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How do I reinstall Client as "server" not "desktop"?


Tree

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We recently purchased an upgraded office server, and migrating over onto it meant installing the Retrospect Client (we're using version 6.3.029, and Retrospect Engine is 8.2.0399). Our previous office server was running Mac OS 10.4.11 Server, and appropriately enough the Retro client installed on that machine was listed as Type = "Server" when examined in Console / Sources. We are licensed for up to one "Server" plus up to twenty "Desktop" clients.

 

The client installation, however, on the new physical server is reported in Console as "desktop", and I have removed and re-added the client to no avail. I don't see any means of instructing Retrospect to treat a certain client as a "server". I was able to check on a "Licenses" tab in Preferences to verify that we had 13 of 20 desktop clients, and 0 of 1 servers, and now after reinstalling the client and adding back as a source, I see that I have 14 of 20 desktop clients and 0 of 1 servers.

 

All of this is in pursuit of what might be a separate issue, in that an external drive connected to the physical server is showing up incorrectly as a source. In short, when I try to browse that drive, I can only see a couple of files in a few specific folders, and not the full contents of the drive. I know there is a ton more data on the drive, as it is what I need to be backing up! Getting the right kind of client might help out here, if for some reason its "desktop" role prevents it from seeing the drive the same way that I see it when mounted as a network sharepoint on other computers.

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You don't mention what OS the new "server" is running, only that the old ran 10.4.11 Server.

 

There is no functional difference between a "server" client and a "desktop" client.

It's only a matter of cost. A "server" client costs more than a "desktop" client. 

 

As for the problematic external drive, I suggest you repair it using Apple's Disk Utility.

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If the client's OS is picked up as a server OS then the client should install as a "server" instead of a "desktop".  It sounds like your new server is not running a server OS so Retrospect sees it as a "desktop".  I would suggest checking the OS on the new server to see if it is actually a server OS.

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Sorry for failing to mention the server OS - it is running Server 10.8.2, on a Mac Mini that was purchased just this summer. I should also mention that when initially setting up this server, I opted to direct it to store its services files on the external drive in question, rather than on the internal SSD. This was because it would be hosting a wiki that would be in constant flux and likely to grow beyond the SSD's capacity. But last week, somehow things got screwed up, to where the server could no longer connect to its databases on the external drive, and I was forced to "roll back" to a fresh server with all its files on the SSD. I have not, however, deleted or changed any of the data on the external drive, and it shows as a sharepoint with expected permissions settings managed by the server, as before.

 

But the Retrospect Client, even after removing and reinstalling, (removed using Uninstall option on downloaded current client DMG) reports as "desktop", and the only contents visible on the external drive are a couple of folders that were previously part of the server's service files location - not the entire contents of the old service files location, mind you, which does still contain the old databases (as I hope to be able to somehow recover them).

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Have you tried removing the client as a source from the Retrospect console and re-adding it back to the console?  If that does not work I would do the following steps:

1.  Remove client from the console.

2.  Uninstall Retrospect from the client.

3.  Re-install Retrospect on the client.

4.  Add the client back to the console making sure all drives are mounted before doing this.

5.  Edit any scripts that had the client as a source.

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Daniels, thank you for the input. That sequence was what I had attempted just prior to posting here, because I thought it would surely rectify things. I didn't get as far as #5, though, because I saw that after doing #4 it was still treating it as a "desktop" rather than "server" client. And, due to the other issue (external drive not showing all its contents), I cannot edit the scripts that reference that volume.

 

I think that, as a workaround for the second issue, I can add the external drive as network shares, which means basically I'm relying not on the client so much as the network file sharing infrastructure to talk to the drive, but I don't want to leave things like that, I'd like to resolve things properly.

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A few thoughts: 

 

It's not unlikely that the misreporting of your OS version is caused by an incompatibility between client version 6.3.029 and OS 10.8.x. That, in turn, may or may not have anything to do with your inability to fully access your external drive.

 

You might experiment with installing a later version of the client software (9.0.2) on the off chance that it can be accessed by Retro 8. Otherwise, I'd try downloading a trial version of Retro 10.5 and see if that enables you to access everything. If it does, you can choose to bite the bullet and upgrade, and if it doesn't, you know that you will have to look elsewhere for the source of the problem.

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You can not use a later version of the client software with 8.2 as it will give you an incompatible client version error message.  If you want to try a newer client version you will need to download 10.5 as well.  I concur with "twickland" that this issue can be caused by using the older client on a newer OS.

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