Best way to relocate Catalog files to an alternate disk?

[henry-in-florida]

Hi All, 

I need to relocate the Catalog files (now about 52GB) to run from an alternate disk than my startup (which is an SSD). What is the best way to run from another disk while still keeping the rest of Retro on the startup? I tried doing it with an Alias, which didn't work.

 

There are several (lower level) pointer methods which I could try but I wonder if anyone has some advice for me before experimenting to save some time, suspect this issue has come up before, though I could find nothing in the User Guide about it. My Startup Server disk is full and I would like to continue to use Retro app and Support files on the startup. 

 

Thanks for any and all advice in this matter. 

[Lennart_T]

I think you should read the "Moving Retrospect" chapter in the "user's guide". Pages 238-240.

 

The (most) relevant part in your case is step 7:

"Next, you must force the new Retrospect server to recognize the Catalog files you just moved. In the Retrospect console’s Media Sets category, highlight all the Media Sets with red X icons in the Status column and click the Remove button. Then click the Locate button and follow the steps described in “Adding a Media Set’s Catalog,” earlier in this chapter for each Catalog file that you copied to the new Retrospect server."

[henry-in-florida]

Thanks, Lennart. Didn't see that. Should've looked under the Moving Retro section, even though all I'm moving are the Catalogs. I'm assuming that the Catalogs can exist in a location other than the startup drive (Application Support Folder). Have you had success with that arrangement? 

[Lennart_T]

When you create a new media set, you can store the catalog file anywhere. So I assume you can move it.

 

I have not tried this on the Mac version, but the Windows version handles that just fine.

[Don Lee]

This operation is tedious if there are very many catalog files to be "located". It would be awfully nice if Retro were "smarter" about

this and/or allowed some sort of "batch" technique to do this.  I have not tried this lately, but as far as I can tell, you cannot

simply "move" a disk dataset. You can "locate" the (moved) catalog, but if you move the members, they simply don't work.

You have to re-build the catalog. This is not obvious to the casual user.

[prl]

Retrospect on a Mac certainly works with the catalogs on a disk other than the startup disk. I've always put the catalogs on a different disk from the one whose backups the catalogs represent.

[prl]

... You can "locate" the (moved) catalog, but if you move the members, they simply don't work.

You have to re-build the catalog. This is not obvious to the casual user.

That's what I've found. Retrospect doesn't seem to like any of the components of a backup, catalogs or disk backup members, being moved.

[henry-in-florida]

When you create a new media set, you can store the catalog file anywhere. So I assume you can move it.

 

I have not tried this on the Mac version, but the Windows version handles that just fine.

Will post my results here when I try that.

[henry-in-florida]

Up until my SSD startup got full hadn't worried. In this config, with Server, it had be an issue sooner or later.

[Don Lee]

I take back what I said earlier about "moving" a disk dataset. The process is not obvious, but it can be done without any re-builds.

 

The trick is to keep the structure of ENCLOSE->MSET.rbc->Retrospect->MSET->1-MSET->BExxxxxx.rdb in the new location and then

when you "locate" the MSET.rbc in its new location, you have to "edit" the member and select the folder ENCLOSE in the "edit" dialog.

 

This works!

 

I'm not sure if it worked in versions previous to 10.5, but it works with Retro 10.5. (I know it didn't work with Mac OS 10.5, but that's ancient history, right?)

[henry-in-florida]

Thanks

 

I take back what I said earlier about "moving" a disk dataset. The process is not obvious, but it can be done without any re-builds.

 

The trick is to keep the structure of ENCLOSE->MSET.rbc->Retrospect->MSET->1-MSET->BExxxxxx.rdb in the new location and then

when you "locate" the MSET.rbc in its new location, you have to "edit" the member and select the folder ENCLOSE in the "edit" dialog.

 

This works!

 

I'm not sure if it worked in versions previous to 10.5, but it works with Retro 10.5. (I know it didn't work with Mac OS 10.5, but that's ancient history, right?)

Thanks. I was able to reuse the same catalogs by maintaining the structure on another disk (moving the Catalogs' folder to a similar location). In my case, I moved the catalogs in the Finder on the same machine to:

/Volumes/'another HD'/Library/Application Support/Retrospect/Catalogs

 

It is no longer on the startup drive. The quote of course can be ANY drive locally visible. I did not try a NAS device. Don't know what the structure you used was (suspect Windows environment?). 

[Don Lee]

I use Windows when clients need it, not to do important things, like backups. ;->