problems with retrohandler

[urza311]

I administer six Windows XP Pro stations running Retrospect Pro 6.5.350 with driver update 5.4.110. I use the retrohandler script to email me backup logs after the nightly runs. These use an in-house mail server running EIMS (Eudora Internet Mail Server) 3.2. In order to cut back on spam, I have added a few new filters to the server that are intended to block malformed email messages. One filter, which blocks messages with "stray LF characters", also blocks these nightly backup logs. This filter is described as, "Stray LF characters are ones that are not part of a CRLF line break. This filter can be useful for preventing problems where clients stall downloading messages with stray LFs." And, in fact, we had a few people here who had problems receiving their email until I put in this filter and it started blocking spam with this deficiency. The retrohandler is *way* too complex for me to try to figure out where a stray LF may be hiding in it, so I've been forced to deactivate the filter on my server and leave *all* my users vulnerable to crappy spam in order to ensure that I continue to get backup logs at night. Retrospect's ability to send email notifications in the case of a backup failure is *not* sufficient, and this flawed DOS-based mail program is not a valid replacement for putting proper email notification into backup software. As far as I'm concerned, backup software should do three things: 1) backup my data, 2) allow me to restore from backups and 3) email me and tell me that the backup succeeded. Retrospect has *always* had this deficiency and I've complained about it many times. When is Dantz going to add this feature *properly* to their program, instead of using this poor substitute to handle a requisite feature?

[natew]

Hi

 

The event handler is designed to be a way for Retrospect to interface with external scripts. The scripts that are included with Retrospect will work but they are far from perfect.

 

Are you having Retrospect send you the entire log every night or just email notification that the backup finished?

 

Thanks

Nate