Backup set located on site to site VPN

[prophoto]

Can someone give me an idea whats going on here? All local machines have no trouble logging into the share and reading/writing files. I am able to create a new backup set on a remote machine connected via a site to site VPN. When I run the backup script it asks for media. I've tried dozens of times but I just can't get it to work. Thanks.

[DavidHertzberg]

prophoto,

Your OP is one of the least "pro" of any lately posted. 🙄  You don't say what version of Retrospect Windows you are using, or what version of Windows your "backup server" is running, or what version of what OS your "remote machine" is running.  You probably should get someone who knows more about IT to help you with future posts to these Forums.

Nevertheless, although I'm a Retrospect Mac administrator, I'll try to give you an answer based on no provided information.  When you say "create a new backup set on a remote machine connected via a site to site VPN", you must mean the destination is a NAS share on your VPN.  Watch this video 3 times before you go any further.  Don't create a Storage Group unless you really want to.  As the video implies,  you shouldn't put the Catalog for the backup set on the NAS; instead the Catalog should be in the default location on your "backup server"'s C:\ drive.   Be especially sure you are following the procedure from video minute 0:36 to 0:48, and also from minute 2:04 to the end; maybe your problem is that you didn't configure automatic login per minute 2:04.

If that doesn't solve your problem, and you are using a Retrospect version earlier than 17, consider doing at least a trial upgrade—AFAIK free for 45 days.  The cumulative Release Notes for Retrospect Windows lists a fix, under 17.0.0.180, that may also apply to creating a backup set on a NAS share:

Quote

NAS: Fixed issue with adding a NAS share in Backup Sets > Member > Add (#8421)

 

[prophoto]

@DavidHertzberg Great! Where is my participation trophy?!?

I wouldn't think it could matter. I've been using Retrospect since v4. I'm on a Win10x64 machine running 16.6. Remote NAS is a Mac with SMB share. 

I watched the video and had performed those steps without issue. I checked the last step again to set automatic login. When attempting an execution of the backup script it still asks me to add a disk to add as storage. The only difference is the catalog file is stored on a local NAS vs DAS. Automatic login is/was set for the local NAS.

I then recreated the backup set with the catalog file DAS and the disk backup set via the site to site VPN on the remote NAS. This works fine, and it tells me there is a bug in Retrospect that needs to be addressed. Why would I not be allowed to have a catalog file on a NAS? The GUI allows me to set it wherever I want, yet the backup fails consistently. 

[Lennart_T]

2 hours ago, prophoto said:

Why would I not be allowed to have a catalog file on a NAS?

You are allowed, but it would be a performance bottleneck. The catalog file access can be very intense.

[DavidHertzberg]

prophoto,

Do you see how much better help you get when you calm down long enough to explain what you're trying to do? 😀

First of all, I'd recommend against filing a Support Case for a Retrospect bug.  Ideally what you'd want is an enhancement to the Automatic Login dialog described at video minute 2:04 that would allow you to specify automatic login credentials for your Catalog File NAS that are different from your backup set destination NAS.  (See the next paragraph for the reason I think you'd need those.)  However, given what Lennart_T has posted directly above, IMHO what the engineers would be likely to respond with would be a prohibition on using a UNC path in the Catalog File dialog shown at video minute 1:50.

The reason why I think you'd need separate login credentials for your Catalog NAS and your destination NAS is that, based on your 8 February 2018 OP, I think your destination NAS belongs to an associate on the same VPN rather than to you.  So I'm now going to presumptuously guess what has been going through your mind—or your boss's mind—lately.  I think you've been worrying about how you would recover if your Win10x64 machine died, and reading the "Disaster Recovery" chapter on pages 316–337 of the Retrospect Windows 16 User's Guide.  Don't worry about your Catalog File.  🤣  When you get your replacement Windows machine, after you install Retrospect you can simply recreate your Catalog File from the destination NAS media per the first Note on page 320.  Yes, it will take an hour or so longer, but the alternative is to put your Catalog File on a local DAS device—if you can afford one large enough and needn't worry about your entire local office flooding (apartment flooding from above is a genuine worry for me).

P.S.: I'd thought of Nigel Smith's last suggestion below, which would be to create a Subvolume for ...\Documents\Retrospect\Catalog Files\ (I think that's the correct folder) and back up that Subvolume to the NAS as the last/only source in a script.  But IMHO it wouldn't save enough time to be worth doing.

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by DavidHertzberg
P.S.: I'd thought of Nigel Smith's last suggestion below, but IMHO it wouldn't save enough time to be worth doing. Add parenthesized phrase to last sentence of paragraph above the P.S..

[Nigel Smith]

Never one to resist sticking an oar in...

18 hours ago, prophoto said:

Remote NAS is a Mac with SMB share.

Again, details are important -- different OS X versions have different SMB implementations so, if you do file a bug report, you'll need to include that info. But I wouldn't bother -- as Lennart says, performance when using a NAS-stored catalog (especially when you add the VPN in too!) will be absolutely dire, and you'll save yourself a lot of grief simply storing it locally.

To follow on from David's last point -- it's nice to store catalog and set "together", especially for disaster recovery of the RS server, but in cases like this it isn't really practical. Perhaps a better solution is to store the backup set on the NAS, the catalog locally, and to also back up the catalog to the NAS (doesn't need to be a full-on incremental RS backup, you could just copy it over every night). That way you'll have little or nothing to do in the way of catalog rebuilding in a DR scenario, just picking up those few (if any) sessions that happened between the last catalog backup and the disaster.

[prophoto]

Amazing how rude and disrespectful some people can be when they hide behind a keyboard. Admins, we have an amazing psychic here in david, we should have him fix everyone's problems lie a savant? He can read my tone, demeanor and thoughts just by reading a few words on a screen! 

Retrospect doesn't need people like him here. Thanks for voicing your assumptions, you've showed us who you really are. Sad! 

[DavidHertzberg]

On 7/15/2020 at 12:09 AM, DavidHertzberg said:

prophoto,

Your OP is one of the least "pro" of any lately posted. 🙄  You don't say what version of Retrospect Windows you are using, or what version of Windows your "backup server" is running, or what version of what OS your "remote machine" is running.  You probably should get someone who knows more about IT to help you with future posts to these Forums.

....

....

The paragraph above, in my first post in this thread, is the only thing I wrote that could be considered "rude and disrespectful".  But it had the effect I intended, which was to get you to supply  the missing information in a post directly following it.  Once you'd done that, Lennart_T and I and Nigel Smith were able to diagnose your problem—which is why I wrote "Do you see how much better help you get when you calm down long enough to explain what you're trying to do? 😀" at the top of my next post in the thread.

Nobody can give you "an idea whats going on here" if you don't supply the necessary information, and I will always consider it "rude and disrespectful" for you—or anyone else—to expect people on these Forums to do so.  You were probably very frustrated when you wrote that OP, but I don't consider that a sufficient excuse.  You should try volunteering to answer other administrators' questions on these Forums; you'll soon understand my attitude toward administrators who don't supply the necessary information.  You will also develop a "psychic" ability to read an administrator's "tone, demeanor and thoughts just by reading a few words on a screen", and by reading his/her past posts as well—as I did in this thread to guess what you were doing.

I'm sorry to inform you that employees of Retrospect "Inc." haven't been reading these Forums for the past couple of years, and—unlike some other websites—there aren't any volunteer Forums administrators.  So if you want to make—after 3 months 😲—a complaint about me, you'll need to create a Support Case for the head of Retrospect Tech Support to read.  Here's how to create a Support Case for a bug—the closest equivalent; select "Forums" in the appropriate drop-down.

[x509]

On 10/23/2020 at 2:33 PM, prophoto said:

Amazing how rude and disrespectful some people can be when they hide behind a keyboard. Admins, we have an amazing psychic here in david, we should have him fix everyone's problems lie a savant? He can read my tone, demeanor and thoughts just by reading a few words on a screen! 

Retrospect doesn't need people like him here. Thanks for voicing your assumptions, you've showed us who you really are. Sad! 

Prophoto,

You are new here, and I don't think you will do very well with this comment.  I'm a "home IT guy" with a Retrospect Desktop setup in use for over 10 years now.  David is a prolific AND extremely helpful and knowledgeable contributor.  I think you owe him a public apology.  I can't express these thoughts strongly enough.  Again, I think you owe him a public apology.