SynapticCleft Posted September 20, 2006 Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 In Retrospect 6.1.126 and Client 6.1.130, I have noticed that a certain number of my Retrospect clients (not all) turn themselves off at restart. Has anyone seen this? I have tried trashing the prefs and reinstalling, but to no avail. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted September 20, 2006 Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 Quote: I have noticed that a certain number of my Retrospect clients (not all) turn themselves off at restart. - Could you be more specific regarding your observations, please? When your Mac restarts, everything is turned off. As the machine boots up, things turn on. If the Retrospect OS X Client process (pitond) is not starting when the computer starts, that would be one thing. If pitond starts as expected, but then turns off, that would be a different thing. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted September 20, 2006 Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 Has anything been moved from its standard install location or renamed? See also the suggestions in the following thread - the poster never responded, so we don't know the results. Client keeps turning itself off Also, you don't provide any specifics about what (if anything) is different about those clients from the others, or what OS versions are being run. Perhaps are they Intel Macs (the poster in the other thread had a Macbook Pro) and the working clients are PPC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_heeb Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 I have the same problem. This time my iMac G5 with Tiger 10.4.7 using Retrospect Client (6.1.130) turn itselfs off overnight after it was backed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 Quote: I have the same problem One would think that if a person were posting online in order to get help, that person would want to provide as much specific detail as possible, in the hopes that someone else might be able to offer some helpful suggestions. Given that two of the previous three posts are requests for specific information, posting "I have the same problem" is unlikely to entice other community members to offer up random suggestions. > my iMac G5 with Tiger 10.4.7 using Retrospect Client (6.1.130) turn > itselfs off overnight after it was backed up. - How do you know? Seriously? How do you know that it "turn(s) itselfs (sic) off?" What did you do? What did you see when you did it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted September 22, 2006 Report Share Posted September 22, 2006 When the client "turns off" does anything appear in the console that may help understand what happened right before? Are you using screen savers? Did the computer sleep and wake up again? If you run a backup right now, does the problem reproduce itself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rshrieve Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 I have a similar problem. Several of our macs turn Retrospect client off -- I am not sure when this occurs. We have to watch this carefully. If the log shows a gap in backing up one mac, I check the client app on that machine and it is usually set to off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted September 27, 2006 Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 Just want to make sure everyone has seen this KB article: http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=9557&p=2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rybu0305 Posted October 13, 2006 Report Share Posted October 13, 2006 We have had this problem as well. I have mainly noticed it with a portable user who switched locations a lot on his laptop and puts it to sleep by closing it a lot. Either way Retrospect should not turn off unless it is told to and when I say turn off pitond should nto stop running unless told to. If a computer goes to sleep sure pitond can stop but when it wakes up pitond should start again. I am also having this issue now though on a machine (server) that is always on. Thanks, Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted October 13, 2006 Report Share Posted October 13, 2006 Quote: We have had this problem as well. I have mainly noticed it with a portable user who switched locations a lot on his laptop and puts it to sleep by closing it a lot. According to this Knowledge Base article: Users may see the Mac Retrospect Client turned off if they are connected via a wireless Airport connection and the system has been brought back out of Sleep Mode or after the laptop lid has been closed. This is because Airport is turned off when the system goes to sleep. Therefore the client has no network connection and is automatically turned off. This problem does not occur with wired network connections that are brought out of a sleep state. This issue is being investigated by EMC Insignia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fanglord Posted November 9, 2006 Report Share Posted November 9, 2006 I have this problem with a certain number of machines in my department. They have the latest client. I have the latest mac version of the server software. The machines are not connected via airport. The machines never go to sleep. The machines are not restarted. At least once a week, one of my 5 or so machines turns up not having backed up, and I go down and find that the client is off. The users do not turn off the client. This is a problem I raised with EMC at MacWorld 06, and was told to upgrade the client. When I told them I had the most recent client, they told me to reinstall after an uninstall. When I told them I had already tried that, they didn't really know what to say. I have not yet checked the console logs, but will do so to see what might be going on. Is there a way to run pitond remotely (via ssh), or with a cron job? Is that the only daemon that needs to be run? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted November 9, 2006 Report Share Posted November 9, 2006 >Is there a way to run pitond remotely (via ssh), or with a cron job? Is that the only daemon that needs to be run? Yes, yes and yes. You can use sudo and run pitond the same way you would run any unix process; it lives in /Applications/Retrospect\ Client.app/Contents/Resources/pitond - What shows in the Status field of the Retrospect Client application when you come across a non-responding cient? - Is there anything in /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjaubert Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 Let me try this again. I am backing up 15 machines from an Xserve. From time to time, some of the remote machine’s Clients shut off for no apparent reason. Some are connected via VPN, and some are not. From time to time, the internet connection goes down, and this affects the VPN connections. I thought this might have something to do with it, as the VPN machines might switch IP addresses in that scenario, but, again, there is no rhyme or reason to which machines shut off, so I doubt this is the connection. When the shut offs happen, the clients show up in Retrospect as “running,” but then when I go to Configure, they cannot be found. This is not an auto log-on issue - that is set correctly. I have installed and reinstalled several times. I have all the latest software. All I need to do is log into those machines, open the Client software, switch from “off” to “on,” and things are back to normal, at least for awhile. I am writing again now because I can’t see where this was ever resolved. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 Quote: From time to time, some of the remote machine’s Clients shut off for no apparent reason. Since the machines in question are in your control, it's up to you to try and quantify what's happening. - Is it always the same machines? - Are the machines all the same (model)? - What is the status of pitond _on the clinet itself_ (as asked in the previous post)? > I have all the latest software Please don't do that. This thread began over 7 months ago, and will live on the internets for as long as the server is up; please list all your software versions! Your post suggests that you have asked this question before, yet this is your first contribution under this screen name. There are multiple entries on this thread each reporting a _different_ experience/problem; was one of them you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riposter Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 Quote: One would think that if a person were posting online in order to get help, that person would want to provide as much specific detail as possible, in the hopes that someone else might be able to offer some helpful suggestions. Seriously...your passive aggressive attitude is one of the many things that draws me to the internet. I just get all warm and tingly inside from your bed-side manner. Thanks for mingling a little help amongst all the ire you hold for the rest of humanity. It's really appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjaubert Posted May 31, 2007 Report Share Posted May 31, 2007 - Is it always the same machines? No, three machines predominate: One is an 800 MHz G4 iMac with 768 MB RAM and running OSX 10.4.9, one is a 1 GHz G4 iMac with 256 MB RAM running 10.4.9; and one is a 2.1 GHz G5 iMac with 1.5 GB RAM and running 10.4.8. - Are the machines all the same (model)? No, see above - What is the status of pitond _on the clinet itself_ (as asked in the previous post)? I don’t understand “pitond_on the clinet” > I have all the latest software Clients are 6.1.130; Retrospect is 6.1.126 - Please don't do that. This thread began over 7 months ago, and will live on the internets for as long as the server is up; please list all your software versions! Sorry, my only point was that as of the post, I had the latest software. - Your post suggests that you have asked this question before, yet this is your first contribution under this screen name. There are multiple entries on this thread each reporting a _different_ experience/problem; was one of them you? No. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted May 31, 2007 Report Share Posted May 31, 2007 Quote: - What is the status of pitond _on the clinet itself_ (as asked in the previous post)? I don’t understand “pitond_on the clinet” On the client in question, in terminal (open the window wide, otherwise the program name won't be output from ps): ps axl | fgrep pitond This will tell whether pitond (the retrospect daemon that communicates with Retrospect on the server) is running and its state. Please post the output of that command. Here's a sample when things are working: Code: rhwimac:~ rhwalker$ ps axl | fgrep pitond 0 187 1 0 31 0 48544 1548 - S ?? 1:35.47 /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/pitond 501 1099 1097 0 30 0 18052 464 - R+ p1 0:00.01 fgrep pitond rhwimac:~ rhwalker$ Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted May 31, 2007 Report Share Posted May 31, 2007 Quote: I don’t understand “pitond_on the clinet” Although much less complex then Postfix, or BIND, or any of the other unix services run on Mac OS X Server, pitond is a unix daemon that needs to be alive in order for the Retrospect applicaton to communicate with its clients. One would expect the administrator of an XServe to have a grasp on the basics of critical software components, such as that which is responsible for the data protection of over a dozen users. > When the shut offs happen, the clients show up in Retrospect as “running,” Where, exactly, does Retrospect use the term "running" as a description of the status of a client? I know of no place in the program where that word is used in that context. > All I need to do is log into those machines... Does this mean that there is never a user logged into the machine when a communication problem is happening? >open the Client software, switch from “off” to “on,” and things are back to normal What text is displayed in the Status field _under_ the On/Off radio buttons of the Retrospect client application _before_ you make any changes to the radio buttons there? There are some solutions to client software issues, but it's imperative to understand the nature of the problem before any fix can be recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sniles Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Hi! I am new, so please indulge any displays of posting ignorance. I also type badly; I move pixels for a living, more images, fewer words. patience with typos? ;-) One thing I have noticed in my newbie perusal of this Forum is that some of the generous, experienced helper-posters also seem to be very impatient when other, less-knowledgable posters do not meet standards of propriety in info supplied. Please be kind; I will do my best here... Anyway - over several versions of Retrospect server and client (Mac) we also have had the mysterious occurence of one or more clients having the Retro. client magically set to Off when no one has manually done such an egregious thing. We only have three clients, but we are backing up huge files. Using a relatively new DLT-S4 tape drive. Recently went through a LOT of configuration changes, playing with different Server OS, driver and Retrospect versions, The reason we did all of THIS was because of intractable problems with the ol' Internal Consistency Check Failures. Treid EVERYTHING about that problem, even paid a Retrospect-knowledgable technician to come out here. The answer was replacing the whole thing (except the server CPU): tape drive, Retrospect, clients... Everything seemed OK for a while. But, NOW: One client is not being backed up. The Retrospect Log says "Client not visible on network." Yet, when I go to configure the client, and select it, it shows right up with the configuration dialog active (as opposed to saying it is not visible on network.) In other words, it's right there - although its little icon is gray in the Client list until I go through the motions of "configuring" it. This client is configured exactly the same way as the others, which are backing up successfully. Sometimes this is fixed by restarting the errant client, but lately that doesn't work either. Forgetting and re-creating the client has been tried, and may help for a day or a few days. Server: Machine Model: PowerMac3,6 CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3) Number Of CPUs: 1 CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz Memory: 1.25 GB OS X Server Version 10.4 Retrospect version: 6.1.126 Retr. update driver version: 6.1.9.102 Clients: machine Model: PowerMac G5 CPU type: PowerPC 970 (2.2) Numer of CPU's: 1 CPU spedd 1.8 GHz Memory: 1.5 GB Mac OS X 10.3.9 Retrospect client version 6.1.130 Any ideas how to get this client back on track? Thanks in advance! ~Sandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 On the client that is turning off, when it is in this mode where it is not responding, please enter the following two commands in terminal (open the window wide because the responses will be long, and copy/paste the commands so you get them right): locate "Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/pitond" ps axlwww | fgrep pitond Provide us with your output. Here is a sample of what you should see: Code: rhwimac:~ rhwalker$ locate "Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/pitond" /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/pitond rhwimac:~ rhwalker$ ps axlwww | fgrep pitond 0 194 1 0 31 0 49084 1544 - S ?? 6:22.45 /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/pitond 501 4332 4321 0 28 0 18052 268 - R+ p1 0:00.01 fgrep pitond rhwimac:~ rhwalker$ Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sniles Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Whoah! Now you're scarin' me, Russ! :-O I have done a very few Terminal things since we finally got OS X - only 3.5 yrs ago - and that procedure didn't work... although I did no harm. Back then, I was trying to delete an undeletable rogue file. Norton did the trick that time ;-) But I will be very brave, and open Terminal, and paste the specified commands, and see what I get. Once i have the output you would like to see, do I have to do anything to politely tell the System I am finished with terminal, or is it OK to just close it? (Again, my ignorance...) It will have to wait until tomorrow, though, as right now the client is shown as fully responding. it is probable we will indeed have the problem again, tomorrow, so until then... thanks for such a quick response, and I will be back in touch. ~S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Quote: Once i have the output you would like to see, do I have to do anything to politely tell the System I am finished with terminal, or is it OK to just close it? Before you quit terminal (either "command Q" or choose Quit from Terminal's "File" menu, just as with other programs; nothing special is needed), select the output, copy, and paste it into a response for the forum. Just so you understand the point of the request: The "locate" command will tell us how many copies of the Retrospect client you have installed, and where. Retrospect client is picky about where it is located because the daemon needs to be found during your computer's boot process so that it can be started in the background. The "ps" command will tell us whether the Retrospect daemon, which communicates with the Retrospect server, is running. That will give us information to help you figure out what is the cause of your problem. With PPC computers, we should be able to figure it out. One other thing: By chance is this one client going to sleep? Check in the Energy Saver preference pane. I had one user who was being "helpful" by putting his computer to sleep each night, and it would get skipped in the backup. The fix was to schedule a wake up in the Energy Saver preference pane a minute or two prior to the Retrospect scheduled backup. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sniles Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Well, heck's bells - I wonder if you are onto something easy here... Indeed, this client's Mac WAS set to sleep after 15 minutes. (He doesn't even know why it was set that way, but probably has to do with some prefs being reverted to default when he was having other trouble...) I confess I never thought to look, as we log out all users at day's end. I guess I thought logging out was a deeper sleep than "Sleep," and would overrule any Energy Saver setting. Wrong again?! Duh. Will gratefully let you know tomorrow, if changing the Sleep setting fixes this! And if not, I will pursue the Terminal information procedure. Thanks! ~S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 You might want to take a look at this thread: Sending Magic Wake-on-LAN Packet Another user wrote some AppleScript code to put in the "Retrospect Event Handler" AppleScript to send a "Wake-on-LAN" packet to each client just before it is backed up, to cause the client to wake from sleep if it is waking. It would be nice if this was a preference setting in Retrospect ("send Wake-on-LAN packet before backing up client") but it's not. This has bitten quite a few people, myself included. Welcome to the club. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Quote: some of the generous, experienced helper-posters also seem to be very impatient when other, less-knowledgable posters do not meet standards of propriety in info supplied Actually, patience is short for posters who don't even seem to _try_ and provide a minimum level of appropriate information. Posts such as "it doesn't work" or "me too" are a waste of everyone's time. > when I go to configure the client, and select it, it shows right up with the configuration dialog active I'm not sure exactly what "the configuration dialog active" means. But, in general, Retrospect can still open the Client Configuration window for a client that is not currently visible. It will open to the "General" tab, but the only way to know for sure if the program can communicate with the Client is to click on one of the other tabs, either Configure or Volumes. If the gears turn and the tab changes, then the Client is available. If not, Retrospect will display an error after a few moments. > Sometimes this is fixed by restarting the errant client, but lately that doesn't work either. Does this mean restarting the errant client computer? Or restarting the errant client software? The first thing you should do is confirm that the client software is loading on system startup. This can be done by restarting, then running the shell command that Russ suggested. Or restarting and noting the condition of the Retrospect Client application, BOTH THE RADIO BUTTON _AND_ THE TEXT IN THE STATUS FIELD! If the client software does not start when the computer boots, then you have an install problem; likely that the client application has been moved from its default location. If the client loads on startup, but is not available when a Scheduled Script runs, then there is something else happening. I'd suggest checking the time stamp of the log against the possibility that the client computer is simply sleeping. The Retrospect OS X Client software does not keep a Mac awake, and the Retrospect application cannot wake up a sleeping Macintosh computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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