Time Machine not working with Softraid Volumes (b52) on Big Sur 11.1

These are the latest events from SoftRaid log. The two volumes highlighted below are the ones on two different OWC enclosures and somehow 

Mar 15 17:34:44 - SoftRAID Application: Deleting the volume "TB3E2V1" (disk17).
Mar 15 17:35:11 - SoftRAID Application: The volume delete command for volume "TB3E2V1" (disk17) failed because this disk is being used by another application (error number = 12). The disk disk12, SoftRAID ID: 08CEDADDE5800A80, SATA bus 0, id 0, lun 0 (Thunderbolt) prevented the volume from be
Mar 15 17:35:31 - SoftRAID Application: Deleting the volume "TB3E2V1" (disk17).
Mar 15 17:35:54 - SoftRAID Application: The volume delete command for the volume "TB3E2V1" (disk17) completed successfully.
Mar 15 17:36:23 - SoftRAID Application: Creating the RAID 5 volume named "TB3E2V1" of size 10.9 TB with the following disks: disk11, SoftRAID ID: 08CEDAE5AB8A4C00, SATA bus 0, id 0, lun 0 (Thunderbolt), disk12, SoftRAID ID: 08CEDADDE5800A80, SATA bus 0, id 0, lun 0 (Thunderbolt), disk13, SoftRAID ID: 08CEDAEA4B959080, SATA bus 0, id 0, lun 0 (Thunderbolt), disk14, SoftRAID ID: 08CEDAF0DDC26700, SATA bus 0, id 0, lun 0 (Thunderbolt).
Mar 15 17:37:19 - SoftRAID Application: Quitting application
Mar 15 17:38:43 - SoftRAID Driver: SoftRAID driver loaded, version 6.0.1 b53.
Mar 15 17:38:43 - SoftRAID Monitor: SoftRAID Monitor loaded, version 6.0.1 b53.
Mar 15 17:38:53 - SoftRAID Monitor: SoftRAID Monitor loaded, version 6.0.1 b53.
Mar 15 17:38:53 - SoftRAID Monitor: Starting SMART test on all disks which support SMART.
Mar 15 17:39:00 - SoftRAID Monitor: Starting SMART test on all disks which support SMART.
Mar 15 17:39:03 - SoftRAID Monitor: Finished SMART test on all disks. No disks failed the SMART test.
Mar 15 17:39:24 - SoftRAID Application: Launching application: SoftRAID version 6.0.1 b53
Mar 15 17:39:25 - SoftRAID Driver: The SoftRAID volume "TB3E2V1" (disk18) encountered an error (E00002C1). A program attempted to read or write to a volume which was not open.
Mar 15 17:39:25 - SoftRAID Driver: The SoftRAID volume "TB3E1V3" (disk17) encountered an error (E00002C1). A program attempted to read or write to a volume which was not open.

One last update:

Softraid b53 tool shows volumes as unmounted unknown format. Outside Softraid, the volumes are APFS volumes and you can write to them. I have started a Time Machine Backup on one of these and it seems to be going. Hopefully, I will have an answer in 6 hours. 

@ayyildiz

Please lets not confuse these issues. If your APFS volume does not mount after a restart, that either means the SoftRAID driver is not loading, or there is a problem with the volume.

Run this kexstat command (in terminal.app) if your volume is not loaded after a restart, which will tell you if the driver is loading, and if so, which version.

sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

If the driver is loading (you get a response that shows for instance 6.0.1 b53), then run Disk Utility. Is the volume listed (grayed out) and can you mount it with Disk Utility?

the SoftRAID user interface does not yet support APFS. (I am painfully aware of this) That limitation, however makes no difference to whether the volume mounts or is mounted. the application cannot tell either way, and cannot mount, nor unmount, an APFS volume.

To delete an APFS volume, you must manually unmount it from the desktop first. That is why you get the "busy" message, it is in use.

@softraid-support,

Everyrhing appears to be in place but Softraid app doesn’t show the drive mounted and it doesn’t even show what file system it is formatted at. Good to know that this is a known issue. I went ahead and used the drive for time machine and it is almost done with the first backup. 
The take here is not to just look at Softraid app, as it reports incorrect info about APFS drive. The drive is in fact fine. 

The verdict:

The Time Machine backup completed even though the drive was shown unmounted in SoftRaid app. It is an APFS volume on Big Sur 11.2.3. 

@ayyildiz

Good to hear.