Bart H Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 We have purchased Workgroup MAC 6.1 (20 clients + 1 server). With Retrospect installed under OS X Server (10.4.11) it does not seem to be able to automatically mount other volumes on the local network to allow Retrospect to "push" files to another volume on the local network. If I install Retrospect on a non server machine on the local network I get a message "login of a Mac OS Server backup client requires a more powerful license application code". This license cost us over NZ$1500.00 dollars. Can I use this license to backup the server and half a dozen clients to a machine on the network (other than the server) or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 There may be another creative solution, but one way to do what you are trying to do is to install the Retrospect Event Handler (normally used to send email logging notifications) and have it mount the shares at appropriate times, etc. I strongly suggest that you use the Python version: Retrospect Event Handler - Python version because the other versions are dependent on the particular version of Mac OS and Apple Mail on your system. Search these forums if you can't figure out how to get the install working - although it is explained in the documentation, some of the points are non-obvious. Once you get the AppleScript installed and working, it's rather simple to modify it to mount your volumes at the appropriate time (and unmount them, if you want, after the backup is finished). Such modification is left as an exercise to the reader. We have a somewhat heavily modified version that stops and starts services, such as our mail service on our Xserve, so that the mail database can be cloned during that brief stoppage and then have the cloned copy backed up by Retrospect. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 There is a difference between using a retrospect client running on a server and mounting the server's disks on the desktop. Your licence allow a full backup of one server (either local or a remote, using the client). Your license also allows backup of 20 clients, that does NOT run any server OS. It isn't clear what you do, as your license indeed allows backup of server volumes mounted on a client (or on the Retrospect server for that matter). Please tell us exactly what steps you take and what is the response from Retrospect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 (edited) There is a difference between using a retrospect client running on a server and mounting the server's disks on the desktop. Of course, true. Your licence allow a full backup of one server (either local or a remote, using the client). Your license also allows backup of 20 clients, that does NOT run any server OS. I'm not sure that is true. See the matrix on the second page of the attached brochure. See also the following archived web page from the Internet Archive (2006): Retrospect Product Comparison Matrix Russ Edited July 29, 2009 by Guest Added Internet Archive web page for product matrix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 I'm not sure that is true. Right, none of the clients can run any server OS. If you want to backup a computer with a server OS, then the Retrospect server has to be installed on that computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bart H Posted July 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2009 Wow, thanks for all the replies people. I have not had a response from Dantz yet with an answer to the same question. What I take from your replies is that Workgroup MAC 6.1 (20 clients + 1 server) can back up the server when installed on the server but not push those file out unless another volume is mounted and ready. I can understand the fine grained control of what is allowed and what is not as it allows Dantz to "package" their fine product creatively. On the other hand it is trivial for Retrospect to be able to mount those volumes itself. Even Synchronize Pro does this. It would behoove Dantz to make this a bit clearer to prospective customers. However... I will press ahead and install retrospect on the server once again and use pre-mounted volumes to push the backups onto. Thank-you rhwalker for your Python script which I shall investigate but Applescript with cron can do this also, no? Thanks also to Lennart for those product matrix references. I'll post back once all is operational. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted July 30, 2009 Report Share Posted July 30, 2009 Wow, thanks for all the replies people. I have not had a response from Dantz yet with an answer to the same question. Don't expect one. Dantz has not existed for many years; EMC now owns the Retrospect product line: EMC acquires Dantz (Press Release 2004) What I take from your replies is that Workgroup MAC 6.1 (20 clients + 1 server) can back up the server when installed on the server but not push those file out unless another volume is mounted and ready. Yep. I can understand the fine grained control of what is allowed and what is not as it allows Dantz to "package" their fine product creatively. On the other hand it is trivial for Retrospect to be able to mount those volumes itself. That's a product decision, and don't expect any changes to Retrospect 6, which is a thing of the past. Retrospect 8 has much greater potential and more capabilities on such sophistication than Retrospect 6 ever had. However, while Retrospect 8 is still trying to get off the ground, only Retrospect 6 provides external scripting support. Even Synchronize Pro does this. It would behoove Dantz to make this a bit clearer to prospective customers. There are no prospective customers of Retrospect 6. It's a dead product as of January 2009. Thank-you rhwalker for your Python script which I shall investigate but Applescript with cron can do this also, no? No. The problem is synchronizing external events (such as drive mounting / unmounting) with Retrospect's actions, and that requires scripts that communicate with Retrospect. You seemed to want/need a destination drive that would mount/unmount on either side of the backup, and the solution I proposed is the only way I know to do that unless you want to have a background script that polls the output of "ps" to watch for Retrospect to appear and disappear, etc. Reason is, backups take an unknown amount of time depending on the number of files that need to be backed up, and other factors. Thanks also to Lennart for those product matrix references. Um, I provided the product matrix references, not Lennart. Post back if you get stuck. I know you will because the installation of the Apple Event Handler is rooted in Mac OS Classic history (circa Mac OS 6 or 7 or so). We are here to help. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bart H Posted August 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2009 sorry rhwalker, thanks for those product matrices. OK... where I'm up to. I logged in as root (enabled fast user switching on Tiger Server, and logged in as first created user on machine, i.e. Root user) I mounted the volume I wished to send my backups to. I created the backup sets (for 5 days of week) on that volume (in 5 named days of week folders). I dismounted and tested mounting as per Retrospect's documentation. Seemed to work OK. I dismounted all volumes, disabled root in NetInfo and logged out). I logged back in as regular (admin) user. I created some backup scripts and could run these with the remote volume mounted on LAN. Although I got a message "execution completed successfully" (or similar) the rubiks cube kept going and Retrospect did not stop or dismount the remote volume. At this point I had to click on the execution window and supply my admin pw. I could then close the execution window. It did successfully send the data to my backup set which was now 1GB+ instead of zero. Retrospect can not mount the volume either. A navigation window asks for the location of a catalog file (.cat) I still don't understand what the Python script does either. It seems to have a lot to do with mail notifications. Do my backup scripts have to "call" the Python script or what? Sorry, for my ignorance, I am more than happy to explain anything in greater detail. I did eventually get a response from emc but this forum has been a lot more helpful so far. Any help gratefully received. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bart H Posted August 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2009 I may have spoken to soon in previous post. As I run through my scripts, the first run requires that I login via network and authenticate again with the remote user's credentials. I tick "Remember password in keychain". I also get asked for the .cat file's encryption password as I wanted the backup sets to be secure. I supply both of these manually then unmount the remote volume after I get the "Execution completed successfully" message. Subsequently mounting is automatic and the secure encryption password is automatically supplied too! So all seems well. Can I dismiss the "Execution completed successfully" box automatically too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted August 4, 2009 Report Share Posted August 4, 2009 Can I dismiss the "Execution completed successfully" box automatically too? Special > Preferences > Run Control Choose appropriate options. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bart H Posted August 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2009 Thanks Russ. I have one more question though. All the documentation I read says a Recycle Backup can be created at script creation time (select either Recycle or Normal backup). I do not get this choice. It is not a choice in Automate > Scripts > Edit Script > Options > More Choices, either. Some parts of the user manual say its available under immediate but I don't see Recycle as as an option there anywhere either. Do they mean a normal backup when performed through Immediate > Run, will run as a Recycle backup? Maybe Workgroup MAC 6.1 does not have this capability? Can I schedule Recycle Backups? Thx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennart_T Posted August 6, 2009 Report Share Posted August 6, 2009 Can I schedule Recycle Backups? That is EXACTLY what you do: When you add a schedule to the script, there is a popup where you can select Recycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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