Lennart_T Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Hi. Running Retrospect 7.0.326, 7.0.7.101 update on a Windows 2000 Retrospect server with Sony AIT-2 tape library. Running proactive backup, on some (all?) clients (both Mac and PC) it takes a long time for Retrospect to finish off the client. It says "Closing..." for several minutes with no activity going on: Tape drive idle, CPU usage very low, no indication of any activity in Retrospect. Then suddenly a split second of "Execution completed succesfully" after which Retrospect starts polling for the next client. Why is Retrospect "Closing..." for several minutes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 12, 2005 Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Hi Retrospect could be updating the catalog, combining log files, updating the backup report or any number of things. Is there any disk activity on the machine when Retrospect is doing this? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nembot Posted October 12, 2005 Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Hi, Is your catalog located at the default location? or somewhere else? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Quote: Retrospect could be updating the catalog, combining log files, updating the backup report or any number of things. Don't these activities have their own message? Are they all "Closing..."? Quote: Is there any disk activity on the machine when Retrospect is doing this? I have to get back to you on this. I'll keep my eyes open when a client finishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Quote: Is your catalog located at the default location? or somewhere else? They are on a separate partition on the internal hard drive. Nothing else on that partition. No other software running on the PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2005 Quote: Is there any disk activity on the machine when Retrospect is doing this? Yes, there is. (There is no disk activity light on the PC, but a performance monitoring tool helped me here.) Why haven't I seen this before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 Hi I'm not sure. It isn't Windows System Restore slowing things down is it? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 Quote: It isn't Windows System Restore slowing things down is it? I don't think so. It affects both Mac and PC clients. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 14, 2005 Report Share Posted October 14, 2005 Hi Sorry - I mean system restore running on the disk where the backup data is stored. That would affect all backups. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2005 Hi. Sorry, I didn't know what Windows System Restore was/is. After a little research, I found it to be a feature of Windows ME and Windows XP. We run Windows 2000 on the backup server, so we don't run Windows System Restore at all. I will be on holiday next week, so it will be a while before I can read your reply. I hope to find a solution when I get back. ;-) Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 Hi I se. At this point you would need to run a program that monitors file access to see what is going on. I wonder if a virus scan is trying to monitor Retrospect files? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 Quote: At this point you would need to run a program that monitors file access to see what is going on. I wonder if a virus scan is trying to monitor Retrospect files? Hi. Sorry for the delay in responding, I've been on holiday. We just tried a performance monitor tool and it's Retrospect that reads and writes the hard drive for several minutes while "Closing". We don't even have anti-virus software installed on the server. It's the "Closing" after "Building snapshot" and "Copying snapshot" that takes 5-6 minutes. Excerpt from log: 2005-10-25 15:33:08: Copying Acerdata (D:) on pc-msv 2005-10-25 15:33:08: No files need to be copied 2005-10-25 15:33:33: Snapshot stored, 12 KB 2005-10-25 15:39:26: Execution completed successfully Duration: 00:06:18 (00:00:16 idle/loading/preparing) It took almost 6 minutes closing and no files were backed up. (It doesn't take longer even if files WERE backed up.) Regards Lennart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 Hi Snapshot creation, catalog compression, updating settings files all take some time. I suspect what you are seeing is normal. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 Quote: Snapshot creation, catalog compression, updating settings files all take some time. I suspect what you are seeing is normal. Hi. No, no, don't know and no way. The snapshot creation does take time and is NOT included in the mentioned 5-6 minutes. See the log above: snapshot is stored at 15:33:33, but "Closing" doesn't end until 15:39:26. The catalog files are not compressed. (I just checked in case the option had changed somehow.) Why should any settings file be updated after "No files need to be copied"??? I didn't see this in version 6.5. We upgraded to 7.0 a few weeks ago and it started after that. But I don't think it started immediately. I don't know if you remember, but I had to delete the 7.0 prefs files and convert the 6.5 files again. I think that's when it all started. So, no, I don't think it's normal. Thanks Lennart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 Hi What I'm saying is there are some wrap up processes that could take a few minutes even dealing with a snapshot from a backup that copied no files. This sort of delay is at least conceivable... You also had problems with proactive backup right? Re-importing your preferences from 6.5 cleared that up if I am not mistaken. Maybe your 6.5 preferences were corrupt in some way that the import to 7.0 didn't go well. When you tried a backup with clean 7.0 preferences did you have the same delay at the end of the backup? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 I don't remember if there were any problems when I tried the "empty" prefs files. The test was too short. In another thread you wrote: "For what its worth - the backup software will never corrupt your files." Does that include Retrospect's own files, such as the prefs files? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nembot Posted October 27, 2005 Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 Hi, As far as I know the backup software retrospect doesn't corrupt its own files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Hi Lennart, In that post I was saying that simply reading files for backup won't hurt them. That applies to Retrospect files too. There are however other reasons why Retrospect settings files would be corrupt. A system crash during backup, memory management errors, a bad sector on disk could foul up the preferences in some minor way. Enough that Retrospect would limp along but act strangely in some areas. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Hi. I was planning to delete the prefs files today (and enter all clients, redo scripts etc). Unfortunately, my hard drive in my PC crashed so I will be restoring files instead. At least I got a backup ;-) I will rebuild the prefs files next week instead. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted October 31, 2005 Report Share Posted October 31, 2005 Hi Bummer about the crash. I wonder if that may have had something to do with this problem? i.e. the failing drive was taking a long time to do Retrospect clean up work... Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2005 Sorry I wasn't clear: It was the drive in my PC that crashed, not the hard drive in the Retrospect server. Retrospect couldn't even scan the files on my hard drive, so it skipped to the next client without delay. My supplier was out of stock on hard drives, so I'm still waiting for the replacement. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Ah I see. Well so much for that theory... Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted November 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 Hi. OK, I now have a new hard drive in my PC, so that problem is solved. Today, I quit Retrospect server, renamed the "Retrospect" folder with the prefs files, started Retrospect, entered all licence codes, added all users, recreated all scripts etc etc. The only thing that isn't new is the catalog file. We do a New Backup Set backup every Friday, which will (obviously) create a new catalog file. There is STILL a problem with "Closing..." taking minutes. <sigh> Now what? Thanks Lennart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 Hi OK - next step. In your script, turn off snapshots and run a test backup. Also turn off the backup of Windows security information. Is there a speed difference? Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted November 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 Hi. Yes, turning off snapshots and Windows security information did make a difference. No 5 minute delay while "closing". So: * What is the disadvantage turning off snapshots? * What is the disadvantage turning off Windos security information? * What is Retrospect doing for 5 minutes read/writing on the hard drive? (Simply appending snapshots and Windows security info would be a breeze, right? Especially since Retrospect did spend some time creating the snapshot, NOT included in the mentioned 5 minutes.) Thanks Lennart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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