Making Time Machine work with the ReadyNAS

It's probably good practice to make the name simple, as you say.

Cheers,

Greg

I've been snooping a bit, and as if following your own instructions, Time Machine does indeed create a journaled HFS+ file system -- but with a difference, since it creates a journaled HFS+ *case sensitive* file system. What are the implications of using a .sparebundle file with a presumably case-insensitive file system instead of a case-sensitive one for Time Machine? If the difference is important, how can we replicate it? Judging from the -fs specification in hdiutil, there's only HFS+J or HFSX (case-sensitive), but not HFSX+J.

To be specific, I use the -fs HFS+J specification to create the .sparsebundle file and mount it, Disk Utility shows "Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", but when I let Time Machine create the file, it shows "Format: MacOS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)" :( Is there a difference between the two files? It would really be nice to be able to specify the maximum size!

odysseus wrote:
... it creates a journaled HFS+ *case sensitive* file system. What are the implications of using a .sparebundle file with a presumably case-insensitive file system instead of a case-sensitive one for Time Machine? ...

There may be implications. What this depends upon is how the filesystem of your Mac(s) is configured. If you, for example, back up a Mac with a case-sensitive filesystem to a TimeMachine volume that is case-insensitive, then this can result in situations where files with different names (file vs fiLe) overwrite each other. So, from a TimeMachine perspective it is always safer to use case-sensitive filesystems.

There have been other threads discussing this issue. Do some searching. :) In my case, I always use case-sensitive filesystems. It just avoids any confusion or sloppy behavior.

odysseus wrote:
... Disk Utility shows "Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", but when I let Time Machine create the file, it shows "Format: MacOS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)" :( Is there a difference between the two files?

Yes, there is a difference between the filesystems. If it doesn't say case-sensitive then it's not. But then when the same tool reports two different values, one would understand there to be a difference... it certainly isn't going to report different values for the same filesystem at different times now is it? ;)

odysseus wrote:
It would really be nice to be able to specify the maximum size!

Read through the long TimeMachine thread. There are several examples therein of how to manually create a sparsebundle, including the options to set the maximum size. Heck, I think that even the notes posted in the ReadyNAS blog about this include the size specification in them.

Does anyone know if 10.5.3 stops you being able to use TimeMachine with the ReadyNAS?

Apparently it includes updates to TimeMachine, so I'm thinking it might cause problems. Anyone tried it yet?

Seems to be working for me on 10.5.3. I installed said update earlier this evening. Set up the Time Machine per the step-through without any issues. Time Machine connected to the ReadyNas TM share quickly and for all appearances seems to be working great thus far.

I've got a MacBook Pro and I'm transferring to the ReadyNas via 802.11g so it will take a while. But it is working.

Actually, I'd be more curious if Apple addressed the issue that originally resulted in TM's inability to create the sparsebundle directly on the NAS -- and led to the documentation of the workaround to create the sparsebundle manually. Mind you, we might still choose to create the sparsebundle manually to get a size limit less than the volume capacity... ;)

I'll be upgrading to 10.5.3 sometime today and will be able to report on how it (doesn't) affects my TM installation tonight. :D

Hoping someone can provide some advice as to why i cannot get Time Machine to backup to my ReadyNAS NV+

I have followed all the instructions exactly but when TM begins backup i get the error that the "the backup volume could not be mounted"

i have a .sparsebundle file in an AFP share called 'TMBackup' directory on the readynas. My spare bundle is called 'macpro_0017f20101dc.sparsebundle' which matches my host name and ethernet ID.

any ideas please?

btaroli wrote:
Actually, I'd be more curious if Apple addressed the issue that originally resulted in TM's inability to create the sparsebundle directly on the NAS -- and led to the documentation of the workaround to create the sparsebundle manually. Mind you, we might still choose to create the sparsebundle manually to get a size limit less than the volume capacity... ;)

No. The sparsebundle gets created (I can see it on the share), but the backup still fails with "The backup disk image could not be created."