Assertion failure at "elem.cpp-1000"

[Guest]

I am receiving the Assertion failure at "elem.cpp-1000". This is a relatively new install (3/05) and has latest update (ver. 7 on Windows 2003 Server SP1) There is nothing else running on the machine (ie. it is only used for backups)

 

Any thoughts? I haven't had backups for 5 days!!

 

James

[natew]

Hi

 

What is Retrospect doing when the assert error happens? What backup device are you using?

 

Thanks

Nate

[bthornsberry]

I too am getting this error msg.

 

 

 

I just updated my server version to the latest server updater and am somewhat regretting it. I am using Retro 7 Server connected to a Qualstar TLS-5433 tape library with 2 SAIT drives via SCSI. My error shows up when trying to backup a 1.6TB sharepoint of data about 32 GB into the backup job. It is able to scan the directory contents but it chokes and crashes.

 

 

 

I am backing up this data via a local defined network place that is mapped back to an Apple Xserve that is sharing out an Apple Xsan data share. I know this sounds round about but connecting directly retrospect server via the retro client does not work at all with Xsan data sharepoints it appears.

 

 

 

Is there any explaination for this error?

 

 

 

oh yes, I have no idea about the hand clapper icon either.. I couldn't get rid of it before the post.

 

 

 

=============================

 

Note from Moderator : Assert logs don't provide troubleshooting info us mere mortals can use. Its all debug info for engineers - It has been removed it for clarity.

 

 

[algilson]

Add us to this list as well. Same error.

 

Windows 2003 SP1, SQL, Retrospect 7.0.326.

 

- Al

[natew]

bthornsberry,

What OS is the backup server running and how much RAM is installed?

 

Algison and JamesS,

What are you doing when the error occurs. System specs would be nice too.

 

All of you - does rebooting the backup server or trying clean Retrospect preference files help?

 

Playing 20 questions is fun and all but it sure makes it hard to help...

Details please?

 

Thanks

Nate

[algilson]

Hi Nate,

 

 

 

Here's the hardware specs:

 

Acer Veriton 7200 P4 1.6 GHz desktop box, acting as a server in a small branch office (2 users).

 

Sony SDX-500C AIT tape drive that we've had for a year or two.

 

LSI Logic SCSI card running the tape drive.

 

1 EIDE Western Digital 120GB hard drive

 

1 GB of Ram. (just replaced with 2 brand new 512 MB sticks today with same results)

 

Oh, and we replaced the CPU fan today too, as a safety measure. Still no luck.

 

 

 

About 2 months ago this box existed as a Windows 2000 server and ran for several years without any problems. The HD then was an old scsi drive that finally decided it had rotated its platters enough and quit spinning. During the rebuild we installed a new drive, and installed a new Windows 2003 Server OS on that drive. All hardware otherwise stayed the same. During the install, we upgraded to Retrospect 7.0 and the SQL backup client as this system hosted a pretty important SQL db that we couldn't back up reliably from our main shop over the DSL connection to this shop. (I can't remember now, but i don't believe we could back up SQL with version 6.? that had been installed?)

 

 

 

Needless to say, we haven't had much luck backing up with any version of 7, including the newest 7.0.326. I've watched the screen for hours in case I missed something, and there really isn't any particular time that this happens. Sometimes the backup will run 1/10th (rare) of the way through before crashing and throwing the assertion errors, other times it'll make it ~9/10th (more common) of the way through, other times it'll complete the backup successfully (rare).

 

 

 

We've tried backing up just the server without the 2 clients, no luck.

 

We've tried backing up the server without the SQL license and without the clients, no luck.

 

We have not tried a new catalog set, as the set that we're currently using is a continuation of the previous set that was running on this machine.

 

We have uninstalled Retrospect countless times, while blowing away the Retrospect folder and the Documents and Settings/... folder. (Can't remember specifically right now).

 

We've rebooted the server, no luck.

 

The error is always the same: elem.cpp-1000.

 

And the event viewer always states after the crash that it may have been caused by a power failure.

 

 

 

Hope that helps?

 

 

 

- Al

 

 

 

=============================

 

Note from Moderator : Assert logs don't provide troubleshooting info us mere mortals can use. Its all debug info for engineers - It has been removed it for clarity.

[natew]

Hi algison,

 

Thanks for the detailed info. The error is the same as others on this thread but it sounds like the causes may be different.

 

What have you specified for a Retrospect backup user? Did you create a new account or are you using the admin account? Do the Windows event logs show any errors occuring on this machine?

 

Be sure that the Windows drivers for your tape drive are disabled. Retrospect has its own drivers for the tape drive. Sometimes conflicts will arise.

 

Thanks

Nate

[algilson]

Nate,

 

Here is what we are using:

 

User account is currently running in an admin account with: admin / domain admin / backup operator privileges. We did have it running in the RBU acct as the manual suggested, but have since moved to the admin acct to see if extra privileges help.

 

The Windows drivers are disabled. No errors in MS event log around crash periods.

 

Does any of that help?

 

- Al

[natew]

Hi

 

It all helps!

However the cause of this error is still not clear. Assert errors usually occur because of memory management problems on the system, corruption in the Retrospect preferences/catalog or hardware problems.

 

The next step is to try a new catalog - even a test backup will be fine. If that fails please zip and send a windows system info report for the machine plus a copy of the Retrospect operations log and the assert log to pacrimsupport@dantz.com

 

Thanks

Nate

[wardlab]

We are using Retrospect 7.0 (fresh install) on Windows Server 2003 with 5 retrospect clients. The machine is a Dell Poweredge server with 512 MB RAM, P4 processor. The machine is used for backupos and is also used as a backup domain controller. The retrospect 7.0 is a new install (installed on 7th October). We are using 16 incremental backup scripts and one duplicate script and are using 3 out of 4 execution units. Out of these, one duplicate script and 15 incremental backup scripts are schedled to run daily during the night. Another incremental backup script is scheduled to run once in a month.

 

All the backups used to finish successfully for the last 25 days. But, this morning, when I was checking the backups, Retrospect reported the following error

 

"Retrospect has encountered a serious error: Assertion Failure at “elem.cpp-1000” A log of this error has been written to the file “assert_log.utx”. Please tell Dantz about this problem. We have created an error report that can help us improve Dantz Retrospect. We will treat this report as confidential and anonymous."

 

Then I restarted Retrospect and it asked whether to start the pending scheduled executions (the scheduled executions could not be completed during the wekend bacuse of this error). Now it is running fine. It has completed 4 scripts successfully. I want to take precautions so that this error doesn't occur again. We are not using proactive backup.

 

Hard drives are our backup media. The destination for each script is a different hard drive installed on 5 different computers in our LAN. Each of these hard drives are 200 GB Western Digital IDE drives with I have checked and made sure that there is enough free space in all the destination hard drives. We are using the user account "Retrospect Administrator" to run the backups. This is a new user account, which was created according to the user manual by ading this account to all the groups specified in the manual. The server as well as the clients are on a gigabit network. It would be great of any of you can suggest what might be the problem and what needs to be done to avoid this problem in future.

[natew]

Hi

 

First off, you need more RAM. 512 MB for 4 executions is really pushing it. Add the 2003 domain controller and there just isn't enough to go around. Any chance you can add another 512 MB to get some breathing room? More would be fine too.

 

That said, I'm not sure this is the cause of the error. Can you please keep an eye on it and post if it happens again?

 

Thanks

Nate

[algilson]

Nate,

 

We started a new backup set, and it has worked fine for 5 days. The other backup set throws the error still. We're going to start a new one for it as well. The backup sets must have been corrupted at some point -- as we did not start new backup sets when we rebuilt the server.

 

We're going to run two new backup sets and see what happens. If you don't hear from me, then that's what it was. Thanks for your help!

 

- Al

[wardlab]

Hi Nate,

 

Thanka a lot for the reply. I will upgrade the RAM soon. However, last night backups could complete successfully without any problems. I am just concerned about the problem occuring again in the future.

 

Regards,

-Suhas