Retrospect 7.5 multi-server -- I'm not impressed

[BudDurland]

I remembered Retrospect from back in the day when we used it in our school. Based on that experience, I chose it as the software for our new disk based backup server.

 

Granted, I haven't read the manual cover to cover, but I have visited the help file several times in the last few days while we set up and test the server. The server is running Windows 2003, and I'm trying to backup two NetWare servers and 3 WIndows servers.

 

So far, I've been able to generate lots of these:

 

Quote:

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OS: Windows XP version 5.2 (build 3790), Service Pack 1, (32 bit)

Application: C:\Program Files\Retrospect\Retrospect 7.5\Retrospect.exe, version 7.5.251

Driver Update and Hot Fix version 7.5.4.107

Exception occurred on 6/26/2006 at 5:51:51 PM

Error info: Assertion failure at "module.cpp-460"

Exception code: E0000000 ASSERTION

Fault address: 77E55DEA 0001:00014DEA kernel32.dll

 

---

 

Note that it identifies Windows Server 2003 as Windows XP

 

I've only gotten one complete backup to work. That was on the first pass, and took about 6 hours to backup 230GB. Even the follow-on backups, that should only be picking up the changes, seem to take forever.

 

Anybody have any useful tips for getting the most out of 7.5?

[Mayoff]

Please try the update to 7.5 which was released today. It may give better stability in your environment.

[BudDurland]

Yesterday I kicked off the script manually. A few hours later it failed with the previous quoted error.

 

The scheduled run of the script started on time last nite, and ran successfully to completion.

 

This morning I fetched and installed the latest updates, and rebooted the server for good measure. I manually kicked off the backup script (that had been successful), and it failed with the same error.

[michaeln]

Can you provide more information about when this happens?

Is it during a backup?

If so, does it happen during scanning a particular volume? while copying/writing to your disk backup set?

 

As a test, I would recommend removing your Retrospect configs (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Retrospect\config75.dat and config75.bak) and testing with a fresh setup to see if this still occurs.

 

Also, can you post the 2nd portion of the assert log that you pasted?

[BudDurland]

I have wiped & reloaded the server that is running Retrospect. I downloaded the latest (as of 28 JUN) server & client components. I updated all the clients, then installed the Server. I created my backup to disk Backup Set. I created a source group and put my servers (or the specific folders of a server) in it. I created a new file selection list that excluded files that I don't want backed up (mostly temp files, iFolder & queue folders on NetWare, etc)

 

The first regular backup job is running now. If it completes in time, I will create a scheduled backup to run tonite.

 

The program crashes I was having before seemed intermittent; sometimes the backup process would go all the way to the end. Part of the difficulty with my previous effort was that when there was trouble, Retrospect did not create a log file of the backup run, so I don't know what it was doing at the time. I can say that the problem seemed to occur near the end of the backup job. I have no way of knowing what server / disk it was backing up when the problem happened. I don't have several hours to invest in watching the screen hoping to catch what's happening when it crashes.

[BudDurland]

The manually initiated backup ran to completion wihout trouble.

 

The scheduled backup failed with an error "module-460.cpp". I saved the .utx file and can e-mail or post pieces of it if interested.

 

In the meantime, I manually kicked off the backup again. If it runs, then it would appear the crash is limited to automatic/scheduled script execution. We'll see in the morning.