timemachine backup keeps disconnecting

[apandey]

I am trying to setup timemachine backups for my macbook and mac desktop

 

I created a timemachine share on unraid, and set things up. The backup starts, then runs for a while, and eventually fails midway with error suggesting that backup disk was disconnected or ejected. I know the connectivity between the 2 systems is working because I also have a file sync going on at same time using chronosync that continues to do its job

 

On the mac end, I see following in timemachine logs around the time of failure:

2022-12-29 19:31:10  Failure to copy '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/GigaMacPro/2022-12-29-190646/GigaMacPro - Data/Users/Ashish/VirtualBox VMs/Win10Work/Win10Work.vhd' to '/Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro/2022-12-29-190651.inprogress/GigaMacPro - Data/Users/Ashish/VirtualBox VMs/Win10Work', error: -36, srcErr: NO
2022-12-29 19:31:11  Cancelling backup because volume '/Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro' was unmounted.
2022-12-29 19:31:11  Requested backup cancellation or termination
2022-12-29 19:31:11  Found disk10s1 41504653-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Failed to determine disk image URL for volume '/Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro', error: 2 No such file or directory
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Failed item stats: l:12.36 GB p:12.36 GB c:1, Target Volume Total: 995937443840, Target Volume Free Space: 0
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Fatal failure to copy '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/GigaMacPro/2022-12-29-190646/GigaMacPro - Data/Users/Ashish/VirtualBox VMs/Win10Work/Win10Work.vhd' to '/Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro/2022-12-29-190651.inprogress/GigaMacPro - Data/Users/Ashish/VirtualBox VMs/Win10Work', error: -8062, srcErr: NO
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Couldn't resolve checkpoint file!
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Failed finding checkpoint marker for directory at /Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro/2022-12-29-190651.inprogress/GigaMacPro - Data/Users/Ashish/VirtualBox VMs/Win10Work error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 "No such file or directory"
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Failed to set string value '2022-12-29-193112,3,540672,540672,2,0,0,0' for extended attribute 'com.apple.timemachine.private.directorycompletiondate' on '/Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro/2022-12-29-190651.inprogress/GigaMacPro - Data/Users/Ashish/VirtualBox VMs/Win10Work', error: 2 No such file or directory
<........ lots of above errors about no such file repeated .........>
2022-12-29 19:31:12  '/Volumes/gigamac' does not support SMB FullFSync
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Failed to create volume info from disk '<TMDisk: 0x7fe60980a000> '/System/Volumes/Data/home'', error: missingURLForRemounting
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Failed copy from volume "GigaMacPro - Data"
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Copy stage failed with error: Error Domain=com.apple.backupd.ErrorDomain Code=11 "(null)" UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x7f93440db180 {Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-8062 "(null)"}, MessageParameters=(
2022-12-29 19:31:12  Found disk10s1 41504653-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Unmounted '/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/GigaMacPro/2022-12-29-190646/GigaMacPro - Data'
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Unmounted local snapshot: com.apple.TimeMachine.2022-12-29-190646.local at path: /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/GigaMacPro/2022-12-29-190646/GigaMacPro - Data source: GigaMacPro - Data
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Failed to enumerate instances of structure APFSBackup under path /Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Failed to enumerate URLs under /Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro for SnapshotInProgressContainer reuse with error Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=260 "The file “Backups of GigaMacPro” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file." UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Volumes/Backups%20of%20GigaMacPro/, NSFilePath=/Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro, NSUnderlyingError=0x7f9370369390 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 "No such file or directory"}}
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Failed to enumerate instances of structure ReadOnlyBackup under path /Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro, error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=260 "The file “Backups of GigaMacPro” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file." UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Volumes/Backups%20of%20GigaMacPro/, NSFilePath=/Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro, NSUnderlyingError=0x7f9370394880 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 "No such file or directory"}}
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Backup failed because the destination disk was ejected or disconnected unexpectedly!
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Failed to get capacity in use for '/Volumes/Backups of GigaMacPro', error: -69810
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Backup failed (27: BACKUP_FAILED_DISK_INTERRUPTION - The connection to the backup disk was interrupted.)
2022-12-29 19:31:23  Cleared pending cancellation request

 

When a backup is running fine (and progress showing on data transferred), the following errors keep repeating in timemachine logs:

2022-12-29 19:23:08  com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid
2022-12-29 19:23:36  '/Volumes/gigamac' does not support SMB FullFSync
2022-12-29 19:23:36  Failed to get name of volume with mountpoint 'file:///Volumes/.timemachine/192.168.10.215/7AD3CBA8-93FA-4630-94EB-FDD6CC84D545/timemachine/', error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=257 "The file “timemachine” couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it." UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Volumes/.timemachine/192.168.10.215/7AD3CBA8-93FA-4630-94EB-FDD6CC84D545/timemachine/, NSFilePath=/Volumes/.timemachine/192.168.10.215/7AD3CBA8-93FA-4630-94EB-FDD6CC84D545/timemachine, NSUnderlyingError=0x6000036a2790 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=13 "Permission denied"}}
2022-12-29 19:23:36  Failed to get name of volume with mountpoint 'file:///Volumes/.timemachine/192.168.10.215/7AD3CBA8-93FA-4630-94EB-FDD6CC84D545/timemachine/', error: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=257 "The file “timemachine” couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it." UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Volumes/.timemachine/192.168.10.215/7AD3CBA8-93FA-4630-94EB-FDD6CC84D545/timemachine/, NSFilePath=/Volumes/.timemachine/192.168.10.215/7AD3CBA8-93FA-4630-94EB-FDD6CC84D545/timemachine, NSUnderlyingError=0x6000036a22b0 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=13 "Permission denied"}}
2022-12-29 19:23:36  Failed to create volume info from disk '<TMDisk: 0x7fe60888d200> '/Volumes/.timemachine/192.168.10.215/7AD3CBA8-93FA-4630-94EB-FDD6CC84D545/timemachine'', error: missingName
2022-12-29 19:23:36  Failed to create volume info from disk '<TMDisk: 0x7fe608888c00> '/System/Volumes/Data/home'', error: missingURLForRemounting
2022-12-29 19:23:40  com.apple.backupd.sandbox.xpc: connection invalid

 

on unraid side, I don't see a correlating error message at same time. I only see the following come up occasionally in syslog, but this is not at the time of TM backup failure

Dec 29 18:56:18 Godaam  smbd[22840]:   smb2_validate_sequence_number: smb2_validate_sequence_number: bad message_id 12 (sequence id 12) (granted = 1, low = 0, range = 1)
Dec 29 19:09:13 Godaam kernel: traps: lsof[10370] general protection fault ip:14b3ad4b84ee sp:e7436549d3fd73f3 error:0 in libc-2.36.so[14b3ad4a0000+16b000]
Dec 29 19:09:13 Godaam kernel: traps: lsof[10374] general protection fault ip:1486070854ee sp:7f557bbe9e87e00a error:0
Dec 29 19:09:13 Godaam kernel: 
Dec 29 19:09:13 Godaam kernel: in libc-2.36.so[14860706d000+16b000]

 

the transfers are over a point-to-point 10GbE link between the mac and unraid. mellanox CX3 pro card on unraid end, solarflare S6102 on mac end, connected via a FS.com generic SFP+ DAC. I can get stable 9GbE+ throughput via iperf on this link, and since my chronosync backup isn't interrupted, the link doesn't seem like the root cause for now. Still, I am not ruling this out - I just don't know how to properly troubleshoot

 

unraid Diagnostics attached. last failure around 19:23 timestamp

 

 

godaam-diagnostics-20221229-1938.zip

[nsal1]

Just chiming in to say I am having a very similar issue and I am hoping someone chimes in with a solution.

[colorao]

I've just faced similar problem:

10Gb QLogic on the Unraid side and QNAP thunderbot to SFP adapter on the MacBookPro.

Timemachine started, but it never completed the 1st backup.

 

Switched back to ethernet cable connection and everything went ok again....

Why? No idea

[apandey]

In my case, I got distracted with other stuff and parked this issue for a while. It eventually finished first backup and from there on incremental backups have been smooth. So whatever it was, it seems to only affect initial backup. The network interface itself is stable, I can transfer large amounts of non-timemachine data without any interruptions

 

Anyway, it's mysteriously fixed and is no longer an issue for me, so I'll mark this solved

[colorao]

As you commented, my SFP connection was stable and I did transfer huge data with no problem.

And yesterday night the 1st backup failed again even with RJ45 ethernet cable.

 

My problems started after upgrading both Unraid (to 6.11.5) and MacOS (to Ventura 13). Before, it worked like a charm.

But I believe that is it related to the MacOS side.

 

I've been a Mac user for years, but I'm really bored of the newer OS versions.

[colorao]

After several days struggling with this problem, yesterday night I finally was able to complete the 1st backup !!

So my sad history is :

 

Catalina + RJ45 1G + Unraid 6.9 + TM Share = TM OK

Ventura + SFP 10G + Unraid 6.11 + TM Share = TM Error

Ventura + RJ45 1G + Unraid 6.11 + TM Share = TM Error

Ventura + RJ45 1G + Unraid 6.11 + TM Docker = TM OK (after several trials)

 

It is really odd how the SFP connection always failed, but the RJ45 worked better ¿?

And also the Docker image worked better than the classical TM share.

Why? No idea

 

Worths having a look to this thread:

 

[nsal1]

I ended up using the Docker image as well and now it's finally working. I would have preferred to just use a share but at least it's working now.

[colorao]

Problems came again

After several days working fine, it stopped working

Ventura + RJ45 1G + Unraid 6.11 + TM Docker = Error

 

Manual or automated TM backups failed for more than a week....

 

BUT, yesterday, I unplugged the ethernet cable, went WIFI and... IT WORKED

So, as for now, it seems to me the there is "something" on the cable lan side that crashes the backups at around 64%

 

Micro cuts?

Does it makes sense?

 

 

[murkus]

I had given up on it half a year ago, after upgrading to 6.11. it was broken, so I thought. I gave it a shot now with 6.12.2 with what I think made the substantial difference: I now use a "disk share" instead of a regular "user share". Disk shares may not yet be enabled on your unraid installation and this can be done in "Global share settings". The disk share has a size limit for timemachine. I don't see any substantial drawbacks of using a disk share as compared to a user share, if you plan to have you macOS backups all on one disk anyway. The SHFS user file system turns out to come with a lot of performance overhead and I have stopped using it for any shares for backup solutions.

 

I am using the unraid TimeMachine that is included with the OS, not the TimeMachine container. I had tried the container in the past and that was also not successful for me.

 

TimeMachine now is not perfect, but it works: The inital backup stopped like 4-5 times and I had to restart it. The whole process took 2-3 days until the initial backup did conclude successfully. Starting new differential backups works fine.

 

I don't know yet whether the verification will be successful, as it is currently running. If it fails I will provide an update here.