Difference between revisions of "Time Machine Backups"

Revision as of 02:06, 1 January 2020

Backup to Local Disk

There are two approaches to using ZFS for Time Machine Backups - Sparsebundles on a ZFS data set and zvols formatted as HFS+.

Sparsebundles

Here's one approach to using ZFS for your Time Machine Backups.

Because Time Machine doesn't recognize ZFS datasets as a compatible disk for Time Machine backups, as a work around, we create an HFS+ sparsebundle disk image, store it on a ZFS dataset, and set the mounted image as a backup destination (no "TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes" needed).

1. Create, and mount, a sparsebundle from a ZFS dataset (e.g., with makeImage.sh or Disk Utility.app).

2. Set the sparsebundle as the (active) backup destination:

# tmutil setdestination -a /Volumes/[sparse bundle volume name]

While it has been discussed in heated arguments (e.g., https://github.com/openzfsonosx/zfs/issues/66) I still believe there's at least one ZFS feature I'd like to test with Time Machine: compression.

The hypothesis being that an HFS+ sparsebundle stored on a compressed (gzip, lz4), deduped dataset should yield a compression ratio > 1.0 (previously observed 1.4 with compression=on, dedup=off, FreeBSD network Time Machine drives).

zvols

1. Create a zvol to use for Time Machine backups:

sudo zfs create -V [size] [pool]/[volume]

For example, the following will create a 1TB volume named tmdisk1 on a zpool named Backup:

sudo zfs create -V 1T Backup/tmdisk1

2. Get OSX disk number corresponding to the zvol:

ioreg -trn "ZVOL [pool]/[volume] Media" | awk -F'"' '/BSD Name/ {print $4;}'

For example, if a zvol named tmdisk1 was created as shown above, the following will get its disk number and store it in the shell variable DISKID:

ioreg -trn 'ZVOL Backup/tmdisk1 Media' | awk -F'"' '/BSD Name/ {print $4;}'

3. Format the zvol as a HFS+, using its disk number from step 2:

sudo diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ [OSX Disk Name] [disk number]

For example, if the zvol was disk5 in OSX, the following will format that disk as a HFS+ disk named "TimeMachine":

sudo diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "TimeMachine" disk5

4. Set the zvol as a Time Machine destination:

sudo tmutil setdestination -a /Volumes/[OSX Disk Name]

For example, if the zvol was formatted as HFS+ named "TimeMachine" in step 3, the following will set it as a Time Machine destination:

sudo tmutil setdestination -a /Volumes/TimeMachine

5. (Optional) Enable encryption for Time Machine backups on the zvol:

5.1 Get the disk identifier for the HFS+ disk on the zvol:

diskutil list [OSX Disk Name] | awk '/[OSX Disk Name]/ { print $NF;}'

For example, if the zvol was formatted as HFS+ named "TimeMachine" in step 3, the following will get its disk identifier:

diskutil list TimeMachine | awk '/TimeMachine/ { print $NF; }'

5.2 Convert the HFS+ disk to use encryption:

sudo diskutil coreStorage convert [Disk ID] -passphrase

This will ask for the encryption password (which may be stored in the Keychain). For example, if the if the zvol was formatted as HFS+ named "TimeMachine" in step 3, whose disk identifier was returned as disk5s2 in step 5.1, the following will convert the disk to use encryption:

sudo diskutil coreStorage convert disk5s2 -passphrase

Please note, this process can take a considerable amount of time (several hours for a 1TB volume). You can check on the progress of the encryption using the following command:

diskutil cs list | grep -e "Conversion" -e "Volume Name"

Backup to Network Share

Time Machine can backup over the network to either HFS+ or APFS target volumes, shared via SMB. If you try to do this with a ZFS target volume, the client gets an error saying "The selected network backup disk does not support the required capabilities."

So the trick is to create an HFS+ or APFS target volume on your zpool. There are two ways to do that, explained in the section above about local backups: create the volume as a sparse bundle, or as a zvol.

You don't need the steps that set the volume as a time machine destination on the server; it's just going to be shared over the network. When you share the volume on the network, follow the instructions at https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/a-shared-folder-time-machine-mac-mchl31533145/mac to make it available as a TimeMachine volume.