Preview shows script waiting to start

[chbhenrico]

I am running Retrospect 6.0 with the newest update. I have 2 different types of servers I am running it on one type is a G4 1.33GHz with 512 megs of memory. The other type is a G5 2GHz with 1gb DDR SDRAM. They are all X-Serves. The tape drives are all VXA1 Firewire tape drives.

 

My Problem is, On some mornings When I check my backups I find that some of the servers have not backed up. When I check the preview it tells me the script is "waiting". I then have to delete the waiting script and do a manual back up.

Has anyone run into this problem and possibly knows how to fix it, I'm working with 85 servers here and some times I have a many as 10 servers waiting to run their scripts.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

CHBHenrico

[chbhenrico]

sorry, I forgot to tell you what the OS is, The G4's are running 10.2.8 and the G5's are running OS X 10.3.4.

CHBHenrico

[twickland]

As I understand your setup from what you write, you have 85 servers, each with its own copy of Retrospect and its own tape drive, backing up only local drives (i.e., no network/client backups). Is that correct?

 

Is the problem limited to some particular group of servers, or is it completely random?

 

My first thought is that either the script or the general preferences has a schedule of allowed operation that doesn't coincide with the desired backup times/days.

 

Are you allowing Retrospect to autolaunch, or is the application always active? What does the Operations Log say?

 

Are you able to get the script in question to run from the Run menu, or do you need to perform an immediate backup or use a different script?

[CallMeDave]

I don't read the post as being multiple copies of Retrospect, although for sure the post is not clear about client software.

 

Since the most appropriate way to run Retrospect would be one copy of the program, one tape drive and multiple clients, the question becomes "what Type of script is being used?"

 

Is this a Backup script, or a Backup Server scritp?

What is your script's schedule?

Are you running a custom weekly schedule from the Preferences/Schedule dialog?

 

More information is necessary for others to get up to speed on what you're doing, and what you're seeing.

[chbhenrico]

Each server has it's own copy of retrospect running locally. Some are backing up to tape drives (21 servers) all others are backing up to a local drive. I have made a custom script for each server backing up each night. The scripts are different depending on where the server is. They all backing up nightly during the work week. The logs tell me nothing, I see that retrospect autolaunchs but that is where everything stops.

This problem is an intermittent and random, a server will back up one night then the next night it will be "waiting". It might do this for 2 or 3 days then will start backing up again. To get a back up I have to delete the waiting event and do an immediate backup. It will not run from the Run Menu. I hope I have answered all your questions. this is really bugging me since it takes me 2 to 3 hours every day to make sure I have had each server back up.

CHBHenrico

[twickland]

OK, let me see if I understand you: Retrospect always autolaunches, but the backup script sometimes doesn't run. The Retrospect application hasn't completely locked up, because you can still access the Preview window; yet something is clearly hosed, since you cannot manually run the script, nor run an Immediate Backup, unless you delete the scheduled event that's waiting to execute.

 

Has this been going on as long as you've been using Retrospect?

 

You have a pretty unusual setup. Do you really have 85 licensed copies of the Retrospect application? Did you install Retrospect on each of the X-serves independently from the CD-ROM, or did you use an installer downloaded or copied to a server? If the latter, perhaps an installer file is corrupt.

 

Are you able to quit Retrospect normally when it gets into this condition? What happens if you then relaunch the program? Normally, if a script event is waiting to execute and the time is within the schedule of allowed operation, it should try to execute as soon as the program is launched.

 

Have you tried leaving Retrospect running all the time and see if this helps? Success wouldn't be diagnostic, but at least the problem would be gone.

 

If you haven't already begun, I'd keep a log of each server to be sure that the problem isn't limited to a particular subset. There's got to be something in common with the problematic systems.