Quotas - Backup Sets - File Vs Disk - Etc

[joenashville]

Hi, win7.6+ user here.

 

Are size-limits on backup-sets my only quota mechanism?

 

It's crazy-big scientific data here and many clients.

 

Grooming is big, but for quotas:

I create one backup set for each logical group of clients, and put a size limit on each set. When group hits limit, Retro asks for new disk.

 

Great! I'll allocate more space. But, I'd like to troubleshoot the usage too. Are clients hogging space? Which clients? Volumes? Folders?

 

It's not easy to figure. I browse snapshots, clients, volumes AND must right-click-menu->properties AND take notes. It's tedious.

 

Something I'm missing here? I hope so. I want relative size of clients, then their volumes, then their folders, etc.

 

Also:

What's logical diff between Disk and File sets? I mean, they're virtual, no? I can create many of either on NAS drive. When, why use one over other? I don't use any tape, just NAS.

 

Also, what's reasoning for storing catalog-files with File-sets on a NAS, but not so for Disk-sets? I saw it in tutorial.

 

Thanks for any assist and help!

[Lennart_T]

As you have discovered, it's not so easy.

 

Your best option is going through the log file to see how much is backed up from each client. If a client adds (for instance) 100GB of data every backup, you can go into the backup set and see which files it is. Look under "Sessions" and then click "Browse".

 

File backup set is old stuff, used for backwards compatibility only.

Always use Disk backup sets.

 

I use Disk Backup Sets and I schedule grooming once a week at wekends.

 

I sure hope your NAS is in another building. If they are in the same building and there is a fire, your originals files AND the backups are GONE. Likewise if a thief takes the original computers and the NAS. Or if the building is struck by lightning...

I strongly suggest getting a tape drive and transfer the snapshots to tape and store the tapes off site.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Lennart Thelander

[joenashville]

Thanks!

 

Yes, new NAS is offsite w/ fiber link. Yo!

 

Old NAS is dying. Replace n mirror them some point.

 

File vs Disk? No more File Backup Sets. Got it.

 

Log files?

 

Thought about writing scripts to whack'em up for this purpose.

 

Haven't got past thinking stage though

 

Sure wish Roxio would release an API library.

[Lennart_T]

Log files?

Don't know about Retrospect 7.7, but in 7.6 you press ctrl-L on the keyboard to see the log files.

As you can see here, not much data has been backed up:

 

[joenashville]

Lennart,

 

I know /how/ view logs in Retrospect viewer.

 

I was hoping to access logs as plain text files.

 

Why? So I could parse logs (with my own scripts) to determine which clients use the most backup space.

 

Why? Because it's useful. Retrospect doesn't provide this info that I can figure.

 

Why? I don't know.

 

But, log files /do/ contain client usage info. If logs were text, I could write scripts to parse out info. I need that info and it's point and click nightmare to get it now.

 

Ultimately, solution is quotas on clients. A couple of careless clients use HUGE amounts of space.

 

You CAN set quotas on individual backup sets. But, when fills up, next question is "Which clients are using all the space?"

 

[Lennart_T]

Hello,

 

There is no such thing as a "plain text file"  

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html

 

I think the log file is stored as UTF-16.

I also think the log file is stored here: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Retrospect

(I'm not near our Retrospect server right now, so I can't check.)

 

Otherwise you should be able to open the log file, select all and paste into Notepad or whatever.