Lindsay Robertson Posted May 3, 2018 Report Share Posted May 3, 2018 Hi everyone. I recently upgraded to version 15 on my mac mini server, and it worked fine, but when I run the console on my office desktop, the summary page is blank. It shows everything fine on the actual server. Other than that, the remote console works fine. Does anyone know whats going on here? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHertzberg Posted May 3, 2018 Report Share Posted May 3, 2018 Already answered here on the wrong forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHertzberg Posted May 3, 2018 Report Share Posted May 3, 2018 (edited) Lindsay Robertson, What I assume you've posted are a screenshot of the Dashboard on your remote Console, followed by a screenshot of the Dashboard on the Console of your "backup server". However, you also say"Other than that, the remote console works fine." Does that mean, for instance, that you can go to Past Backups on your remote Console and see the equivalent of what you are seeing on your "backup server" Console? I note that the cumulative Release Notes for Retrospect Mac 15 lists several improvements to the Console. I can't believe the Retrospect Inc. developers didn't test these on a remote Console. I think you'd better create a Support Case. If you've recently upgraded, you should be entitled to personalized help even if you haven't paid for ASM. P.S.: Here is why and how to file a Support Case. Edited May 3, 2018 by DavidHertzberg Added P.S. saying why and how to file a Support Case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHertzberg Posted May 3, 2018 Report Share Posted May 3, 2018 When I just now noticed the three blue icons on the upper-right of your second screenshot, it finally dawned on me what must be going on. Oh lucky Lindsay Robertson, you have probably just fallen into a temporarily-open hole in the Retrospect Inc. development process! Your second screenshot shows the integration into the local (I assume) Console of a version of the glorious new Dashboard, which I discussed in this 6 March post. The post is in the Product Suggestions—Windows forum, because it is of vital interest to administrators using Server Editions of Retrospect Windows—who have never had a remote Console for a reason briefly explained here. The post explains that the glorious new Dashboard is scheduled to be available in May, as the preview release of the Retrospect Web Console that will finally make those Retrospect Windows administrators happy. It appears that the developers managed to integrate the glorious new Dashboard into the local Console in Retrospect Mac 15.0. However IMHO, for reasons that are above my pay grade, they couldn't integrate it into the remote version of the Console, probably because the new panels would require new facilities in machine-to-machine remote communication. Maybe the developers ran out of time before the 6 March release, or maybe they thought the development of such facilities would be a waste of effort once the fully-interactive Web Console is released 6 to 12 months (my guess) from now. If the latter "maybe" is true, then it indicates that Retrospect Mac administrators—not just Retrospect Windows administrators—will be forced to transition to using the Web Console instead of the existing Retrospect Mac remote Console. Lindsay Robertson, IMHO you should proceed to file a Support Case asking the head of Retrospect Technical Support to explain on Retrospect.com what is going on. However, assuming the developers don't run into further delays, IMHO you should expect by the end of May to be able to use the display-only version of the new Dashboard. However—if my second "maybe" in the preceding paragraph is correct—it will be a separate application instead of part of the the existing remote Console, which you will have to use for all remote interactive functions—with the old Dashboard permanently missing—until those are eventually made accessible from the Web Console. I'm licensed for the lowly Desktop Edition that doesn't allow a remote Console (I have to walk into the bedroom to access my "backup server"), but I feel your pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Robertson Posted May 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2018 4 hours ago, DavidHertzberg said: HI David Quote However, you also say"Other than that, the remote console works fine." Does that mean, for instance, that you can go to Past Backups on your remote Console and see the equivalent of what you are seeing on your "backup server" Console? Yes. All the other sections perform exactly as on the backup server console. Quote I note that the cumulative Release Notes for Retrospect Mac 15 lists several improvements to the Console. I can't believe the Retrospect Inc. developers didn't test these on a remote Console. I think you'd better create a Support Case. If you've recently upgraded, you should be entitled to personalized help even if you haven't paid for ASM. P.S.: Here is why and how to file a Support Case. Yeah, probably the best course. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Robertson Posted May 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2018 5 hours ago, DavidHertzberg said: I posted a support case, and got a slightly confusing message back There is no Annual Support and Maintenance (ASM) contract associated with your account, and this case was not marked as a pre-sales question. Please use the Upgrade Wizard to upgrade your product to include ASM or renew your ASM contract. It dosen't say they're not going to look at it, but its kind of ambiguous. It sounds like you've identified the issue though, so I'm quite prepared to wait and see what happens. Thanks David. I think you've done very well identifying an issue that your system doesn't support! E noho rā Quote Quote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHertzberg Posted May 4, 2018 Report Share Posted May 4, 2018 (edited) On 5/3/2018 at 5:35 PM, Lindsay Robertson said: I posted a support case, and got a slightly confusing message back There is no Annual Support and Maintenance (ASM) contract associated with your account, and this case was not marked as a pre-sales question. Please use the Upgrade Wizard to upgrade your product to include ASM or renew your ASM contract. It dosen't say they're not going to look at it, but its kind of ambiguous. It sounds like you've identified the issue though, so I'm quite prepared to wait and see what happens. Thanks David. I think you've done very well identifying an issue that your system doesn't support! E noho rā Lindsay Robertson, did you create your Support Case before or after you read this post of mine? We overlapped in posting, so that my post preceded your following post by less than a minute—and you may not have read mine. If you did read my post before creating your Support Case, did you include my suggestion that the head of Retrospect Tech Support post an explanation of what is going on? I wouldn't worry about the message you got back; the fifth paragraph of this post recounts the head of Retrospect Tech Support's verbal assurance that a bug report will not be ignored just because the submitter of the Support Case doesn't have ASM. Retrospect T.S. wants licensees to sign up for ASM, because ASM pays the salaries of the T.S. department. A likely reason for T.S.'s not wanting to post an explanation anywhere on the website, especially assuming the cause of the missing remote Console Dashboard is some kind of policy decision rather than a simple coding error, is that IMHO Retrospect Inc. has a long-lasting case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. If you read between the lines—and especially read the references (particularly this 2012 Macworld article, which the head of Retrospect T.S. has linked to in the Latest News forum)—in this section of the Wikipedia article, you will realize that the release of Retrospect Mac 8 in early 2009 justly or unjustly ruined the reputation of the product—many of whose developers and support personnel still work at Retrospect Inc.. I found this out when I started the first Ars Technica Mac forum thread about Retrospect in 2015, after I had ended 15 years of using Retrospect Mac that finished with Retrospect Mac 6.1 (there never was a Retrospect Mac 7, and Retrospect Mac 8 didn't support my PowerPC "backup server" until about the time the machine died of old age) in 2010, and restarted 5 years later with Retrospect Mac 12. IME the head of Retrospect Tech Support is still very sensitive to anything that sounds like criticism of the product, and that attitude extends all the way up to the CEO. If Retrospect Inc. really did deliberately decide to disable the old Dashboard in the Retrospect Mac 15 remote Console, pending the introduction of the preview version of the Web Console, IMHO they are unlikely to admit it. Edited December 6, 2018 by DavidHertzberg In 3rd prgf. changed an old American baseball term to PTSD—because I belatedly realized that's what Retrospect Inc. veterans are suffering from, added link to DeLong Macworld article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Robertson Posted May 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2018 After, so no I didn't. If you're right about it being a feature that hasn't been implemented yet, all they needed to do is put a message that appears on the blank page to say something like "Stay tuned, this feature coming soon" would save so much dicking around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHertzberg Posted May 4, 2018 Report Share Posted May 4, 2018 On 5/3/2018 at 10:20 PM, Lindsay Robertson said: After, so no I didn't. If you're right about it being a feature that hasn't been implemented yet, all they needed to do is put a message that appears on the blank page to say something like "Stay tuned, this feature coming soon" would save so much dicking around. Unfortunately Retrospect Inc. has a history of taking years to fix bugs, a history that goes all the way back to its days as Dantz Development Corp.. As to putting in a message on a blank page, the history of the Retrospect Windows bug described in this post—which wasn't fixed until September 2017—is very instructive . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidHertzberg Posted May 4, 2018 Report Share Posted May 4, 2018 I just phoned Werner of Retrospect Sales. He says his records show that Retrospect T.S. is working on the Support Case, and that they just communicated some debugging instructions to Lindsay Robertson today. However Werner also said that the developers are working on difficulties related to the glorious new Dashboard. So I don't know how much of this problem is a bug, and how much is a more-or-less-planned glitch in the Dashboard switchover. However Werner said to stay tuned for related announcements this month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.