Darius -
Thanks for writing this up: I've been experiencing the "created by a different model of Mac" error (with Time Machine on Mountain Lion running on VMware Fusion 5.0.3), and it's been a major roadblock in getting a VM-based build system up and going where I am. In summary:
- Using Migration Assistant (Apple's suggestion of what to do in these circumstances) is a non-starter: I've got lots of stuff in /usr and /opt which Migration Assistant will not restore automatically, and putting them back by hand is missing the point.
- Backing up the contents of the .vmwarevm directory on the host OS isn't going to fly either, as other posters have noted: even tiny changes chew up gigabytes on the backup volume, and you have to shut down the guest to do the backup.
So, I've downloaded the 'Tech Preview' version, and with SMBIOS.reflectHost set (by manually editing the .vmx file) it does fix the bug - hooray! I can generate TM backups from one VM, and successfully create a new VM with the same contents by booting from the install CD and choosing the 'restore from Time Machine' option. Is there a timescale for having this fix available in a production version of Fusion?
The one remaining issue is that my TM backups are now effectively locked to the same Mac Mini hardware which is generating them; this rather spoils the point of having VMs in the first place. Wouldn't it be nice if Fusion could report a board ID and SPHardwareDataType which are (a) the same whatever machine is hosting the VM and (b) acceptable to Time Machine. Any chance of addressing this issue?
Thanks,
Ian