carlo Posted February 20, 2009 Report Share Posted February 20, 2009 Hello, I am running Retrospect 6.1.2.30 with OSX server 10.4.11. Today for the first time I got an error message saying that: "Volume "path to client backup folder here" completed with error -34: volume full." This is related to a Backup server (for laptops) whose fileset reached almost 1 TB (yes, terabyte) in size and I was wondering if there's a limit in Retrospect. The fact it stopped right there made me think that's the largest the set can become. The HHD where the file set resides is not full. Many thanks for your kind attention, Carlo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted February 20, 2009 Report Share Posted February 20, 2009 What is the filesystem on the volume where the file set resides? If it's a network share, how is the share being presented to the machine with Retrospect? What type of a backup set is this? Configure > Backup Sets select the backup set name, click "Configure" What is reported in the upper left corner of the dialog window below the backup set name? Perhaps do you have a "removable disk" backup set? There are some limitations to consider when using hard drives as removable disk backup set members. Retrospect will only write 1 TB of data to any single member. After 1 TB it will ask for a new member and span to that member, regardless of how much available space remains on the previous member. If you have a large capacity hard drive that you want to use as part of a removable disk backup set, partition the drive into segments of 1 TB or less for optimal use with Retrospect. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlo Posted February 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2009 Hello and thank you for you reply. It's a file backup set saved onto a HFS+ disk and - as your note from the manual states - it looks like the 1 TB it's the limit. My problem is I have around 20 OSX laptops I have to backup data from and - since they keep being connected and leaving the office - I thought it was a good idea keeping the interval between backup sessions rather short. I think I should give more time so that I don't have too many sessions because the Entourage Database file is different each session and the file set becomes very large. Unfortunately I don't have a removable device and I have to stay with my HDD for now. If you have a better idea, I would be more than happy to know it! Thank you again, Carlo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 It's a file backup set saved onto a HFS+ disk and - as your note from the manual states - it looks like the 1 TB it's the limit. I think that you misunderstood my excerpt from the Read Me, and the reason I asked my questions. The Read Me ("Release Notes", not the Users Guide) is talking about "Removable Media" (disk) backup sets, not "File Backup Sets". For "File Backup Sets", the answer may be different. File Backup Sets: Starting with Retrospect 6.1, all newly created file backup sets will be split into separate data and catalog files by default. In order to avoid potential problems, these files must be stored together in the same directory and they should not be renamed. Retrospect still supports older file backup sets with combined data and catalog files and it still provides users with the ability to combine (and separate) the data and catalog files, even for newly created file backup sets. However, once Retrospect determines that the backup set's catalog resource fork will exceed the Mac OS-imposed limit of 16 MB, the file will automatically be split into separate data and catalog files, at which point the files cannot be combined again. See page 22 of the Mac Retrospect 6.x Users Guide for a discussion of File Backup Sets. Specifically, note: File Backup SetsA file backup set combines the catalog and backed-up files into a single file stored on a volume. This volume can be any volume that mounts on the Macintosh desktop, such as a hard disk, file server or shared disk, or removable cartridge. Unlike the other types of backup sets, which require media dedicated only to backups, you can store a file backup set right alongside other files on a volume used for other purposes. A file backup set can be no larger than the volume on which it is stored. You can decrease the amount of space used by a file backup set by using Retrospect’s data compression option. [color:red]The size of a file backup set is also limited by the file system, or the disk format.[/color] Here are the MacOS HFS+ limits under Mac OS 10.x: MacOS filesystem limits However, I suspect, because of its ancestry and the fact that Retrospect 6.x uses the Carbon API (and runs emulated under Rosetta if you have an Intel Mac - you don't mention which platform you have), that the limits for MacOS 9 may apply: MacOS 9 filesystem limits Here's the KnowledgeBase article on your error message: Retrospect error -34 I don't know, but my thought is that you might need twice the size of the backup set file if Retrospect makes a temp file to avoid losing everything during some critical phase. There used to be a specific article in the Knowledge Base with all limits, but I can't seem to find it now. Perhaps someone else who uses file backup sets will know the specific answer to your question. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlo Posted February 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Hello and thank you again for your patience and accurate explanation. Yes I forgot to add some relevant information, the OS is 10.4.11. The error might be related to something rather silly, sorry: I have just noticed I have almost reached the size of the HDD where the file set is save onto. I have a 1TB external drive for that backup, there's some room still free but probably it's already considered "full". Thank you again for your help, very much appreciated! Ciao Carlo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eident Posted October 5, 2009 Report Share Posted October 5, 2009 We have a similar problem. We are using Retrospect Backup 6.1 with 100 clients license on OS 10.3.9 . Earlier this year we switched from a tape system to using 3 X 2TB MyBook Hard Drives Formatted a single HFS+ partition. Today we received an error that the drive is full at exactly 1 TB. When I use the OS's "View Info" on the drive, I see that there at 800+ GBs available. When we view the drive in Retrospect, there is only several MBs left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted October 6, 2009 Report Share Posted October 6, 2009 As stated in the thread, there is a 1TB limit in Retrospect. You should partition the 2TB drives in half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele Stapleton Posted October 14, 2009 Report Share Posted October 14, 2009 For my I'm using a WD 2 TB drive formatted into two equal partitions (about 930 GBs) for backups. When Retrospect launches it will start by scanning and matching my "Sources" (the Mac hard drive and five external hard drives). The scanning/matching process takes a while, and many times the WD drive will go to sleep because it's not yet being used. When I push the button to wake it back up only one of the partitions will wake up. If I stop Retrospect and reboot the computer both partitions will show, but since Retrospect has to go through the whole scanning/matching process again there is a very good chance that I will lose the backup drive to sleep again. How can I keep it from going to sleep before the writing of the backup starts? Please don't tell me to turn off the Energy Saver option in my preferences. I have to keep that on to keep my drives from running nonstop and burning themselves out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted October 14, 2009 Report Share Posted October 14, 2009 How can I keep it from going to sleep before the writing of the backup starts? Please don't tell me to turn off the Energy Saver option in my preferences. I have to keep that on to keep my drives from running nonstop and burning themselves out. Hmm... our xServe has been running continuously since early 2005, 24/7/365, just after it was purchased following a fire that wiped everything out (but Retrospect saved our data by offsite backups). If your drives are going to "burn themselves out" by running, then you have some really cheap drives. Whatever. Other than turning off the Energy Saver option, one thought would be for you to coordinate this using the Retrospect Event Handler for Retrospect 6. Takes two parts. Write a little shell loop program to see if a certain semaphore file exists and, if so, touch a file on the WD drive and then sleep for a minute, repeat the loop; if not, then quit. Then, in the Retrospect Event Handler, on backup start, create the semaphore file and then fire up the little shell loop program in the background. On backup end, delete the semaphore file to cause the shell loop file to quit. Implementation and testing is left as an exercise to the reader. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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