Proactive backup idle most of the time while scanning client sources

[jolejeune]

After months of expectation, I've finally decided to upgrade our 6.1 backup server to version 9.02 (107).

Our backup server has been used for years to backup a hundred of Mac clients, and Retrospect 6.1 has done a good job doing so.

 

Trying to mimic our previous v 6.1 backup server script with the new so-called proactive backup script options of version 9 has not been a peace of cake.

Besides two remote servers backup scripts, we have essentially one main proactive tape backup script defined, running everyday from 7 pm to 7 am, scanning our network for all available Mac clients and archiving mods from target folders defined as backup source for each client.

Almost all the clients are alive during the night, so as to allow an incremental backup for each client with a one day periodicity.

This has been running for years without a hitch using the previous v6.1 backup server (allowing users to backup all their new and modified files on a daily basis), but the current v9 proactive script is actually spending most of its time in idle state between clients backup, which leads to a very ineffective and unpredictable backup process.

Maybe am I missing something, but it seems rather impossible to instruct the Retro9 proactive server to switch immediately to the next available client on the network when it has done with the backup of a client.

 

Technical details :

The Retro9 server is a 2x2.8 GHz QuadCore Intel Xeon MacPro with 8 GB of RAM, running OSX 10.6.8.

The MediaSet is a LTO5 tape set defined on a SAS attached HP Ultrium-5 Autoloader.

The proactive script can use any activity thread (actually only thread 1 is used, since no other script is running concurrently).

Proactive options are set as following : Check source every 60 sec, Client connect every 60 sec, Retry failure after 10 min

Most client Macs are running RetroClient 6.3.029. Others using the 10.0.0.174 version (with RetroISA disabled).

(It was impossible to use the 9.0.2.102 client, since every attempt to browse the remote client disk to define the source folders was failing.)

 

 

Any clue or advice on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

J. Lejeune

Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research - Brussels

[Lennart_T]

The server maintains a list of proactive clients. When a client has been backed up, it is placed at the bottom of the list. Then the server starts scanning the list from the top, where the "most urgent" clients reside. So if you have many absent clients, Retrospect will spend some time trying to connect to them.

 

A proactive backup should be used for laptops that may come and go during the day.

 

Your backup seems to run at night, so a normal script would be better. (Unless you have laptop clients that come and go during the night). A normal script will backup the clients in script order, taking the next immediately after finishing the previous one.

[jolejeune]

The server maintains a list of proactive clients. When a client has been backed up, it is placed at the bottom of the list. Then the server starts scanning the list from the top, where the "most urgent" clients reside. So if you have many absent clients, Retrospect will spend some time trying to connect to them.

 

The problem is that we don't have many absent clients : they are almost every time there !

And since the network backup script periodicity is one day, every client should be considered as "most urgent" the day after ...

Nevertheless, many thanks for your suggestion.I will try to change the script from proactive to normal backup (by the way, is there an easy way to change a script type ?)

[Lennart_T]

I don't know how to change the script type.

 

It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to create a new script.