mattzees Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 I just started using Proactive backup for a couple of our new users with laptops. When I exit Retrospect (because I want to log out), it asks me if I want to stop the execution of proactive backup. There were no backups being performed at that time it asked me this. What is the point of proactive backup if it only functions when a user is logged in and running Retrospect? Furthermore, one of the things I like about Retrospect is that when I quit, it checks media for the next backup, and informs me whether it is ready or not. Now that I have configured proactive backup, it no longer does this. Whats the deal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Proactive backup polls for the appearance of laptops. How is that polling supposed to happen if you quit the program? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattzees Posted February 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Proactive backup polls for the appearance of laptops. How is that polling supposed to happen if you quit the program? It seems that Retrospect works every night while my account is logged out and I'm at home sleeping. I thought that a proactive backup would work the same way, perhaps by polling for the appearance of laptops at some preset interval. Did I assume too much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 If you close the Retrospect interface, then Retrospect should launch your proactive backup script (and Retrospect) within about 60 minutes of closing the software. You would need to make sure the server isn't going to sleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 It seems that Retrospect works every night while my account is logged out and I'm at home sleeping. I thought that a proactive backup would work the same way, perhaps by polling for the appearance of laptops at some preset interval. Matt, I'm not trying to be argumentative. Really. I was just trying to answer your question. When Retrospect is logged out, it only needs to launch once when backups need to be done. With the current design, it has to be running so that it can periodically interrogate the network to see if a client has appeared. I guess the design could be changed to have the Retrospect program launch every minute or two, poll, then quit, then relaunch, etc., in an effort to catch transient laptops, but that would be a big burden on your system if you were trying to get work done, and Retrospect can't tell if you are asleep or not. It's an issue of whether an event is expected or unexpected. A scheduled backup is expected, and a launch can occur at a specified time. The appearance of transient laptops is unexpected, which is why the polling must occur. Perhaps another design could be to have a small stub do the polling, then launch Retrospect as needed. But I was just trying to answer your question; the program needs to be running to do the polling. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattzees Posted February 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 rhwalker- Didn't mean to sound quick with you. I'm dealing with five issues at once. Three of them are Retrospect issues. Just solved one thanks to this forum. Now maybe we can solve the others. If you look two posts up... http://forums.dantz.com/showpost.php?post/103467/ ...Mayoff said that proactive backup should launch within an hour of me closing the Retrospect interface. Do you know if this is true even if my account is logged out? If not, how would I go about creating this "stub" you mentioned? BTW- You guys seem to have some clout here. Maybe the next version of Retrospect could include these features? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Yes, it should still launch even if you are logged out. If it isn't launching when logged out, then you have an autolaunch issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Your post that you have fixed your autolaunch issue should help proactive re-open after you close the software. Keep in mind, what it autolaunches for a proactive backup it will stay open until you close it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 I didn't think that you were trying to blow me off, and I understood all of the balls that you are trying to juggle at once. I just wanted to make sure that my post hadn't been misunderstood; often my posts are. ...Mayoff said that proactive backup should launch within an hour of me closing the Retrospect interface. Do you know if this is true even if my account is logged out? Robin is correct on this. He is the authority. If not, how would I go about creating this "stub" you mentioned? As a practical matter, you can't. I was discussing design of Retrospect, and that it might be possible for one of the Retrospect programmers/designers to write a tiny little background process that would stay alive, poll the clients, and launch Retrospect if necessary to handle a newly-appeared laptop. BTW- You guys seem to have some clout here. Maybe the next version of Retrospect could include these features? Robin has great clout - he is in charge of Tech Support. I have no more clout than you do, I'm just a user, like you. Of course, I do submit feature requests through the proper channels, but I have yet to see one of them adopted in over 15 years. The in-development version of Retrospect X (for the Mac), which is based on the Windows version's current code base, does seem to include many feature requests that I have been making over the years. I am hopeful. I don't use proactive backup, that's not the way we are set up. But if this is something that you need, make the feature request. Many of our needs, and perhaps yours as well in this instance, will be solved if/when Retrospect is factored into a headless "admin client"/"server background service" model, such that the part of Retrospect that does the real work runs in the background as a headless/faceless service. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.