source unavailable

[dangermouse]

Retrospect has been backing up this source for some time now. It's a USB hard drive attached to a Time Capsule which in turn is connected to the wired network.

 

Occasionally Retrospect decides the source is not available, yet I can see it just fine in Finder and other apps.

 

If I try to add it again as a source, I'm told it's already mounted. If I try to browse it or anything, I'm told it's not available. The Favourite folders I defined for it show as 'offline'.

 

I think a clue to the problem is the path Retrospect shows for it. It's added '-1' to the drive name. So '/Volumes/shared nas-1/music/' is shown where everything else, and I think previously Retrospect, refers to it without the '-1'.

 

Any idea what the problem is, or how I might fix it? Previously I fixed it by closing Retrospect, stopping Engine and ejecting the drive in Finder. I'd then mount it again and start everything up. I sometimes had to repeat this process. Now it won't work at all.

 

Thanks

[CallMeDave]

I think a clue to the problem is the path Retrospect shows for it. It's added '-1' to the drive name.

 

Yep. This is something that OS has always done when, for whatever reason, it mounts a volume with the same name more then once.

 

If the machine running the Retrospect Engine also has a Finder user there are going to be cases where this happens.

 

I've had luck with the "mount" and "umount" commands in Terminal. Use that (may need "sudo") to unmount all instances of the volume before asking Retrospect to work with it.

 

Dave

[dangermouse]

Glad we're on the right track! I'm not quite there yet though, since I'm not knowledgeable with this whole Terminal thingy.

 

I used Unmount, and it seemed to vanish. I tried Mount which worked, I think, just a couple of times.

 

Retrospect is still not happy though. I think what I'm really not clear on is what Retrospect should do next. It's looking for the -1 suffix. Presumably, whatever I do with Mount etc, the -1 will never really exist. I tried asking to mount that, but it won't work. Should Retrospect go back to the suffix free version, or do I have to do something there too?

 

I did a 'df' and it listed the volumes without any shared version of the volume. so I'm sure it unmounted ok.

 

Also, now when I try in Retrospect to Add Source Directly, it says 'Can't find the requested responder'

 

Thanks for your help.

Edited June 23, 2009 by Guest

[CallMeDave]

I'm not quite there yet though, since I'm not knowledgeable with this whole Terminal thingy.

 

For users who need to maintain Macintosh Ease of Use and remain insulated from thingys like bash, Apple provides Time Machine, Time Capsule and Backup.

 

But Retrospect 8 is a powerful and fairly expensive bit of code, and managing it is going to require at least a passing understanding of what it's doing. It's not as mind-numbing complex as OS X Server Advanced doing MCX (Managed Clients on OS X) and the like, but it's not going to be as easy (or limiting) as Retrospect "Classic" was.

 

I think what I'm really not clear on is what Retrospect should do next. It's looking for the -1 suffix.

 

I also don't know how Retrospect is supposed to work here. Can the path to a Disk Media Set be changed after the fact? I've had no luck with the "Select Disk" option for dealing with Members, and have given up trying until the next update. Certainly a KB article and/or information in the forthcoming Users Guide needs to address the underlying process that Retrospect uses to access shared volumes on OS X Engine machines.

[rhwalker]

A caution, simply because I haven't been able to test Retrospect 8 yet. Because of the odd way that Unix does mounts of devices and volumes to make them appear as part of the filesystem, it's possible for a former mount point to become a directory ("folder" in Apple speak) into which files can be copied, and then, if a volume is mounted on top of the directory full of files, the filled directory becomes hidden while the volume is mounted.

 

So, if a Retrospect "restore" happens into what it believes is a volume, but instead is a directory within /Volumes, odd things can happen, and your later-mounted volume, which will hide the directory full of files, won't contain what you think it should.

 

I simply point this out so that you can do some thorough testing of Retrospect 8 in its fledgling state. It's unclear to me, from the history of this thread, whether the "drive name" with "-1" suffix is really a mounted drive or a folder within /Volumes and whether the "drive name" without the "-1" suffix is a mounted drive or a folder within /Volumes.

 

One way to tell is to bring the system up in single user mode, unmount everything, poke about in /Volumes to see what is really there. When in single user mode, there shouldn't be anything in /Volumes.

 

Russ

[CallMeDave]

it's possible for a former mount point to become a directory ("folder" in Apple speak) into which files can be copied, and then, if a volume is mounted on top of the directory full of files, the filled directory becomes hidden while the volume is mounted.

 

Wow. If my head doesn't explode first I'm gonna take the time to try and understand what this means. After all, I didn't even know about the existence of the wonderful "mount" and "umount" commands until Russ casually mentioned the a month or so ago.

 

The users guide is gonna be a hoot.

 

 

Dave

[dangermouse]

I also don't know how Retrospect is supposed to work here. Can the path to a Disk Media Set be changed after the fact?

 

It seems to me the path can change after the fact since I believe it did so by itself. This disk was, I strongly believe, mounted, and referred to by Retrospect, as 'shared nas'. It worked this way for quite a while, then became 'shared nas-1'. I presume the drive had mounted a second time or whatever, Retrospect spotted it and changed itself to the '-1' version. Then OSX cleared out the '-1', maybe in a reboot or something, and Retrospect has been left high and dry.

 

It's possible I am mistaken (just in case anyone doubted that!) but the fact it worked originally for some time, even through reboots (there must have been some over the period this worked, from updates etc) seems to me to support my belief, since I'd have thought the '-1' would have dissapeared a while ago.

 

I think my point is that OSX currently, and correctly, has only 'shared nas' mounted. It is only Retrospect that expects to have this 'shared nas-1' version. I understand now it may have spotted such a thing recently. But I believe it has adapted itself to it and this implies it should be able to adapt back, even if I need to help it.

Edited June 25, 2009 by Guest

[dangermouse]

OK, attempting to move along.

 

I have repeatedly Removed the source, only to find it reappear. For the last attempt I removed it, closed Retrospect, Stop the Engine, Start the Engine, start Retrospect. The source is still listed.

 

How can I persuade Retrospect to remove this source?

[dangermouse]

That's sorted. I removed the source and rebooted the Mac. I then readded the source. The 'cant find responder' error was my fault, I was trying to 'add directly' or something rather than 'add share'.

 

I added the source back into the scripts and it looks like it intends to work.

 

Thanks for the help guys.