Config time machine server to create folder backups, not sparsebundles?

I just upgraded to OS X Lion server. It has two hard drives, an OS X drive and a fileshare drive.
Two of my macs connecting to OS X Lion are on Lion, one is on Snow Leopard. The Server is connected via ethernet to the network, as is one of the 3 macs. The other two are connected wirelessly.
When I turn on the time machine service for all 3 macs, Lion Server creates the backup dirctory on the fileshare hard drive with no problem. The Macs can all see the backup directory and backup with no issues.
However, I expected the backups to be file directories (like a time capsule), but got sparsebundles. Is there anyway to configure Lion Server to backup to a directory structure (e.g., backups > backup date > folders) vs. sparsebundles?

@camelot I'm basically trying to use a central server to backup all content on my network, including TM backups. If I have a fire or theft and lose everything, I can grab the TM backups from CP, copy them down to several hard drives, and restore to new macs.
Given all non-connected backups are sparsebundles, I will just turn TM off on each machine and then use applescript to open all the bundles on the server. Once opened, will use applescript to copy the contents to the fileshare and let crashplan upload them over the next week or so. Then once it's done I can setup a schedule to do it again on a every week or 2 week basis. Going forward, CP will recognize the duplicate files and just grab the new files from backups from the past period for all the TM sparsebundles.
@camelot thanks again for the helpful reply.

Similar Messages

Installed GoFlex 1.5 TB external drive on my iMac running OS X 10.7.4 and error says Time Machine can't create a backup folder. Any solutions?

Installed GoFlex 1.5 TB external drive on my iMac running OS X 10.7.4 and error says Time Machine can't create a backup folder. Any solutions?

Well, to unmount the drive, you can use the Terminal application.
Start in Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
When the Terminal window opens, type - without the quotes and with the space at the end - this:
"diskutil unmount "
Then drag the icon of the unmounted drive from the desktop into the Terminal window - the drive location will be added to the end of the command above. It should look something like this:
diskutil unmount /Volumes/volumename
Then press enter (return).
That should unmount the drive. Now you can try the Time Machine process again with perhaps a different interconnect cable for the GoFlex.

Lion's Time Machine - Can't create a backup?

Time Machine can't make a backup... I even went ahead and wiped out the drive and tried to create a new backup.
All it says is that it couldn't complete the backup and to try later as it might only be temporary.
This is critical for me and a not at all light in importance. Had I known this along all the other issues with Lion existed I wouldn't have upgraded. For now I am keeping my MBP safe from Lion...
I guess I just have to suffer the damage on my 27" IMAC..
I would use a BR Disk to do a back up of my files, but NO.... MACs don't support Blu-Ray disk drives, STILL!!
Apple you need to fix this and other issues.

Apple's ingenuity in their advances can be hailed by millions as I myself give them credit where credit is due, such as devices like the iPad and iPhone/iPod. But when a company only bothers to alert you to a couple of apps that Lion can't run and moves them to a folder for the user to delete or update but leaves devices and other industry standard software packages rendered useless with no warning when they have extensively tested their OS against 3rd party manufactured devices and software, whom they are partnered with, then yes they can share in the blame just as Microsoft takes the blame for operating systems that do the same such as VISTA.
I am sure that with enough time all of the 3rd party companies will undoubtedly get on board at some cost that will get pushed down to the end users. They will either update, upgrade or conform.
Apples mentality in the past hurt their stock prices, they used to only use their own Risc based processors and they refused to adapt and incorporate to the needs of their users desires for better faster chipsets and industry software such as Office. They adapted!
Refusing to incorporate the ability to use Blu-Ray technologies when companies such as Pioneer,LG, and Cyberlink are prepared to release the software for the Mac, Apple just has to give the go ahead, then yes, its their fault again. The industry in general isn't blind, they have a reason. Manufacturers want to create things that work with Apples Operating system and do, but they aren't allowed to release it without approval from Apple. They need Apple's support and acceptance for something like Blu-Ray to make it. Otherwise its just another hack and shunned by any cautious person that wants to make sure that their purchase won't cause them more problems than its worth. Blu-Ray is a matter of licensing and a major reason that Microsoft won't incorporate it into their own media player, but they leave it up to 3rd party software companies to absorb that cost and create their own players that can play back Blu-Ray movies within the Windows platform. Apple wants to keep Blu-Ray off of their machines as they can't obtain an exclusive license to the codec for Blu-Ray movies for Quicktime. The same mentality that they had before with their processors. So even the ability to read and write to the medium is out of the question.

Can Anyone Tell Me Why Time Machine Won't Create A BackUp Folder for a Programed Backup?

Does anyone know why my Time Machine is NOT creating a backup folder on and regular scheduled backup? Just recently I downloaded the Time Machine Editor and it said to turn off the regular Time Machine (ON/OFF) switch, and just run off the TM Editor. However, at 1am in the morning, it comes up with the error saying it can't create a Backup Folder. I'm sure this is a simple solution but I really don't know how to handle this... Would appreciate any and all help in this matter... Thanks, Gary

Were you already backing up with Time Machine - ie, did you have an existing backup folder on the drive before you started using Time Machine Editor? If not, you probably need to do at least one full backup with TM, and then start using TME to schedule backups.
Matt

Time machine - unable to create folder

Problem with the ability to create a new folder. Time Machine would not run.
Examined the folders on the backup disk and was unable to delete an alias folder pointing to the most recent attempt to do a backup.
I turned Time Machime off. Ejected the backup disc. Turned it off. Started it back up. Deleted the alias folder along with the folder it pointed to, i.e., the most recent attempt to do a backup.
Selected do a backup now. After completing the successful backup, I reenabled backups to take place in the background as usual.

When I open the 2 TB hard drive used exclusively for Time Machine backups, there are only folders, each with a time stamp title. When the latest folder and its alias were deleted, all was well.

HT201250 Time Machine: How to create a backup at one moment and keep it forever?

Hello, friends,
When I'm about to install something on my Mac, I'd like to create a backup with Time Machine, so I could simply restore it in case something goes wrong.
I know Time Machine saves only hourly/daily/monthly backups, but can I do a "backup now", so this moment with show when I Enter Time Machine?
Thanks!

dpc_apple wrote:
... can I do a "backup now", so this moment with show when I Enter Time Machine?
That is not how TM works.
How Time Machine Works its Magic
Follow clintonfrombirmingham Advise.
Time Machine vs. Clones and Archives

Time machine issues - ejecting time machine server volumes and slow backups

i've got 2 client machines set up to back up using the OS X 10.5 Server - problem is one is a laptop and therefore needs to be disconnected from the office network frequently. Time Machine doesn't seem to want to let go of the Server drive at all - just won't unmount. Any ideas on this?
In addition, if a backup is running and then interrupted, the next backup runs at absurdly slow speeds. Is there any way to remedy this?
Also, are there any good resources on Time Machine out there? the Apple docs are pretty paltry, and although I understand that its operation is supposed to be dead simple, it would be good to understand how it thinks a bit so as to be able to troubleshoot problems like the ones described above.
thanks in advance
david

Sparsebundle in use is well known..
Look at C12 and C17 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Lion and TC is a network nightmare.
Reboot the TC on a daily basis might help.

Time Machine repeatedly "must create new backup"...

Hi there - I have a fairly specific problem:
After replacing my 1TB HD at Apple's suggestion, I was able to successfully restore my data from Time Machine backup which resides in a Synology NAS (DS210j to be precise). So far, so good.
After about 3 days of use, I get a pop-up message from Time Machine stating that it has completed a verification of my backup and concluded that it must make a new, full backup. This then wipes my entire history of Time Machine back-ups and then proceeds over another 3 days to complete another backup.
So far, still reasonably good.
The problem is that after the 2nd full cycle of this (ie. full backup, verify fail, full backup required etc), the message continues to recur.
I have read through Pondini's FAQ (esp. C13) and I am still at a loss because my set-up (TM via NAS) has been stable up to this point and I had more than 1.5 years worth of Time Machine back-ups until the fateful day when I replaced my iMac hard drive.
I have tried to address as many of Pondini's suggested reasons as to why C13 might recur (including rechecking power supply etc) but am at a loss because the set up was working before and nothing has changed other than the replacement of the hard drive in the iMac...
One of the things I have tried is to check my computer name via System Prefs -> Sharing and noted that my Computer Name is the same as before the backups but "Computers on your local network can access your computer at: XXX-2 (i.e. a duplicate)". So I have now edited this to make this the same as the computer name (to remove the potentially offending -2).
I also downloaded TM Buddy and wanted to post the following the log:
Starting automatic backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Time Machine using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Runtime corruption detected on /Volumes/Time Machine/XXX.sparsebundle (fsck_hfs -q termination status: 3)
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine
Recovery backup declined by user.
Backup canceled.
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Time Machine using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Forcing the backup image to mount read-only because it failed verification or is immutable
Disk image /Volumes/Time Machine/XXX.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Starting manual backup
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine
Recovery backup declined by user.
Backup canceled.
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Time Machine (FSVolumeRefNum: -126; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
I am running OS X 10.8.2 on a 2.93 GHz Core i7 27-inch iMac (mid 2010)
Anyone have any suggestions?
I am in the process of reformating the Time Machine back-up disk (i.e. the drive in my NAS) and trying the full backup again but thought I would ask here in the meantime since it's going to take 3 days or so to complete that anyway...
Any help appreciated.

Hi there - I have a fairly specific problem:
After replacing my 1TB HD at Apple's suggestion, I was able to successfully restore my data from Time Machine backup which resides in a Synology NAS (DS210j to be precise). So far, so good.
After about 3 days of use, I get a pop-up message from Time Machine stating that it has completed a verification of my backup and concluded that it must make a new, full backup. This then wipes my entire history of Time Machine back-ups and then proceeds over another 3 days to complete another backup.
So far, still reasonably good.
The problem is that after the 2nd full cycle of this (ie. full backup, verify fail, full backup required etc), the message continues to recur.
I have read through Pondini's FAQ (esp. C13) and I am still at a loss because my set-up (TM via NAS) has been stable up to this point and I had more than 1.5 years worth of Time Machine back-ups until the fateful day when I replaced my iMac hard drive.
I have tried to address as many of Pondini's suggested reasons as to why C13 might recur (including rechecking power supply etc) but am at a loss because the set up was working before and nothing has changed other than the replacement of the hard drive in the iMac...
One of the things I have tried is to check my computer name via System Prefs -> Sharing and noted that my Computer Name is the same as before the backups but "Computers on your local network can access your computer at: XXX-2 (i.e. a duplicate)". So I have now edited this to make this the same as the computer name (to remove the potentially offending -2).
I also downloaded TM Buddy and wanted to post the following the log:
Starting automatic backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Time Machine using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Runtime corruption detected on /Volumes/Time Machine/XXX.sparsebundle (fsck_hfs -q termination status: 3)
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine
Recovery backup declined by user.
Backup canceled.
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Time Machine using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Machine
Forcing the backup image to mount read-only because it failed verification or is immutable
Disk image /Volumes/Time Machine/XXX.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
Starting manual backup
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine
Recovery backup declined by user.
Backup canceled.
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Time Machine (FSVolumeRefNum: -126; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
I am running OS X 10.8.2 on a 2.93 GHz Core i7 27-inch iMac (mid 2010)
Anyone have any suggestions?
I am in the process of reformating the Time Machine back-up disk (i.e. the drive in my NAS) and trying the full backup again but thought I would ask here in the meantime since it's going to take 3 days or so to complete that anyway...
Any help appreciated.

HT3275 Time machine couldn't complete the backup. an error occured while creating the backup folder

Time machine couldn't complete the backup. an error occured while creating the backup folder Why does this happen?

hello,
http://pondini.org/TM/C10.html
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imaging something not being covered there.

Hello I bought a G-Raid GR4 4000 4 TB and used it for a backup with my new Imac27. Now this is all I get. "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "G-RAID". to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.

Hello I bought a G-Raid GR4 4000 4 TB and used it for a backup with my new Imac27. Now this is all I get. "Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “G-RAID”. to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
Any idea what I should do?

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

TS1550 Time Machine worked fine w. new HD for 16 backups, but started giving this mssg: [TIME MACHINE COULDN'T COMPLETE THE BACKUP TO "TOSHIBA EXT" ...An error occurred while creating the backup folder]

Time Machine worked fine w. new HD for 16 backups, but started giving this mssg: [TIME MACHINE COULDN'T COMPLETE THE BACKUP TO "TOSHIBA EXT" ...An error occurred while creating the backup folder]

Make sure your hard drive is formatted properly for the operating system installed. Go to Apple menu -> About This Mac to determine what it is. You posted to the 10.5 forum, but your signature says you have 10.9. Here is the tip on what formatting supports what operating systems:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3003

HT3275 The message I get recently and often is "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "LaCie TmMachn". Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating backup folder." Anyone that can help me?

The message I get recently and often is "Time machine couldn't complet the backup to "LaC TmMachn". Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
See > http://pondini.org/TM/C10.html

Error: Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to Time Capsule - Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.

error: Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to Time Capsule - Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Time Machine error while creating backup folder

Several times today I have gotten a popup message. "Time Machine error while creating backup folder". I click OK, and then the message appears again after a hour or so. I am using a WD My Book external drive as my backup media. I looked at the drive in Finder and the older (yesterday and beyond) backup folders are there.

always a pleasure doing business with you, dear sir
JGG

Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Time Capsule. The backup disk image /Volumes/Data/MacBook Pro.sparsebundle could not be created (error 60)"

We are Mountain Lion using Time Machine to backup to Time Capsule. When the backup tries to run, an error appears after a couple of minutes saying "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." Then an error shows up saying "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Time Capsule.The backup disk image /Volumes/Data/MacBook Pro.sparsebundle could not be created (error 60)"
I low level reformatted the Time Capsule and that didn't fix it. I then tried using Time Machine on another computer to back up to that same Time Capsule and it worked- so I'm doubting it's the Time Capsule.
I've noticed that when Time Machine runs, that a folder called Data at /Volumes/ appears while Time Machine is trying to back up. I think it's making the sparsebundle to transfer to the Time Capsule.
However, after a couple of minutes- it comes back saying that the disk is unreadable.
I think it's something wrong with either creating the sparsebundle or opening the disk image that seems to be a part of the Time Machine backup process on the local drive.
I am able to create a disk image with Disk Utilitiy without any problem on that system. I've repaired the disk and disk permissions with Disk Utility and replaced the directory with Disk Warrior. I've trashed what preference files I could find and restarted. I've completely removed the backup destination from the computer and added it back again.
Help!
Thanks,
Neil

neillhowell wrote:
I've noticed that when Time Machine runs, that a folder called Data at /Volumes/ appears while Time Machine is trying to back up. I think it's making the sparsebundle to transfer to the Time Capsule.
Yes, exactly. It makes one sparse bundle per Mac.
It's possible the TC's disk is too full for a new sparse bundle, or there may be some other problem.
Via the Finder, locate the existing sparse bundle (see the pink box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #17 if you're not sure how to do that). See how large it is (plus how large anything else that may be there). If the total is very near the size of the TC, that may be the problem.
If not, a clue may be lurking in your logs. Use the widget in #A1 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to display the backup messages from your logs. Locate the backup in question (probably the first one displayed), then copy and post all the messages here.

Config time machine server to create folder backups, not sparsebundles?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for