Trouble with corrupted datasets -- any way to backup?

[smartin]

 

Hi:

Recently I've been having problems with Retrospect crashing ,and needing a force quit. Usually, the storageset is fine, but once in a while it becomes corrupt. I use VXA tapes, and doing a recatalogue on a terrabye of data over 12 tapes is very painful. I was wondering if there is a way to backup the storageset? I notice the storageset in use never gets backed up, I'm assuming because it is in use at the time of backups. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this guy backed up? I assume if i had a more recent backup, i could just select the 'recreate from last tape' option which is a lot faster.

thanks for any advice.

-s

[twickland]

The Storageset (actuallly, the name was changed to Backup Set a while ago) is where your data is stored (i.e., your tapes), so i assume you're tallking about the backup set catalog.

 

As you note, Retrospect can't back up the catalog that's in use. In our case, we rotate through 3 backup sets, which allows us to have a backup of the other two catalogs on a given tape set.

 

We also run a Duplicate of all the backup set catalogs to an external HD after the backup runs every night. The Duplicate script uses the Retrospect catalog folder, which is on the internal HD and is defined as a subvolume, as the source, and writes to a defined subvolume on the external HD. The Duplicate script is scheduled to run 5 minutes after the main backup script, so it always runs immediately after the main backup script completes.

 

I'd be very concerned about the frequent freezes/crashes. This shouldn't be happening. Also, in my experience, when Retrospect hangs during a backup, it typically doesn't corrupt the catalog but only leaves it incomplete, resulting in an out-of-sync error. The catalog can then be updated from the last tape member.