Is anyone successfully backingup and retrieving files under OSX Tiger?

[ArtnSoul]

I just want to know if anyone out there is using Retrospect Desktop, v6.0.212????

 

I can access and retrieve old catalogues from v4.3-5 but when I try to make a new backup and access the files I want to select for backup it scans the files okay but as soon as it comes to display the files it crashes any time...

 

Can anyone give me some advice on either what I'm doing wrong, or suggest where I could go to get further advice??

 

Many thanks...

 

Kind Regards

Piers Le Sueur

[natew]

Hi

 

Are you trying to backup or restore?

 

Catalog files created in Retrospect 4.x-5.x are read only in Retrospect 6.0. That means you can restore from them but you cannot add any more data to them.

 

What is your backup device and how is it connected to the machine.

 

Thanks

Nate

[ArtnSoul]

Thanks Nate...

 

I'm not really having a problem with the old stuff... it's anything newly created or just trying to view files to select...

 

 

 

The system.. G4 Mac 1Ghz DP MDD 2Gb Ram, OSX.4.2 and the drive I want to use for daily backups etc.. is an EzyQuest Cobra Firewire... if that helps...

 

 

 

Many thanks!!

 

Piers

[natew]

Hi

 

Are you using a file backup set or a removeable disk backup set?

 

Can you give us a better idea of exactly what happens when you start a backup? Which display are you talking about in your first post?

 

Thanks

Nate

[Guest]

Piers,

 

This sounds kind of similar to the problem I'm having that I posted about in message #60010. I have not tried to do a "backup", but when I try to "restore" some files from a catalog and attempt to view the search results, Retrospect just quits. If I narrow the search down and only have a few results, it works OK, but if there are a sizeable number of search results, it quits. This only started happening when I began using Tiger.

 

I'm wondering if maybe there is some conflict with an application or font in Tiger that Retrospect does not like.

 

I had a couple of replys to my thread, but no helpful information yet.....

 

Gary

[ArtnSoul]

Thank you Nate....

 

Okay here is the procedure I'm trying to do.

 

Open Retrospect.

 

Click on Backup

 

Click on Destination

 

Select New - backup set (catalogue file)

 

Backup Set Type: File

 

Security left at default

 

Save file to backup set folder

 

Okay

 

Left selecting files at ALL

 

Click on Preview to view and select files

 

Scans source as selected... (in this case my main work files folder, where I put all client work)

 

!*!*!* POOF!!! !*!*!*!*! gone Retrospect has unexpectedly quit.

 

I get the same reaction if I want to view the files of a recent daily backup

 

What are your thoughts now?

 

Many thanks Piers

[ArtnSoul]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for taking the time to reply...

 

I don't seem to be having a problem accessing older backup sets (4.3/5) it's just the newly made ones that keep crashing... so darn frustrating!

 

So one thought is there's something in the system that's causing an issue... maybe even as you suggested a font.

 

Maybe we'll just have to wait until there's a patch or update to fix the issue. There must be lots of others having the same issue... surely?... All I wanted to know was - does anyone have this part working correctly on their system. We could at least isolate whether it is a fault with the software itself or the system.

 

Kind Regards

Piers

[rhwalker]

Quote:

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I just want to know if anyone out there is using Retrospect Desktop, v6.0.212????

 

---

 

Simply as a data point, I can answer yes to your question, at least for Retrospect Workgroup (not Desktop), which I think is pretty much the same as Retrospect Desktop except for added support for servers and remote client backup. Seems to be working fine (with the usual Retrospect quirks) now that the new Retrospect version and driver update are installed on our new Xserve G5 that we recently received and now have put into production serving and backing up a mix of Mac OS 9.1 and Mac OS 10.4.2 clients, with, of course, a selector that excludes Spotlight files. It may just be our configuration, but here's what we've got:

 

Xserve G5, single 2.0 Ghz processor, 2 GB RAM, Mac OS 10.4.2 Server with Security Update 2005-007 v1.1;

3 x 250 GB internal Apple Drive Modules on Apple Hardware RAID card, configured as one 50 GB RAID 5 system partition and one 417 GB RAID 5 user data (and home directory) partition. POSIX permissions on the system partition/volume, ACL permissions on the user data partition/volume.

Running headless, accessed by Apple Remote Desktop version 2.2.

 

ATTO ExpressPCI UL4D Ultra320 Dual-Channel SCSI PCI-X card.

Channel A is attached to a legacy Sony DDS-2 SCSI-1 DAT drive so that we can read all of our old Retrospect backup tapes for the past 13 years from our (now retired) ASIP 6.3.x PPC 8100/100 server using, at the end, Retrospect 4.2.

Channel B is attached to an Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1u PacketLoader (SCSI interface with ethernet interface to autoloader), filled with 80 GB VXA-2 tapes with barcodes, and also an 80 GB SCSI-3 drive.

 

As a comment, we were having minor problems with Retrospect using the LSI Logic 22320 dual-channel Ultra320 SCSI card that Apple sells as its BTO option for Xserve G5 servers, and those problems have disappeared after replacing that card with the ATTO UL4D card.

 

Software and firmware versions:

Xserve G5 Boot ROM firmware: 5.1.7f2

ATTO UL4D Firmware version 1.4.2f1, ExpressPCI Driver v.3.40.

Exabyte VXA-2 drive firmware version 2109, Autoloader Firmware version A109, Ethernet Module firmware version V10E0A.

Retrospect Workgroup version 6.0.212, Retrospect Driver Update 6.5.102.

Retrospect version on Mac OS 10.4.2 clients: 6.0.110

Retrospect version on Mac OS 9.1 clients: 5.1.157

 

No special "bandwidth reduction" or whatever in Retrospect preferences - running with stock preferences except for preserving date/time on restored files (which I have set). We don't use any of the "backup server" stuff for clients that appear/disappear, just standard scheduled backups.

 

Now, I never have been able to get Retrospect to work to the SuperDrive (UJ845) that came with the Xserve, and I have given up on that point and have accepted that Retrospect just doesn't work to DVDs (at least not to mine). Other programs are able to write to the SuperDrive DVD just fine, but Retrospect can't. But backing up to the Exabyte VXA-2 via SCSI seems to work OK (there are some minor autoloader quirks that I have noted and that I am careful not to cause - can happen if a tape is left in the drive not rewound, etc., which seems to confuse Retrospect).

 

I had the usual problems with Retrospect trying to back up a live Mac OS X server, but cured that by a middle-of-the-night script that shuts down the various services, clones the system partition for the quiet server to an external 80 GB drive on the server, then restarts the services, and Retrospect backs up that cloned drive (which is not active) rather than the live system. This has the added benefit of always having a "hot spare" of the system partition (but with a stale mail database) in case the system partition dies during the day if the Hardware RAID card fails (of course, failure of a single drive in the RAID 5 array is supposedly cured by hot-swapping in a spare drive and rebuilding in the background).

 

But to address your question, I have, in our testing before putting the server into production, been able to do backups to and full disk restores from the Exabyte VXA-2 tapes of the Mac OS 9.1 clients using Retrospect 6 on the Xserve running 10.4.2, and I have been able to do backups to and restores from the Exabyte VXA-2 tapes of the Mac OS 10.4.2 clients using Retrospect 6 on the Xserve running 10.4.2, and I have been able to do file restores from (read-only) DDS-2 DAT backup tapes originally made on our now-retired ASIP Server by Retrospect 2.x - 4.x. So it can be made to work because we seem to have an existence proof.

 

It took some work and extensive testing and making sure everything (drivers, software, etc.) was up-to-date, and a bit of scripting and careful debugging/testing, but yes, I can report that at least one installation (ours) of Retrospect 6 is working on Mac OS Server 10.4.2. The installation should have been more turnkey on such a standard system as ours, and that's my gripe - that it didn't plug-and-play "out of the box" for a standard installation. Would be nice if Retrospect supported ACLs, but I've made notes as to our ACL configuration in case we have to do a full restore before Retrospect releases an upgrade to support ACLs, hopefully before the end of the year. As long as we have a couple of legacy Mac OS 9.1 clients, there's really no other choice for backup than Retrospect.

 

Hope this helps, and it's just to provide a data point for you on a configuration that's not quite the same as yours but may be similar enough for comparison.

 

Regards,

 

Russ

[natew]

ArtnSoul,

 

Thanks for the detailed explaination. It is very helpful.

 

There may be some files on disk that are causing the scan to fail. In the past this would happen with some non-standard two byte Japanese characters.

 

If you select a small single folder as your source for backup do you have the same problem? Try a couple of folders to make sure.

 

Thanks

Nate

[jhartnea]

I'm running client 6.0110. My administrator hasn't been able to back me up on schedule since I upgraded in August. I read a comment that Tiger turns the client off after restart. Is there a workaround? Is client supposed to be up and running at all times?

 

Any information to end this frustrating challange will be appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Jim H.

[natew]

Hi

 

The updated client for tiger should autolaunch at restart. If that is not working for you, uninstall the client, reboot, reinstall the client and log it into the backup server again.

 

Thanks

Nate

[ArtnSoul]

NATE!!! BadaBING!!!!.. yeah that worked... I used a few saved Safari webpages and then added some PDF files for good measure.

 

 

 

So it's either a number of files/subfolders OR a display font issue.

 

 

 

Where do we go from here?... Does Dantz know about this problem? could it be fixed soon?

 

 

 

Although I still come back to my original question.. is this working correctly for anyone at all? What I/we need to figure out is - is this problem localised to my machine OR is it a software in itself the problem?

 

 

 

Many thanks for your help!!! very much appreciated!

 

 

 

Kind Regards

 

Piers

[natew]

Hi

 

We fixed all the file name problems that would cause Retrospect to quit on the scan before backup. I don't think this is a defect in the software at this point.

 

I suspect some corruption on your hard disk. I've seen quite a few cases where files can get funky in a way that disk repair utils don't catch.

 

Try this:

Define the Users folder as a source volume for your backup. Run a backup of only that volume. If the scan fails we know there is a problem file somewhere in the users folder.

 

Next step define all the folders within the users folder as subvolumes. Run backups of each one until the failure occurs. Repeat the process until you can narrow down the offending files and folders.

 

Once you find the bad files I would move (not copy) them to another physical disk, reboot the machine and then move them back. Either that or just delete them.

 

Thanks

Nate

[Syzygies]

Yes.

 

Retrospect 6.0.212

 

Retrospect Driver Update for Retrospect 6.0 (Mac) version 6.6.101

 

 

 

I just completed a test restore of a system volume, and it booted correctly.

 

 

 

I don't normally rely on this ability (which sporadically failed in the past), as I always rebuild my system volumes from scratch after any kind of trouble, keeping my user files on a separate partition. This avoids the "junk in the trunk" that most users have after years of incremental system upgrades, etc.

[ArtnSoul]

NATE!!!!!!!!

 

THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

 

Funny... it wasn't the files that were corrupted it was the folder they were in... after a few tests... I discovered that other folders containing vast amounts of files, worked fine... soooo I followed your advice - MOVED... the files to the ext HD deleted the original folder, made a new one, then moved the files back in. I did a test backup over night and there's not a problem....

 

I just need to reset the script to do a complete new archive to start then it can go back to incremental. Incidentally during the moving of files, I lost some timesheet files grrrrrrr.. they just seemed to vanish into the ether... still I had some backed up on a previous DVD.. I did have some of the ones I wanted previously archived - but being in the corrupted folder, couldn't access them to restore.. boooo... any way - thanks so much for your help!... all is well with my world...

 

Kind regards

Piers

[luws]

For the first time yesterday I tried using Retrospect under Tiger, and it is freezing every time at the point where it asks for the backup cd to restore files to be inserted.

 

I've updated to the latest version, and the latest driver of Retrospect. The initial "search for files" to restore goes fine, I can select the files that I wish to restore, then when Retrospect says "insert disk so & so" the beachball spins & spins & that's it. I always have do a Force Quit. In the Force Quit window Retrospect is always in red with the words "not responding" next to it.

 

My CD burner is VST Smartdisk Firewire CD RW. It is not on any listed (supported or not supported) but it worked fine with Retrospect before the update.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[natew]

Hi

 

Make sure:

Retrospect 6.0.212 is installed

Driver update 6.6 is installed

 

Please tell us the make, model, firmware of your drive as it is listed in configure->devices->device status in Retrospect.

 

What other firewire devices are installed on your machine? If you unplug them and run the restore do you have better results?

 

Thanks

Nate

[luws]

Yes, it's Retrospect 6.0.212 with driver 6.6.

I went to configure>devices and at that point Retrospect froze & had to be forced to quit.

 

I did notice while it was frozen, that it listed my CD drive as incompatible. I did not get past that window though to see how it listed the make, model & firmware of the drive.

 

Would it be best to uninstall Retrospect and go back to the previous version that worked? On 2nd thought, that's not really an option, because that version doesn't work with Tiger, correct?

[michaeln]

It sounds like 6.0.212 is hanging while doing a device scan (Configure > Devices will initiate a scan of all storage devices attached to your machine).

If you unplug this VST Smartdisk Firewire CD RW, can you still go to Configure > Devices without hanging?

That way we can isolate the problem and see if the CD RW drive is the cause.

 

Also, can you check the system profiler and list the firmware of the drive?

[luws]

"If you unplug this VST Smartdisk Firewire CD RW, can you still go to Configure > Devices without hanging?"

 

Surprisingly, no. I unplugged the VST Smartdisk and Retrospect still hung at Configure>Devices.

 

Here is the drive info from Sys Profiler:

FIREWIRE CD R/RW DRIVE:

 

Manufacturer: NOLOGIESINC.

Model: 0x0

GUID: 0xD0010500006DE0

Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec

Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec

Sub-units:

FIREWIRE CD R/RW DRIVE Unit:

Unit Software Version: 0x10483

Unit Spec ID: 0x609E

Firmware Revision: 0x38

Product Revision Level: 1.1A

Sub-units:

 

There is also a SCSI WangDAT tape drive connected, but I don't use it except for the rare occasion when I need to boot back into OS 9 and retrieve from older tape backups.

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

There is also a SCSI WangDAT tape drive connected, but I don't use it except for the rare occasion when I need to boot back into OS 9 and retrieve from older tape backups.

 

---

 

LOL!

 

Well, I suppose mentioning that fact a few days later is better then never mentioning it at all...

 

- What is the SCSI host adapter in the machine?

 

Try setting Retrospect to Ignore the SCSI ID of the device; if that doesn't work, try disconnecting the device, and if _that_ doesn't make a difference, try removing the card.

 

Dave

[luws]

Oops, sorry I didn't mention it earlier. I rarely use it so didn't even think about it.

 

But, that seems to be the culprit! I disconnected it, and Retrospect is no longer hanging. So thanks very much for your help and your patience.

 

Hopefully it will be smooth sailing now.