OS X - Client Issues

[Aidan]

Hi all !

 

I am using Retrospect Server with 10 Clients. (All latest release and drivers)

 

All Macs 10.4.10 mostly Mac Book Pros or PowerBook G4

I have installed and configured all Retrospect Clients.

 

The Server is a dedicated G4. (Fresh install of OSX and Restrospect)

 

I am trying to backup all clients on the Network.

- I am having difficulties with DHCP it seems that retrospect loses the client as soon as the adress changes.

- Retrospect sometimes remembers another IP address than the one the computer is using and hence I have a 1018 error.

 

Is there a way to handle DHCP AND Multiple network cards ?

 

Thanks a mil

 

A-

[CallMeDave]

> I have installed and configured all Retrospect Clients.

 

How did you Add the Clients?

 

 

> - I am having difficulties with DHCP it seems that retrospect loses the

> client as soon as the adress changes.

 

Retrospect can find clients who's addresses have changed as long as explicit addresses weren't used to log the clients in originally.

 

> Is there a way to handle DHCP AND Multiple network cards ?

 

Why do you ask about multiple network cards? The inofrmation you provided said nothing about multiple network cards.

 

There's obviously something important you're not saying.

 

 

Dave

[Aidan]

Hi Dave.

 

Thanks for your answer.

 

I have installed the Retrospect Client software in each of the machines and restarted.

 

I have make sure I did not add the clients by address but by Retrospect own discovery mechanism.

 

The network in our office is Wired . The retrospect Server is connected with a wire.

There is also a wireless network but on another subnet and not on the corporate network (mostly a guest network)

The clients are always connected by wire but the Wireless port usually remains active.

 

It seems the server takes one ethernet port or the other randomly.

 

I have read that I have to make sure there is only one Ethernet port listed or if multiple that the wire would be in the first place.

 

As we are using DHCP in the office, I have no way to prevent users to change their network configuration and use their Home config or Hotel config and then used it in the Office.

As long as it works, they do not really care, but I do.

Rememebr that most of them use MBP or PB and hence have at least Airport and Ethernet.

 

Hope this helps.

 

A-

[CallMeDave]

> It seems the server takes one ethernet port or the other randomly.

 

I don't unerstand; you say "The retrospect Server is connected with a wire." What other port?

 

Or, are you wondering if the _client_ machines are binding to one or the other interfaces?

 

AFAIK, the Retrospect OS X Client software will bind to the active port listed at the top of your Network preference pane. And while there are known, documented problems with a machine waking from sleep to a wireless network, the clint will change its binding as the physical networks chage.

 

If your wireless network is on a different subnet then the Retrospect machine, discovery won't work unless that subnet is part of Retrospect's discovery scope. Have you added that subnet to

 

Configure->Clients->Network...->TCP/IP (menu)->Configure Subnet Broadcast ?

[Aidan]

Hi Again.

 

Sorry, this indeed on the Client multiple interfaces that I am referring to.

 

I have NOT added the wireless subnet mask.

 

I know about the limitation of the most top active ethernet port, however as explained, the users can change their network configuration so easily on a Mac that it usually happens that their Office Config is not the one used.

 

A-

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

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the users can change their network configuration so easily on a Mac that it usually happens that their Office Config is not the one used

 

---

 

If a user can configure his machine to use a network that Retrospect is not seeing, then Retrospect will not be able to see that machine. That would be expected (and desired) behavior.

 

If you have multiple (sub)networks under your control, and you want Retrospect to be able to connect to machines on any/all of those networks, then you need to configure the program to do just that.

 

Dave

[rhwalker]

Quote:

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I am having difficulties with DHCP it seems that retrospect loses the client as soon as the adress changes.

...

Is there a way to handle DHCP AND Multiple network cards ?

 

---

Aidan, I may not have all of the solutions for you, but I might have part of the solution. Specifically, if you set your DHCP server to do static DHCP mapping based on MAC address, it will hand out IP addresses, when a DHCP lease is requested, based on the MAC (ethernet interface hardware) address of the NIC. That way, you can have each computer always get the same IP address through DHCP. It will simplify other things as well, because your logging will now be meaningful (because each NIC always has the same IP), and you can set up DNS and reverse DNS, etc.

 

Your networking topology is a bit unclear. If you have multiple subnets, and if you permit users to arbitrarily connect to one subnet or the other, then you will have to establish a route (in your routers) for Retrospect to get to all of the subnets on which its clients sit, and you will also have to set up the router to pass port 497 (UDP and TCP) in order for Retrospect to be able to back up the clients on that remote subnet, and you will have to let Retrospsect's multicast and broadcast packets pass if you expect Retrospect's client discovery protocol to work. If, instead, you are going to add the clients by IP, then you only need to have the port 497 (UDP, TCP) access working from Retrospect to the clients, plus a route on the router to get the packets from one subnet to the other.

 

It's also unclear about the multiple interface cards. If your server has multiple NICs plugged into the same LAN, well, that's an error unless you have the NICs trunked. If, instead, you are saying that the client computers have multiple NICs and the users are switching cables to your LAN from one NIC to the other, well, you can handle that by the DHCP static maps that I discuss above.

 

Could you please attempt to describe the issue a little better so that we can attempt to help you solve your problem? Thanks.

 

Russ

[Aidan]

Hi Dave and Russ.

 

Thanks for your posts.

Let me clarify the situation.

 

The Server does not have multiple network cards or interfaces. Only Ethernet.

 

The Clients may have Ethernet and/or Airport.

 

Forget about the Wireless network it is not really important as users have to be on the wired network to access corp resources.

 

The problem is more regarding the fact that if the network configuration changes (order of the interfaces for instance) then suddenly the backup will stop working but the users will keep on working as if nothing happened.

Remember that I only have mac users and it is really easy to change network config on Mac OS X.

 

Even if I have Fixed IP (or associated MAC and DHCP) if for whatever reason the primary interface is not the ethernet I will not be able to backup.

 

A-

[rhwalker]

It's still not clear what you are saying the problem is. If what you are saying is that a client computer has its network interface connecting by Ethernet, then the client is removed from the network and connects by Airport (wireless) somewhere else, and then reattaches to the network using ethernet, if the Ethernet interface is listed first, there shouldn't be an issue. As the first listed interface, it should be used.

 

If you are saying that the problem is that the client gets a different IP by DHCP upon reconnect, and that Retrospect isn't able to do the backup once the IP changes, well, there are several solutions. The first is not to add the client by IP, but instead to use Retrospect's discovery mechanism, which uses multicast and unicast. Your network infrastructure and firewalls must be set up to allow this.

 

The second way is to add by IP, which would mean that you would need to set up your DHCP system to supply IP addresses by static mapping based on MAC address.

 

If the issue is that the clients are changing the order of their interfaces, put the wired (ethernet) interface first.

 

If it's something else, then I'm afraid that you have to explain just what it is that the client/users are changing. And that's an education problem on your end to get them to change things back.

 

Quote:

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Remember that I only have mac users and it is really easy to change network config on Mac OS X.

 

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Well, that is easy to fix. Lock the network config from changes by the user.