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How often do your clients just not show up?


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I'm having clients go missing to Retrospect 10.1.0(187) way too often and I'm wondering if it's happening to others as well. It's usually laptop users and they are all running Mac client 10.1.0.107. Force quitting the retroclient process immediately fixes the problem and Retrospect will see them on the network shortly after doing so. If I go to Sources and click the Locate icon and then on Test Address, entering the address gives me the correct name, client version and address of the client but Retrospect shows them as unavailable and won't back them up.

 

There's nothing fancy about the network and as far as I can tell, their IP address assignments aren't changing from what they had the day before when Retrospect could see them on the network. Any idea how to make the client work more consistently or is it just buggy?

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I seem to remember that happened quite frequently in the 9.x and early 10.x series, but has been a non issue ( for me ) esp. with the last 10.0.1 release, and into 10.1.0(221).

Even if I couldn't see them in the + sign button, they always got backed up any way...

 

Just my experience.

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Even if I couldn't see them in the + sign button, they always got backed up any way...

That would indicate that the issue was a failure of the Retrospect console app to fully populate with data from the engine. The engine is what performs all the actions; the console is supposed to be a window into the engine and a way to change the engine's settings.

 

In our setup, we couldn't get the Retro 8.2 through Retro 10.0 consoles to consistently and reliably display all of the engine data correctly. The only way to be sure the data was complete and current was to stop and restart the engine process. In my brief experience with the new 10.1 (221) console and engine, the communication seems better, if not yet perfect.

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I'm having clients go missing to Retrospect 10.1.0(187) way too often and I'm wondering if it's happening to others as well. It's usually laptop users and they are all running Mac client 10.1.0.107. Force quitting the retroclient process immediately fixes the problem and Retrospect will see them on the network shortly after doing so. If I go to Sources and click the Locate icon and then on Test Address, entering the address gives me the correct name, client version and address of the client but Retrospect shows them as unavailable and won't back them up.

 

There's nothing fancy about the network and as far as I can tell, their IP address assignments aren't changing from what they had the day before when Retrospect could see them on the network. Any idea how to make the client work more consistently or is it just buggy?

 

Yes, clients are hiding themselves for me! :angry:

Previous version of the clients software had no problem at all, or am I mistaking not to reboot every time I make a backup?

 

 

Normal backup using DS1812-WIN_XPSP3_OS at 22-03-13

To Backup Set DS1812-RS-WIN_XPSP3_OS...

Can't access volume Local Disk (C:) on MSHOME, error -530 ( backup client not found)

22-03-13 15:43:03: Execution incomplete

 

Please your thoughts and/or help, much appreciated!

 

Cheers and enjoy your TweakEnd!

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Unfortunately the 10.1.0.221 client did nothing to fix clients from not showing up on the network. I've written a script that gets launched by launchd a few minutes before the scheduled start time of the proactive script that I think will fix this but why am I writing scripts for something that Retrospect should have figured out how to make work by now?

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>com.mycompany.retrofix</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
			<string>/usr/bin/retrostop.sh</string>
	</array>
	<key>RunAtLoad</key>
	<true/>
	<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
	<dict>
			<key>Hour</key>
			<integer>8</integer>
			<key>Minute</key>
			<integer>56</integer>
	</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

 

The retostop.sh script is-

#!/bin/sh
/bin/launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.retrospect.retroclient.plist
/bin/launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.retrospect.retroclient.plist

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  • 1 month later...

I'm having clients go missing to Retrospect 10.1.0(187) way too often and I'm wondering if it's happening to others as well.

 

Yes, I'm having the same issue. It's been a long-standing problem, but seems to have gotten worse over the last week. The Proactive Backup scrip can't find the clients. It says "Client not available." The server (Mountain Lion) has Firewall turned off. I also ran 'sudo ipfw list' in the Terminal to make sure there was nothing there but it was allowing everything.

 

Same on client.

 

Have rebooted the server computer and the client. 

 

Clients are running various versions of OS X up to 10.8.3 and one Windows user. Macs are on Retrospect version 10.1.0 (221).

 

Trying to add a client doesn't see anything on the network.

 

Quitting retroclient using Activity Monitor (on the client) didn't change anything either.

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Are you using Ethernet or Wifi to connect the clients? 
Do the clients have static or dynamic IP numbers? 
Have you made sure that a user was logged in when performing the backup? 

Have you checked the status of the client on the actual client itself as I have found that if the back up of a client was interrupted the status will still be listed as "In Use"?

Have you checked the clients' Firewall settings?

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Are you using Ethernet or Wifi to connect the clients? 

Ethernet

 

Do the clients have static or dynamic IP numbers? 

Static

 

Have you made sure that a user was logged in when performing the backup? 

Yes

 

Have you checked the status of the client on the actual client itself as I have found that if the back up of a client was interrupted the status will still be listed as "In Use"?

Status is 'on'.

 

Have you checked the clients' Firewall settings?

Yes. Firewall is off on both clients and server.

 

Thanks, James,

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You need to make sure that the clients' status says "Ready" in the status box under the client name.

 

Also do you have the clients set up to go to sleep after a certain amount of time?

Is the "Put hard drive to sleep" box checked?

If the clients are going to sleep are you able to see them when they wake up?

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You need to make sure that the clients' status says "Ready" in the status box under the client name.

Do you mean on the Retrospect Client in System Preferences?

No, it just says: "Client Name:  James Brown's Computer (10) (192.168.1.10)

and under that is the box with Latest Backup: 15/5/2013 and 'Next Backup: - "

 

Client is awake. Put HD to sleep is checked. Client goes to sleep after an hour, but it is the computer I use all day.

 

NONE of the clients are appearing in the Add Client window on the Retrospect Server.

 

Thanks, James.

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Then they must have changed the client interface however it does sound like the sleeping of the client is causing your problem.

 

Does the backup happen while you are using the computer or at a later time when the computer is not in use?  If does happen at a later time you might want to try setting the sleep time to never and unchecking the "Put HD to sleep" box.  It definitely sounds like the client is not waking up for the backup so Retrospect can not find it.

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Thanks Daniels. It's got nothing to do with sleep, as the clients are running. I have 10 clients set up on Proactive Backup. 1 Windows and 9 Macs. One of the Macs seems to run fine, backs up each day. In the 'Activities' section on the server the nine all have a question mark next to the Proactive Backup, with status of "Source not available"

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Well, for absolutely no reason, the clients are now all seen by the server and I've had no problems backing them up for the last day.

 

Mystifying.

 

They clients still have RetroISA running at 150% of CPU and gobbling up 2-3GB of RAM, but that's another problem!

 

Thanks everyone for their help. I just wish I knew a) what caused it (so Retrospect can fix it) and B) what fixed it.

James.

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I'm having clients go missing to Retrospect 10.1.0(187) way too often and I'm wondering if it's happening to others as well. It's usually laptop users and they are all running Mac client 10.1.0.107. Force quitting the retroclient process immediately fixes the problem and Retrospect will see them on the network shortly after doing so. If I go to Sources and click the Locate icon and then on Test Address, entering the address gives me the correct name, client version and address of the client but Retrospect shows them as unavailable and won't back them up.

 

After experiencing the v6.3 clients go offline whenever Snow Leopard was logged out of w/ Retrospect 8, I was hopeful that there would be no more "loss of clients" to have to manually keep an eye on w/ Retro 10. While the v10 behavior seems independent of Mac OS logout, I'm still seeing clients regularly go offline. Using Remote Desktop to run a quick launchd unload/load toggle will get them back, but as was mentioned above, why is it necessary for me to do this?

 

Fred

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Well, for absolutely no reason, the clients are now all seen by the server and I've had no problems backing them up for the last day.

 

Mystifying.

 

They clients still have RetroISA running at 150% of CPU and gobbling up 2-3GB of RAM, but that's another problem!

 

Thanks everyone for their help. I just wish I knew a) what caused it (so Retrospect can fix it) and B) what fixed it.

James.

Did anything on your network change?

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