[6.10] TimeMachine backups continue to fail "failed to attach using diskimages2" "operation not supported by device"

I was annoyed by this problem.
Since we already have two more versions after unRaid 6.9, I tried 6.11.1.
But before that I deleted the old sparsebundle and started a new backup.
Mac on 13.0 Ventura.
Now it works.

Crap, I am in the same situation, deleted everything and still don;t work.  I need to add this line and see if it makes a diference

 

fruit:metadata = stream

1 minute ago, johnwhicker said:

Crap, I am in the same situation, deleted everything and still don;t work.  I need to add this line and see if it makes a diference

 

Same here! Still not working…

Please let us know if adding that line helps for you. Thx!

Well the question is where exactly do I add this line?  What file do I need to edit?

I would either try in the custom settings field in SMB options or like this: 

But I have no idea, if that helps…

 

Edit: I‘ve added

fruit:metadata = stream 

to /boot/config/smb-fruit.conf and restarted samba. (Entering „samba restart“ is not enough for reloading the configuration, I needed to restart the array.)

 

I can confirm that now Timemachine picked up my initial backup. This was not possible without „fruit:metadata = stream“.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Simon Edelmann
Adding information

Yes, i forget to tell that my SMB Extras has the option:

[Global]
   fruit:metadata = stream

 

I thought I'd update this thread from my perspective, since it is really weird behavior in my case.

I tried basically anything of the suggestions from this thread except for a mac reinstall. In the end I left the metadata=stream in there and simply gave up but left the network folder in the TimeMachine Settings. It was always the behavior that the first backup would work but then no more.

Several weeks later it magically started working and did a second backup. I checked version of mac and Unraid but neither of those had changed, so no explanation at all I could come up with. From there it worked for like 2 weeks without any issues, before stopping again for about 5 days. Just now for a reason I simply don't understand, it started a backup and seems to work flawlessly again even with the new mac version Ventura installed 3 days ago but not right after that update, so again seems unrelated.

 

So at least for me, the metadata=stream is in there and helps but only kind of 😄  Still I would love to understand the issue. Was guessing maybe something to do with the connection speed to the NAS but it seems unrelated to anything from weak WIFI to 10Gbps LAN.

That's my thoughts or updates on this. Would love to hear if anybody else experiences something similar.

@Jonny13 Kind of the same for me. The first backup was completed successfully just now, after I've added metadata=stream. But incremental backups don't start. 

I think it was the exact same behavior with MacOS 12 and Unraid 6.10 a few weeks ago. (I then stopped Time Machine backups, so I can't tell if there would have been some magically working backups in between.)

 

Edit: With metadata = stream I now have this issue as well: 

As soon as I manually start the backup, the log is getting flooded. (Only occurs with Time Machine backups. Accessing other files is fine...) 

Edit 2: I was wrong... after adding metadata = stream, the logs are getting flooded for every file accessed...

Edit 3: In the other thread there was a suggested workaround (logging = 0). Logs are clean again... still Time Machine not working...

Edited October 27, 2022 by Simon Edelmann
Adding more information

Absolutely strange.

In my case the incremental backups are working as well.

Why have some people these issues and others don't. 🤯

Another update:

I now had the same magically working incremental backup as @Jonny13. After rebooting the NAS, I manually started the incremental backup and it worked... but only once! Now backups are failing again... 

 

@limetech I've attached the diagnostic file. If there is anything I can help with for debugging this issue, please let me know.

nas-diagnostics-20221027-2223.zip

Edited October 27, 2022 by Simon Edelmann

And one more update:

I had incremental updates working from October 27th to November 10th. After Nov. 10th no more working backups...

I did change nothing... no Mac updates, no Unraid updates, not even a reboot... very strange.

Hello there!

not sure if anyone is still reading here, but today I took another attempt to fix TimeMachine with Unraid and I got my incremental backup working again. I compared the active smb setting from Unraid and the docker-timemachine container and noticed a few differences, which I then tried one by one until I was able to identify a working configuration:

 

### SETTINGS / SMB Settings ###

Enable SMB:	YES (Workgroup)
Hide "dot" files: No
Enable SMB Multi Channel: Yes
Enhanced macOS interoperability: Yes
Enable NetBIOS: No
Enable WSD: Yes

### SETTINGS / SMB Extra / Samba extra configuration ###

logging = 0 	#Workaround for log file bug

### /boot/config/smb-fruit.conf ###

vfs objects = acl_xattr fruit streams_xattr
fruit:encoding = native
fruit:metadata = stream
fruit:posix_rename = yes

 

Edit: This morning the incremental backup failed again with "Device not supported". After stopping+restarting the array it worked... no configuration changed...

Edited December 4, 2022 by Simon Edelmann

Have you guys had any success with any of the more recent versions?  I just tried 6.11.5 stable and had to revert again to 6.9.2 to get my Time Machine backups working as they had for a decade.  I had issues at 6.10.3, downgraded, then tried 6.11.5, and had to downgrade again.   Under 6.11.5 I was able to get the initial backup to work once (deleting my sparsebundle) even though I did not want to do that, but the incrementals failed, so eventually I went back and am hoping they finally resolve this once and for all without any necessary tweaks except having the share be a timemachine share. 

Still no luck. I tried the following on 6.12-rc3 with macOS 13.3.1. I added these settings to /boot/config/smb-fruit.conf and did an array stop and start each time. I checked /etc/samba/smb-shares.conf to confirm the settings were applied each time. 

No luck, from 

vfs objects = acl_xattr fruit streams_xattr
fruit:encoding = native
fruit:metadata = stream
fruit:posix_rename = yes

 

No luck, from 

 

 

vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr
fruit:encoding = native
fruit:metadata = stream
fruit:posix_rename = yes

No luck, from https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Configure_Samba_to_Work_Better_with_Mac_OS_X

 

vfs objects = fruit streams_xattr  
fruit:metadata = stream
fruit:model = MacSamba
fruit:posix_rename = yes 
fruit:veto_appledouble = no
fruit:nfs_aces = no
fruit:wipe_intentionally_left_blank_rfork = yes 
fruit:delete_empty_adfiles = yes 

In all cases, I can't mount the sparsebundle, the Time Machine backup does not complete, etc. 

Back to 6.9.2 🤦‍♀️

Edit: One more note, since I only saw one comment on this that I now can't find. https://www.samba.org/samba/security/CVE-2021-44142.html versions of Samba prior to 4.13.17 had a vulnerability if the use of vfs_fruit and fruit:metadata=netatalk or fruit:resource=file. Considering 6.9.2 used Samba 4.12.14, it was affected by this, and it's possible the fix has affected functionality. 

Edited April 15, 2023 by kubed_zero
Note about a CVE

Same for me (with 6.11.5, haven‘t tried 6.12 yet), which makes me think it is actually not an issue of configuration.

 

Has anybody ever tried the workaround I posted here? As it sounds so strange, I wonder if this is actually related to the issues with TimeMachine. However that workaround has worked so far…

I wanted to update to say I've gotten things semi-reliably working. I'm using macOS Ventura 13.4.1 and macOS Sonoma 14 Public Beta 1, connecting to Unraid 6.12.3. On Unraid, the only modification I made was to add the typical recommendation to the SMB Extra settings in the Unraid Settings>SMB>Samba extra configuration:

[Global]
fruit:metadata = stream

I created a new Share and started new Time Machine backups, which succeeded. Incremental backups work more reliably from some Macs than others. Rebooting the Mac won't help get it working again. Part of what I think has helped is to make sure the Mac is the first thing to connect to Unraid after a reboot. AKA if I get the typical failure to connect to Time Machine to back up, I

 

• Reboot Unraid
• Run the TM backup or just connect to Unraid from the Mac, before any Windows computer gets a chance
• Run the backup, hopefully succeeding

 

It seems to me that the key is making sure the Mac is the first device to connect to Samba, and ensuring the fruit:metadata = stream customization is present. I haven't found any of the other smb-fruit config options to affect the ability to back up. 

  

I have Time Machine fully working on Unraid 6.12.3 and macOS Ventura 13.5.1, and wanted to make sure the historical threads were updated with what my solution ended up being. Adding to both the SMB Extras global settings AND the smb-fruit settings ended up being necessary.

On 8/14/2022 at 11:31 PM, Oldbean57 said:

 

I added this to my SMB Extras section...

 

[Global]
fruit:metadata = stream

 

... and I'm very happy to say that my Time Machine backups have resumed working (same MacOS devices, no other changes on their side).

 

The fix is repeatable (remove the section, they break, put it back in and they work again).

 

 

I wonder if you could test just adding this one line to your SMB Extras section please @saber1?

 

I confirm that adding this line to my smb config on 6.11.5 solved! (so far) my TimeMachine reoccurring problem. Initial worked but then kept saying either 0KB available or Preparing then Stopping. Nothing helped so far, but this.

Well, it was too early.. Worked only once, never since even after upgradeing to latest 6.12.6 :((

1 hour ago, gombihu said:

Well, it was too early.. Worked only once, never since even after upgradeing to latest 6.12.6 :((

@gombihu see my post from above. Its instructions are working for me right now on 6.12.6. You missed a step with the fruit file. Good luck!

On 8/18/2022 at 2:34 AM, 54lzy said:

 

Adding "fruit:metadata = stream" to my SMB extras (as my only SMB extra) fixed my issue. Thank you for your help Oldbean56!

 

On 10/27/2022 at 4:42 PM, DivideBy0 said:

Crap, I am in the same situation, deleted everything and still don;t work.  I need to add this line and see if it makes a diference

 

fruit:metadata = stream

 

worked for me as well