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Using Retrospect 6.1 to backup to a Western Digital NAS


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I am running OS X 10.4.8 on an Intel based iMac and attempting to use Retrospect 6.1 to back up my files to a share on a 500GB WD-Netcenter NAS on my home network.

 

I have set Retrospect to 'Duplicate' all file in a specific directory to a volume that I have identified in the NAS file system.

 

Everything is OK when I first configure Retrospect and the scripts all check out OK.

 

Problem comes after my Mac has resumed from Sleep ( or re-started ), Retrospect no longer recognizes the volume on the NAS and I have to tell it to 'forget' the current volumes and to reassign them before the scripts will again work. This is OK till the system next enter sleep mode and all the setup gets lost again.

 

Any thoughts as to how to successfully use Retrospect ( on OS X ) to backup files to a NAS. I have been running Retrospect to do file duplicates on Windows based systems and everything appeared to work OK ( fortunately never had to do a recover ! )

 

Thanks

Alan

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Quote:

Problem comes after my Mac has resumed from Sleep ( or re-started ), Retrospect no longer recognizes the volume on the NAS

 


 

Can you please provide more detailed information about it?

 

- What do you see in the Retrospect Volume Database after a restart?

- What do you see in the /Volumes directory after a wake from sleep?

- Does the NAS device support AFP? Or is it mounted via CIFS?

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The Retrospect volumes database shows the volume names on the NAS but the icon for the folder is greyed out ( normally shows blue ) and if I try to 'get info' the Where field indicates that the volume is no longer on the network drive.

 

Not sure where I find the /Volumes directory

 

The NAS is running SMB/CIFS ( I use it with a Windows system as well )

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When I Quit Retrospect it tells me the next script to run is not ready with the folowing message

 

can't access volume xyz on share-name, error -120 ( folder not found )

 

The share s currently mounted and the original folder mapped to the volume name is accessible via the Finder

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Quote:

The Retrospect volumes database shows the volume names on the NAS but the icon for the folder is greyed out

 


 

Re-reading your posts again (and again) seems to suggest that when you originally wrote "Retrospect no longer recognizes the volume on the NAS" perhaps what you intended to say was that Retrospect no longer recognizes the subvolume on the NAS that you defined in Retrospect?

 

To be clear:

- In Retrospect you have defined a folder in the NAS as a Retrospect Subvolume

- You use this Subvolume as a Destination for a Duplicate

- The Duplicate works as expected

- The Macintosh goes to sleep

- Waking the Macintosh and launching Retrospect shows the previously available subvolume as unavailable

 

Are the above steps are correct?

 

- what happens if you simply define a subvolume on the NAS, then sleep/wake the Macintosh (without writing any Duplicate files)?

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Yes, I have defined a directory on the NAS as a subvolume within Retrospect and this is being used as the destination of a Duplicate.

 

Everything works as expected when initially setup - scripts are OK and an immediate Duplicate works

 

If I sleep the MAc and then re-awake it everything appears to be OK, but if I leave it in sleep for extended period the problem arises, the NAS also has tiimeouts and spins don its disks if there is no activity.

 

Having experimented further I find that the unmounting and remounting the NAS generates has the same affect as sleeping the Mac - I guess in both cases the network connection to the NAS is broken and for some reason Retrospect is unable to re-establish its links to the subvolume.

 

Although my router is using dynamic IP address on my local network, the IP addresses assigned to individual devices are effectively static as they are always connected so even after netork disconnects al devices retain the same IP

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Having experimented further I find that the unmounting and remounting the NAS generates has the same affect as sleeping the Mac

 


 

OK, having established the fact that you're doing more experimenting, can you share more of those experiments with the Forum?

 

- If you unmount/remount the CIFS volume, and open Retrospect->Configure->Volumes, you see the defined sub-volume listed as grey under the name of the NAS? And there is _no other_ listing for the NAS?

 

- Did you quit Retrospect and relaunch for this test? Does the same thing happen if you don't?

 

- If you click on the NAS volume and use the Subvolume to define the folder again (without forgetting the grey one first) are you able to? Do you then have two of the same defined subvolumes, one grey and the other blue?

 

Retrospect's links to items in its Volumes Database are _very_ tenacious. They rely on the unique file ID of each folder, not the name or path. If simply unmounting/mounting the CIFS volume results in a different ID for the folders, then perhaps something in the NAS operating system is making changes behind the scenes.

 

Using a Western Digital Shared Storage Plus (firmware 2.6.2) I was able to perform the following test:

 

- Mount the NAS on the desktop (CIFS); Public volume, no password

- Open Retrospect; define a first level directory as a subvolume

- Quit Retrospect

- Unmount the shared volume.

- Launch Retrospect; note the subvolume name is grey

- Mount the NAS volume from the Finder

- Configure->Volumes shows the defined subvolume as blue and accessible

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response below

 

 

- If you unmount/remount the CIFS volume, and open Retrospect->Configure->Volumes, you see the defined sub-volume listed as grey under the name of the NAS? And there is _no other_ listing for the NAS?

 

===>> No other listings for the subvolumes on the NAS - only those previously defined

 

- Did you quit Retrospect and relaunch for this test? Does the same thing happen if you don't?

 

===>> I had been quiting Retrospect but if I leave it open and then unmount the NAS the subvolume icon immediately greys out and does not recover when I remount the NAS

 

- If you click on the NAS volume and use the Subvolume to define the folder again (without forgetting the grey one first) are you able to? Do you then have two of the same defined subvolumes, one grey and the other blue?

 

===>> correct both subvolumes appear with the same name - one blue, other one greyed out

 

The NAS is a WD-Netcenter an it has the latest firmware revision - so it looks like Retrospect is not going to work in this situation. I have tried other backup solutions and have found that Lifeboat from Mojave Shade seems to work well, it mounts the network volume if its unmounted and runs the back as expected. So if Retrospect isnt goint to work in this situation I will cease trying and stay with Lifeboat instead. disappointing as I always thought EMC were the leaders in backup solutions and that their software would work with readily available network devices ( especially as the software ships with the WD Netcentre !! )

 

Anyway thanks for you help and I am going to call it a day on trying to resolve this ( unless anyone has a simple solution )

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You could consider using the NAS software to create a volume dedicated to your Duplicate, which would allow you to write to the root of the mounted volume instead of to a defined subvolume.

 

It's a shame that EMCInsignia Tech Support isn't going to get their hands on this issue; it would be really helpful to have a Knowledge Base article about this if in fact the WD software is doing something squirrly with file ID's.

 

Dave

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