks.

[sunkid]

This looks very promising, but I've got a little hurdle to work around. I've got the sparsebundle in a directory I have write access to on our Win2003 NAS at work, but I don't have write access to the root of the NAS. I thought I might be able to trick Time Machine into thinking it was a different drive by symlinking to it in /Volumes, but no such luck. Can anyone suggest a way I can point TM at the specific dir on the mounted NAS? Thanks.

 

You could try to mount the specific directory on your client instead of mounting the root directory of the NAS. If you need both, you may have to work with your IT department to enable this on their end.

 

My own setup is much like this and supports several users. The storage space is a large RAID array on a server. I export individual directories from it via the Linux version of Apple Talk (atalk). This way, individual users see different shares when they connect to the server.

 

Here is a generic view of my AppleVolumes.default configuration file:

/mnt/raid/sunkid backups allow:sunkid cnidscheme:cdb options:usedots,upriv
/mnt/raid/shewhomustbeobeyed backups allow:lovey cnidscheme:cdb options:usedots,upriv
/mnt/raid/minime backups allow:minime cnidscheme:cdb options:usedots,upriv

 

When any of these three users connect, they see one volume named 'backups' that their machines are using for backups.

 

Similar configurations can be done in SAMBA but it will be slightly different in NFS, I believe.

[blacksmith_tb]

You could try to mount the specific directory on your client instead of mounting the root directory of the NAS. If you need both, you may have to work with your IT department to enable this on their end.

 

Thanks - yes, I do need to mount the whole NAS, while only letting TM see the dir where the sparsebundle is. I was hoping I wouldn't need to ask our IT dept. to create a new user strictly for this little experiment, but I suppose at least that will also allow us to impose a hard quota, to keep TM from trying to gobble up the entire NAS...

 

Thanks again,

-T.

[bartoszx]

I tired all hints mentioned in this thread.

Still got following errors

 

Nov 22 19:36:14 macbook-pro-magnus-2 com.apple.backupd[1129]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: smb://DOMAIN;nmt@192.168.0.102/share
Nov 22 19:36:19 macbook-pro-magnus-2 com.apple.backupd[1129]: NetAuthConnectToServerSync failed with error: 80 for url: smb://DOMAIN;nmt@192.168.0.102/share
Nov 22 19:36:24 macbook-pro-magnus-2 com.apple.backupd[1129]: Backup failed with error: 19

 

I can get rid of this

 

smb://DOMAIN;

 

My another macos has no problem with this. Is this have something common with DOMAIN logon?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Kyle Maguire]

Yes THANK YOU!!!! THIS HELPED ME! I just bought a new router with a usb port and spent an hour waiting for my mac to "Make backup disk available"

[TBGRocks]

Brand new here but just wanted to share my experiences. I tried the manual version and was getting the issue where time machine was trying to create a new version of my sparsebundle file with the 1.tmp piece added.

 

I changed the name of my machine as I had it set to John-Neills-Macbook-Pro and was worried that the name might have been too long or the '-' characters might have been causing an issue. The new name was JohnsMBP. I also used the script this time instead of the manual version.

 

I'm not sure which of these changes made the difference but the backup is currently running. I'm thinking the length of my computer name or the fact that I had the '-' characters in the name might have been an issue. Would be worth a try anyway if you're having the problems of TM creating a new version of the sparsebundle.

 

Thanks for making this available. Very happy that this is working now.

[lordkev84]

I registered just to say thanks! I've been beating head against the wall since last night and adding the plist finally solved my issue.

 

Thanks again!

[lusher00]

My first backup lasted about a month and then I got a message saying it had errors and OS X needed to create a new one. So it deleted what was already there and then said it was unable to create a new one. I ran through your procedure again hoping it was a one time thing but that backup only lasted a day. I tried one more time and I again got the same error after only a few hours. Any suggestions?

[RandomMarius]

With regards to all those who have reported that the sparse bundle is automatically resized to fill the entire size of the NAS, I have found that adding a lock on all the Info.* files in the sparse bundle would prevent Time Machine from doing this. (Only on latest Snow Leopards)

 

The problem is that I have two users using it... the first user starts using it and fills (almost) the entire drive and thus the second user uses only whatever is available and is thus limited to a smaller amount. If they started using time machine at the same point in time this does not matter, but this is not my case.

 

I've found some useful information here, but it would be cool to have a definitive solution:

 

http://anitechtalk.wordpress.com/2010/07/1...machine-dns323/

[ElectroLund]

Great howto. Is there a way from keeping the sparsebundles from being deleted when Time Machine fills them? This is happening to me every 2 months or so. Apparently, Time Machine gets full and deletes the backup to create a new one. But then that fails and I have to repeat this whole process.

 

Not hard, obviously, but not automated either. Just curious if anyone else is experiencing this.

[lusher00]

Great howto. Is there a way from keeping the sparsebundles from being deleted when Time Machine fills them? This is happening to me every 2 months or so. Apparently, Time Machine gets full and deletes the backup to create a new one. But then that fails and I have to repeat this whole process.

 

Not hard, obviously, but not automated either. Just curious if anyone else is experiencing this.

 

I wonder if that is what I am experiencing. I keep getting messages saying the backup is inaccurate or something (I can't remember the exact wording but I know inaccurate is not part of it, just similar) and it needs to be deleted. Then it gets deleted and I get another message saying the OS was unable to create a new one and I have to start all over again. It essentially makes the whole process useless for me.

[mthom]

Thank you sunkid! I am brand new to mac (well since those Apple IIe days), and was eager to backup my new MBP to my WHS where all my other PC's are backed up. After reading the Time Capsule reviews, I didn't want to go that way.

 

I used the manual procedures ... mostly because I didn't know what the heck I was doing, so it took me awhile to figure out terminal and the various commands and paths. In the end, it is working great. Thank you very much!

 

Here's the dumb question for the day ... mounting the network drive/folder ... this took me awhile because I'm used to mapping network drives on the PC. When I go to Finder and Go -> Connect to Server, I would browse to the shared folder that I wanted and Connect. This always just shows the drive in the "Shared" list in Finder. I thought when I mounted it, the folder would show up on my desktop or something. When I view Finder inside Time Machine backups, I see my computer name under devices (which shows all the mounted shared drives), but when I just view Finder, my computer name isn't under the Devices list, just the hard drives, etc. Is that normal operation.

 

2nd dumb question. I got the MBP open box, so it had previously been setup. I changed my account from user to Thomas, but Finder still has "user" and "user" automatically shows up as default when logging in to some things. Is that normal, or should I be able to rename this "user" ... it doesn't show up in the Accounts list.

 

OK ... now that I have the backup working, I'll go view some tutorials, so I don't bore this crowd with newb questions.

 

But - thanks again sunkid!

[dsmturbo]

I wonder if that is what I am experiencing. I keep getting messages saying the backup is inaccurate or something (I can't remember the exact wording but I know inaccurate is not part of it, just similar) and it needs to be deleted. Then it gets deleted and I get another message saying the OS was unable to create a new one and I have to start all over again. It essentially makes the whole process useless for me.

 

I too have an issue where my TM backups are fine for a bit, then error out on verification, and I have to start all over again.

Is this perhaps due to me not Locking the info.* files in the sparseimage file?

[dsmturbo]

I too have an issue where my TM backups are fine for a bit, then error out on verification, and I have to start all over again.

Is this perhaps due to me not Locking the info.* files in the sparseimage file?

 

I just redid my sparseimage file again last wekk, backing up okay, then today says verification needed and create new image in TM. I can't figure it out, I must be missing something when creating the image.

Does anyone else still have problems using TM backup with a WHS setup?

[DerManiac]

Great Thread! Thanks a LOT! I can finally backup to our Samba server!

[jps48]

Hey guys I have followed this guide to a T but I am still having trouble. When I try to run the backup I am stilll getting it trying to create a .tmp sparsebundle and it fails with the -45 error.

 

I am trying to save the backup to a 1.5tb smb share. I have full read/write access on it.

 

I am running 10.6.7 on a Mid 2010 MBP with a 256gb ssd with a 170gb partition for osx.

 

My computer name is Jacob Scutzlas’s MacBook Pro

 

Here is what I have done.

 

hdiutil create -size 225G -fs HFS+J -volname 'Time Machine Backups' -type SPARSEBUNDLE "/Users/JacobScutzlas/Desktop/Jacob Scutzlas’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle"

 

I then created the plist file from the txt file found in the first post with my uuid value I found under the system profiler labeled as hardware uuid under the hardware overview. I double checked that the value was correct and that the file was a plist file.

 

I then used the command:

 

cp /Users/JacobScutzlas/Desktop/com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist "/Users/JacobScutzlas/Desktop/Jacob Scutzlas’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle"

 

then finally:

 

rsync -aE "/Users/JacobScutzlas/Desktop/Jacob Scutzlas’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" "/Volumes/1.5 TB Storage B"

 

the created sparebundle is moved to the network drive but when I run TM it says 1.5gb out of 1.5gb available

and it creates a .tmp sparsebundle then eventually throws a error 45 and fails out.

 

The name of the .tmp file created is Jacob Scutzlas’s MacBook Pro 1.tmp.sparsebundle

 

If anyone could help me out I'd greatly appreciate it. I'd really like to get this to work. Thanks.

 

Here is my log if it helps.

 

6/1/11 12:28:18 PM /Applications/System Preferences.app/Contents/MacOS/System Preferences[18448] TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes is set to TRUE which allows selection of unsupported Time Machine network destination volumes. Use of an unsupported network destination can result in silent data corruption and complete loss of backup data under certain circumstances!

 

6/1/11 12:30:24 PM com.apple.backupd[18464] Starting standard backup

 

6/1/11 12:30:24 PM com.apple.backupd[18464] Attempting to mount network destination using URL: smb://Jacob@192.168.2.34/1.5%20TB%20Storage%20B

 

6/1/11 12:30:26 PM com.apple.backupd[18464] Mounted network destination using URL: smb://Jacob@192.168.2.34/1.5%20TB%20Storage%20B

 

6/1/11 12:30:27 PM com.apple.backupd[18464] Creating disk image /Volumes/1.5 TB Storage B-1/Jacob Scutzlas’s MacBook Pro 1.sparsebundle

 

6/1/11 12:30:28 PM hdiejectd[18925] running

 

6/1/11 12:30:38 PM hdiejectd[18925] quitCheck: calling exit(0)

 

6/1/11 12:31:26 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.netauth.sysagent[18915]) Exited with exit code: 255

 

6/1/11 12:34:08 PM kernel hfs: Initializing the journal (joffset 0x2bad000 sz 0x7000000)...

 

6/1/11 12:34:15 PM com.apple.backupd[18464] Error 45 creating backup disk image

 

6/1/11 12:34:15 PM com.apple.backupd[18464] Failed to create disk image /Volumes/1.5 TB Storage B-1/Jacob Scutzlas’s MacBook Pro 1.sparsebundle, status: 45

 

6/1/11 12:34:20 PM com.apple.backupd[18464] Backup failed with error: 20

 

6/1/11 12:34:20 PM com.apple.backupd[18464] Ejected Time Machine network volume.

[Kaushal1976]

The upgrade to Snow Leopard breaks 10.5.x time machine backups configured with AFP shares on non-mac based network volumes as per these instructions, for example. After some trial and error, I was able to find out that the secrect lies with a hidden property list file that specifies the hardware UUID for the machine to be backed up. The following are some simple instructions to set up a new backup volume from scratch. They may work for upgrading a Leopard TM disk to SL, but I have not been able to verify this. Attached are a shell script that will do all the work for you and a property list file in case you want to try it yourself.

 

1. SETUP

 

If your time machine is already configured to backup to a networked AFP share, move on to the next step. Otherwise, follow the setup procedure in the link above.

 

2. SIMPLE PROCEDURE

 

Run the attached shell script with command line arguments specifying the maximum size for your backup image and the shared directory you want to backup to (the second argument is optional).

 

Example:

sh  ./makeImage.sh 600 /Volumes/backup

This will create a time machine ready disk image named with your computer's name with a maximum size of 600GB and copy it to /Volumes/backup. The image "file" (it's a directory, really) will contain the property list file that SL's TM needs.

 

If you don't specify the backup volume, you will need to do the coying yourself:

cp -pfr <computer name>.sparsebundle /Volumes/backup/<computer name>.sparsebundle

You may or may not have to execute the script and the copy command as root. I have not tried it out both ways and only done it as root.

 

3. "MANUAL" PROCEDURE

 

a. Create a disk image named with the name of your machine's computer name (not sure that this is crucial; you can find it in System Preferences -> Sharing). This example is for a 500GB (max size) image for a machine named snowy:

hdiutil create -size 500G -fs HFS+J -volname 'Time Machine Backups' -type SPARSEBUNDLE snowy.sparsebundle

b. Edit the attached com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist file and copy your machine's hardware UUID in the correct place. You can find your hardware UUID in the System Profiler

 

c. Copy the modified com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist file into your disk image directory:

cp com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist snowy.sparsebundle/

d. Copy your disk image file to your mounted backup volume. This example assumes an AFP share with the name backups:

cp -pfr snowy.sparsebundle /Volumes/backups/snowy.sparsebundle

 

Please let me know if you run into any issues. The attached script works for me but it may not work for you. I make no guarantees whatsoever!!

NOTE: remove the '.txt' extension from the attached files.

 

UPDATE 9/6/9: Fixed shell script to handle computer names with spaces.

UPDATE 9/24/9: We made it onto macosxhints.com

 

Many thanks.... The "manual method" worked perfectly on Snow Leopard 10.6.8

[mobidutch]

This does not seem to be working with Mountain Lion 10.8.2. I am trying to use a shared folder on a Windows 7 machine and used the makeImage.sh method. It copies the sparsebundle to the share, but Time Machine refuses to see the attached volume as a valid backup location. Also tried the manual command:

 

sudo tmutil setdestination afp://user:password@ipaddress/TimeCapsule

 

- with user and password as a valid (Admin access) username and password to connect to the Windows server,

- with ipaddress being the IP address of the Windows server

- with TimeCapsule being the name of the shared folder

 

This gives me error:

- Failed to open session. (error 64)

The backup destination could not be set.

 

Any suggestions? Thx!