Cacus Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 Hi all To test Version 9 on lion with my old VXA1 FW drive I decided to insert a new tape an back up a 336 byte RTF document. This took 19 mins and and created a 311.9Mb retrospect file. Am I missing something? + Normal backup using Backup Assistant - 24/06/2012 15:00 at 24/06/2012 (Activity Thread 1) To Backup Set TestBackup... - 24/06/2012 15:02:13: Copying MacPro RAID 24/06/2012 15:18:00: Snapshot stored, 311.9 MB 24/06/2012 15:19:47: Comparing MacPro RAID 24/06/2012 15:21:13: Execution completed successfully Completed: 1 files, 1 KB Performance: 0.1 MB/minute (0.1 copy, 0.1 compare) Duration: 00:19:00 (00:11:11 idle/loading/preparing) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 It's hard to tell what you actually did. How did you backup just one file? A filter/selector? Backing up the whole source first and change one file and backup again? In both cases, Retrospect must scan the entire source drive. That might contain millions of files and if so will take quite a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cacus Posted June 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 I clicked on backup and I get the create backup screen. When it asked what I would like to back up (showing all drives attached but non selected) I clicked on browse. I then select the file I want to back up. (only one v. small file). I continue and then select the backup set (there's only one and it's brand new). The summary states manual file selection. I then click start now. It takes on average 10mins thinking about the copy then the tape kicks in for about 30 seconds recoding the file. And then it takes another 10mins give or take finishing up. Why does retrospect waste time (and catalogue space) scanning the entire disk when it know there's only one file and I've already told it were the file is? Don't recall version 6 being this slow on an old G4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted June 24, 2012 Report Share Posted June 24, 2012 I guess it's because Retrospect is optimized for backing up an entire source drive (less some cache files and log files etc). And Retrospect still does need to get all the file's metadata right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted June 25, 2012 Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 Am I missing something? Retrospect's default is to create a snapshot of the source volume or source favorite folder every time that source is backed up. This is the uniquely valuable feature of Retrospect, and is what enables you to restore a source to a particular point in time without having to back up unchanged files. Scanning and matching the source takes time and the snapshot (which includes all files on the source) takes space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 29, 2012 Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 To test twickland's theory: - Crete a new directory with two files. - Define that folder as a Favorite. - Repeat your original steps; use Backup Assistant to Browse this Source and select one of the two files. - Run the backup (to a new Media Set with an empty tape). What do you see? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etracer Posted July 4, 2012 Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 Retrospect's default is to create a snapshot of the source volume or source favorite folder every time that source is backed up. This is the uniquely valuable feature of Retrospect, and is what enables you to restore a source to a particular point in time without having to back up unchanged files. Scanning and matching the source takes time and the snapshot (which includes all files on the source) takes space. So how can I stop this default behavior? Or at least make it perform reasonably like Retrospect 6.1 does? For example: Backing up subset of a filesystem on a remote (over a 20Mb link) Linux server (with the directory defined as a favorite on Retrospect 9 and as a subvolume on Retrospect 6.1) with a rule that only ends up selecting about 4000 files that total about 500KB (source code files). The entire filesystem subtree (defined by the favorite) has about 100,000 files. Scanning takes a couple of minutes on both 9 and 6.1. Backup of the few changed files takes only seconds on both. The snapshot build on 6.1 takes 30 seconds at most. On version 9 the snapshot build takes nearly 2 hours! Remember, there are only 4000 files that have ever been backed up and one or two changes on subsequent backups. This problem has existed since version 8 and continues to prevent us from migrating beyond version 6.1. This behavior is repeatable to multiple Linux servers running different distros and kernels and not isolated to a single client. Running the latest Linux client 7.7.100. Backup server is a 12 core MacPro running 10.6.8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyk Posted July 4, 2012 Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 I'd say, like most of Retrospect 9, it's a joke. Retrospect 8/9 are a complete and utter disappointment, at least on the Mac. After almost a decade on Retrospect, I'm thinking it's time to cut our losses and jump ship... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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