Retrospect 6 Incomplete Backups

[joe_27]

I'm running Retrospect version 6.0.178 on Jaguar Server currently backing up 7 or so Panther and Jaguar clients. Two of the Panther clients are not being fully backed up; scans all the files, but backs up maybe 20% of those files on a full (recycle) backup.

Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

Joe

[natew]

Hi

 

Does this happen when you do a recycle backup as well? How about with a new backup set? What selector are you using in your script. Can you tell which files are not being backed up? They may have already been backed up from another client.

 

Thanks

Nate

[joe_27]

Nate,

Are you saying that Retrospect will not back up files from a client if a valid replacement file has already been backed up from another client? Is this functionality new in version 6?

 

Thanks,

Joe

[Sheppard]

Quote:

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Are you saying that Retrospect will not back up files from a client if a valid replacement file has already been backed up from another client? Is this functionality new in version 6?

 

---

 

That is correct and has been in Retrospect from the very beginning, I think, or at least as long as I can remember. This is actually one of the best features of Retrospect and is known as redundant file elimination (the manual might say something about that).

 

I knew of a company that was backing up 10,000 PCs all with pretty much the same basic installation rolled out by the I.T. department. Everyone's entire disk was backed up, OS, settings, applications and documents thus guaranteeing the user could get their exact configuration back when their laptop was stolen and replaced.

 

Rather than backing up 10,000 copies of the exact same files Retrospect checks its catalog to see that another file with the same name, dates, times and maybe even size and other factors (CRC?), already exists, even under a different path. If so, then this file does not need to be backed up on the client. So if you create a PowerPoint document and your colleague stores a copy on his computer, Retrospect only backs up one of the files but makes a note in the catalog that both of you have this file and where it's located so both of you can have the file restored.

 

The same company that was backing up those 10,000 PCs also took another shortcut and created a disk image of the standard installation and backed up the files on the image directly from the local server disk to tape without the need to go over the network for the first copy of the OS and application files. Thus, only deviations from the standard install were pulled over the network. That would be the user's preferences, custom applications and documents.

 

This reduces the backup duration and media consumption enormously. What I would like to see Retrospect provide is a browser that would allow us to see how efficient this was working and what users had copies of the same file(s).

 

I can't imagine using a backup program that didn't do redundant file elimination. Of course, we're still waiting for Dantz to add in redundant block elimination so that only the one changed block of that 2 GB Outlook email file gets backed up each day instead of all 2 GB.

[joe_27]

I've been using Retrospect for some time and never knew about this. I think it is much more apparent on an OSX Mac than previous OS generations, one OSX client had 11Gb worth of data to be backed up and only 4Gb was pulled from the drive...amazing.

 

Thanks,

Joe

[wmconlon]

This is news to me too. I've never seen this behavior since I began using Retrospect's predecessors circa 1988.

[natew]

Hi

 

This is the way it works with the exception of the windows OS folder on windows machines. They are backed up entirely on each machine.

 

The cool thing about Retrospect is it treats all files individually rather than on a per machine basis. It then uses snapshots to assemble all of the files into restorable images.

 

Nate