hli Posted February 5, 2004 Report Share Posted February 5, 2004 Hello, We have been using Retrospect 6.0 for a couple of months now. However, we have so much trouble with the media request confirmation prompt for the past two months. Here is our case: we basically do recycle back up every morning at 3:00 am (Monday - Sunday) Here is the issue: it keep prompting for media request confirmation before backup. Sometimes, it went fine and sometimes it just timeout. The reason I bought Retrospect is to unattended/automatically do the job for us, so please tell me how do make the problem go away. Here is what I did, I went to Preferences -> Erasure -> I checked "Minimum erase Confirmation, Do not confirm before erasing destination media already containing content". But, It still timeout. It simply did not work!! I REALLY DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THIS. If I can not solve the problem soon, I will have to search for another product. Your help is highly appreciated. Hua Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awnews Posted February 5, 2004 Report Share Posted February 5, 2004 > The reason I bought Retrospect is to unattended/automatically do the job for us, so please tell me how do make the problem go away. Stop using removable media (e.g. tape) for the bulk of backups. Put an on-line harddrive (250G IDE for $144 this week) somewhere on the network (in a PC, as a USB2 in a removable case) and use it for the bulk of the backups (e.g. all nightlies). Reserve the removable (tape) for an occasional (e.g. weekly) backup when you're around to do the swap and keep an eye on Retro... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hli Posted February 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2004 >Stop using removable media (e.g. tape) for the bulk of backups. Put an on-line harddrive >(250G IDE for $144 this week) somewhere on the network (in a PC, as a USB2 in a >removable case) and use it for the bulk of the backups (e.g. all nightlies). Reserve the >removable (tape) for an occasional (e.g. weekly) backup when you're around to do the >swap and keep an eye on Retro... Thanks. However, we still prefer tapes because we have more backups to fall back on. I am very disappointed at Retrospect since nobody on their side like to help. Come-on, this is quite expensive product, I expect a lot from it. In conclusion, I find it's too complex to even perform a simple task. I think I will shop another product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awnews Posted February 6, 2004 Report Share Posted February 6, 2004 Quote: Hua said: >Stop using removable media (e.g. tape) for the bulk of backups. Put an on-line harddrive >(250G IDE for $144 this week) somewhere on the network. Thanks. However, we still prefer tapes because we have more backups to fall back on. I am very disappointed at Retrospect since nobody on their side like to help. ... I think I will shop another product. Fair enough. I've used backup programs other than Retro in some situations myself, sometimes because they had a feature that Retro lacked (e.g. backup over FTP) or sometimes because the user wanted a cheaper program or one with an easier I/F. On the "have more backups to fall back on" comment, you can fit an awful lot of backups on one or more large HDs. I'm using this config, half a TB (two 250G IDE for <$300 total), in one multi-client + multi-server situation and can easily fit multiple backups of the entire HD of each PC on the drives. My preferred (minimum) setup is one "short term" backup (e.g. backup daily, recycle monthly) and one "long term" (e.g. backup monthly, recycle yearly) per backed-up machine. I reserve the removable storage (e.g. tape, USB2 hardrives, etc.) for catastrophic coverage (e.g. fire, theft). So I'm willing to confine this to data only (e.g. don't backup *all* bytes on the PC, just the user data) and fewer/less frequent backups while putting up with the slow speed, small size and inconvenience of hauling the media on and off-site. Backup via FTP would be a nice feature for Retro to add to help out in this area in some situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted February 6, 2004 Report Share Posted February 6, 2004 Hi How many backup sets are you using in your script? Is the same tape in the drive or are you changing it every day? What kind of media rotation are you using? This kind of problem usually happens because of script settings. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hli Posted February 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2004 >How many backup sets are you using in your script? Is the same tape in the drive or are >you changing it every day? What kind of media rotation are you using? This kind of problem >usually happens because of script settings. Thanks for your response. I have only one backup set named "nightly-back-A". I have seven Sony AIT SDX1-53C, I have one technician rotate them every night. Now, are you suggesting to make 7 different backup sets instead of one? And do you think this will stop Retrospect to prompt me for confirmation? Thanks a lot for you help! Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awnews Posted February 6, 2004 Report Share Posted February 6, 2004 I read what you said about preferring "more backups" but I can't imagine dealing with all that (tape) nonsense anymore. *Most* of the time backups get used for accidental (deletion, bad changes, etc.) data loss, data corruption or drive failure, so quick, easy and regular automated backups *and* quick & easy restores (no finding/swapping tapes) makes on-line HDs a great choice. I still think large IDE drives (no need for "faster" SCSI) for day in & out backups are the way to go. BTW, unless a (file, disk) backup set becomes corrupted or damaged, all backup sessions are independently recoverable. So even with a single backup set, if you backup to it nightly you can still recover the Tues. backup, the Wed. backup, the Thurs... Some suggested options, all using the HD(s) as the backup destination: 1a) A single backup set as a destination for daily backups, e.g. backup daily, recycle monthly and 1b) A weekly backup to another backup set, e.g. backup weekly, recycle yearly (mid-month relative to above) 2a) A separate backup for each day of the week (Sun-Sat), e.g. backup weekly (since each only gets a backup once a week), recycle bi-annually with staggered recycles. All to one harddrive is probably OK. You can go to the extra trouble of using two backup HDs (e.g. some sets to one and some sets to the other), RAID, etc. but the only one I bother with sometimes is multiple HD destinations. I'd still use your tape backup but only make that the firesafe and/or emergency off-site backup. USB2 drive(s) works well too, but you already have the tape setup. So rotate some tapes between work and home, backing up to one of them once a week. If you have enough tape space you don't have to erase old data but just let Retro add onto the end, so your off-site tapes can hold many months+ of data. Some folks like to have tapes that get backed-up-to less often (e.g. monthly) and recycled less often (e.g. once a year) to have longer or forever storage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffbaygents Posted February 9, 2004 Report Share Posted February 9, 2004 When the person inserts the tape to use for the evening, they MUST perform a short erase on the tape. I ran into your same problem and re-read that portion of the manual which stated that's what you have to do. Ever since then, I've had zero prompts. The way to do a short erase is to insert the tape and right-click on the tape in drive icon and you'll see the erasure option. Also, it's important NOT to change the name of the tape it will give it as "Untitled". We have found the Retrospect application to be a very good product for the price. We studied many products on the market and they are currently the most optimal choice for the small to mid-sized market. We do consulting for Fortune 500 companies and have learned over the years that there's always a solution from someone somewhere. Hope this has helped you. Jeff Baygents jeff@linxent.com Linx Enterprises, Inc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted February 9, 2004 Report Share Posted February 9, 2004 Hi The other way to do this is to do recycle backups every night. In the end you will have 7 tapes that are all named 1-nightly backup but it will work the way you want it to. You won't have to do the manual erase either. Make sure you have the automatically use pre-named media preference enabled. In the event of a restore you will have to rebuild the catalog from scratch which will add some time. Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hli Posted February 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2004 Thanks guys for all your help. >Make sure you have the automatically use pre-named media preference enabled. I do not have this option since I am using Retrospect 6.0 Multi-server. I noticed this option only exist in 6.5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted February 10, 2004 Report Share Posted February 10, 2004 Oops Sorry about that. Forgot about the version you had. nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hli Posted March 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2004 Hi Nate, Base on your suggestion, I upgraded v6.0 to the multi-server v6.5. I make sure I have following checked: 1. Automatically reuse named media 2. Minimal erase confirmation However, it still prompts and here is the report: Report generated by Retrospect. ------------------------ Media request for media "1-Backup Set A" ("1-Backup Set A") timed out before script could finish. Script "Nightly BACKUP" failed to backup volume "Backup Clients/WEB2/Drive C (C:)/daemonlogs" with error "-1204" - "user didn't respond". Script "Nightly BACKUP" finished with errors. Error code "-1204" "user didn't respond". I spent $439 for Retrospect Multi Server v6.5 upgrade and $270 for annual support. Can you tell me what is going with this software???? Cheers. Hua Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted March 30, 2004 Report Share Posted March 30, 2004 Hi Please verify that you are running Retrospect 6.5.343 and that you have driver update 4.9 installed. Also make sure you have disabled (not uninstalled) the driver for the tape drive in the windows device manager. According to the configure->devices->environment window in Retrospect is the device using ASPI or NT passthrough? I must aploogize if I mislead you in my previous post. This should work in both 6.5 or 6.0. The reuse prenamed media setting is new to 6.5 it is not required in 6.0 to perform this type of backup. Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hli Posted March 30, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2004 Hi Nate, Please verify that you are running Retrospect 6.5.343 and that you have driver update 4.9 installed. > I have 6.5.343. I use Sony AIT 35GB LVD Drive, the driver version is 2.0. What is Driver update 4.9? Do you mean I have to update the driver for Sony AIT drive? Also make sure you have disabled (not uninstalled) the driver for the tape drive in the windows device manager. According to the configure->devices->environment window in Retrospect is the device using ASPI or NT passthrough? > Yes, the driver is disable when the Retropect is in use. It is NT passthrough. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted April 1, 2004 Report Share Posted April 1, 2004 Hi Retrospect has its own drivers for the tape drive (now at version 4.9). You do not need to install windows drivers to use the tape drive with Retrospect. In fact they are probably causing a conflict. Make sure you disable the windows drivers for the tape drive in the windows device manager. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlemons Posted May 16, 2004 Report Share Posted May 16, 2004 Hi I have a problem that is similar, I think, to the one discussed in this thread. We're using Retrospect Single Server 6.5. I have four backup sets, named 'Week 1', 'Week 2', 'Week 3' and 'Week 4'. Every Monday, I want to over-write my tapes that were written four weeks ago with the new week's backups. So, on Monday, I run a 'recycle' backup. My problem is that Retrospect doesn't find any media to write on, and waits until I manually erase a volume. Have a mis-configured my environment, or MUST I manually erase a volume in order for Retrospect to re-use it? Thanks for the help! tl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 Hi Is the "automatically reuse prenamed media" setting turned on? If it is you should not need to manually erase media. Thanks Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlemons Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Great suggestion, thanks! I found this in the Configure ... Preferences ... Media ... Erasure area. Thanks again tl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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