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Retrospect 9 and file matching...


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OK, so I messed up on the settings on a current script I've been running for the last month. It's not a big deal, since today was the first time this resulted in the issue I'm going to explain below, but just looking for some advice on correcting my script so I'm getting the results I want.

 

Script Type: Backup (and here's where I made my mistake—I think I wanted an "archive" script, not a "backup" script).

 

This script backs up a single folder (to LTO tapes). Within that folder, I place closed video projects that we want to archive to tape (yep, see, should have chosen archive, not backup). For that past month, the script has been running without issue since each job (until today) has been totally independent of the other jobs in that folder. But, today I backed up five different jobs—the first job was a "master" video project, then the other four were variations on that master project. But, each job is in its own folder with a complete copy of all required assets. And this is how I *wanted* to back it up (even though I know I'd be backing up many of the assets multiple times as many of them are being used in all five jobs). But, because of my script's Backup > Matching settings (default settings on the matching), even though those assets exist in five different folders, they're only being backed up once (in the first folder). This isn't what I want, since if we ever need to pull the job from the tape, we need all the assets, depending on the version of the job that's pulled.

 

So, here's how I want the files to be matched (since I've already backed up about 25GB of these assets), and hoping someone can help me out on the Backup > Matching checkboxes I should be checking/unchecking. First, let me outline some example folder/file structures:

 

FOLDER_JOB_1

- fileA

- fileB

- fileC

- fileD

- fileE

 

FOLDER_JOB_2

- fileA

- fileB

- fileC

- file1

- file2

- file3

 

Right now, when I look at my tape, everything is backed up under FOLDER_JOB_1. FOLDER_JOB_2 is also on the tape, but within that, fileA–fileE aren't listed (as they were already backed up via FOLDER_JOB_1). Only file1–file3 are located in this folder (on the tapes). So, on the tape, the folders/files look like this:

 

FOLDER_JOB_1

- fileA

- fileB

- fileC

- fileD

- fileE

 

FOLDER_JOB_2

- file1

- file2

- file3

 

FOLDER_JOB_2 is missing fileA–fileE.

 

So, I want to modify the script's Matching settings, so when I run a second pass on these folders, copies of fileA–fileE are added to FOLDER_JOB_2. That way, both FOLDER_JOB_1 and FOLDER_JOB_2 contain complete copies of all the assets required for each job. But, I don't want fileA–fileE backed up a second time under FOLDER_JOB_1, nor do I want file1–file3 backed up a second time under under FOLDER_JOB_2 (i.e., if the file already exists at the destination, in the exact same location as the source, I don't want it backed up again).

 

So, can someone lend me some advice? Which of these options should I check/uncheck to get the above results?

 

• Match source files against the Media Set

• Don't add duplicate files to the Media Set

• Match only files in the same location/path

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Kristin.

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Which of these options should I check/uncheck to get the above results?

 

• Match source files against the Media Set

• Don't add duplicate files to the Media Set

• Match only files in the same location/path

 

Selecting all three options should do what you want, since the duplicate files have different directory paths.

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You know what would be a great option (which is how CrashPlan handles duplicate files)—rather than duplicating the files, when a duplicate is detected, only a reference is made that the file is a duplicate (on the backend, not seen by the user—the user "sees" the file as though it's been backed up where it's supposed to be). But, when a request is made to pull the files from the backup/archive, all the files are retrieved. This would save space (as per the current Matching, when Match only files in the same location/path isn't selected), but would also allow complete jobs to be pulled from the backups when required.

 

For example, in our studio, we run Retrospect nightly. Many, many of our assets are being shared between these 30 computers. To save space, the Matching is left with Match only files in the same location/path off). But, when we need to pull a job from the backups, it's a pain as we not only have to pull the actual job folder, we also have to search for missing assets (once it's discovered they're missing). Would be great to not have to do this (via the above suggestion).

 

Just a thought...

k.

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I don't quite understand. Well, frankly I don't understand at all. :)

 

If you use snapshots (which is the default), Retrospect would have restored fileA, fileB, fileC, file1, file2 and file3 when restoring the second folder.

What am I missing here?

Why would you want a second copy of fileA, fileB and fileC on the tape?

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Maybe I'm doing something wrong then?

 

If I need to retrieve a job, in Retrospect 9 (Mac) I do the following:

 

1. Click Restore in the top-left corner of the Retrospect window.

2. Select Search for files in the selected media sets.

3. Search for the job's folder name and select the range of media sets that the job *could* be on (since these backups run nightly, to alternating tapes, and I have almost two decades worth of tapes, if the job is old I have to select a number of media sets to search since I have no way of knowing exactly which media set the job could be on—many, many of these tapes are "hand me downs" from more than a decade ago, before I took this job over).

4. Select where I want the files restored to.

5. Go through the search results to find the job I'm looking for and select it (sometimes as job can be found in multiple "sources" since the job could have gone from machine-to-machine during the course of it's life, so I need to find the "final" version of it).

6. Retrieve the job from tape to HD.

 

Doing this, Retrospect does not recover fileA, fileB, fileC, (they don't even show up in the listing when I drill down into the folder the should be in)—the only things there are file1, file2 and file3 when restoring the second folder.

 

Is there another way of searching for a job that would allow me to recover it, completely, without having to write duplicate files to tape?

 

Regards,

Kristin.

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