Q: Mavericks: Backup: Stuck at "prepare" after a few successful backups

Regarding the "verify permissions" button: As far as I understood this works based on the "receipts" when things are installed. As nothing was ever installed on that HD2 disk, it probably does not support to verify permissions. (?)

In the meantime I looked at the ownership and those where strange for some folders (user and group ids which are not valid any more after the new system install). I now set new permissions with the Finder Info window and will reset the spotlight with mdutil. So the server has some busy hours ahead :-)

(Turned on english on my mac mini now ... :-) )

The button does not become enabled no matter which state the ownership checkbox is in the info window.

I now did an "mdutil -Ea" and the following was part of the output:

/Volumes/Macintosh HD2/Scanner:

  Indexing enabled.

/Volumes/Macintosh HD2/Shared Items/Backups:

2014-07-09 16:36:47.375 mdutil[54925:507] Metadata.framework [Error]: mdsCopyStoreAttributes failed: (8) (os/kern) no access

2014-07-09 16:36:47.377 mdutil[54925:507] Metadata.framework [Error]: mdsCopyStoreAttributes failed: (8) (os/kern) no access

  No index.

/Volumes/Macintosh HD2/Storage:

  Indexing enabled.

Is that "Shared Items" message normal?

dwbrecovery wrote:

 

- Under Server.app , Time Machine service will be on.

- Share for Client Time Machine backups is set to HD2 under directory /Shared Items/Backups

- Do you need it ?

In my Server app the Time Machine service is turned off. I am not sure, whether I have turned it on at any time. Thinking again: It was definitely never on since I did a new install on "Server HD". On HD2 there is no "Shared Items" (sudo ls -la /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD2/ ). I will poke around in the settings later today.

In any case I would not need Time Machine service on the server, because the disks are not big enough for such backups. I hope to use the 2TB Time Capsule for the server. another mac mini and a MacBook Pro.

It is morning again and I can look at the backups from the night:

Backup is again stuck:

09/07/14 22:19:55,969 com.apple.backupd[61461]: Backup completed successfully.

09/07/14 23:10:32,999 com.apple.backupd[70955]: Backup completed successfully.

10/07/14 00:11:24,321 com.apple.backupd[73577]: Backup completed successfully.

The first was a big one after I changed the permissions on HD2, Then two small backups and the one started at 01:11 is now stuck until 06:15 (now).

I did not find something for the Shared Items warning (from mdutil -Ea). Where could the system have an entry that Shared Items is referenced? The Time Machine screen in the OS X Server says that there is no directory specified.

When I have time today I will play with permissions again.

There is a little progress on my backup problem:

There were two warning messages:

10/07/14 23:00:44,600 mdworker[32107]: (Warning) Import: import uti:com.adobe.pdf plugin:/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter uuid:7D48EF77-69AB-47DB-BBD9-D907F89C3C17 61 exceeded cpu use limits (12) after 12988 milliseconds sizing:0 - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 745663

and another (similar to that from an earlier log);

07.07.14 22:42:57,642 sandboxd[130]: ([72059]) mdworker(72059) deny file-read-data /Volumes/Macintosh HD2/Storage/backups/nds/3ds-backup/3ds-rot/2012-09-13/00032600/content (pre-ls-info-2 fstype:hfs fsflag:4809000 flags:40000005E diag:0 isXCode:0 uti:com.apple.application-file plugin:/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 446465)

I located the files with the mdutil command from the warning message and put the files away in a ZIP file. Since then my backups were running smoothly. Right now I restored one of the offending files regarding the first log message and will see whether the backup will get stuck over night. If someone could test that:

It is a long pdf ebook which can be found here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/SEv1.pdf

The web site which contains the link is this: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html

I downloaded the book some time ago and the pdf file causes the first log message - the one with the "exceeded cpu limits".

I have a Mac Mini Server Mid 2010 , 2.66 C2D, 8GB Ram, 2x500GB running 10.9.4. If the pdf file causes such a warning on another system and would make the backup get stuck, it would be a nice spot for further investigation.

dwbrecovery wrote:

 

- Check File Sharing Service under Server.app for a Backups Share and delta it.

- The Time Machine Service creates this Shared Folder by Default.

No Backups share in the File Sharing service there.

However, there is interesting new behavior:

The PDF file which I mentioned in an earlier post makes the backup get stuck on the mac mini server. When it is on my other mac mini the backup continues correctly.

The log entry when the file was scanned with mdworker:

10/07/14 23:00:44,600 mdworker[32107]: (Warning) Import: import uti:com.adobe.pdf plugin:/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter uuid:7D48EF77-69AB-47DB-BBD9-D907F89C3C17 61 exceeded cpu use limits (12) after 12988 milliseconds sizing:0 - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 745663

The last backup completed log entries:

10/07/14 19:54:20,951 com.apple.backupd[23831]: Backup completed successfully.

10/07/14 20:55:37,429 com.apple.backupd[26467]: Backup completed successfully.

10/07/14 21:56:34,078 com.apple.backupd[29106]: Backup completed successfully.

10/07/14 22:57:53,883 com.apple.backupd[31733]: Backup completed successfully.

The one started after the mdworker warning is stuck.

The backups on the other Mac mini (Late 2009) work well until now (every hour until now - around 6:00 in the morning).

I will check what happens when I move the pdf file to the startup volume...

I moved the PDF file from HD2 to the Server HD (startup volume). The mdutil warning appeared in the log. The backup was stuck. After a some time I removed the file and started a backup. That backup completed successfully. So it looks like as long as spotlight indexes "certain bad files", the backup is stuck.

Is that time for a bug report, or can I collect some more details?

(The solution would now be to carefully watch the backup and if I find mdworker warnings wrap those files in ZIP files...)

dwbrecovery wrote:

 

- The output of command:   ls -al /System/Library/Spotlight    Are the mdimporter files similar,  have same permissions, owner, group on all your machines?

They differ between the two mac minis. The late 2009 has 10.9.3, the mac mini server has 10.9.4. However, the PDF importer seems to be identical. I will update the late 2009 to 10.9.4 tomorrow and see whether the importers differ. However, the rights and owners are identical.