OS X Lion, NFS shares, Time Machine?

A few years ago I bought a Mac Mini server. I wanted to use it as a storage server using attached drives. I got everything up and running but kept running into the same problem: The NFS server deamon would stop / crash for no apparent reason when I was writing large files to the server over NFS.
I spent some time troubleshooting the issue but never resolved it and eventually resorted to wiping out OS X on the Mac Mini server an install CentOS Linux instead. The NFS deamon here is rock solid and I have used it ever since.
Fast forward to today where my Time Capsule died due to the usual power supply failures (thanks to Apple for a crappy design). I then realized that I could use my Mac Mini Server as a host for Time Machine, I'd just need to get it running OS X Server again. I would still want to serve writeable NFS shares so this leads to my question:
Does anyone know for sure whether OS X Mountain Lion has had any improvements to the NFS deamon over previous versions? I'd be quite happy to buy the new OS, but I'd prefer to be a little more confident that all the work would pay off (in the form of a stable NFS service)

The Server.app and Server Admin utilities for Lion no longer let you configure NFS. However the NFS software is still there and in fact was significantly upgraded and now supports NFS v4.
See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4695

Similar Messages

Can i revert to snow leopard from lion without a time machine backup?

can I revert to snow leopard from lion without a time machine backup?

You can with a Snow Leopard DVD, but if you don't have that or a Time Machine backup there's no way.

OSStatus 5 when trying to use Lion Server as time machine

I've set two volumes on hard disk 2 of the mac mini server with snow leopard server (now running lion server).
When I point my new MacBook Air at the time machine the Lion Server is serving which is simply displayed as Time Machine on server1.voigtstr.com, I authenticate (both server and laptop share the same username and password) and then I get
Time Machine can't access the backup disk "Time Machine"
The operation couldn't be completed. (OSStatus error 5.)
What needs to change at either the server or client side?
thoughts so far were that the time machine volume was case sensitive and the laptop was not, so I reformatted the server volume to be not case sensitive.
Any other thoughts?
When I choose "Do Not Backup" the Time Machine system prefs applet is left in a state of "Preparing Disk". Is that likely to finish in multiple hours? Or is it just in a hung state?
Cheers
Voigtstr!

I had the same problem.
Time machine on my server, updated from Lion to Mountain Lion.
Fixed it by:
(To be completely safe, always start by backing up to a extra external hard drive, if you can.)
On the Machine that is your Server
I went to (Server>Services>Time Machine). My Time Mahine backup folder was there.
Open a Finder window and follow the path to your backup folder
When I checked on the backup drive folder it didn't exist.
In Finder use "New folder" and recreate the directory folder as shown in (Server>Services>Time Machine) eg. Volumes/TM folder/Shared Items/Backups.
Go to the Server>Services>File Sharing. Check that the Master folder (ie. TM folder)you are using for your time machine is shared. Double click on it and check that the account you use to connect to the server has "Read & Write" access.
Open the Server Panel, under Services >go to "Time Machine" and turn off the Time Machine. (Server>Services>Time Machine)
Select the current folder and remove "-" the folder currently showing.
Then add "+" the newly recreated folder
Go back to Server>Services>Time Machine
Then turn on the Time Machine
Then try to connect your macbook to the Time Machine server again
If you get to step 3 and find the folder is there then just skip step 4 and do the rest to reset it.
It may not connect your machine to it's previous TM folder so before continuing on to step 5, mark that by ctrl+click>Label> any colour. You can then go back later when you have a couple of up to date backups in the new folder and delete the old on for more space.

Configuring Lion server as time machine target?

I've got a mac mini (2009) that I'm considering upgrading to Lion. Can I use this soon to be lion server as a remote (wireless) time machine target for my laptop? Is there any tutorials on how to do this? I'd prefer to not have to go about the older methods of running NFS mounting scripts and such.
Thanks

I had the same problem.
Time machine on my server, updated from Lion to Mountain Lion.
Fixed it by:
(To be completely safe, always start by backing up to a extra external hard drive, if you can.)
On the Machine that is your Server
I went to (Server>Services>Time Machine). My Time Mahine backup folder was there.
Open a Finder window and follow the path to your backup folder
When I checked on the backup drive folder it didn't exist.
In Finder use "New folder" and recreate the directory folder as shown in (Server>Services>Time Machine) eg. Volumes/TM folder/Shared Items/Backups.
Go to the Server>Services>File Sharing. Check that the Master folder (ie. TM folder)you are using for your time machine is shared. Double click on it and check that the account you use to connect to the server has "Read & Write" access.
Open the Server Panel, under Services >go to "Time Machine" and turn off the Time Machine. (Server>Services>Time Machine)
Select the current folder and remove "-" the folder currently showing.
Then add "+" the newly recreated folder
Go back to Server>Services>Time Machine
Then turn on the Time Machine
Then try to connect your macbook to the Time Machine server again
If you get to step 3 and find the folder is there then just skip step 4 and do the rest to reset it.
It may not connect your machine to it's previous TM folder so before continuing on to step 5, mark that by ctrl+click>Label> any colour. You can then go back later when you have a couple of up to date backups in the new folder and delete the old on for more space.

I just updated to Mountain Lion and now time machine won't recognize my backups from before the update.

I updated from Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.2 on my MacBook Pro
I used disk utility to restore my external hardrive because I read somewhere that that would fix the problem.
It did fix the problem but only temporarily. I was able to view my backups from Snow Leopard, but as soon as I tried to backup again, time machine was stuck
"preparing to backup" for 5 hours and when I quit the prepare I could no longer access my previous backups.

So what happens if you go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General? Are you able to go there at all? If you are able to go there, can you unlock the preferences using the lock in the lower left and your login name and password?
If you are able to do this, can you change the "Allow applications downloaded from:" to Anywhere?
Best of luck.

Mountain Lion vs. Time Machine

I set up two external hard drives for use with Time Machine. Last night it did the first backup to one HD, now it's doing the first backup to the other one. Once this is done, and it starts doing "regular" backups, will it start counting down the time to the next backup like Lion used to do?
The reason I ask this is that Mountain Lion's TM just lists "Only backup" (and the time) for the hard drive that it's already done. It doesn't say when the next backup will occur. Will it start doing this when it finishes the initial backup to the other drive?

It only showed a countdown when you changed the disk.
And no, you won't see that anymore.
Also see the Time Machine section in Changes in Mountain Lion for other interesting news.

Mountain Lion: problem with Time Machine directories and spotlight indexing

I'm using a fresh install of 10.8 Mountain Lion on a 2011 MBP. It's a work laptop with many ASCII files containing numerical data (floating point numbers), with varying file extensions. Some of the files are multi-gig, some are only a few hundred K, and there are tens of thousands of them. Roughly 500G of numerical data.
I can disable spotlight from indexing certain subdirectories of my home directory on the local drive. However, when using Time Machine to backup, I seem to be entirely unable to prevent spotlight from attemping to fully index the external drive (Time Machine volume). I actually let spotlight run for over 36 hours this weekend in a futile attempt for it to finish indexing the TM volume. The /.Spotlight-V100 index on the external drive is roughly 100G and continuously written and overwritten. /var/log/system.log had various "Merging failed" messages for temp spotlight files. I deleted the index, let spotlight run again overnight, but it did not finish indexing. "sudo fs_usage -f filesys mds mdworker mdimport mdworker32 | grep open" showed spotlight slowly chugging through the thousands of numerical files.
I believe the problem is related to this old report from someone who noticed a leopard -> snow leopard change:
http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=106703
http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6126_102-366184/snow-leopard-10-6-spotlight-indexing -and-disk-usage/
However, I don't see an easy solution. In ML, if you drag the TM volume to the spotlight privacy list it gives you a message about how you can't disable indexing of TM volumes because it's essential for TM. I have not yet tried to manually put in some kind of .metadata_never_index file in the relevant TM volume directories (I am not sure if that will do anything, or perhaps break TM backups), but that's one possible next step.
Anyone have ideas on how I can have my TM backups work but the spotlight indexing of all these data files (their subdirectories) disabled? I'm not specifically TRYING to back up those data files with TM (they're duplicated elsewhere), they're just on the same machine as a bunch of other stuff I need backed up via TM. Apple has a disaster on their hands for anyone trying to backup a machine which also has large data sets.

I'm not aware of any avenue to tell spotlight to not index all or part of a backup.
However, the indexing should work, even if takes a long time.
I don't think this is a new issue and has been part of TM from the start.
Realistically, it may be time to consider whether TM is the best choice for these data files?
Are they very volatile do they change frequently both as to content of individual files and total set of files?
If not, then a clone or syncing type of backup might be better suited for these files.
I do not back up all my files via time machine. I keep photographs and music outside of Time Machine. to be sure they are backed up but via clones.
To show why this might the best take photographs. My photographs are basically immutable once they enter the system, but I may come back with 5000 images from a trip and whittle that down to a few hundred eventually. This would cause a lot of files to be saved in TM that are no longer wanted, - but are not easy to remove formthe backup. while the ones I want haven't changed. TM is not geared to make handling that easily.
As a further aside, ideally one should back everything of value up twice via 2 different means.
I've had backup drives fail.I've had TM logically fail (disk is fine -TM internal data structures bad).

HT1199 I needed to restore my Imac (lion) from a Time Machine backup on a peripheral HD. Everything woirked fine except none of my Pictures showed up and my TM backups were all erased. Any way to recover??

I need to perform a complete restore of my IMac from a stand-alone HD Time Machine backup. The restore was to the internal HD in the IMac. The IMac is a new Intel i5 unit running Lion. The restore went fine except none of my picture files appeared. My external HD is partioned into a Time Machine Back Up and a Stoarge partion. All the TM back ups prior to the restore are gone and the external storage was wiped clean. 3000 photos from our African Safaris are gone. Any ideas on if they can be recovered from either the external storage drive or the internal HD?
Where did the older TM BUs go?
Thanks for any advise

Hello:
I don't know what you did, but there must have been some option to clear the external HD. To my knowledge, restoring from a Time Machine backup will NOT clear the external HD.
Since I was not there, I really cannot speculate on what happened:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4927
In any event, there are third party tools that will attempt to recover data from erased drives (the erase normally deletes pointers, not the actual data).
Barry

Clean Lion install, keeping Time Machine history?

I have a 2011 unibody MBP, and have been gathering kludge on it for some time, and on previous machines (2007 MBP, 2004 Powerbook) whose data I've migrated over using the Migration Assitant. I'd like to, at some point soon, do a fresh install of Lion, grab my data from backup (or a disk image clone), and reinstall my applications (only the ones I'm currently using, with no detritus from other apps I've installed, used, and since uninstalled).
However, I use a Time Capsule (1 TB) for backups, and wanted to know two things:
Is it possible, after doing the install, to have the previous history of my computer (on the Time Capsule) integrated with my current and future Time Machine backups? (I.e., the Time Capsule sees the new, clean machine as the same machine, and allows me to step into my file history and grab stuff, if need be.)
If the answer to the above question is yes, how would I do this?
Apologies in advance if this question has been answered elsewhere. A cursory perusal of the discussions here didn't turn up anything; but I know there's the chance I could have missed something.
Thanks,
Paul

Having no answer, I took the decision to experiment.
I renamed the new external USB HDD with the same name as the older (soon to be replaced) ones and copied via Finder all the files on it (Aperture libraries, videos, documents).
By using Time Machine while on the new drive (not backing up, but just looking at older backups), I was able to see the previous versions of the external USB HDD files. So I thought that was that easy.
So I decided to manually trigger a new TM backup. However, it computed something like close to 500 GB to backup. Thus eventhough in terms of history for now I can trick TM to think it is the same HDD, when it comes to create a new backup, it simply wants to rebackup everything.
Now I'm getting worried because:
I don't know if the history will be kept after the backup has run;
Because it will push 500GB of data to the TM storage, it might fill it up and TM will start to remove older backup whereas this would have been unnecessary.
Note: I don't rely solely on TM for backup, I use Crashplan as well. So if I lose TM, it is "OK" as I could always restore something from Crashplan, but then for the oldest backup (for the last 2 years) I would only have one copy instead of 2... It is not that critical as I do not think I deleted something I would like to restore from that time period. But our of curiosity I would like to still found out how to properly change an external HDD that was backed-up by Time Machine without losing the history.

Since installing Lion why does Time Machine shows backup was delayed?

Ever since we stalled Lion after we backup with Time Machine the display quickly changes to the alert symbol that backup was delayed how can I change this. I have backed up four times.

It's a 'new feature' .. check out this post here https://discussions.apple.com/message/16148789#16148789 .. if you don't agree with this new feature, please join us in raising it as a bug for Apple to fix.

Mountain Lion Update broke Time Machine

Okay, so I updated Mountain Lion to the latest version recently. Since that time, Time Machine has given me the same error message every time it tries to back up.
Time Machine Error
This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 60.91 GB but only 52.22 GB are available.
Here's what the Time Machine preferences says:
Time Machine Backups
52.2 GB of 500 GB available.
Oldest Backup: February 21, 2013
Latest Backup: February 21, 2013
Next Backup: Today, ____pm (It displays whatever the time currently is on the system clock.)
First off, the backup drive & available space info is accurate, but I'm confused, because I've been using this very same disk for three years, with this same computer (identical config, as far as TM is concerned; just software updates and additional apps). It has just been since this last update that TM broke. The weird part is that all of my older backups have disappeared, as well. TM has always managed the drive space and number of backups handily. I have the simplest setup possible, for TM . . . one machine, one user, one USB-connected dedicated backup drive without any partitions.
As it goes through the attempts to back up, it says Preparing backup, then cleaning up old backups . . . and then fails.
Oh, I should add, that the usb cable that connects the drive is really loose, and will sometimes disconnect mysteriously on its own. Could that have done something to the drive?
I also have a full backup online with Backblaze, so I do have a fail-safe backup if something strange happens.
I've done some research, but all the info I've found is for OSX Leopard, and doesn't seem to help at all.
Sooooo . . . any ideas, tips, help? I'd appreciate it very much. Thanks!

Sorry, I left Leopard behind too many years ago and have never used TM. I only posted the link to the definitive guide on TM that I know about.

MOUNTAIN LION, MBP RETINA : Time machine keeps saying to improve reliability, TM must create a new backup for you

Hello
I have a little network with 2 x Macpro, 1 x Macbook pro Retina, 1 x Mac Mini server and one DiskStation.
I have no problem to backup the two Macpro and the Macmini on the Diskstation
But I only have problem with my Macbook pro Retina.
I was told to start the 1st backup using Ethernet
After a few complemantary backup in WIFI I get the message :
I have done this MANY times
I have tried to repair the Backup file
THE PROBLEM IS ONLY WITH THE MACBOOK PRO RETINA IN MOUNTAIN LION
I had Apple support, answer : "no support because you are using a disk station" (I have used this diskstation since many years without ANY problem)
Looks like it is a WIFI problem !!!!
Thanks in advance for your help
Best
Cyril

Scott F wrote:
Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
Yes. See #C13 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
My Time Machine drive is a 500GB drive connected to an Airport Extreme via USB.
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See [Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Airport.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
You really should find a more reliable way to back up. See #2 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for your options.
I find this message confusing. Why must TM create a new backup?
As in the first link above, because they're damaged beyond Disk Utility's ability to repair them. Exactly what that is, we mere mortals don't know. It's only on network backups, and even folks using Time Capsules see this occasionally.

Where in Lion 10.7 Time Machine can I find the Address Book file

Help!
I Sync duplicated my Address Book entries. But now with Lion 10.7 I no longer can find the Address Book contacts file to restore in Time Machine.

Sorry, but you're still in the top-level Library folder.
Select the ~/Library folder via Alt/Option key while selecting Go from the menubar:
Then Enter Time Machine.
Message was edited by: Pondini

Lion downgrade using Time Machine

Anyone have a similar issue and might be able to shed some light?
I upgraded to Mountain Lion, started having screen freezing problems like some are reporting and am not able to use many functions because of it. So, I need to downgrade to Lion. I have a Lion install disk and a Time Machine backup on a Time Capsule drive. When I try to restore the last backup when I had Lion, the only options for a destination disk that come up are my externals, not my internal drive (where I need it). Disk Utility sees my internal drive and is able to do things like repair permissions. Any ideas? Right now, I can't go forward and can't go back.
Josh
Early 2008 iMac
4GB RAM

Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

I need to reinstall Mountain Lion from a Time Machine backup, but it says that the last backup is 6 months old

Hi, I need to reinstall Mountain Lion on my MacBook Pro, so I made a backup yesterday and today I tried to reinstall everything from that backup.
To my surprise, Time Machine says that the last full backup was made on February!
I've always made regular backups during these months on my Time Machine HD, what can I do to reinstall everything from the backup I made yesterday?
Thank you very much.

Most likely, some folders were inadvertently excluded from your backups, and as a result you can't restore your data in Recovery, Setup Assistant, or Migration Assistant.
Starting from a fresh installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Follow the instructions on this page to associate your existing backups with the new installation.
You should now be able to enter Time Machine and restore your user data from a snapshot.* I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

OS X Lion, NFS shares, Time Machine?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for