Retrospect 6.5 nightmare

[luisv]

Hello everybody,

I've started with Retrospect Backup one month ago but the company that has contracted me use it for more than 1 year.

The version I'm using is Retrospect Backup 6.5.342 Small Business Server Premium installed in a Windows 2003 Small Business Server. The server has connected a external TAPE unit Sony AIT.

The problems are as follow:

1. Each time Retrospect is running it start to consume a lot of processor time and disc although it is not running any script or backup.

2. The scheduled backup takes more than 10 hours to complete, some times it just does not execute anything and the log is blank.

3. Some times Retrospect can't find the tape unit.

Any help would be appreciated,

 

LUIS VALDEZ

[Lennart_T]

Start by downloading the latest updates here:

http://www.dantz.com/en/support/updates_archive.dtml

 

Second, you should disable the tape drive in Windows Devive Manager. It it's a loader type tape device, you should also disable Media Changer.

 

Proactive backup may consume processor time. Are you sure it's turned off?

[Chimaera]

I have seen retrospect client do this when it does not have correct permissions on the firewall.

This was owing to the use of multicast address 224.1.0.38

It something similar possible with the server edition perhaps?

[luisv]

Dear Lennart,

Thank you for your advice, I have downloaded the update 6.5.350 but I'm not sure if it is the same update for any version of Retrospect 6.5. If you know about please tell me.

About the tape unit it is a single tape external unit connected by a firewire port. What is the effect of disabling the tape drive in Windows device manager?

I'm performing backups for the local server only so I think Proactive backup is not turn on.

 

Thank you again,

 

LUIS VALDEZ

[luisv]

Dear Chimaera,

As i told to Lennart, I'm performing local backups only but I would like to ckeck that anyway. Do you know where can I check those settings?.

 

Thank you,

 

LUIS VALDEZ

[natew]

Hi

 

Firewire devices should not be disabled. Otherwise they won't work.

The 6.5.350 update is what you need. That is the first version of 6.5 approved for Windows 2003.

 

Thanks

Nate

[Chimaera]

Luis

 

 

 

My usual practice, on the workstation that gave me the problem, is to use a software firewall to retrict all access by all programs to any external locations, including the local network.

 

 

 

When I installed the Retrospect client on this pc, it began to use mulitcast to attempt to 'join with' any other multicast applications i.e. Dantz Retrospect products.

 

As I had allowed the application specific access to only the ip address of my Retrospect server on the internal network.

 

 

 

As I had created a specific rule to disallow all other traffic, the client 'went a bit mad'

 

The solution for me was to first bind the Retrospect client to the network adapter for the internal network (I have two adapters - the other connects via a router to the internet), and secondly allow it to 'contact' Dantz's official multicast ip of 224.1.0.38.

 

 

 

My firewall does not automatically 'learn' as many of todays other firewalls, and the specific denial of access to the multicast address was giving me about 50 entries/second in the firewall log - the obvious cause of the 99% CPU usage I was seeing.

 

 

 

There may not be any similar behaviour by the Retrospect backup software, but it ceratinly does use multicast.

 

This problem took myself and support a while to nail down as I did not experience similar problems on any other machines - they are all on the internal network only and do not require software firewalls for protection.

 

 

 

Some information on multicast is availalable here (compiments of support): http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=5582&p=2

 

 

 

Best of luck

[Lennart_T]

Quote:

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Firewire devices should not be disabled. Otherwise they won't work.

 

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Sorry. I assumed it was a SCSI tape drive. I know, you should never assume...