cwwade3 Posted July 19, 2008 Report Share Posted July 19, 2008 I am having a problem with the new 6.2.229 client for Mac OS X, which turns off on its own for some reason. I can turn it back on, but before it gets backed up via the Backup server, it is turned off. However, I can turn it on and perform an immediate backup without any problems. Each day, I find the client has turned itself off, and the status shows "not running." When I turn it on, it shows "Ready," and my history is viewable. I should also note that I've been running Retrospect on the same basic hardware setup for about 7 years, and with the current software configuration for a couple of years. The backup server and the client PowerBook are both at 10.4.11 with the latest patches. I recently installed the 6.1.230 server software update, and updated the client on just one PowerBook to 6.2.229 from the server client config screen. However, this was before the 7/12 fix to the client updater file. To resolve the resulting problems with the client on the PowerBook, I uninstalled it, then reinstalled it using the Vise client installer directly on the PowerBook. I also "forgot" the client on the server, and re-activated it. The client is now much better behaved, and I can perform immediate backups. The problem is that something is causing the client to turn itself off. On running the client GUI on the PowerBook, I am getting the following reports in my console log: [color:purple]2008-07-19 12:02:27.320 Retrospect Client[20155] CFLog (0): CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be: /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/ctrlPanelUI.nib/objects.nib The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist. Usage: retroclient [--help] | [-setpass | -log n | -ip n][/color] So, it looks like there is a corrupted plist file. However, why did the uninstall and reinstall procedure not correct this? Before proceeding with upgrading other clients, I'd like to understand what's going on here, and not cause further problems. I'd also like to be able to upgrade other clients remotely from the server. Until this gets resolved, I'm better off waiting. For the record, everything else appears to be working normally for both Mac and Windows client backups. I'm not even sure what benefits I get from running the latest client, at least on PPC machines. Aside: Thanks for fixing the "posted" date for the 6.2.229 client download on your web site. However, I'd recommend making the same change for the 6.1.230 server upgrade download, since it also includes the client installer that was fixed on 7/10. Anyone who downloaded the server software before the 12th would not realize that they had an outdated installer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 Each day, I find the client has turned itself off, and the status shows "not running." When I turn it on, it shows "Ready," and my history is viewable. Do you have any "retroclient" entries in /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwwade3 Posted July 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 No, I do not find any instances of crash report logs for the Retrospect client on the PowerBook. I checked all locations for crash reports. I did conduct some additional experiments. I turned the client back on on the PowerBook while the backup server was active. It did find the client, and then successfully backed up the "B" volume from this PowerBook. However, after scanning the "A" (system) volume, it stopped, and the client turned itself off and displayed "Error During Startup" in the status window. I tried this several times with the same result. It would appear to finish scanning the volume, and then quit. On the Backup Server, the log shows the following error for this client and volume: [color:purple] > scanning incomplete, error 519 (network communications failed)[/color] I then tried doing an immediate backup of this volume from the same server. Everything worked as expected, with the one noticeable difference that the scanning process took much longer, and scanned many more folders and files. The backup was successful. I checked the Retrospect client logs on the PowerBook. The history file is unsurprising, and the retropds.log file mostly reports "MXUToMac: CFStringGetCString failed" messages, which I doubt are significant. However, the retroclient.log file does show some trouble. I've copied the start of this log file below: [color:purple]1216570453: Main: Client version is 6.2.229 1216570453: NetStart: starting interface thread 1216570453: netCheckNewInterfaces: found new address 127.0.0.1:0 1216570453: ConnStartListen: starting thread ConnStartListen for 127.0.0.1:0 1216570453: netCheckNewInterfaces: found new address 172.24.12.131:0 1216570453: ipludAddMembership: adding membership for 172.24.12.131 1216570459: IPNSRegister(0): registered: "Robinton","beef3a5024f4eec1","0.0.0.0:0" 1216570459: ConnStartListen: starting thread ConnStartListen for 172.24.12.131:0 1216570460: bindToValidBootPort: gServerPID has been initialized to 8878 1216570621: Connection established by 172.24.12.130:49538 1216573123: connTcpConnection: kPiCodeClockSync failed 1216573742: ConnReadData: Connection with 172.24.12.130:49538 was reset 1216574468: bindToValidBootPort: Unable to bind to valid boot port 1216574469: bindToValidBootPort: Unable to bind to valid boot port 1216574470: bindToValidBootPort: Unable to bind to valid boot port 1216574471: bindToValidBootPort: Unable to bind to valid boot port 1216574472: bindToValidBootPort: Unable to bind to valid boot port[/color] At the beginning of the retroclient.log are the records for the normal "immediate backup" mentioned above. Note that the "bindToValidBootPort" was successful. I had previously noted failures for this bind operation in earlier examinations of this log (it appears this log file is cleared when the client is restarted). However, after a period of time, the "Unable to bind" errors started showing up on a regular interval (it seems once per second). These continue ad nauseum. Turning off the client does not stop these error messages from showing up in the log file every second. To confirm, in the above retroclient.log listing, 172.24.12.130 is the backup server, while the PowerBook is at 172.24.12.131. Obviously, something's not right, but I'm not sure where to go looking next. I will emphasize again that the only thing that has changed is the version of the client installed on this particular PowerBook, as well as the version of the Backup server (see original posting). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwwade3 Posted July 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 In looking through some other posts, I realize I should clarify a few other points. First, in this problem report, the Backup Server is a PPC machine (PowerMac G4 dual 500 Gigabit) that runs 24x7 (and has for eight years). The PowerBook is on the same LAN, which is wired and running at 100 Mbps. The PowerBook is a Pismo with 1GB of memory (another machine that runs non-stop, and has served very well for eight years). The PowerBook does not sleep when connected to AC power. It does not use it's wireless connection for backup operations. Generally, the Airport service is turned off, and it definitely was for these tests. As stated originally, both PowerBook and PowerMac are running 10.4.11 with latest patches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 the only thing that has changed is the version of the client installed on this particular PowerBook Yes, to a totally re-written version that apparently still has some bugs to work out. Ecch. the PowerBook is at 172.24.12.131 What does your Network Preference Pane look like? Can you configure it such that the only interface listed/available is the built-in Ethernet port that you're using? You can edit the startup script at /Library/StartupItems/RetroClient/RetroClient with an "-ip" flag to force it to bind to a specific address when you boot the machine. If your address is static, that might work for you (although it won't advance the discovery of what's going wrong...). More information at: $ /Applications/Retrospect\ Client.app/Contents/Resources/retroclient --help Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwwade3 Posted July 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 I already have the PowerBook client set up so that the built-in Ethernet is preferred, and Airport is turned off entirely. Note, at this point, I'm not sure whether the problem is on the client side, or the server side. Since this problem only shows up when running a backup script on the server, it is quite possible that the problem is in the server's logic. For the record, the server has only Ethernet, and no other network interfaces are configured. Static IP addresses are used by both client and server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDickinson Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 I am experiencing this exact behavior in my setup. I am running both scheduled executions and server backup tasks on a PPC Mac Server. I have a mix of static and DHCP based client machines, all on the same subnet. It has been running fine for 7+ years 24/7. The new 229 client seems to turn itself off. I could really use a workaround or bug fix soon - I have around 30 clients that I can't run around and manage by hand every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 I already have the PowerBook client set up so that the built-in Ethernet is preferred, and Airport is turned off entirely. I don't think that's an affirmative answer, then. Instead of AirPort being in the list, but "off," can you simply delete the AirPort interface from the list of this Network Preference Pane's Location? Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 This isn't the only report of the client turning itself off after being used for a short time. We are running backups 24/7 every hour in our lab in an attempt to reproduce and debug the reported issues. At least one bug has been fixed internally and we are chasing another one right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 I could really use a workaround or bug fix soon - I have around 30 clients that I can't run around and manage by hand every day. The new universal client does not really add any new features and doesn't increase backup speed. It does contain a couple of security issues that have always existed in the software. You can downgrade the problem computers back to 6.1 client until we fix the problem you are seeing. For many users the new client works great and never fails, while other users do have trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etiffany Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 I've also just "upgraded" to the 6.2.229 mac client on my MacBookPro (10.4.11, 3GB, Core2Duo) to work with Retrospect 7.6 on my WinXP server. I have seen the client "turn off" on its own, despite doing the uninstall, delete /Library/StartupItems/RetroClient, reinstall. It actually turned itself off in the middle of a backup, after about 50Gb (giving a error -519 on the server). I see this in my console log: 2008-07-23 08:29:36.894 Retrospect Client[510] CFLog (0): CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be: /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/ctrlPanelUI.nib/objects.nib The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist. and now when I start the Retro Client, I am unable to view the preferences pane, and I see this in my console log: Jul 23 10:31:44 etmac /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/MacOS/Retrospect Client: tiff data provider: Cannot handle different per-sample values for field "BitsPerSample".\n In the the retroclient.log, I see some odd things: 1216793360: ConnStartListen: starting thread ConnStartListen for 10.37.129.3:0 1216793360: netCheckNewInterfaces: found new address 10.211.55.3:0 1216793360: iplud: bind() failed with error 48 1216793366: IPNSRegister(1): registered: "etmac","b8d77d71a4489ff3","0.0.0.0:0" 1216793366: ConnStartListen: starting thread ConnStartListen for 10.211.55.3:0 1216793564: Connection established by 192.168.1.103:1233 I have both Parallels and VMWare Fusion installed (but not running), and those 10.x.y.z addresses are the Parallels "virtual" interfaces that are configured in the network preferences. I think I'll go back to 6.1.130 for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 1216574468: bindToValidBootPort: Unable to bind to valid boot port That can only happen if the Retroclient is unable to get a process ID from the finder or if a very specific command we make fails. It feels like a system problem in this specific case. Is the client logged in or logged out when the backup attempts to run? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Boy, it sure would be great to find out what these machines have in common! despite doing the uninstall, delete /Library/StartupItems/RetroClient/, reinstall But running the "Uninstall" operation from the drop down menu of the Retrospect Client installer will delete the directory (and all its contents) in /Library/StartupItems/ , so I'm curious why you mention deleting it on your own. How did you uninstall? I see this in my console log:CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8 I see that in console also, but retroclient doesn't crash on my machine. That makes me think that it's not related. now when I start the Retro Client, I am unable to view the preferences pane What preference pane is that? Do you mean the Retrospect Client application? But if you can't view (?) that, how have you started the client process? those 10.x.y.z addresses are the Parallels "virtual" interfaces that are configured in the network preferences I only run VMware Fusion on my machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etiffany Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Boy, it sure would be great to find out what these machines have in common! I bet. despite doing the uninstall, delete /Library/StartupItems/RetroClient/, reinstall But running the "Uninstall" operation from the drop down menu of the Retrospect Client installer will delete the directory (and all its contents) in /Library/StartupItems/ , so I'm curious why you mention deleting it on your own. How did you uninstall? That's what it says in this KB article that I found in another thread. I uninstalled using the 6.2.229 client Installer (uninstall drop-down), and I actually didn't find anything in the /Library/StartupItems/ after uninstalling. I thought I'd include that (otherwise you would have asked if I'd done that step! :boxie: ) now when I start the Retro Client, I am unable to view the preferences pane What preference pane is that? Do you mean the Retrospect Client application? But if you can't view (?) that, how have you started the client process? In the Retrospect Client, there is a Preferences button (that normally brings up a preferences pane). That Preferences button now has no effect. I suspect it is due to the CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData error I noted from the log. I only run VMware Fusion on my machine. Well, VMWare is a lot slower for WinXP than Parallels. I use VMWare for 64bit linux, but for Windows I use Parallels (for now). YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 In the Retrospect Client, there is a Preferences button (that normally brings up a preferences pane). That Preferences button now has no effect. I suspect it is due to the CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData error I noted from the log. Hmmm... sounds like the client may be running with insufficient permissions, and I don't see how that could happen. What happens if, in Terminal, you run: ps axlwww | fgrep retro Here's what I get: rhwimac:~ rhwalker$ ps axlwww | fgrep retro 0 158 1 0 31 0 31692 244 - S ?? 8:31.23 /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/retroclient 501 12608 12606 0 31 0 18068 520 - R+ p1 0:00.01 fgrep retro rhwimac:~ rhwalker$ The first column is the uid, which should be 0 for retroclient. Also, repeat when you have the preferences unable to be saved. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDickinson Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 I could really use a workaround or bug fix soon - I have around 30 clients that I can't run around and manage by hand every day. The new universal client does not really add any new features and doesn't increase backup speed. It does contain a couple of security issues that have always existed in the software. You can downgrade the problem computers back to 6.1 client until we fix the problem you are seeing. For many users the new client works great and never fails, while other users do have trouble. Had I know there were issues on the way into the upgrade, I would have waited. Yes, I suppose I could downgrade RS and downgrade the clients, but the clients need to be "On" to do things remotely. So, now I have to visit each one, minimally turn it on, and then downgrade. For me to visit each machine, uninstall the client, restart the client, install the old client, reenter the password, then forgot on the server, and re-find in the server, redo the all the clients in my 15 scripts -- for 30 machines - that's insanity (and a 6 hour job at my place, maybe 8 since I have to kick folks off their machines one at a time). If you think there'll be a proper fix in the next day or two, I'll wait. I don't want to have to visit each machine more than once. -- I'm very disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 (edited) You could use ARD (Apple Remote Desktop) rather than go to each machine. That's what we do. In fact, that's the only way we can access our headless server to manage Retrospect (the only program that requires us to log on to our server - grumble). You don't have to downgrade Retrospect, just the client. Russ Edited July 23, 2008 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 All of this is way above my pay grade, as I don't know anything about Cocoa programming. But I do find it fascinating that for a "completely rewritten" version of this software, the image file: /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/ctrlPanelUI.nib/Image.tiff is a legacy Dantz logo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 The engine was new, not the UI. For those users having trouble, you can downgrade the client without downgrading the server application. You should also be able to use the old .rcu file to downgrade clients from the server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etiffany Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 (edited) Hmm, interesting. I get different results from that command, perhaps because I am on Tiger and you are on Leopard? Also, I would note that the Retrospect Client window shows it is Off and the Status is "Not Running": etmac:~ erict$ ps -axlwww | fgrep retro 0 391 1 0 31 0 29060 1540 - S ?? 5:16.36 retropds.24 501 1061 596 0 31 0 27448 500 - S+ p1 0:00.00 fgrep retro etmac:~ erict$ However, if I "grep -i" I get this: etmac:~ erict$ ps -axlwww | grep -i retro 0 391 1 0 31 0 29060 1540 - S ?? 5:16.36 retropds.24 501 887 85 0 46 0 368080 6832 - S ?? 0:11.20 /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/MacOS/Retrospect Client -psn_0_7602177 501 1063 596 0 31 0 27808 132 - R+ p1 0:00.00 grep -i retro So it is running as UID 501, which is weird since I installed it with the installer. However, I still think that the problem is due to a messed up preferences plist file as the error message from the log would seem to imply. So either the retro client is writing the prefs plist incorrectly, or installing itself with the wrong permissions, or both. Of course, those issues may have nothing to do with the problem that the client keeps turning itself off. [color:red]OK, quick addendum: if I turn the Retrospect Client "On" with the radio button, I am able to bring up the preferences pane. Thereafter, whether off or on, the preferences pane button works. Bizarre.[/color] Edited July 23, 2008 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Hmm, interesting. I get different results from that command, perhaps because I am on Tiger and you are on Leopard? No, PPC running 10.4.11, retrospect client 6.2.229. It may have something to do with the client turning itself off. The client is supposed to run setuid root so that it can access all files: rhwimac:/Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources rhwalker$ ls -al total 8656 drwxrwxr-x 17 root wheel 578 Jul 11 19:27 . drwxrwxr-x 6 root wheel 204 Jul 11 19:10 .. -rwxrwxr-x 1 root wheel 15648 Jun 17 16:26 EMC_client_logo.tiff drwxrwxr-x 7 root wheel 238 Jul 11 19:10 English.lproj drwxrwxr-x 7 root wheel 238 Jul 11 19:10 French.lproj drwxrwxr-x 7 root wheel 238 Jul 11 19:10 German.lproj drwxrwxr-x 7 root wheel 238 Jul 11 19:10 Japanese.lproj -rwxrwxr-x 1 root wheel 47436 Jun 17 16:26 RetroClient.icns drwxrwxr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jul 11 19:10 busco.app drwxrwxr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jul 11 19:10 defer.app -rwxrwxr-x 1 root wheel 22084 Jun 17 16:26 firewallcon -rwxrwxr-x 1 root wheel 27872 Jun 17 16:26 firewallcon2 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root wheel 22740 Jun 17 16:26 icon.tiff -rwsrwxr-x 1 root wheel 1845400 Jun 17 16:26 retroclient <======= Note -rwxrwxr-x 1 root wheel 632196 Jun 17 16:26 retropds.22 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root wheel 1789636 Jun 19 08:52 retropds.24 -rwxrwxr-x 1 root wheel 1011 Jun 17 16:26 universe.png rhwimac:/Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources rhwalker$ Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDickinson Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 You could use ARD (Apple Remote Desktop) rather than go to each machine. That's what we do. In fact, that's the only way we can access our headless server to manage Retrospect (the only program that requires us to log on to our server - grumble). You don't have to downgrade Retrospect, just the client. Russ Yeah, I have ARD running on a lot of my machines, my Retro Server box too (like minds...). Only prob on ARD is to have to visit each machine to turn on ARD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 (edited) Yeah, I have ARD running on a lot of my machines, my Retro Server box too (like minds...). Only prob on ARD is to have to visit each machine to turn on ARD! No, I don't think so. You can ssh in and do the ARD kickstart dance from the command line. Google ard kickstart Or, Apple ARD kickstart kb article Russ Edited July 23, 2008 by Guest ARD kickstart link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etiffany Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 OK, I think the "ps ... grep" differences are due to the fact that my Retrospect Client was indicating "Off"/"Not Running". If I turn it "On" then the "ps ... grep" command gives the same results as you (retroclient running as UID 0) and the install directory permissions match as well. So the permissions thing was a red herring. I still get the CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData plist parse error when I launch the Retrospect Client, but after turning "On" I am able to edit the prefs. Don't know whether this is related in any way to the mysterious switching "Off". I guess I'll have to watch it for a while longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDickinson Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Yeah, I have ARD running on a lot of my machines, my Retro Server box too (like minds...). Only prob on ARD is to have to visit each machine to turn on ARD! No, I don't think so. You can ssh in and do the ARD kickstart dance from the command line. Google ard kickstart Or, Apple ARD kickstart kb article Russ Touché !!! -- assuming I had admin on the client boxes then! HA! (I do actually) - Thanks for the Article - I'll check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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