Normal Backup keeps backing up unchanged mounted server volume

[rhwalker]

Surely I'm missing something simple here because Retrospect keeps (after the initial expected full backup) backing up an unchanged mounted volume while doing a normal backup.

 

Configuration:

 

New Xserve G5 1 x 2.0 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Mac OS 10.4.2

Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1U PacketLoader Plus with SCSI interface

Autoloader Firmware A109 (current), Drive Firmware 2109 (current)

Retrospect Workgroup 6.0.212 with driver update 6.4.102 (current)

Storage sets alternate between two VXA-2 tapes ("VXA Set A" and "VXA Set B"), scheduled backup.

Boot (system) drive is 250 GB in Bay 1 on Xserve.

Bay 2 has a 250 GB volume that holds some Retrospect Storage Sets from when I was testing (before using tape) and some disk images from our migration to our new server, about 23 GB total, but is otherwise unused. No files on Bay 2 drive have been changed or touched since installation, and it is not mounted as a network share; it just happens to appear on the desktop of the Xserve and is in the backup list. Here's a sample of a log report from a subsequent backup after the initial normal backup (which, of course, backed up this volume to the erased tape on the initial backup):

 

+ Normal backup using WMW Backup at 8/1/2005 6:05 PM To backup set VXA Set B [001]…

 

[ stuff omitted about successful backup of the system volume and network clients ]

 

- 8/1/2005 6:48:42 PM: Copying Bay2 HD…

8/1/2005 7:52:26 PM: Comparing Bay2 HD…

8/1/2005 8:48:10 PM: Execution completed successfully. Completed: 27 files, 23.5 GB

Performance: 402.2 MB/minute (377.8 copy, 430.0 compare) Duration: 01:59:28 (00:00:18 idle/loading/preparing)

 

The question is, why is this unchanged, unmodified volume being backed up each day in a normal backup in the same script that is doing correct normal backups on the other sources in that script? Incremental stuff seems to be working OK for the System volume and for all clients on the network, yes, I've figured out all the selector hacks necessary to get things working, but this is simply a quiet drive with no activity. Retrospect on the server just keeps backing up 23+ GB of unchanged data on this drive on the Xserve every day. Backup report shows this volume as backed up, and it appears in each of the daily snapshots. Any suggestions? I'm stumped, never had this problem on our old ASIP server [Retrospect 4.2] that the Xserve replaces. Regards, Russ

[rhwalker]

Mystery solved. Retrospect was crashing on a subsequent source and never handled this one correctly, so it kept being backed up. Sigh. If only the troubleshoot cycle wasn't so time-consuming. Now to go troubleshoot crashing that it seems others are seeing...