Cannot groom even after recreating catalog file

[cgtyoder]

Running Retrospect 7.7.325, DU 7.7.3.102 (64-bit) on Windows Server 2003 Std R2 x64 SP2.

 

I have a backup set that I cannot groom ("error -2241 ( Catalog File invalid/damaged)"). So I recreated the CF from disks, which succeeded without errors. I try to groom the backup set again, and get the same error as before. What are my options here to get this working again? Thanks for any assistance.

[Fulco]

I have the same problems with 7.6, see thread "Grooming miseryâ€.

 

After a long time spend on this issue, my conclusion is: If the Backup Set reached it capacity, Retrospect is unable to Groom it.

The only ‘solution’ I found, is to Recycle the Backup Set.

 

I haven’t contacted Support yet. I hoped this would be fixed in 7.7.

Due the other issues, see thread “Upgrading to 7.7?â€, I haven’t upgraded to 7.7 (yet?).

 

 

Fulco

[Lennart_T]

I get the same problem occasionally. Fortunately for me it works fine after recreating the catalog file.

 

I contacted Support and opened a "support incident" with them. They requested me to save the catalog file before and after the grooming and also to turn up the logging. It was about that time the occurence of the problem went from "every time" to "about every 10th time", so I haven't been able to provide the info.

 

Please contact support and open a support incident (if you aren't on a contract). If it indeed is a bug, you will get a refund.

[cgtyoder]

Well this is not good. I really don't want to pay for a support incident and then take the chance that they will declare it a bug. I mean, it's not exactly in their financial interest to do so.

 

My backup set is rather large - about 550GB. (I don't know if that's really big compared to what other people are doing.) What are the chances of things working if I transferred the backup set to a new one? I suppose I have nothing to lose at this point...

 

[Lennart_T]

I think a support incident is just US $75 or so. Very reasonable.

 

(You do realize this forum is just a user-to-user forum? It is NOT Retrospect support.)

[Lennart_T]

550GB is about average for my backup sets.

 

But what really matters (I think) is the number of files, not their total size.

But I have a backup set with 6.5 million files that always works fine.

My problematic backup set has "only" 2.1 million files.

 

 

[Daniels]

Due to the switch over to Roxio if you submit a web-ticket technical support is free and they do not ask for your credit card information. You can find the form here. If you do need to actually speak to a person you can tell them to call you.

[Lennart_T]

Cool.

 

Thanks for the info and the link.

[cgtyoder]

Daniels - thanks much for the link.

 

Lennart - I do realize this is a user-to-user forum (I've been here longer than you - give me a little credit here... :glasses:) And $75 for a support incident (I can't verify that - they don't list their prices on the website) is in some cases reasonable and in some cases steep. Depends on your situation.

[Lennart_T]

Right, you have been longer than me. I never can figure out the order of dates (seems different for each country), so I don't even try until I really need to read them.  

 

Well, $75 buys you one hour of time at a consultant. OK, you might get two hours if you find a cheap one. And a support incident may often take much longer than that to investigate.

 

But Roxio apparently has discontinued the $75 charge anyway, which is a good thing.

[Lennart_T]

Did you or did you not report this to support?

I'm quite anxious to get this fixed and I can't reproduce it reliably enough.

[cgtyoder]

I reported it to support. I will report back when there is some resolution.

[Lennart_T]

Excellent!

[cgtyoder]

Well, tech support says, "Too Bad." Gots to scrap the existing backup set and start again. Bleah. Moving on...

[emulator]

I'm curious as to whether the backup set in question here was encrypted or not. I've had no luck at all grooming an encrypted backup set. I've had better luck with the non-encrypted ones.

 

I also have had better luck when the volume containing the catalog file is NOT fragmented.

[cgtyoder]

I'm curious as to whether the backup set in question here was encrypted or not.

It was not.

 

I also have had better luck when the volume containing the catalog file is NOT fragmented.

The chance of a file being fragmented on a disk can be rather high. Frankly, if you write software that requires a particular file be contiguous on disk, you are begging for trouble (Doesn't matter if it's "documented" or not.) Performance at the cost of basic stability is never the correct choice.

[emulator]

This might be helpful:

 

http://kb.dantz.com/display/2n/articleDirect/index.asp?aid=9629&r=0.4722559

Edited August 23, 2010 by Guest

[cgtyoder]

Your link is not valid.

[emulator]

Wow...I don't know why that link is dead. The Retrospect Knowledge base has some issues. I'm going to just quote the knowledgebase article here:

 

TITLE: Grooming Tips and Troubleshooting

 

 

Discussion

 

 

Most users have found disk grooming to be a very powerful feature while other users have reported problems ranging from slow performance to catalog corruption. Below are suggestions for successful Disk Backup Set Grooming.

1) Make sure you have between 5 and 10 GB of free disk space on the C: drive for each execution unit. Retrospect uses the default Windows Temp directory for memory caching as well as document and settings/all users/application data/Retrospect to store temporary files during grooming. This will insure that Retrospect will not run out of disk space or low on memory during the grooming phase of the backup.

 

2) Keep your catalog files saved a local disk (like C:\) instead of a network volume. Do not save the catalog file to the same disk as your backup data files (.rdb files).

 

3) Make sure the disk used for your backup data (.rdb files) is not heavily fragmented. Grooming over a long period of time will result in heavy disk fragmentation. You should also defragment the C: disk for best performance.

 

4) Don't groom too often. Grooming will automatically remove data when the destination disk fills up. If you want to make sure the disk never fills, create a grooming script (Automate>Manage Scripts>New) to run once a week. Grooming every day is typically not needed.

 

5) Decide how many Snapshots per disk you need to keep. Retrospect will either use the "Defined Policy" or you can select the number of Snapshots PER VOLUME you want (Configure>Backup Sets>Backup Set Properties>Options). Example: If you backup 2 different hard disks and set grooming to "10", then you will have a total of 20 snapshots saved in the backup after grooming runs.

 

6) Tip: If you set Grooming to "10", Retrospect will automatically keep as many Snapshots as possible, as long as you have enough available disk space on the destination backup drive. When the grooming operation completes, all but the last 10 Snapshots per volume will be removed. It is not unusual to have more then 10 Snapshots per volume on the backup if grooming has not activated for a long time. Keep in mind, if you delete a file from a hard disk after your second backup, it can not be groomed out of the backup until you have done at least 12 backups of the disk.

 

7) If you cancel a grooming operation or grooming fails (see Operations Log for errors), you must perform a catalog rebuild of "all disks" in the Backup Set before attempting to groom again. Just because the backup seems to be working, doesn't mean grooming will work. You must do the catalog rebuild after a failure. Directions for a rebuild are found at: http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=8350&p=2

 

8) The faster your computer and the more RAM you have, the faster grooming will run. Even with 2 GB of RAM, it could take 5 to 10 hours to groom a 1 TB backup set. The more "sessions" and "snapshots" you have, the longer grooming will take. We recommend keeping the total number of sessions in the backup set to under 4 or 5 thousand.

 

9) More disk space is always better then less. If the initial full backup takes 250 GB of disk space, you may want to reserve an additional 250 GB of disk space for future incremental backups so that have room to retain a high number of Snapshots.

 

10) Grooming and NAS: Grooming utilizes temporary files to help with the deleting of backup data. Grooming will copy each 600 MB .rdb file (that contains data to be groomed) from the backup drive to C:\documents and settings\all users\application data\Retrospect, modify the temporary file (deleting old backup data) and then copy it back to the backup disk. This process utilizes temporary disk space on the C: disk but it also utilizes network resources to copy data from a NAS device to the backup server and then back onto the NAS. If a network connection problem exists during this process, you may experience a corrupt catalog file or even damage to backup data files. See item #7 above for catalog rebuild directions. Grooming a backup set saved to a NAS device will take longer then grooming a local disk backup set.

 

11) Only use grooming with backup media that will be "online" or available when the grooming starts. If your backup spans across multiple removable disks (like a REV disk), then Retrospect will need to swap between each disk throughout the grooming process. The media request dialog box can not be canceled during a grooming operation. The user must either insert the requested media or force Retrospect to close. If you force Retrospect to close because your media is not available when requested, then you must do a catalog rebuild as noted in item 7 above. It is best to only use grooming when all members of the backup set can be inserted at the same time (like with several USB hard disks).

[Daniels]

The reason the link is dead is because if you select the article from search results it will delete that search after a certain amount of time. It is always better to list the search terms you used to find that article.

[cgtyoder]

I was shown that KB article by tech support. Already following all recommendations and requirements.