Rebuild catalog file difficulties

[rhwalker]

Someone give me a "how to attach screenshots to posts for dummies" lesson, and everyone chip in with what screenshots they'd like to see to clarify, and I'll stick some on.

You click the button for "Switch to Full Reply", and you should see an area for "File Attachments" with a link for "Manage files".

 

If you don't see that, then Robin Mayoff needs to do his magic to your account so that you can add attachments to your posts. For details, see:

Attachment Rules Change

 

Russ

[CallMeDave]

Alright, no need to be like that...

 

I actually considered using the new Snow Leopard Services to convert the all upper case of the title of the original post to something less blaring, but I didn't get around to that editing. Was intended only to accurately reflect the contents of the forum, not as being "like" anything.

 

It would also explain why Little 75G/Retrospect/Test2/1-Test2 is empty...

 

The backup is done to one member (/Volumes/Backup). The copy job is done to another member (/Volumes/Little 75G/)

 

Copy scripts use a Destination of your choosing. If the folder [color:purple]Little 75G/Retrospect/Test2/1-Test2/[/color] is empty it's likely because you didn't script your Copy to write data to it.

 

If all of that's true, what are "Copy" scripts used for - just for replicating directory structures and contents in another location?

 

Yes; just for that.

 

And does that not give me the same functionality anyway

 

I don't know if Copying a Media Set Member's contents to another location, and then using those contents to rebuild a valid Catalog for that Member would work. It probably would, although it doesn't appear that you were doing it correctly to test, but even if it is possible it would be more work then using a Copy Media Set script (which would not require the additional rebuild step).

 

if I'm just replicating what's on the initial backup drive, then does it not achieve the same effect

 

What's on the media is only half of the Media Set; the other half is the Catalog file, which you would not have if you just duplicated the Member's files to another location.

 

And, more importantly, will this (do you think) get around this catalog rebuild issue?

 

Yes, see above. A Copy Media Set copies the contents of one Media Set (Catalog + Members) to another Media Set that you have configured in advance (Catalog + Members).

 

Is there a catalog generated for a simple copy job

 

No; a Copy just copies the Source files to the Destination location. It can match things to avoid coping the same files again, or not, depending on the way you configure it.

 

(this is the point I brought up right near the beginning of the thread)

 

Couldn't find it.

 

cos if not, then there isn't anything to repair, hence possibly the issue???

 

Robin pointed out in his reply to your original post that Repair was the wrong choice. Rebuild is how a Catalog file is recreated from the Members of a Media Set.

 

Obviously I could probably get around the whole thing by wiping, removing the Test 2 media set and starting again, but I'd much rather get an understanding of how it works rather than blindly binning and starting over.

 

It would be an interesting test to hear if the steps postulated, if done correctly, would result in a viable copy of a Media Set. But it's hard to know if you're making mistakes in the steps you're taking or if the test fails. Documenting steps for a test like that requires a painstaking attention to detail that's been missing from your posts.

 

As for the "blindly" part, Russ will happily point out (again) that the lack of an owner's manual for this software makes most any new user blind. Those of us who have been using Retrospect for a decade or so have a leg up, but everything is new, some things work and some don't, and there's a lot of guesswork involved so far.

 

 

Dave

[Maser]

I don't think I can add much to Dave's post about what you need to look at.

 

Once you get your "copy backup" scripts/media sets in place, I'll be happy to answer what questions I can from my groom trials (and errors).

[lucas_mat]

Ok, I'll bin the copy script, wipe the drive and basically start again from scratch with a Copy Backup script, get a few jobs done so I've got something to groom and then try again.

 

Thanks all for your help - and Dave I'll try and flesh out the detail a little more in the case of further dramas.

 

Ah, one more thing, Dave, you're right, I didn't explicitly ask if Copy jobs generated a catalog in the destination, though it was what I was thinking and touched on in a (very) roundabout fashion in posts 129503 & 129553:

 

Is this perhaps cos they're all copy jobs on that media set and not backup jobs?

 

is it perhaps because the copy job is a copy of an existing backup?

 

The basic answer if I understand correctly is this: I can't rebuild the catalog file for media set Test 2 (member drive Little 75G) because the script that uses that drive is a Copy script, and therefore doesn't generate a catalog file.

 

If that's correct, that must mean that you are unable to groom the destination for any copy script, which is something worth remembering.

[Maser]

Right -- because a "copy" script (as opposed to a "copy backup" script) doesn't move files to a "media set".

 

And you can only rebuild catalogs for "media sets".

[CallMeDave]

I can't rebuild the catalog file for media set Test 2 (member drive Little 75G) because the script that uses that drive is a Copy script, and therefore doesn't generate a catalog file.

 

Ur, no.

 

In general a Catalog file can be Rebuilt for a Media Set using just the information on the Members (be it tape or disk). But I have not personally attempted to first use Retrospect to Copy a Media Set Member's files to a new location and then use those files to Rebuild a Catalog; as I said my guess is that it will work fine, but without testing I wouldn't rely on it. If Rebuilding _did_ work, then lack-of-generation wouldn't be an issue

 

that must mean that you are unable to groom the destination for any copy script, which is something worth remembering

 

Grooming is an activity that is useful because Retrospect's "Incremental Plus" technology always adds new and changed files to a Media Set. This means that Media Sets (just as Storage Sets and Backup Sets before them) will grow and grow. In the early days we just added more floppy disks, and then we added more DAT tapes and MO cartridges. But with the advent of true Disk based sets we have the ability to cull out old files as desired and reclaim space on the storage media used to hold the Member.

 

But Copy (as with Duplicate before) can be self-grooming; files on the Source that have changed replace those files on the Destination, while files that have been deleted from the Source are also deleted on the Destination. The Destination of Copy scripts do not grow (unless you configure them to do so); they always represent the same size as their Source.

 

Dave

[Maser]

FWIW...

 

I have (many, many times) moved a Media Set's member files from machine to machine and rebuilt the catalog without issue

 

I've not used the "copy" script in doing this (I usually use Carbon Copy Cloner so I can stop and resume the copy at my convenience)

 

But I would think it would work the same way.