Following up to this article on how to set up time machine backups to a sparsebundle located on an arbitrary SMB/AFP/CIFS network share on OSX, there came a time where I had to actually use the backup to restore/migrate my whole user directory and applications to OSX (by now Mavericks, aka OSX 10.9).

The problem (as described here) with Mavericks is that all mounted images get unmounted before the migration assistant starts. A little script can help with this problem, here are the steps:

• (This might be optional, I did not try without) Open a terminal and enter the following command to allow unsupported network drives for time machine [code]
  defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
  [/code]
• Get the tool Mount_disk_image_for_Migration_Assistant from here or from my local copy here (all credits go to bombich.com) and follow instuctions (locate the sparsebundle on your network drive, click ok, immediately click continue)
• Choose to restore from time machine (first bullet) and see a waiting icon.
• After about 30 seconds the time machine backup should show up, from where you can proceed as usual.