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Running an activity before it's scheduled


macpro

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In Retrospect 6, I have my scripts defined with their starting times. But sometimes, I want to start a script earlier. Then I simply "Run" the script and Retrospect does it thing.

When it's time to start the same script via the schedule, Retrospect simply ignores this because the script is already running.

This is very convenient for recycle backups that take a lot of time.

 

Tried this approach yesterday with Retrospect 8, but that doesn't work. The first recycle backup activity started manually and stopped somewhere in the middle because of an error.

By then, Retrospect had put the scheduled activity in wait mode and as soon as the first activity had stopped, Retrospect started the waiting activity. Which began with recycling the media set and thus undoing all the hard work Retrospect had done the hours before.

 

Is it possible to get the behaviour from Retrospect 6 back in Retrospect 8? For instance via a "Run now" or "Release earlier" button?

Or is there another/new easy way in Retrospect 8 to do this?

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The Run button under Scripts should work much like 6.x. When you select Run, it will ask you what type of operation you want (no media action, Recycle, New, etc).

 

Can you be more specific about what you are seeing and what error are being reported? I want to fully understand the point of failure you are describing.

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Let's imagine I have a script/activity "Backup Mac" that is scheduled to run at 0:00 tonight and it has the recycle option set.

 

In Retrospect 6 this happens:

 

17:00h - manually run script "Backup Mac" with the recycle option

23:59h - the script is still running

0:00h - Retrospect wants to start the "Backup Mac" script, but as it is already running it goes into "why bother?" mode.

2:15h - the script "Backup Mac" is ready.

 

In Retrospect 8 this happens:

 

17:00h - manually run activity "Backup Mac" with the recycle option

23:59h - the activity is still running

0:00h - Retrospect wants to start the "Backup Mac" activity, but as it is already running it is placed into the queue.

2:15h - the activity "Backup Mac" is ready.

2:16h - the queued activity "Backup Mac" starts and it's first action is to recycle the media set.

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If you manually tell Retro to run a Recycle backup while that media set is already in use, it will wait for the current operation to finish and then run the recycle backup, as was requested by the operator. This sounds normal and expected. If you tell it to run a Recycle backup, it will run a Recycle backup as requested as soon as it can.

 

The difference is that with the 6.1 version you could never execute a "run" operation while another script was already active. The ability to do this didn't exist.

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Your correct about that.

 

But the point is that I don't like that behaviour in Retrospect 8.

Because it doesn't allow me to start an Activity sooner than scheduled.

 

And that's why I would like to see an option where I can tell Retrospect to release a scheduled Activity so that it starts immediately instead of the scheduled time.

This way Retrospect will not perform the Activity twice.

 

I hope I've described my request a bit better now.

Edited by Guest
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Thanks! That works.

I didn't pay any attention to those buttons. Presumably because I thought I would delete a complete schedule instead of just one scheduled activity.

Still have to get used to the new interface.

 

Next to the delete button is also the Defer button. But that button only allows me to defer an activity to a time after the scheduled time. If it could be changed to make activities start before their scheduled time, I would be very happy.

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I've mentioned this as well. I think there's already a bug report on it.

 

Real world example of this: I'd like all my laptop backups to run "first thing in the a.m."

 

So usually, when I get in, I defer all my laptop users -- who may have last backed up at 2:30 p.m. -- to "right now".

 

The engine doesn't seem to recognize I've done that deferral -- at least until some significant amount of time has passed.

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