Steve3 Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 (edited) I'm about ready to throw Retrospect into a half-frozen Wisconsin lake. It was last Monday that it first complained a set was out of sync. So I used Tools: Update Catalog. On next run, it complained it was out of sync again (this fix has NEVER worked for me). I brought back 2 different catalogs from their storage on my NAS, and used Tools:Update them. When I'd run the script, it would complain the catalog was out of sync. So I started rebuilding the catalog from scratch. It read about 160 gigs of local disk storage, and declared it was out of memory, but kindly offered to save my partial catalog. Since I've had this experience before, I saved the catalog, and then did Tools: Update on that one, and left it to scan the remaining 800 gigs of backup data. Many hours later, it claimed to be fixed. But the next backup started, then declared it was out of sync. I repeated the rebuild/crash/continue cycle a few more times, and by some good fortune today, ended up with a catalog file that Retro was able to add onto. I wish I knew what was different this time, but I don't. I watched the script successfully run this morning, until the end of the last client, where Retrospect declared an assertion failure, and exited. Upon restart, it tried to run a groom script, and complained... want to guess? That the catalog is out of sync, and suggested rebuilding it. In the last week, My Retrospect has spent FAR more time trying to rebuild these fragile catalog files than it has doing it's purpose. Having backups of the catalog files and updating them hasn't helped. Rebuilding the catalog files takes hours and frequently fails. When I finally got it rebuilt once, I got one backup before it broke. Yes, I'm venting. But I also need some guidance on what I can do to keep these catalog files from breaking. This is just unacceptable. Jeez. It *just* popped up another one AS I WAS WRITING THIS. Assertion failure at "elem.cpp-1000" I suppose I now have a different catalog that's going to be borked. Backing up from XP Pro SP3, Retro Multi Server 7.6.123 Thanks in advance for any guidance, Steve3 Edited February 10, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve3 Posted February 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 Sigh. The catalog I've been fighting with now can't be opened at all. Error 2259, incomplete grooming detected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgtyoder Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Yeah, it's frustrating. I am not unfamiliar with this. Sorry I can't do anything more than commiserate with you. Retrospect does seem to function as the "canary in a coal mine" on computers - the slightest hardware issue, which otherwise does not cause any problems, can cause failures. You might try swapping out cables, drives, controller cards... Other than that, try and convince whomever to by a new PC... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve3 Posted February 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 I find it hard to swallow that since one function of one app doesn't function properly I should just start randomly replacing parts... or the whole computer. So I got one working backup yesterday, and again overnight- hurray! But after my last recatalog rebuild job, I found a series of snapshots from last September (I only want to keep the last 7). So I went through the Catalog, selected "forget", and "groom now". Want to guess the results? + Executing Grooming at 2/11/2009 9:01 AM (Execution unit 1) Grooming Backup Set Mac-LinuxServers2disk... Groomed 890.9 MB from Backup Set Mac-LinuxServers2disk. Grooming Backup Set Mac-LinuxServers2disk failed, error -2241 (Catalog File invalid/damaged) You must recreate the Backup Set's Catalog File. See the Retrospect User's Guide or online help for details on recreating Catalog Files. I cannot have confidence that Retrospect will be there for me to do its purpose when it just fails, fails and fails again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mauricev Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Does your system have ECC memory? Have you tried recreating the catalog saving it to a different hard drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve3 Posted February 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 It's not ECC, just 2 gigs of standard RAM. I haven't tried a different drive, as I'd prefer to have all my catalogs in one place- it makes duplicating them easier. This time around, I decided to do a recycle set this weekend, as I have historical backups stored in other Retro sets, and I back up using another vendor's product also. I'll keep the drive suggestion in mind for if/when it happens again. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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