Hi all,
Have been using an SMB share on our FreeNAS-11.3-U5 system for >1yr as destination for -among other things- Time Machine backups from Mac clients on our local network. The SMB share is configured to enable Time Machine backups. After quite a bit of troubleshooting during the setup phase, this has been working fairly well, until now.
Just upgraded two client MacBookPros to macOS Big Sur (11.1), and both have the same issue now: they were each able to complete a first TM backup post-upgrade, but when they attempt to carry out the next scheduled incremental backup, they get stuck indefinitely with the dreaded "Looking for Backup Disk" message, despite the fact that the FreeNAS SMB share is correctly mounted, as confirmed in client's Finder.
If I reboot the Mac client, the next scheduled incremental backup appears to happen correctly (at least sometimes), but it again gets stuck as above for subsequent scheduled incremental ones.
Also, if I stop the scheduled backup and trigger a new one manually, this sometimes works. But the subsequent scheduled auto-incremental backup gets stuck again, as above.
This clearly seems to reflect a change in how Time Machine is accessing/recognizing backup disks under MacOS Big Sur, and as a result, it it not correctly seeing the SMB share on FreeNAS-11.3-U5 specifically when it tries to do so during scheduled automated backups.
Other notes:
Between this and the frankly very troublesome Cloud Sync Tasks involving BOX credentials, we are now seriously reconsidering our (significant) investments in this platform, so any help on the above would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
Chris
Have been using an SMB share on our FreeNAS-11.3-U5 system for >1yr as destination for -among other things- Time Machine backups from Mac clients on our local network. The SMB share is configured to enable Time Machine backups. After quite a bit of troubleshooting during the setup phase, this has been working fairly well, until now.
Just upgraded two client MacBookPros to macOS Big Sur (11.1), and both have the same issue now: they were each able to complete a first TM backup post-upgrade, but when they attempt to carry out the next scheduled incremental backup, they get stuck indefinitely with the dreaded "Looking for Backup Disk" message, despite the fact that the FreeNAS SMB share is correctly mounted, as confirmed in client's Finder.
If I reboot the Mac client, the next scheduled incremental backup appears to happen correctly (at least sometimes), but it again gets stuck as above for subsequent scheduled incremental ones.
Also, if I stop the scheduled backup and trigger a new one manually, this sometimes works. But the subsequent scheduled auto-incremental backup gets stuck again, as above.
This clearly seems to reflect a change in how Time Machine is accessing/recognizing backup disks under MacOS Big Sur, and as a result, it it not correctly seeing the SMB share on FreeNAS-11.3-U5 specifically when it tries to do so during scheduled automated backups.
Other notes:
- the SMB share has been added to the Mac client's Spotlight Privacy panel exclusion list
- the TM backups are not being encrypted (all machines are within firewall LAN)
- have tried mounting the SMB share either via IP address or via its host name on local network: same results in either case.
- I see that TM has been updated with Big Sur to use APFS-formatted disks/volumes, not sure if this matters here?: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh15139/mac
Between this and the frankly very troublesome Cloud Sync Tasks involving BOX credentials, we are now seriously reconsidering our (significant) investments in this platform, so any help on the above would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
Chris
