Robster Posted December 7, 2006 Report Share Posted December 7, 2006 Hi I have a MacBook Pro 17inch and I have just started trying to use Retrospect with it. Every time I try and do a backup or create a script it 'freezes' at the Scanning Devices window. It starts taking 100% CPU and just sits there. Any ideas why or if this is a known problem? Also has anyone heard of a real Intel version coming anytime soon? Cheers. Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted December 7, 2006 Report Share Posted December 7, 2006 Our configuration is a bit different from yours, and you don't say what devices you have, but I will give you our experience and the solution for us. Our configuration: Xserve G5 1 x 2.0 GHz 2 GB RAM ATTO UL4D SCSI card Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1u PacketLoader (SCSI) (autoloader and drive) Mac OS X 10.4.2, 10.4.3, 10.4.4, 10.4.5, 10.4.6, 10.4.7, 10.4.8 Retrospect 6.1.126 Seagate Cheetah 10000 RPM 70 GB drive (SCSI) Apple Hardware RAID, 50 GB RAID 5 LUN and 417 GB RAID 5 LUN SoftRAID 3.2, 3.3 controlling a RAID 1 mirror of the OS boot volume; mirror primary is the Seagate Cheetah, mirror secondary is the 50 GB RAID 5 LUN All SCSI is LVD, high quality cables. We started seeing the hangs with Mac OS X 10.4.3 Server, persisted through 10.4.6 Server, when the solution was found. Also went through the succession of Retrospect RDU from middle of last year until spring of this year, no change. Retrospect would occasionally hang when it started its device scan. Problem was solved when the Exabyte VXA-2 and its autoloader were put on their own SCSI channel, away from the Seagate Cheetah that was controlled by SoftRAID. SoftRAID worked with Retrospect programmers on earlier versions of Retrospect, which weren't walking the device tree properly. That is not the problem here; that was solved long ago, not present in Retrospect 6.1. It's my suspicion that Retrospect was somehow causing a SCSI bus reset when it did its device scan, causing an interrupt or transfer for the Seagate Cheetah to become lost. The system was hanging, waiting on a disk transfer that would never complete. Again, solved when the Retrospect tape drive and autoloader was put on its own SCSI channel with no other devices. The system was still active but stuck at an interrupt level. I could ping the machine (it was responding to network interrupts, which are at a fairly high level) but no processes would run. One other thing that was done (but which did not change anything) was to have Retrospect ignore the DVD SuperDrive in the Xserve because we don't do DVD backups. You don't indicate what device you are using for backup. Because you have a MacBook Pro, I doubt that you are using SCSI. Perhaps you are using some sort of a firewire device, and the firewire camera in the MacBook Pro is causing interference. Hope this helps, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted December 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2006 Hi I am trying to use 'File' on a network drive. Strangely after a reboot it does not hang any more but it does hang at the point of creating the backup files on the network drive. Not sure what is going on here. But many thanks for the pointers. Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted December 7, 2006 Report Share Posted December 7, 2006 What type of a network drive? An AFP share? A NFS or SMB share? A NAS share? I won't be able to be much help, because I've only done tape backups. But this information will be needed by anyone who is able to help. Also need info regarding version of Retrospect, Retrospect RDU, and Mac OS version. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted December 7, 2006 Report Share Posted December 7, 2006 Quote: ...after a reboot it does not hang any more but it does hang... OK, you _must_ provide a clear report of what you're doing, and what you see when you do. (for example, Retrospect does not scan for devices when you create a script) Retrospect will scan for devices when you click on Configure->Devices. Does Retrospect hang when you do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted January 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 Sorry for the delay in coming back but I have been away. Okay on my AFP NAS drive If I create a Backup File Retrospect create the two files it normally creates BUT never finishes this action, it just sits there and is effectivly hung. I tried installing Retrospect on my iMac G3 in case it was an intel Mac based issue but it did exactly the same on this NAS drive from the iMac. The drive I am using is a Synology DS106e. Using SuperDUper a disk based backup program I have no problems whatsover backing up to this drive! Is that clear enough or do you need more information? Cheers. Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 Quote: Is that clear enough Not for me. For instance, SuperDuper! is a duplication program, not a backup program. Retrospect can do both backup and duplication. > on my AFP NAS drive If I create a Backup File Retrospect create the two files it >normally creates BUT never finishes this action This would be a god place to provide a careful, step-by-step description of what you're doing. Of particular interest would be confirmation that you followed the information provided in the ReadMe that came with Retrospect, detailing specific requirements for using the program with mounted AFP volumes. I read nothing about scanning devices in this most recent post, adding to the overall confusion over what you're reporting. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted January 3, 2007 Report Share Posted January 3, 2007 > The ... AFP NAS drive ... I am using is a Synology DS106e. The folks at Synology seem to be confused about the terms that they are using. In their documentation for the DS106e, they list under Networking "CIFS, Apple Talk" and "FTP." But AppleTalk (sic) isn't a file transfer protocol, it is a networking protocol. Once, in the far away past, AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) was referred to as AppleTalk Filing Protocol. But today, Mac OS X uses TCP/IP for communication with file servers. Hunting on their support forums yields the fact that Synology does in fact support AFP 3.1 (with firmware v.0140). This is good (few NAS devices provide any AFP support at all), although 3.2 is the current version (supporting metadata and ACLs). So your problem is likely due to your failure to log into the Finder a root prior to creating your File Backup Set (as documented in every version of the ReadMe since Retrospect 5.1). SuperDuper! doesn't run as a root process, which is why it doesn't have this interaction with Finder mounted volumes. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted January 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2007 Quote: Quote: Is that clear enough Not for me. For instance, SuperDuper! is a duplication program, not a backup program. Retrospect can do both backup and duplication. > on my AFP NAS drive If I create a Backup File Retrospect create the two files it >normally creates BUT never finishes this action This would be a god place to provide a careful, step-by-step description of what you're doing. Of particular interest would be confirmation that you followed the information provided in the ReadMe that came with Retrospect, detailing specific requirements for using the program with mounted AFP volumes. I read nothing about scanning devices in this most recent post, adding to the overall confusion over what you're reporting. Dave Ouch. I cannot remember the last time I read the ReadMe file.......... Having to login as root is too painful, so I guess I won't be backing up using Retrospect to my DS drive. As a question, if I mounted the drive via CIFS instead of AFP would I still have the same issue with having to use root? As far as the scanning issue I know it is confusing but it is a seperate problem I have been having with my Firewire 800 attached LaCie 320Gb and 500Gb drives. When these are attached and I try to setup a backup to these Retrospect says it is scanning for devices but never seems to find anything. Cheers. Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted January 4, 2007 Report Share Posted January 4, 2007 > Having to login as root is too painful, so I guess I won't be backing up using Retrospect to my DS drive. I'm gonna assume you stated this before reading the ReadMe. The need to log into the Finder as root is a one-time requirement when storing Catalogs (or File Backup Sets) on mounted AFP volumes. > if I mounted the drive via CIFS instead of AFP would I still have the same issue with having to use root? Retrospect only fully supports AFP volumes. It can read/write data to a CIFS volume as well as the Finder can, but it can't store/use passwords for other protocols. Search the Forum for "Mounted AFP Volume" and you'll find lots of discussions on this issue, dating back three years or more. > Retrospect says it is scanning for devices but never seems to find anything. Hard drives are not devices. Retrospect can be configured to treat external FW/USB drives as if they were Removable devices, but this requires a change to the default preference setting. Readers are confused (or uninformed) when posters leave out the critical steps they're taking, such as the Type of Backup Set being used, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted January 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Quote: > Having to login as root is too painful, so I guess I won't be backing up using Retrospect to my DS drive. I'm gonna assume you stated this before reading the ReadMe. The need to log into the Finder as root is a one-time requirement when storing Catalogs (or File Backup Sets) on mounted AFP volumes. Yup your right I did not read ll the readme, when I saw I had to login as root I gave up. So Now I AM trying to follow the readme by the letter and am still failing. I have followed steps 1-4 int he readme and have unmounted the AFP volume. I am now trying to create the backup set still logged in as root. I have gone to configre.create backup set and I am assuming it is a file I am saving it as BUT as the AFP volume is not mounted I cannot see it to save the backup set too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > if I mounted the drive via CIFS instead of AFP would I still have the same issue with having to use root? Retrospect only fully supports AFP volumes. It can read/write data to a CIFS volume as well as the Finder can, but it can't store/use passwords for other protocols. Search the Forum for "Mounted AFP Volume" and you'll find lots of discussions on this issue, dating back three years or more. > Retrospect says it is scanning for devices but never seems to find anything. Hard drives are not devices. Retrospect can be configured to treat external FW/USB drives as if they were Removable devices, but this requires a change to the default preference setting. Readers are confused (or uninformed) when posters leave out the critical steps they're taking, such as the Type of Backup Set being used, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Quote: So Now I AM trying to follow the readme by the letter and am still failing. I have followed steps 1-4 int he readme and have unmounted the AFP volume. I am now trying to create the backup set still logged in as root. I have gone to configre.create backup set and I am assuming it is a file I am saving it as BUT as the AFP volume is not mounted I cannot see it to save the backup set too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, how many times have I referred users to this document and not realized that they mis-arragned the order of the steps!!! Just ignore the text that reads "Unmount the AFP volume in Finder." Since you are logging out anyway, the volume will be unmounted by the OS. Swapping #5 with #4 would be another way to make the document accurate. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted January 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Weeeelllll In that case it has still not fixed my problem. If I am logged in as root I STILL cannot create the backup set on the AFP share. When I tell Restrospect to create a backup file, I point it at the AFP share and then I getting a spinning beachball which simply never ends............. ???????????? Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted January 6, 2007 Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 - Can you create a new File Backup Set on your Desktop? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted January 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2007 Yes. Both as root and as normal login. Also on my local attached drive. Its just on the NAS drive it won't create the backup set. Well actually the files get created but Retrospect does not ever seem to finish the operation, just the spinning baseball. Robin PS When I mounted the drive via CIFS I WAS able to create the back up set and do a backup but I would much rather be using AFP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted January 7, 2007 Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 Maybe something to do with the AFP implementation on the NAS. But now that the File Backup Set is lives on the remote volume, are you able to Execute Backups to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted January 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 Hmmm ONE of my computers has been able to create a backup set when the disk is mounted under CIFS but when I mount the disk under AFP the icons change shape and picture and the files are no longer recognised from Retrospect. My other computer hangs when creatiing the back up set when mounted from BOTH CIFS and AFP!!!!!! This is beginning to drive me crazy........... Robin PS I REALLY appreciate you help and sticking with me through this. I am going to ask some questions on the Synology Forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robster Posted February 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 Okay fixed and working but via a roundabout route!!!!!!!!! I cannot get either of my Macs to create a backup set on my NAS server based disks when mounted via AFP. From one I can create when the disk is mounted via CIFS but this does not work from the other one? My solution was blindingly simple at the end of the day. I created the backup set on my desktop, copied them to the AFP mounted disk then deleted the originals. Went back to my script and selected the backup set that is now located on my AFP mounted disk nad bingo. Both computers can backup fine. I don't know why I have had to go round this loop but at least I have a working solution. Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 It may be a permissions problem that could be solved by an appropriate umask setting. I think Dave is correct with his assessment about this. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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