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Retrospect Launcher Service Failing to Start


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Hey folks,

 

I've searched and read about problems with the Retrospect Launcher Service, but none of them have been applicable to me. My service fails to start at system startup and I have to manually go in and start it up. While not the end of the world, it's really annoying and I'd like to get it figued out so I don't have to worry about forgetting to do it sometime and messing up my backups. Below are the errors I'm getting in Event Viewer. Here's my system setup...

 

- Win2K Server (all patched)

- Retrospect SBS v6.5.350

- AMD Athalon 900

- 640 MB RAM/ 40GB HD

- No third-party apps

 

In the service setup, I have the recovery options all set to "restart the service" but it doesn't appear to be helping. I'd appreciate any help you can give on this matter. Thanks!

 

 

**** ERROR 1 ****

Event Type: Error

Event Source: Service Control Manager

Event Category: None

Event ID: 7009

Date: 7/10/2004

Time: 3:38:16 PM

User: N/A

Computer: CRIDERDC01

Description:

Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the Retrospect Launcher service to connect.

 

**** ERROR 2 ****

 

Event Type: Error

Event Source: Service Control Manager

Event Category: None

Event ID: 7000

Date: 7/10/2004

Time: 3:38:16 PM

User: N/A

Computer: CRIDERDC01

Description:

The Retrospect Launcher service failed to start due to the following error:

The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

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Hi

 

For starters make sure you have 6.5.350 installed. Then open the Retrospect preferences and disable the launcher service under the startup menu. Then restart the computer and re-enable it.

 

That should uninstall and reinstall the service completely.

 

Thanks

Nate

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Quote:

Hi

 

For starters make sure you have 6.5.350 installed. Then open the Retrospect preferences and disable the launcher service under the startup menu. Then restart the computer and re-enable it.

 

That should uninstall and reinstall the service completely.

 

Thanks

Nate

 


 

Okay, well, I did as suggested by Nate and the service still isn't starting up automatically, though the service is setup that way. I got the same errors in Event Viewer as I did before.

 

I should also note that I failed to mention that I have Norton AntiVirus Corp Ed 8.1.0.821 running on this server as well, if that makes a difference. Other than that, there's really no third-party apps running.

 

While I can manually start the service, I'd really appreciate any further help you folks can provide to fix this problem as I know - just know - that sooner or later (probably sooner) I'm going to forget to start the service manually after reboot and miss a backup.

 

Thanks much!

 

-Stever.Gosub

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Hi

 

I would uninstall Retrospect ussing add remove programs, reboot and then reinstall. This will not delete your backups or your settings files.

 

Have you specified a user account to run Retrospect as? Try leaving it set to logged in user and see if that makes a difference.

 

If you want some insurance to make sure Retrospect will launch try this:

1)Create a dummy script that runs a backup of the Retropsect preferences folder to a file backup set on the internal hard drive.

2)Then go to the run menu at the top of the screen in Retrospect, select the dummy script, choose "recycle backup" and create a run document. You can save the run document anywhere you like - an out of the way place is probably best.

3)Use the Windows task scheduler to run the run document 5 minutes after Retrospect is normally supposed to launch.

 

This will launch Retrospect if it has not already launched on its own. The reason we launch a dummy script rather than the application itself is to avoid duplicate Retrospect processes.

 

Thanks

nate

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Never mind. Retrospect still sucks. It didn't run any backups this week. Damn! I cannot afford for this to keep happening.

 

 

 

So, the server rebooted itself after an auto update over the weekend, and boom, Retrospect is suddenly $2000 of worthless software until a human shows up to fix it by hand.

 

 

 

I can't wait to see if Dantz wants to charge me when I phone tech support next week.

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I agree that the Retro Launcher service & program is (can be) unreliable.

 

I have several Retro installations, on W2K Server and W2K Pro, Retro Pro and Retro MultiServer. Some work fine and launch reliably. Some give (gave) me nothing but grief as they often failed, e.g. didn't launch, would launch but complain they didn't have the needed permissions [correct Prefs non-withstanding and the fact that it worked the day before], and I've never been able to figure out the difference.

 

On one system I finally a) turned off the Retro Launcher and disabled "quit after script is run" and B) set a startup shortcut to the Retro app so Retro is run automatically after a system boot and c) just leave Retro running. Since the Launcher is no longer in play the system has worked very reliably, with no issues of the Launcher service failing to launch the program or deciding out of the blue that it doesn't have the needed privileges. And I check it every few days to make sure things are still working.

 

I take to heart a post by someone else in this forum (paraphrase) "Retrospect is a very useful program, but it can be finicky, temperamental and unreliable. Never turn your back on it."

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I was reviewing the settings again for Retrospect. It's got one called:

 

 

 

Configure>Preferences>Execution>Schedule>Lookahead time

 

 

 

"...affects Startup action."

 

 

 

Mine was set to 12 hours (probably the default).

 

Well, let's say my scripts run every night, i.e. every 24 hours. I'm guessing that this setting is blocking Retrospect from waking up to run scripts. (edited by moderator)

 

 

 

But wait, I looked throught the Retrospect Help file like a good admin to check this already. However, Dantz doesn't say that this feature will block STARTUP of scripts in the Help document. Looks like Dantz screwed up during development. Their people writing the Help either got wrong information, or just missed this. It only refers to shutting down:

 

 

 

"Look ahead time: n hours defines the number of hours Retrospect looks ahead for scheduled script executions. This affects what happens when you begin to shut down the backup computer or a Macintosh client, and what Retrospect does when it completes an unattended operation. The default preference is twelve hours. "

 

 

 

So, my Win2k Server machine reboots from a automatic Windows update over the weekend on Saturday. Looks 12 hours ahead to Sunday and sees that no scripts are scheduled. So, it disables Retrospect launcher permanently until a human intervenes. (Edited by Moderator)

 

 

 

I reset it to lookahead the maximum 14 days. Thanks for blocking monthly scripts Dantz! I love this feature!

 

 

 

How about having the program check for these conflicts, instead of having the user hunt and peck through all the menus for potential conflicts? Oh right, you already have a Feature called 'Validate Scripts'. Shouldn't that validate that the script is going to run as scheduled based on current Retrospect settings? Maybe give us a warning here for potential conflicts?

 

 

 

What else might be causing a problem? Every user in this forum would like to know.

 

Patch your $2000 software, Dantz!

 

 

 

Will post if lookahead 14 days fixed any problems.

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I think you're thinking of the "Lookahead Time" in an overly complicated manner.

 

"Look ahead time: n hours defines the number of hours Retrospect looks ahead for scheduled script executions. This affects what happens when you begin to shut down the backup computer or a Macintosh client, and what Retrospect does when it completes an unattended operation. The default preference is twelve hours. "

 

If you set this value to 4 hours and have Retrospect set to Quit after running a scheduled backup, Retro "looks ahead" to see if it's scheduled to run *another* scheduled backup in the next 4 hours. If so, it stays put (doesn't Quit) and waits until it is to run the next backup. If not, it will go ahead and Quit and then relaunch itself at the next scheduled backup time. It doesn't "disable the Retrospect launcher."

 

Setting it to 14 days will pretty much guarantee that Retro never quits assuming that you're running backups more often that than.

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I second GoAWest, as the functional impact of 'look ahead' is to provide a warning on quitting retrospect. This warning will examine the currently available media and determine if media is missing for scripts for to be run in the 'look ahead' time period - 4/12/etc. hours. It then simply provides a message saying everything is probably ok or you are missing a specific backup destination.

 

Anyway, this has no impact if you follow the methodology laid out by GoAWest. The advice in message 47987 is a good work around as is Nate's advice in 43664 if you cannot get the kinks and conflicts worked out with retro launcher.

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