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Mac OS X 10.7 client w/ Retro 12.0.2 client fails randomly - not available


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I have an odd problem with a Retro client. All Retro install is latest - 12.0.2 (116). Client OS is Mac OS X 10.7.x (up to date)

 

The problem is that I have several volumes/favorites that I run on this client on a daily schedule, and at least once a week, the scripts do not run (they fail) with "client unavailable or un use" or this morning it was "client not found".

 

These are transitory problems. By the time I get to chcking on this problem, the engine can "see" the client, and I can browse its filesystems from the console. There are no other scripts on that client that are not finishing or getting stuck. This is the only activity on this Retro client.

 

I have tried twiddling options on the client, from the "sources" pane in the console. Noting that the options were all "turned off", I "turned them on" (Client can "turn off", "exclude itens", "stop running backups" ,etc)

 

No difference.

 

The latest thing I noticed is that the retro client control panel on the client says "Retrospect Client (32-bit)". This is a Core-2 DUO machine. It has 64-bit capability. Is this "32-bit" thing normal? It is the only Intel machine I have that shows this "title".

 

Why do my backups fail randomly?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Born-again user here, after 5 years away from Retrospect 6.1 (my old OS X 10.3.9 server machine died in 2010, but I've now inherited--literally--a 2010 Mac Pro for server duty).

 

Your symptoms sound like those I was having last week with newly-installed Retrospect 12. Have you opened up port 497 for TCP and UDP--as it says in the manual? This normally need only be done on your modem+router, or what Verizon is now calling a "gateway". The exception would be if you have firewalls running on your local machines, in which case you would have to do the same there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I should also have strongly suggested that you give your client a reserved DHCP address. For example, you could give it the reserved DHCP address 192.168.1.20x, where .20x (192.168.1.202, 192.168.1.203, etc.) is higher than any DHCP address that would be automatically assigned by your router. Do this _only_ for each client; do _not_ do it for the server.

 

On the Actiontec GT784WNV "gateway" provided by Verizon, this is done on the DHCP Reservation page under the Advanced Setup tab. I can't tell you how to do it for other brands/models of routers.

 

I should have mentioned that both this suggestion and my port 497 suggestion above were originally made by Retrospect Inc.'s tech support guy (whose name I can't remember, but I think it begins with 'A'). Port 497 is mentioned in the Retrospect 12 manual, but I don't believe DHCP Reservation is.

 

As a result of implementing both of these, my Retrospect 12 server has not had any trouble in weeks automatically locating my 2 clients.

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Thanks for the replies. The client has a static IP, and no firewall(s). Besides, if the port were not open, it would fail consistently. In my case, it fails about twice a week, on a daily script.

 

The unique thing about this one is that the client is running Mac OS X 10.7, and the script is NOT pro-active. It is on a schedule, running every morning at 5 AM, and backs up 4 sub-volume "favorites". I'm about to set up a pro-active script that runs right after the current script, to make sure that the backup happens every day.

 

(The current script runs at 5 AM. I'll do the "fallback" pro-active script by setting the permitted run-time to 5:30 AM-8 AM, and setting the backup interval to 23 hours. That way, I should get the pro-active to fire every morning at 5:30. If the regular script works, it won't do much.)

 

I could also simply switch to the pro-active script, which judging from the other machines I have running without problem, but I think something's broken, and it would be much better to have it fixed.

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I had another incident with this problem this morning. I paste a copy of the log below. Note that the script backs up 4 volumes, and the first two failed, and the last two worked. Note also that there is an odd error message in the log (CFWriteStreamWriteFully - possibly irrelevant):

 

+ Normal backup using daily_mercy_nfs at 8/26/15 5:00:00 AM (Activity Thread 1)

To Backup Set v9_daily_mercy_nfs...
Can't access volume admin on Humor, error -505 (backup client reserved)
timerCallBack: cancel email sending
CFWriteStreamWriteFully: Timeout has occurred.
E-mail notification failed: error -597 (mail server not found)

Can't access volume conf on Humor, error -505 (backup client reserved)
- 8/26/15 5:00:00 AM: Copying share on Humor
8/26/15 5:00:50 AM: Found: 1231 files, 84 folders, 28.1 MB
8/26/15 5:00:52 AM: Finished matching
No files found for block level incremental backup.
8/26/15 5:00:52 AM: Copying: 0 files (0 B) and 0 hard links
8/26/15 5:00:54 AM: Building Snapshot...
8/26/15 5:00:55 AM: Checking 84 folders for ACLs or extended attributes
8/26/15 5:00:55 AM: Finished copying 0 folders with ACLs or extended attributes
8/26/15 5:00:55 AM: Copying Snapshot: 2 files (416 KB)
8/26/15 5:00:56 AM: Snapshot stored, 416 KB
8/26/15 5:00:57 AM: Execution completed successfully
Duration: 00:00:57 (00:00:52 idle/loading/preparing)

- 8/26/15 5:00:57 AM: Copying home on Humor
8/26/15 5:01:37 AM: Found: 127288 files, 15104 folders, 12.8 GB
8/26/15 5:01:39 AM: Finished matching
Backing up 2 files using block level incremental backup.
8/26/15 5:01:45 AM: Copying: 1061 files (381.4 MB) and 0 hard links
8/26/15 5:01:57 AM: Building Snapshot...
8/26/15 5:01:57 AM: Checking 15,104 folders for ACLs or extended attributes
8/26/15 5:01:57 AM: Finished copying 0 folders with ACLs or extended attributes
8/26/15 5:01:58 AM: Copying Snapshot: 2 files (37 MB)
8/26/15 5:02:01 AM: Snapshot stored, 37 MB
8/26/15 5:02:02 AM: Execution completed successfully
Completed: 1,061 files, 381.4 MB, with 75% compression
Performance: 1,906.9 MB/minute
Duration: 00:01:04 (00:00:52 idle/loading/preparing)

- 8/26/15 5:02:03 AM: Verifying v9_daily_mercy_nfs
8/26/15 5:02:04 AM: Execution completed successfully
Completed: 1,061 files, 381.4 MB
Performance: 22,883.199 MB/minute
Duration: 00:00:01 (00:00:01 idle/loading/preparing)

8/26/15 5:02:04 AM: Execution incomplete
Total duration: 00:02:03 (00:01:46 idle/loading/preparing)

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I note that all four volumes are on the same client. I'm wondering whether the client reserved messages for "admin" and "conf" are being caused because Retrospect is already in process of backing up "share." Note that according to the log, the script launched at 5:00:00 and the backup of "share" also began at 5:00:00.

 

If that's the case, this would seem to be a bug.

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Thanks for the replies. The client has a static IP, and no firewall(s). Besides, if the port were not open, it would fail consistently. In my case, it fails about twice a week, on a daily script.

 

...

IIRC (it's been more than 4 weeks), when I did not have port 497 open for TCP and UDP, the failure was _intermittent_, not consistent. And that was also before I gave my two clients static IP addresses.

 

I never have had a firewall enabled on my Actiontec GT784WNV Verizon "gateway", but I think port 497 is closed for UDP by default--you might as well open port 497 for _both_ TCP and UDP. To open ports on that model router, go to Port Forwarding under Security on the Advanced Setup tab. You only have to open the LAN IP address for _one_ of your clients; the Actiontec GT784WNV will not let you make entries for _both_ clients--but it doesn't seem to matter. Don't specify a Remote IP Address for either port 497 entry.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hit this again this morning, after a week or two of not seeing this.  The log: (via copy/paste from console)

 

+ Normal backup using daily_mercy_nfs at 9/25/15 5:00:01 AM (Activity Thread 1)

To Backup Set v9_daily_mercy_nfs...
Can't access volume admin on Humor, error -505 (backup client reserved)
Can't access volume conf on Humor, error -505 (backup client reserved)
Can't access volume share on Humor, error -505 (backup client reserved)
Can't access volume home on Humor, error -505 (backup client reserved)
9/25/15 5:00:03 AM: Execution incomplete
timerCallBack: cancel email sending
CFWriteStreamWriteFully: Timeout has occurred.
E-mail notification failed: error -597 (mail server not found)

 

I looked in the Retro logs for clues.

 

In /var/log/retropds.log, I found this:

 

2015-09-24T05:00:37: FreeAsyncServ: elapsed=0s work=0s inQWait=0s outQWait=0s

2015-09-24T05:01:42: FscGetFSRef: FSMakeFSRefUnicode(/Volumes/Export_cs/home/user/www/stats/icompute/) failed, uni_name->length = 10, encoding = 0xffff, error 1
2015-09-24T05:01:45: FreeAsyncServ: elapsed=8s work=4s inQWait=6s outQWait=1s
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