Instant Scan can be disabled using Retrospect or Client prefpane?

[peternlewis]

According to the release notes for 10.1:

 

<http://retrospect.com/en/documentation/user_guide/mac10/release_notes>

 

* Instant Scan can be disabled using Retrospect or Client prefpane

 

Colour me confused, but how do you do this? I've upgraded to 10.1 and can't see any reference to enabling/disabling Instant Scan anywhere...?

[prl]

There's a button to enable/disable Instant Scan on the server in System Preferences>Retrospect (in 10.1.221). You should see this version number in the bottom right of the preference pane.

 

I couldn't see anything in the client preference pane (System Preferences>Retrospect Client) about disabling Instant Scan. The client version number is also shown in the bottom right of the preference pane. I can't see anything about Instant Scan in the console Sources entry for the client, either. Or in Retrospect>Preferences>Clients.

 

The manual seems to maintain a wonderfully aloof silence about the whole issue of Instant Scan. But then the manual has some other wonderfully arcane aspects, like screenshots of preference panes with the EMC² logo, and version numbers starting with 6.

[peternlewis]

Ahh, ok, so I am not entirely insane. I hadn't realised that there was a System Preferences -> Retrospect pane on the server!

 

The next dumb question is going to be how to update that. My clients and my console/server are all 10.1, but the server System Preference -> Retrospect still says 10.0.1.

 

So, how do I update that? I updated the console with the Check For Updates, I assumed that would update everything else on the server, but clearly not. Do I need to download and install the whole Retrospect for Mac 10.1.0 (221) 414MB package and reinstall that?

[Lennart_T]

Try restarting the Retrospect Engine (in the same system prefs).

[roobieroo]

So all I need to do is disable instant scan on the server via the pref pane and clients will check in with the server and turn off instant scan as well?

[David W Lee]

I couldn't see anything in the client preference pane (System Preferences>Retrospect Client) about disabling Instant Scan.

 

To see the normally hidden Advanced tab and the Instant Scan setting, first quit System Preferences, then reopen it, and hold down the Command key while clicking Retrospect Client. We will update the documentation and/or knowledge base periodically as needed.

 

My clients and my console/server are all 10.1, but the server System Preference -> Retrospect still says 10.0.1. So, how do I update that?

 

Just a sanity check: Does quitting System Preferences, reopening it and then the Retrospect prefpane shows the new 10.1? If not, please check if /Library/PreferencePanes/Retrospect.prefPane has the expected date of March 6, 2013. If it doesn't, closing System Preferences and reinstalling the package would be necessary. We are also investigating the installation issue you reported.

 

So all I need to do is disable instant scan on the server via the pref pane and clients will check in with the server and turn off instant scan as well?

 

No. On the Client machine, please used the Advanced tab as mentioned above to enable/disable Instant Scan.

[prl]

To see the normally hidden Advanced tab and the Instant Scan setting, first quit System Preferences, then reopen it, and hold down the Command key while clicking Retrospect Client. We will update the documentation and/or knowledge base periodically as needed.

Any information about Instant Scan in the User Guide would be a huge improvement over what's there now. Wasn't Instant Scan one of the main new features of Retrospect 10? But it is entirely undocumented.

 

 

 

Just a sanity check: Does quitting System Preferences, reopening it and then the Retrospect prefpane shows the new 10.1? If not, please check if /Library/PreferencePanes/Retrospect.prefPane has the expected date of March 6, 2013. ...

...

That's what I needed to do.

[David W Lee]

Any information about Instant Scan in the User Guide would be a huge improvement over what's there now.

 

For Instant Scan the goal is for it to be as transparent (invisible part of the "kernel" of Retrospect) as possible while simply making the scan phase of backups faster, so that users don't need to be aware of and don't need to manage Instant Scan. We have been listening to customer feedback here and through Support, with additional improvements and features planned towards that goal.

[David W Lee]

http://retrospect.com/en/documentation/user_guide/mac10/instant_scan now addresses most frequently asked questions. PDF and ePUB versions will be updated in the next few days.

[peternlewis]

OK, so my retrospect preference stubbornly reported 10.0.1 and a 2012 date.

 

So I stopped and restarted the engine, and it still reported 10.0.1.

 

Fine, so I downloaded Retrospect from the Software Downloads and Updates page <http://www.retrospect.com/en/support/downloads> (the 414 MB one). But all that contains is the Retrospect application, the user guide and client installers - nothing to update the engine.

 

So I figured maybe it updates it automatically, so I launched it, but the pref pane still said 10.0.1.

 

So I quit the application, removed the preference pane and relaunched it. But the preference pane wasn't installed and I can't see any way to install it.

 

Reading the documentation talks about double clicking "Install Retrospect Engine", but where it that, and how do I install the engine and preference pane on my server?

 

Thanks.

[peternlewis]

Ahh, "of course", Retrospect application, Preferences, Console, Export installer. I can't imagine how I missed that.

[David W Lee]

Points noted. We will be improving online documentation shortly.

[fairprint]

Hi, we're having this exact same issue and have found this post is the only help available. Thanks for all the info so far but we still have a problem. When I go to Retrospect application > Preferences > Console it only allows the export of the client installer. When I click on the Export server installer nothing happens!

 

The system is a 2 x 2.4Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 64Gb of ram and OS X Server 10.6.7. Even with this incredible system (effectively 16 cores!) the RetroISA app slows down performance on some software to an absolute crawl and I need to turn it off. So far I just use the terminal but when someone restarts the server it comes back on. If I could just get the damn pref pane installed I can turn it off from there (and I guess that way it's permanent?). Can someone post a link to the exported "server installer" so I can get it installed please.

 

Thanks.

[bdunagan]

@fairprint: The Retrospect server preference pane should already be installed on the system, and you can follow the third set of instructions: http://retrospect.com/documentation/user_guide/mac10/instant_scan. Disabling Instant Scan through the preference pane is permanent.

[fairprint]

But that's the problem, I have installed 10.1.0 of Retrospect but the pref pane says 10.0.1, as described in an earlier post. Another post on here stated how to install the newer pref pane but when I click Export server installer Retrospect does nothing. I was hoping that whatever is supposed to be exported from that button could be uploaded by someone so that I can install it.

 

I also noted on the release notes that the recommended system is 10.6.8 so on Saturday I upgraded the system to 10.6.8 and tried again but it still doesn't work. My Saturday wasted :-( 

[bdunagan]

Ah, I see. Quite frustrating. The server installer is bundled inside the Retrospect application. Since the button isn't working on your system (we'll look into this), you can get to the installer by right-clicking on the application, choosing "Show Package Contents", and navigating to Contents > Resources > updater; you should see "Retrospect Engine Installer.pkg" in that folder. The engine installer will upgrade the preference pane and the engine itself.

 

If you prefer to stop Instant Scan manually to avoid the engine downtime, you can add "StartRetroISA=0" to the bottom of /Library/Application Support/Retrospect/retro_isa.ini. The RetroISA process won't unload, but it should stay at 0% CPU. You can also unload the process with "sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.retrospect.retroisa.plist" and disable it by updating that plist with the "Disabled" key having the value "true". Those are the three steps that the preference pane goes through.

 

Let me know if this works for you.

[fairprint]

That worked great! Thanks!!!

[icloud51@]

For Instant Scan the goal is for it to be as transparent (invisible part of the "kernel" of Retrospect) as possible while simply making the scan phase of backups faster, so that users don't need to be aware of and don't need to manage Instant Scan. We have been listening to customer feedback here and through Support, with additional improvements and features planned towards that goal.

I strongly disagree that your customers would want that. Anyone who is using your software is most likely technically aware. Retrospect is too complicated for some user who is used to time machine or some product like that, but it is good for those of us who need to have extensive control over our backups.  We need to keep control over any process that is going to passively take more than 1 GB of real memory to run. Retroisa was running at 1.4Gb (real memory), and i don't have a massive amount of storage hooked up, and also I am only backing up 3 folders right now. 

 

I just wanted to be clear that removing the disable preference in the future would be the wrong way to go - hopefully you were just saying the process itself shouldn't have to be extensively managed, not that it should be integrated into the program with no options to disable it.

 

 Instant scan would actually be much better if i could set it to ignore certain volumes and keep it scanning only those folders i am backing up, so I think it is already a little too simplified, and I am sure most people here would agree.

[Maser]

You can set it to ignore entire volumes (like external USB drives).

 

This is explained here:

 

http://www.retrospect.com/en/support/kb/retroisa-advanced-options

 

But what you can't do is exclude a volume and include a folder on an excluded volume.

[icloud51@]

yes it is pretty good now. Mostly just wanted to suggest that their customers don't want options removed in future versions, the way some companies like to do.