Retrospect message on network computer

[ptrautwein]

I have installed Retrospect on my #1 Computer and Retrospect Client on a #2 networked computer. I've done several backups, and everything seems to be working fine.

 

However, everytime I boot my #2 Computer, I get the following message:

 

"You have never backed up over the network. Contact your backup admin for more info."

 

Well, I have done a backup over the network (at least I think I have). Why would I be getting this message?

 

When I open Retrospect Client on the #2 computer it says: "Waiting for first access." I have a feeling, I've missed something in how Retrospect Client is supposed to work. I installed it on the #2 computer, because from my reading of the manual, it needed to be there so that Retrospect would recognize it.

 

Here's how I've been working so far:

 

I link to my #2 computer via my Ethernet Network, so that the HD icon appears in my #1 computer. (and on my desktop) I run Retrospect backup. Both my #1 and #2 computers are listed as drives to be backed up. Everything seems to work, and the files for both drives show up on the Restore list.

 

What am I missing? It doesn't seem to be hurting anything and I just hit "OK" on the #2 computer to get rid of the message, but I'd like to be able to know I'm doing things correctly, or at least the way they're supposed to be done.

 

I can't find any reference to this message in the manual or the support site.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Thank you.

[rhwalker]

Quote:

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What am I missing?

 

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An understanding of how the client operates. From your description, you are NOT backing up computer #2 by using the client. Instead, you seem to imply that you are mounting #2's disk on #1's desktop, and then backing up only computer #1 with its network-mounted disk (from #2). The Retrospect client on #2 is completely out of the picture, according to your description of your setup.

 

Use of the client does not mount client disks on the Retrospect computer (e.g., #1 in your situation). Instead, Retrospect chats with the Retrospect clients that it finds, and the Retrospect clients feed backup data to Retrospect. But you first need to "add" the client to Retrospect's set of clients (i.e., assign one of your client licenses to that client). This is done on the "Configure > Clients" dialog of Retrospect.

 

There are several reasons for use of the "Retrospect Client" rather than mounting a networked computer's disk on the desktop of the Retrospect computer. First, use of the client does not require that the networked computer share its disk (or a part of its disk), and this might be important for security reasons. Second, use of the Retrospect client sidesteps various permissions issues - the user on the Retrospect machine that mounts the networked disk may not have permission to access all files, or to access all parts of the network share. But the Retrospect client has access to the full disk and to all files on that disk. There are other benefits, too, but I'm sure you begin to see the difference in the paradigm.

 

It's not clear from your post whether you have a Retrospect version that includes licenses for clients. Under the "WIndow" menu, choose "License Manager" to see the licenses that you have available.

 

The description of the various versions of Retrospect, and the number of client licenses, etc., is here:

Retrospect product comparison

 

Hope this clears things up.

 

Russ

[ptrautwein]

Thanks for the information.

You were correct that I have been mounting my second computer to my first before performing the backup.

 

I did find the client in the configuration settings, so I think I've got it set up correctly now.

Again, thanks for the help.