How long does it take to read/restore from a Catalog?

[Xenomorph]

Catalog file size: ~1.1 GB

~1,000,000 files

~245 sessions

 

System: old Xeon dual-core @ 3 GHz, 12 GB RAM, Retrospect 7.7

 

We've been backing up a server since January. Today, someone needed a file. No biggy, I figured. I go to open the catalog, and it's been sitting at this for an HOUR now:

 

 

Matching...

Pass 1: 3 of 245 sessions,

Matched 0 of 1,073,425 files

 

I'm guessing we should be doing 3-month rotations on the tapes insted of 6-month.

 

Anyone know how long this will take? It's missing other backups while it sits, trying to restore from this one.

 

[jotrago]

Yes browsing the catalog can be a time consuming process.

Remember that a Retrospect Snapshot is always a representation of the state of the COMPLETE file system at any given point in time. so it is like browsing a Full Backup

(Retrospect always takes a full Snapshot scan at the beginning of every backup, regardless of how little datat may actually be backed up in that session)

 

You do, however, have a couple of choices in the method you use to restore a file :-

 

User Restore

In later versions user's can restore their own files (Let them do the waiting )

 

Restore Wizard

Here you select the backupset, and Snapshot, then Retro constructs a Tree of the entire backup, which can be a lengthy process (hours)

Then you have to browse the tree to find the file you want, which can also be a mission.

 

Finding Files

Useful if you are not sure what is needed.
Quicker for large backup Sets, especially if you DO know the exact file you need
You can search across multiple BackupSets.
Find finds ALL instances of a particular file in the entire backup set and displays them all in the tree, with their dates so you can pick which version you need.

Restore > Find Files - Choose Backup Set(s) - Retrospect OPENS the "Destination Selection" Window

 

Browse a Session

If you know exactly when the file of interest was backed up, you can go directly to the session and restore from there.

Configure>Backupsets>Sessions

Remember that Sessions contain ONLY the files that were actually backed up in a giveen session, so if it has not chaged for a while it may not be in the most recent session.

BUT Sessions are much smaller, and should be quicker to scan.

 

Catalog Performance

Obviously Catalogs are busy things.

In the Backup Set Properties DISABLE the compression feature, there's plenty of space on modern drives.

Put Catalogs, Windows Temp Folders, and BackupSets on separate Drives / Spindles / Arrays / Luns.  Retrospect Makes intensive use of these areas, and performance will suffer if they are all contending for the same resource.