Unreliable SMB Shares on TrueNAS 12.0-U6 and Mac Ecosystem (inlcuding Time Machine)

[PhoenixMike]

Hello Everyone,

I have recently gotten my FreeNAS 11.3 server back up and running and upgraded to TrueNAS 12.0-U6 thanks to a tip from @Samuel Tai - thank you again!

I am having problems reliably accessing my data using SMB shares on Mac computers (only devices I use on this network).

I am able to access the TrueNAS GUI using the IP address of the server - 100% of the time. Wired or Wireless. Regardless of the NAS is showing up on the network automatically, or not.

At times, usually following a reboot of either the NAS or the individual MACs, (about 15% of the time) the NAS shows up in my network under smb://truenas._smb._tcp.local) . So I know it CAN work properly. When this happens, the computers connect automatically and Time Machine sees the Time Machine SMB Shares as an available drive for backup. Then, it will be working and then without warning completely disappear from the network panel, or give errors of "Connection Failed".

I have begun to connect to it directly using smb://<TrueNAS IP> which seems to work, however, the Time Machine will not initialize in this way and so it does not work reliably.

NAS, Computer, & Network Specs:

• Motherboard : SuperMicro X11SM-F
• Bios : v2.5
• System : TrueNAS 12.0-U6
• Memory : 32768MB (reported in bios) / speed : 2133MHZ
• Boot Drive : Transcend 64GB SSD SATA (TS64GSSD370S) in MB Slot - SATA0
• HD : WD 4TB, QTY 7, RAID Configuration UNKN (sorry)
• HD Controller & Network - Onboard to MB - MB Specs : https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/X11SSM-F
• MAC Computers : MacBook Pros running both High Sierra, Big Sur, & Monterey OS.
• Network connectivity of MACs : Both Hardwired & WiFi

I have scoured the forums to get ideas on how to troubleshoot before bringing the issue to the group here. I thank everyone in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide.

Solutions Attempted :

• Rebooting NAS, Computers, Network multiple times (15% of the time this resolves the issue for (a limited) period of time)
• Ping NAS IP to make sure it is connected to network (100% reliability)
• Editing ACL Permissions
  • Tried Stripping and Reapplying ACL Info
  • Tried Deleting completely (several times) the SMBs, the Users/Groups, and the Time Machine Datasets - I cannot delete the main dataset as it has data within it.
  • Tried adding an Auxiliary Parameter of vfs objects = fruit streams_xattr based on a suggestion I read, and this worked intermittenly
• Rebooting SMB Service (several times)
  • Obviously when SMB is off, I cannot connect via IP address, when restored, so is functionality - but only if connecting via IP address not smb://truenas._smb._tcp.local) and still no Time Machine access.

Troubleshooting Information :

My pool nas_files was created in FreeNAS and I cannot figure out how to change the SHARE TYPE from Generic to SMB like I can with a new DataSet.

Pool Configuration :

Main nas_files ACL Configurations :

• These permissions were applied recursively and to child datasets.

 

[Samuel Tai]

What specific wireless networking do you use? eero mesh is known to interoperate badly with TrueNAS, due to a firmware bug on the eero which won't be fixed.

 

[PhoenixMike]

Time Machine ACL Pool Configurations :

SMB Configurations :

NAS Files :

Time Machine :

 

[PhoenixMike]

Time Machine ACL Pool Configurations :

1st Time Machine User :

View attachment 50476
View attachment 50477

2nd Time Machine User :

View attachment 50478
View attachment 50479


SMB Configurations :

NAS Files :
View attachment 50480

Time Machine (Users 1&2) :

View attachment 50481
View attachment 50482

Thank you all in advance for your time in reading and answering and your knowledge and expertise to help me resolve these issues.

My assumption is it is a very simple issue and once worked out, will work consistently.

In Gratitude,
PhoenixMike

 

[PhoenixMike]

What specific wireless networking do you use? eero mesh is known to interoperate badly with TrueNAS, due to a firmware bug on the eero which won't be fixed.

Spectrum Router for WiFi and Ethernet -

Issue persists on both WiFi and Ethernet Connection.

Thanks in Advance!

 

[Samuel Tai]

Can you screen shot your Network->Global Configuration? Specifically, is mDNS enabled?

Also, in the router's firewall settings, make sure it's not blocking multicast.

 

[PhoenixMike]

It appears mDNS is enabled.

I have limited access to the router's internal settings since it is a rented piece of hardware from my ISP.

I will contact their tech support and see if there is some way for me to get more access to it, or have them enable multicast. Would that lead to an intermittent issue?

Thanks in Advance!

Can you screen shot your Network->Global Configuration? Specifically, is mDNS enabled?

Also, in the router's firewall settings, make sure it's not blocking multicast.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Just curious why you are not using a separate SMB share configured for multi-user Time Machine?

 

[Samuel Tai]

Can you set your server to use a static IP, gateway, and DNS settings, instead of using DHCP from the router? I suspect the router is using a very short duration for the IP assignments, and when the server is renewing corresponds to when you see dropouts.

 

[X3n0n]

I'm a mac user and I get this problem every time I reboot truenas.
I have to disable mDNS (or WSDiscovery or both I can't remember), save, and re enable it, save. (Network, global config)

Truenas become visible immeditely on Finder, no mac reboot needed.

I can reboot my macs then and it still works.

 

[anodos]

Are there jails (or apps) enabled and/or running separate mDNS stack inside them.... this can have deleterious impact on discoverability through mDNS.
And of course, I am strongly against using auxiliary parameters for setting overrides for SMB shares :)

 

[PhoenixMike]

Just curious why you are not using a separate SMB share configured for multi-user Time Machine?



View attachment 50499

Good Question - I should have stated in my troubleshooting section - that this was one of the settings I had previously tried to no avail and the one I posted was just the current one.

 

[PhoenixMike]

I'm a mac user and I get this problem every time I reboot truenas.
I have to disable mDNS (or WSDiscovery or both I can't remember), save, and re enable it, save. (Network, global config)

Truenas become visible immeditely on Finder, no mac reboot needed.

I can reboot my macs then and it still works.

THANKS!

This resolved the issue. I will check back in and let the group know if this continues to resolve the issue and if so, in 1 week will mark this thread as SOLVED.

 

[PhoenixMike]

Are there jails (or apps) enabled and/or running separate mDNS stack inside them.... this can have deleterious impact on discoverability through mDNS.
And of course, I am strongly against using auxiliary parameters for setting overrides for SMB shares :)

No other jails or apps running mDNS stacks. Thanks for the tip and I will be cautious of those configurations going forward.

Now that the TM seems to be working, I will reconfigure it without the Auxiliary Parameter per your advice and let everyone know if that works.

THANKS EVERYONE!

 

[PhoenixMike]

Just curious why you are not using a separate SMB share configured for multi-user Time Machine?



View attachment 50499

I have reconfigured my TM SMB shares to this configuration (except I also enabled Use Apple-style Character Encoding ) and removed the Aux Params. as recommended by @anodos. Thanks, everyone.

 

[PhoenixMike]

Can you set your server to use a static IP, gateway, and DNS settings, instead of using DHCP from the router? I suspect the router is using a very short duration for the IP assignments, and when the server is renewing corresponds to when you see dropouts.

I will need to do this anyway so that I can configure OpenVPN and other services. Thanks for the suggestion!