Retrospect Crashes ASIP 6.3.3, Mac OS 9.1

[zac_90265]

I want to ellaborate on Janet's last post. I have a Carbon G4 running Mac OS 9.1 and Appleshare IP 6.3.3. This is a bare-bones server running only the baseline Apple extenstions and control panels. In fact, the only thing out of the ordinary is Retrospect Client 4.3. The server has 512mg of 100mHz RAM, which has actually been replaced to make sure that isn't the cause of the daily crash. The problem, like Janet's is after the Retrospect nightly backup, which seems to operate normally, the first person who connects to said ASIP server crashes the server, forcing a restart obviously. Things I have done...

 

 

 

1. tried running the file server on a Quicksilver G4, 1gb RAM, OS 9.2.1... still no joy

 

 

 

while back on the Carbon g4 Mac...

 

 

 

2. Removed the OT Push extenstion... still no joy

 

3. Modified RAM above and below the 512mg threshold... no joy

 

4. Messed with the ASIP cache settings... no joy

 

 

 

My patience is wearing extremely thin as I am not a Macintosh support engineer nor do I claim to be or want to be. Troublshooting this product does not make my day and only strengthens a case to dump this platform and the Dantz retrospect and move to Win2k and Veritas. I am looking for a solution here, and not "set Energy saver to reboot the server" as like Janet, I have a document manager system attached to this production server running Oracle that needs to run 24/7.

 

 

 

Apple blames Retrospect as when I am not running the agent I experience great happiness as the server will not crash. Of course on the flipside of the coin if the server catchs fire and I have no backup of the 90gb of documents, etc. I will be experiencing great sadness and thoughts of suicide.

 

 

 

C'mon, Dantz... I know there is a solution out here besides all of the usual dribble of zapping PRAM, rebuilding desktops and doing dodgy things that you only seem to have to do on the Macintosh platform to keep things running.

 

 

 

all the best from Sydney,

 

 

 

david

[Janet]

Hi David,

 

 

 

It's been several weeks since you posted, and I just saw your post today....Still no joy???

 

 

 

I am still having problems myself. I am at the point where I really don't know what to do next. About the only thing I can think of is remove the client, upgrade the RAM, and reinstall the client afterward. I don't know if this will do a bit of good, and couldn't even give you a good rationalization for it my trying it other than the fact that I am now 'all about' taking 'shots in the dark'.

 

 

 

I was begining to think I was the only person in the world experiencing this issue.

 

 

 

Have you dumped the Mac's for W2k? I am curious about this as well - I am looking to move to OS X or Win2k. We have an Art dept of 130 Mac users to support and need to decide which platform will best support them. I have not talked to anyone as of yet who has a Win2K server (with RAID attached) that serves files to a majority of Mac clients who copy large files back and forth. (40 -400MB in a single file)

 

 

 

If you have time, I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

 

 

 

: )

 

 

 

thanks

 

-janet

[AmyJ]

Dantz has been investigating several problems that customers have reported when backing up an AppleShare IP server with Retrospect 5.0. Reported problems include:

 

 

 

1) The ASIP server crashes when Retrospect 5.0 autolaunches or

 

is launched from an alias.

 

 

 

2) The ASIP server crashes at the beginning of a backup with the

 

Retrospect 5.0 client.

 

 

 

3) Retrospect returns "error 1 (unknown)" for some files backed

 

up from an ASIP server with the Retrospect 5.0 client.

 

 

 

Our investigation has revealed that these problems result from using Carbon APIs with AppleShare IP software. Problem #1 occurs when any Carbon application is launched from an alias, confirming our contention that it is not a Retrospect issue. Retrospect 5.0 uses HFS+ file system calls, as specified by Apple, which stimulate bugs in the AppleShare IP software, resulting in Problems #2 and #3.

 

 

 

We have reported all of these problems to Apple, but Apple's development efforts are now focused on Mac OS X Server. Without a commitment by Apple to address these problems, we have no choice but to suggest that our customers consider replacing AppleShare IP with Mac OS X Server.