Backup Server won't work anymore due to empty snapshots

[stephanberger]

I encountered a major problem on my backup-Mac (G3 300, Mac OS 10.3.9, backing up desktop-mounted network shares from both a SnapServer and a OS X 10.3.9 Server to a DAT device): The Mac stopped backing up a week ago, then I changed the media and the Mac started to compare runs as usual - but nothing was written to tape because everything was reported as up to date. That was definitely wrong because we added dozens of new files in the last days to our network shares. Then i tried to have a look at the volume snapshots and - THEY WERE EMPTY or had rather nothing than one or two folders. The script has been working fine for 37 tapes but suddenly it's crap. What can I do to restore the actual data snapshots or to force Retrospect to compare the snapshots with the network shares (not the tapes!) and start the backup again?

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[twickland]

Quote:

---

Then i tried to have a look at the volume snapshots and - THEY WERE EMPTY or had rather nothing than one or two folders.

 

---

 

How are you looking at the volume snapshots? I was not aware that one could browse the snapshot contents in the Mac version of Retrospect. (If you could view the contents, each snapshot should list the entire directory of the volume at the time of backup.)

 

Did you instead mean "sessions," as are found in Report> Contents> ? If so, these do indicate only the files backed up at a particular time. In a normal incremental backup, a session will only contain files that have changed AND that meet the selection criteria set for the backup script. That could be a small number of files.

 

I would check and see if the selection criteria are what you intend. If you are using a defined Selector, you can test it independently in edit mode to see if it behaves as you expect.

 

If you run an Immediate Backup using the same selection criteria, do you back up all the files you expect? What if you select "All Files" instead?

 

If the behavior continues to be anomalous, it may mean that your Retro.Config file is corupt.

[stephanberger]

As i have tried all options above and retro won't work as expected I better should create a new config file ... means all my backup work starts from the very beginning to slow tapes! sucks. :-(