Really Disappointed in 8.2 update

[dmonbarren]

Normally, I'd address this to Roxio support, but since they don't seem to monitor their own support boards ...

 

When did Retrospect become crapware?

 

I've been using Retrospect for close to a decade now, and I can't EVER remember getting an "update" that had more problems than 8.2. (It looks like there are lots of other people having problems, from the looks of this board.)

 

Not only did installing it on my backup machine drop it into a revolving hell of kernel panics, but one of those panics also damaged the Rev disk that was waiting for data (costing me 100GB of backed up data - though the good folks at Iomega offered to replace the disk for free). In addition, the Retrospect update also wiped out all my backup scripts.

 

Roxio's response? I don't know. I'll let you know if they ever respond.

 

Question: Looking through all the problems with 8.2 ... has anyone gotten the 64-bit version to run properly? If not, is it possible to get the 32-bit version somewhere? Or should I just re-install 8.1 and hope it still works?

[maxhowarth]

while i agree that 8.2 is not without its issues i'm surprised at roxio support. the last two issues i've have have been dealt with quickly and effectively.

[demani]

I got support responses to online tickets 10 days following the opening of the tickets. I had solved two of the three tickets by then (thanks to the forum). It's been a struggle...if it takes 10 days to respond to my responses then I may have to shake some people by their lapels.

 

And yes,8.2 has been pretty buggy, and no word on an incoming patch. The blog went quiet, and so is every other means of end-user communication. Hopefully Roxio will figure things out, but for such a critical piece of software this isn't good.

[samvenning]

Retrospect 8.2 is a HUGE improvement over version 8.0 but it still crashes too often (both Retrospect GUI and Retrospect engine). I had hoped Roxio might release another incremental update to sort out the remaining glitches.

 

Perhaps after the many failed promises of updates with the 8.2 release the development team has decided to be quiet about potential dates for another update.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Guest

[samvenning]

Lots of little things about Retrospect 8.2 still frustrate me.

• Retrospect engine crashes from time to time.

• Retrospect console tends to crash when dragging tapes to drive.

• Rebuilding tape catalog "Choose Media" dialog box becomes unresponsive. For example, clicking "OK" button in example doesn't do anything.

 

[bioheath]

I find 8.2 to be very reliable. With 8.1 I had to stop the engine and restart it every week or its memory leaks would eat up everything the server had. 8.2 just runs and I actually find myself forgetting about it from week to week. That is my benchmark for a successful product--when I trust it enough to forget about it from time to time.

 

I am running the 64 bit engine. It stays under 200MB of RAM almost all the time, and it releases RAM when it is done. It uses about 120% CPU on an 8 processor machine when it is working. Not bad at all.

 

I had problems with media sets becoming "un-groomable" in the past, but the fresh ones I created using 8.2 seem to be caring for themselves.

 

I have about 65 clients backing up every 24 hours proactively to around 30 media sets, so this is a moderately demanding environment and it is working well.

Edited October 18, 2010 by Guest

[rhwalker]

While you don't explicitly say what type of media sets you have, it appears that you are not using tape media sets. That might account for the difference.

 

Russ

[samvenning]

In my example above (with picture) clicking "OK" did nothing (despite having the media ready). But clicking "Cancel" caused Retrospect 8.2 to use the tape and continue. Actually, the Retrospect engine had recognised the tape and continued with rebuilding the catalog... the GUI caught up.

 

Psssst. Crash Plan Pro is looking more and more attractive. If you missed this years MacSysAdmin conference in Sweden, or even if you went but want the materials... you can find pdf's and videos of the sessions online (link below). Take a look as there's a wide variety of Mac administration topics covered. The very first session "Day1LunchSession.mov" covers CrashPlanPro.

 

Read between the lines and the presenter is strongly suggesting Retrospect was the solution everyone relied on but CrashPlanPro looks like the "modern", "better" backup solution (don't think it is an archive solution).

 

http://documentation.macsysadmin.se/

http://macsysadmin.se/

 

Edited October 19, 2010 by Guest

[Maser]

Well, sure, the distributor of CrashPlan Pro is going to say it's better than anything else. Are you surprised?

 

(That's not to say it's not a good product or that I'm looking to turn this thread into a debate about other products, but you have to take the presentation as it's presented -- a sales pitch.)

 

And, from what I can tell, CP doesn't support Tape drives at all (right?) -- so it wouldn't meet your needs.

 

 

[samvenning]

I agree... CrashPlanPro isn't suited to archive. It is *backup* solution only.

 

I need a backup solution that actually works. Retrospect just isn't robust enough... isn't reliable enough.

 

Real World Example 1

My Retrospect 8.2 proactive backup schedule has stopped... no clue in the GUI as to why.

 

Real World Example 2

I have to maintain Retrospect for past archives. So I either run Retrospect 6.2 on Mac OS 10.5 or I rebuilding my LTO-2 catalogs in Retrospect 8.2. Rebuilding catalog files is taking a looooonnnng time. Retrospect 8.2 doesn't work reliably with either of my autoloaders (either Overland LoaderXpress or HP StorageWorks MSL4048 2 LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 Tape Library). Retrospect 8.2 engine often crashes when changing tapes. So I instead use a standalone external LTO-2 drive and change tapes manually. I was rebuilding the catalog for a 15 tape LTO-2 archive and Retrospect 8.2 crashed on the last tape before finishing.... so I start again.

[demani]

I've been investigating PresStore for the same reason. Retrospect 8.2 still crashes too frequently and has too many bugs to even approach "reliable". And backup software needs that above anything else. Heck, Windows NT Backup is stupidly difficult to manage for anything other than the most simple tasks, but at least you know it will run. Time Machine is usable as a replacement for Retrospect Pro if you are okay with drive only backups. But anyone using tape is stuck with very few options at the low end of the budget range (say sub-$3000US).

I still have open tickets (5 currently) and rarely get any actual assistance from the Technical Support staff (or at least by the time I get a helpful response I've already found something here, usually confirming the bug).

 

And I skipped 8.0 and 8.1 and went straight to 8.2- I was assuming that one of the most hyped features (rebuilding v6 sets) would actually work. Instead I've got two G5s set aside for accessing old backups.

[Daniels]

I have been using a flavor of 8.2 for eight months now in an production environment and other than a few inconveniences it has been working pretty well for me. I had to skip 8.1 since I could never get it to run on a Dual 867 MHz PowerPC G4 but 8.2 has been working. I agree that there are kinks that need to be worked out but this is true in any piece of software. I have also found technical support to be very responsive and actually during the betas of 8.2 they tried to address most of my bugs. My backups are done using an AIT-3 tape library connected by an older ATTO, UL3D PCI-SCSI card in a Dual 867 MHz PowerPC G4 running 10.5.8 with 2 GB of RAM.

[ReJonesTro]

Hello Denis,

I work with Retrospect since many years too. And real trouble started with change from version 6 to 8. But with the new 8.2 release it's worth!

I'm using iOmega REV-70 disks and with the REV drive nothing works. I posted on tec support like you and get answers but this is more than curious ... First they say that REV-drives are not supported in 8.2! But now they ask for more information from me. Seems they don't know whats realy going on with their own software?!

My REV disks are not recognized by Retro 8.2 even when I enable optical-drives! Retro realises that there is "somthing" but it stays unknown and it just asks for "media".

But as with you it does strange operations on my REV diks: creates new folders and files. Fortunately it did not corrupt my disks.

 

I went back to Retro 8.1 and my REV drive worked again!

 

If you want to run Retro 8.2 in 32-bit mode you can enable this in Mac Finder: Look for the Retrospect Icon in Program-window, choose it and open Info-window. There is an option to start the program in 32-bit mode!

 

But I have another question since you are working with iOmega REV too:

I was very frustrated and shooked when I had to realise that iOmega REV is no longer supported under Mac OSX 10.6! Now I have a small partition where I run OSX 10.5.8 and use this to do my backups.

The problem is that in the long run I see a dead end for working like this. Maybee we are close to it when Retro 8.2 refuses to work with iOmega REV drives?

 

How you work with the REV-drives on your system?

[samvenning]

I lodged a "Roxio Customer Care" ticket three days ago (to do with Retrospect engine crashing) and no one has got back to me. Not impressed with Roxio Retrospect "Customer Care".