TIme Machine Backups to Windows/Samba Mount

[swbrenneis]

Hello everyone.

There are some really old threads about this, and I didn't want to necro them.

I have followed all of the steps in setting up the sparse bundle and I get here:

sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/MyBackup

I get this:

/Volumes/MyBackup: Incompatible file system type: smbfs (error 45)
The backup destination could not be set

Well, obviously, the mount is an smbfs file system, but I see people have reported that it should work. Or it should have in 2013. Is there some magic I have to do to either Time Machine or Samba to make this work?

Special note: The Samba server is a Raspberry Pi running Arch Linux. The Samba version is 4.3.1-1.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[JohnDS]

Have you read the page by the Great Pondini, the ultimate Time Machine Guru: http://pondini.org/TM/2.html

 

[NoBoMac]

Have not tried this, but from what I've read on this board, a bit hit/miss.

In your case, you have not mounted the sparse bundle yet? Need to mount the Samba share first (guessing that's your /Volumes/MyBackup). Then need to mount the sparse bundle. Then you can issue the tmutil command against the mounted sparse bundle.

 

[JohnDS]

Try sudo tmutil setdestination "/Volumes/MyBackup"

(It may need the quotes)
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Here is a link that directly addresses the error message you are getting: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/time-machine-backup-to-windows-file-share.1564407/

 

[swbrenneis]

Have not tried this, but from what I've read on this board, a bit hit/miss.

In your case, you have not mounted the sparse bundle yet? Need to mount the Samba share first (guessing that's your /Volumes/MyBackup). Then need to mount the sparse bundle. Then you can issue the tmutil command against the mounted sparse bundle.

Perfect! That did it. I was directly mounting the sparsebundle as MyBackup. I backed up a level on the Samba directory and then mounted the sparsebundle. Thank you so much.

Yes, from what I have read, it isn't even a good idea to count on it between OS upgrades. This is just a fallback option and not a critical backup.

Again, thanks for your help. You rock!
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Have you read the page by the Great Pondini, the ultimate Time Machine Guru: http://pondini.org/TM/2.html

Yes, his advice is not do do it. If this was a critical backup, I wouldn't. This is just a fallback. Thank you for the link.