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Intel Xserve and Xserve RAID setup suggestions


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I am currently running Retrospect 6.1.126 on a G4 tower running OSX 10.3.9, backing up to a Sony AIT 15/2 library.

 

We've seriously outgrown the library, and will be migrating to a new Xserve Quad Xeon, backing up to an Xserve Raid, which will then offload to an Exabyte Magnum 224 LTO-3 Native Fibre Tape Autoloader for offsite storage.

 

Is there an online resource for setting this up with Retrospect? I did a quick forum search, but didn't really see what I was looking for. I can set up a support ticket with EMC, but thought I'd check here first.

 

Can Retrospect do a dual stage backup? Clients to RAID to Tape?

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Quote:

Can Retrospect do a dual stage backup? Clients to RAID to Tape?

 


The Windows version of Retrospect has been able to do that for a long time. The Mac version does not, shall we say, have feature parity and is languishing.

 

Retrospect Mac can back up to your Xserve RAID or it can back up to tape. It cannot do d2d2t.

 

If you need that capability, you will have to use the Retrospect for Windows product on the Windows platform, or you will have to use BRU (Tolis Group) on the Mac, or you will have to use one of the higher-end enterprise backup solutions.

 

Russ

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Retrospect can do it but not at the same time, at least not with the MAC version.

 

With the windows version you can have multiple execution units running to different backups sets which allows you to do multiple jobs at the same time.

 

The Mac version of Retrospect will only allow you to run one job at a time, whether its a restore, backup, recatalog, etc...

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Thanks for the replies. Too bad to hear that Retrospect Mac is "languishing." Running the backup on a windows box is not a viable option, but I did find out that the Exabyte tape drive comes with a single client of BRU, so I guess I'll be learning some new backup software, and buying some client licenses. I had toyed with BRU some years ago, so I am at least a little bit familiar with it.

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I went through this same dilemma a while back. The above posters are correct regarding Mac Retrospect's features, but there are workarounds - at least for my situation.

 

We use file backup sets (nightly incrementals) on our XServe RAID, and then back those up weekly onto LTO-2 tape for an off-site rotation. I wish I could say it's been bullet-proof, but it has been serviceable, and it is the best option we have right now.

 

I have tried BRU, as well as NetVault - which are the only other network-client capable backup servers for the Mac platform - and they may have great features, but their interfaces leave a lot to be desired. I don't have time to learn them, so for now I stay with Retrospect.

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William,

 

You might want to check out the BRU forums at tolisgroup.com. It is not without its own issues. The main strength that Retrospect has is its interface for retrieval, with the snapshot paradigm, which lets you view the full set of files present at the time the backup was made, with the program hiding the detail of the incremental backups that were necessary to come to that state from the initial backup. It's a model that even my secretary can handle. It also has advantages (which we don't use) of being able to back up notebooks as they come and go (backup server). If it were made more operable with current Macintosh models (Intel and Intel Xserve) such that it didn't run emulated (Rosetta) on the Intel platform (gives me pause to run Rosetta on our Xserve; the sole reason we have not migrated from our Xserve G5 to an Intel Xserve is Retrospect lack of native/universal binary), and if some of the persistent bugs were fixed (don't get me started on that), it would be the shining star for small business backup.

 

If you look in the BRU forums, you will see many gripes about features that are needed but that will not be present for another year or so. BRU's advantage is that it is fast and runs native, but, as a practical matter, you will spend a lot of time editing command line scripts to get it to do what you need in a real-world situation. The GUI is inadequate and is nice but can't get the complex jobs done, and it does not have the snapshot paradigm. Restores will take much longer for the occasional restore because it will be difficult if not impossible to find the right files.

 

The world is not perfect. Let us hope that someday there will be feature parity between the Windows and Mac Retrospect versions, that the Mac Retrospect will be universal binary on Intel, that the bugs that have been causing grief for a long time are fixed, and that some of the needed feature enhancements (?) such as proper handling of erased barcoded tapes and a working scroll wheel and support of current Apple hardware, will arrive.

 

Russ

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