Guest Posted February 4, 2002 Report Share Posted February 4, 2002 What would cause retrospect to not back up two of three clients? (Version 4.3 with two Mac clients). I have disabled sleep and energysaver so not to interfere. The log shows no errors. The machines back (supposedly) up specific folders between 10pm and 2am. The backup is New (reuses tape) as incremental would fill up the tape(s). I find nothing wrong with the hardware (Dat4) drive and the tapes are new. The network is Cat5 through an Asante 16 port 10/100 hub. This problem has been going on for months. If I delete the tape sets and recreate the backup set from scratch, the setup will work for a few days then start all over. Its like Retrospect doesn't like the tape drive, the clients (it loses the info of the TCP/IP clients). I'll tell ya, if there was another choice that worked... (The only solution I have is to setup and ASIP server and let the three users save their files there. Then ASIP can back up. Be WE KNOW Retrospect and ASIP don't like being on the same server so here we go again!) Any non-sarcastic replies are welcome e- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fender464 Posted February 5, 2002 Report Share Posted February 5, 2002 Are you getting a specific error on these clients? If you backup the local machine, does it fail there too? The reason I ask is because you should probably try to narrow the problem down. If the local backup works without a problem, then it's probably either a problem with the network or the client hardware. An error message would be more useful to help solve the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 8, 2002 Report Share Posted February 8, 2002 Here what I have: -A Micronet DDS4 drive (Sony mechanism) -G4 (Quicksilver) running OS 9.2 -Retrospect Workgroup 4.3 with latest 2.5 patch -Networked to Asante 10/100 hub over Cat5 with two other G4s -Brand new Sony DDS4 media -Sony DDS4 Cleaning cart I set up the retrospect mac to back up itself and the two clients (over TCP/IP) with a script. the script only backs up specific folders. The backup can only run from 9pm till 9am daily. It will verify/compare each backup. It recycles each tape as the data backed up is critical to each day only. Tapes are rotated/disposed out every 4-6 months (wear/integrity). I even re-made the script (incase of corruption). This morning, the backup log shows it started the backup ontime. Then it went to compare the first volume it backed up and thats it! Nothing else. Never showed completion. Never showed it backed up the two clients. Log shows no errors. I am at a loss. is it hardware? (The drive is Micronet repackaged...since they don't make the DDS drive) Is it the SCSI card? (Adaptec) The network? (Filesharing works fine, printing and internet use is fine). I think its Retrospect or its configuration. I wouldn't be so upset at Dantz if it wasn't for the costs they want for supporting a package that hasn't worked(have you seen the new rates??). And that the users of the program are far from being convenient for me to troubleshoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fender464 Posted February 8, 2002 Report Share Posted February 8, 2002 That does sound weird. In the times that I've run into problems, I've at least had an error to work off of. This may be way out there but I wonder if it's stopping at the scheduled stop time: 9:00AM. You said it completes the "copy" pass but says nohting about completing the "compare" pass. What time does the copy pass complete? If you're getting horrendous speed from your tape drive, I'm thinking it's possible that it's just taking that long to do either copy and compare pass or just the compare pass. To test this, all you have to do is take away the stop/start time so it's set to not stop until it completes and see what it's doing when you come in in the morning. Make sense? Let us know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 12, 2002 Report Share Posted February 12, 2002 Ok, I was able to reproduce the following on the mac/retrospect backup: -After confirming the backup times were limited to 9pm till 9am, I decided to make the time unrestricted. I ahd a suspicion the backup might be timing out. -I confirmed when a tape for the day was loaded, I clicked verify script and checked the tape. -At this moment, the cursor (now spining tape spindles) kept spinning. I assume, it keeps spinning till the restricted time would allow. Then the mac hung. The log (last attempted backup) only shows that it attempted to backup the drive "Nicole's G4" specific "Documents" folder (total 1.4gig). It does not. It never even made it to the client drives. It fails at verify as the time of the failure was 9:00am !!! It took 11 hrs to backup 1 gig ??? to a blank DDS4 tape??? My guess is that hardware is the failure? What upsets me is there is no error. No "device failure" or SCSI failure, or even termination/card failure. I must assume that the SCSI card (Adaptec 2960), the cable (50HD), the active terminator (HD), and the tape drive (Sony in a Micronet case) are the culprit. Honestly, I never selected the Micronet as I ahve had bad driver experience with their products in the past. If a "recommended" external DDS4 SCSI drive could be recommended...I would appreciate it. Also, any fast/Wide SCSI cards would help. I am nervous about this Adaptec 2960 and future support (OS X). ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fender464 Posted February 13, 2002 Report Share Posted February 13, 2002 Very interesting. I think you're right -- it seems like a hardware problem. It could be the machine is locking up before Retrospect gets a chance to log the neccessary error information but I don't know. Before you run out and buy a new drive, I would do some standard SCSI troubleshooting first: try the drive on a different machine, swap cables, terminators, etc. This may help narrow down the problem. In terms of a recommended drive, I've used the Sony STD-10000 in the past and had no problems -- granted it was in the original Sony case. I'm not too sure who else makes the drives but a friend of mine uses an HP DDS-4 drive at his work and he seems to have no trouble. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 15, 2002 Report Share Posted February 15, 2002 Fender, You may laugh at this one: I checked the G4 unit (remotely via TB2) and noticed via The PowerDomain Control Panel for the Adaptec card and its labled "2930CU". I am going to contact Aaptec about this as the Mac PCI card version is a PowerDomain 2930. The PC versions are AHA-2930CU and AHA-2930U. I will ask if either cards are machine specific. When I visit the client that has this setup and find its a PC PCI card that I was shipped, rather than the Mac version (and there are differences), and there are PC/Mac compatibility issues (I had a vendor once, incorrectly send me an AHA-2940 card rather than a 2940UW for a Mac) I will be rather fuming! And a formal apology to Dantz will be in order. I'll post the solution shortly... Ed- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 19, 2002 Report Share Posted February 19, 2002 How about that! The G4 had (from the vendor) a PC SCSI card and NOT a Mac SCSI card! After talking to Adaptec Support (you better have a TSID), I confirmed that the PC (AHA-2930CU) is not compatible with the Mac. It may work but its a different architecture/firmware than the Mac's (not SCSI Manager compliant). So this may be the culprit. I am replacing the card with a Grappler product to see how that fares until I get the PowerDomain 2930 for a replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 28, 2002 Report Share Posted February 28, 2002 Here is the solution: Retrospect was having unspecific failure (no consistant code) due to: -Micronet (DDS4 Ext SCSI DAT) drive not labeled as LVD/SE tape drive. -Micronet drive (supplied by vendor MacZone) included no documentation on the device, no termination nor cabling to indicate "LVD/SE" SCSI other than a 68pin port. -Cable recommended by MacZone was incorrect (68pin to 50pin HD) -Card installed in G4 (Adaptec 2930CU) was not compatible with DAT drive (SDT10000) external SCSI (SCSI/Wide versus SCSI LVD/SE). -Mis-match of termination, device and card resulted in back failures. What confuses me is why does Micronet sell their product through "inadequately informed" MacZone reps? Why does Adaptec support inform me that the AHA-2930CU is NOT a Mac compatible card (They stated it should say PD2930 as in PowerDomain on the card). However, I opened a new PowerDomain 2930 box and behold, it contained an AHA-2930CU Mac PCI SCSI card. The solution was to install an expensive Adaptec 29160 PowerDomain LVD/SE card, a 68-68pin LVD/SE 1Meter cable, a LVD/SE Active terminator. testing resulted in 388MB/sec backup to tape. Retrospect log shows completions! It was not Retrospect's fault that the backups failed afterall. Rather it was device chain mismatch due to a poorly supported (Micronet) device and poorly informed (MacZone) salesperson. And finally, this user's fault for not getting product from a better source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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