todivefor

Q: time machine on non Apple nas

I have been backing up to a Goflex Home network drive with TM for some time.  About every 60+ days, I get the validation error, need to create a new backup message.  These new backups are time consuming in addition to losing all history.  Although TM is a great theory, in practice it just doesn't work.  Before you tell me that this is not supported, I see the same problems on Time Capsule drives.  I have all but given up on this product.  I have tried repairing the drive with just about every solution being proposed.  The best solution I have found is http://www.garth.org/archives/2011,08,27,169,fix-time-machine-sparsebundle-nas-b ased-backup-errors.html.  I have tried this with every failure and have most recently gotten almost there.  Now after following all the directions, I get that the file system is read-only.  If I do ctl-i on the volume, I get me - read & write, staff - read only, everyone - read only.  I have unlocked trying to change for staff and everyone, but it won't let me change.  Any ideas before I give up on TM?  I am running 10.9.5 on a 15" mid 2012 Macbook Pro with 16GB.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), mid 2012

Posted on Oct 2, 2014 5:43 PM

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Q: time machine on non Apple nas

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 2, 2014 6:14 PM in response to todivefor
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    Oct 2, 2014 6:14 PM in response to todivefor

    TM uses AFP to execute its backups to a TC. For a NAS, typically NFS would be used. NAS vendors who implement NFSv3 do not address the shortcomings of v3. NFSv4 has the the ability to commit writes, apart from other functions and is stateful and tracks files.

     

    You can read http://linuxtoolkit.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-brief-look-at-difference-between.html

     

    The FSCK is just fixing an inherent problem where connections can be lost. Some Unices have a notion of a "hard" mount vs "soft" mount. The FSCK fails to fix the problem, the link you pointed out is a manual cleanup.

     

    TM is not wholly to blame in this.

     

    I use a TC, and have backups reliably going back to 2012. I have not had to do any fscks or repairs on a TC.

     

    This itself should be enough to try and find other solutions. Your underlying network plays a crucial rule in reliability and how often such cleanups need to happen.

     

    WD, Seagate put their own client software on Macs to workaround similar issues.

     

    You can try connecting the NAS directly to the Mac via ethernet and see if you can fix it. The NAS vendor may have tools for such cleanup as well.

     

    Backing up to a NAS, when part of the packet hop is a WiFi network, can be very problematic. The linked article (Gareth's) also recommends doing it over Ethernet.

  • by todivefor,

    todivefor todivefor Oct 3, 2014 3:29 AM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 3, 2014 3:29 AM in response to Loner T

    Loner, thanks for the information.  I am doing my fix over ethernet.  Any idea as to why I get read-only file system and how I can make it r/w?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 3, 2014 5:04 AM in response to todivefor
    Level 7 (24,596 points)
    Safari
    Oct 3, 2014 5:04 AM in response to todivefor

    Is the procedure that you linked to not working? It should fix the inode issues or a dirty file system. Do you getting error messages executing any of the steps?

     

    What is the specific model of the NAS? I can do a bit of research.

  • by todivefor,

    todivefor todivefor Oct 3, 2014 5:48 AM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 3, 2014 5:48 AM in response to Loner T

    The procedure worked fine.  Looks like everything worked, but ...

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 3, 2014 5:59 AM in response to todivefor
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    Oct 3, 2014 5:59 AM in response to todivefor

    Can you see the NAS in Finder?

  • by todivefor,

    todivefor todivefor Oct 3, 2014 6:01 AM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 3, 2014 6:01 AM in response to Loner T

    Yes.

  • by todivefor,

    todivefor todivefor Oct 3, 2014 6:19 AM in response to todivefor
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    Oct 3, 2014 6:19 AM in response to todivefor
  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 3, 2014 7:44 AM in response to todivefor
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    Oct 3, 2014 7:44 AM in response to todivefor

    1. You may want to remove personal information from the Dropbox logs.

    2. If you connect via Finder, can you touch a file from the same machine that is failing in executing a TM backup?

    3. In System Preferences -> Time Machine, if you turn off and turn on backups and select the same same disk again, are you able to successfully complete a backup?

    4. From the MBP, can you attach a local USB and complete your backup? TM allows multiple destinations.

    5. Interesting that there is AFP traffic. If you can, can you watch the traffic between the MBP and NAS using something like Wireshark?

  • by todivefor,

    todivefor todivefor Oct 3, 2014 10:23 AM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 3, 2014 10:23 AM in response to Loner T

    1.  Good idea, but all the personal information is ficticious.

    2. I am not sure what you mean.  I can see the sparsebundle and its contents in finder.

    3. No.

     

    Starting automatic backup

    Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/GoFlex Home Backup

    Ejected Time Machine network volume.

    Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.

    Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome._afpovertcp._tcp.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

    Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/GoFlex Home Backup using URL: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome._afpovertcp._tcp.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

    Ejected Time Machine network volume.

    Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.

    Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome._afpovertcp._tcp.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

    Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/GoFlex Home Backup using URL: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome._afpovertcp._tcp.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

    Ejected Time Machine network volume.

    Giving up after 3 retries.

    Backup failed with error 38: The target disk image volume is read-only.

    Running automatic backup verification.

    Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome._afpovertcp._tcp.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

    NAConnectToServerSync failed with error: 80 for url: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome._afpovertcp._tcp.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

    Authentication error (80) - the correct user or password info may not exist in the System.keychain or the server may no longer allow access for this user.

    Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

    NAConnectToServerSync failed with error: 80 for url: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

    Authentication error (80) - the correct user or password info may not exist in the System.keychain or the server may no longer allow access for this user.

    Error 29 resolving destination during verification: afp://petersmith@GoFlexHome._afpovertcp._tcp.local/GoFlex%20Home%20Backup

     

    4. Yes.

    5. I'll take a look at wireshark

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 3, 2014 10:43 AM in response to todivefor
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    Oct 3, 2014 10:43 AM in response to todivefor

    Touching a file is testing write capability, not just read.

  • by todivefor,

    todivefor todivefor Oct 3, 2014 11:07 AM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 3, 2014 11:07 AM in response to Loner T

    I have never known exactly how TM works.  I can access (touch) the disk that contains the sparsebundle and the contents of the sparse bundle just fine.  I know it as "GoFlex Home Backup" and it contains "TimeMachineBackup" which contains the sparsebundle (PWRMacbookPro.sparsebundle).  However, if I enter TM and cancel, I am left with "Backup of PWRMacBookPro" still mounted which contains "Backups.backupdb" which I cannot touch.

     

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3407584/Screen%20Shot%202014-10-03%20at%201. 54.40%20PM.png

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 3, 2014 1:59 PM in response to todivefor
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    Oct 3, 2014 1:59 PM in response to todivefor

    My suggestion would be to use OS X Terminal on the machine which has problems.

     

    1. cd /Volumes/GoFlex Home Backup

    2. cd TimeMachineBackup

    3. touch x.x

    4. Check if you can see it from the Finder.

  • by todivefor,

    todivefor todivefor Oct 3, 2014 2:47 PM in response to Loner T
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    Oct 3, 2014 2:47 PM in response to Loner T

    PWRMacbookPro:Backup of PWRMacbookPro petersmith$ touch Backups.backupdb

    touch: Backups.backupdb: Read-only file system

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 3, 2014 3:19 PM in response to todivefor
    Level 7 (24,596 points)
    Safari
    Oct 3, 2014 3:19 PM in response to todivefor

    If you are sitting this directory..

     

    1. ls -la Backups.backupdb

    2. cd ..

    3. ls -l

    4 cd ..

    5 ls -l

    6. cd ..

     

    Till you get to /Volumes

     

    Sometimes the  mount point /Volumes itself may have issues.

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