some clients in Proactive script have old last backup date

[macisgr8]

I have a simple setup, Intel Core 2 MacMini, 4 gb ram, two FireWire Seagate external 2 GB hd's which rotate every other week. I have 10 mac laptops and 2 mac desktops, 1 Proactive script. Client version installed on each either 9.0.2.102 or 9.0.0.319, Retrospect (the program) is installed on the Mini and is version 9.0.2(107).

 

Question 1: I thought Proactive was supposed to keep the sources up-to-date every 24 hrs or giving priority to the most out of date source. I have a desktop source that is turned on daily and laptops have come and gone many times without backing up.

 

Question 2: Is there any way for me to force a proactive backup when I know a source is onsite and not current in the last backup date?

[Lennart_T]

When a client is on line, can you contact it from the Retrospect console's "Source" pane? The main reason for NOT being able to contact a client is the client's firewall blocking port 497 on both TCP and UDP.

 

Answer 1: Yes, that is how it is supposed to work.

 

Answer 2: No, it isn't. Just make sure that Retrospect really sees the client.

[macisgr8]

thanks, I will check the firewall, but I would think they are off by default.

When I add the client as a source, if it's not shown then it can't be added, we don't use static ip.

 

I wish they would build in a Force Backup, they had something like it in an earlier version

[twickland]

Make sure that any schedule you've added to your proactive backup script allows backups at the times and frequency you intend. Also be sure that the options regarding connection intervals, etc., are set to what you want.

 

When the proactive script is active, you should be able to go to the Activities> Proactive pane and see the status of each client as of the last time that Retrospect checked it. If a client shows as being unavailable when you know that it is available, you will need to investigate further by going to the Sources window and making sure that you can connect to the client and browse the desired source volume or favorite folder.

[ferthalangur]

I've had a similar problem with a user who teleworks most of the time and only comes to the office occasionally. Retrospect seemed to miss backing up her laptop a lot, and she would get the "Retrospect hasn't backed up your machine since ..." message and she would call me and ask me to manually back it up.

 

My solution was to create 2 backup scripts for her machine, one for each Media Set that I use for Proactive backups of user workstations. When she is here and asks for a forced backup, I just run the appropriate script. If the Proactive script is backing up another machine it will have the Media Set locked, and my script will be waiting in the queue for Proactive to finish and then it will run right away.