Catalog File out of sync with Backup Set

[mrgilpin]

I keep getting this error message on my backup set about half way through a backup.

 

"Catalog File out of sync with Backup Set"

 

I have rebuilt the catalog from the disks and it still does it. How is it possible for the catalog to be out of sync with the backup set when i just rebuilt the catalog FROM the backup set?

 

Strange thing, after recreating the catalog, I can groom just fine, but not backup. I've rebuilt the catalog 3 times so far but no luck.

 

More info:

Windows Server 2003 SP1 (not R2) 32-bit

Retrospect Single Server 7.5.508 (have also tried 7.5.516, same problem)

Doing a Disk-to-Disk backup to 1 backup set over 5 external hard drives.

Have verified the integrity of the disks, no problems. I have been using this setup for 2 years and no problems until now.

 

I know I can just dump the whole backup set and start over, but I've got backups back to August that I need to keep.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[MRIS]

How big is the backup set?

How many clients are you backing up to it?

5 external hard drives suggests the size may be 2TB or so, which is huge, IMHO.

 

I'd suggest splitting the disks up into multiple backup sets.

Try to keep the maximum size of each one to under 1TB. 500GB would be even better.

 

If you ask me, I'd suggest 1 backup set per disk, and then just divide the clients up evenly amongst them, for the following benefits:

 

1. easier to manage

2. quicker to catalog rebuild

3. quicker to media verify

4. allows you to concurrently backup multiple clients, hence shorter backup times.

5. more reliable

 

You've probably just bumped into the upper limits of the product. How many files in the backup set?

 

[mrgilpin]

Actually, no clients are being backed up. It's all the server's storage. We do 3D, graphic design, signage and video editing, so we have huge files. There are only 2 volumes on the server and we plan to keep increasing their size as our company grows. They are currently 700gb and 500gb.

 

The way we work, is that we only modify a few files at a time, but they change very often. So we need to hang on to a lot of snapshots. Hence the need for 2TB of backup media.

 

If I have truly reached the limit of Retrospect, can you suggest an alternate backup program in roughly the same price range as Retrospect? We are a small company and it's hard to get funds for something with no direct ROI. Also, it seems that every other program I look at has major flaws as well and there doesn't seem to be a 'perfect' solution. I'm happy with the features of Retrospect, just not the occasional issues (like this one).

 

Thanks for your help.

[Mayoff]

I don't think you are hitting a Retrospect Limit. Retrospect can easily handle 100's of TB of data in a backup set. Retrospect limits happen when you have many millions of files. With graphic design, you typically have fewer files, but they are big.

 

You could have corruption to a Retrospect data file. I would suggest doing a Backup Set or Snapshot Transfer to a new backup set, and then erase the original backup set. This should help remove any corruption to Retro data files.

 

To be safe, I would do a disk check on the backup drive. Also check for heavy disk fragmentation.