swk Posted January 27, 2010 Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 We are using Retrospect 8.1, and our Mac mini server, and all three of our iMacs are running Snow Leopard, Mac OS 10.6.2. We are able to have successful backups if we do not log out of our computers when we leave for the day. If we do log out of our computers, the Retrospect backup does not work and we get 1101 error messages on at least one of the machines. With our former version of Retrospect (and former Mac OS) we could log out of our machines and have a successful backup. Is it possible to have a successful backup when logged out of our machines? Is this a bug? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted January 27, 2010 Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 You should post this in the Retrospect 8 forum. The forum you're currently in is for Retrospect 6.1 and earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marthaflour Posted February 16, 2010 Report Share Posted February 16, 2010 I am wondering about this, too -- my users need to be able to log out at night. Is it a bug? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scsctech Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Personally I have had no problem backing up users who are logged out. Looking in my remote desktop. I have about 15 machines which have been logged off and idle for more than 48 hours. According to retrospect logs, they were all backed up successfully last night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maser Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 There's a bug *somewhere*. I've seen this on rare occasion. I can log into the client -- backup will run. I can then log out of the client -- backup will not run (error -1101). If I then *reboot the client* -- leaving it at the login screen -- backup *will run*. Somehow, the client is losing some information. I do not see this often enough to be able to identify what triggers this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstranathan Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 (edited) I apologize if this has been discussed before. Im a geek so I like to discuss the nut n' bolts stuff... Looks to me like retroclient daemon lives in /Applications/Retrospect Client.app/Contents/Resources/retroclient. It runs as root and it's parent process is launchd. It tends to have a fairly low pid number in my testing (around 89 usually on my 10.6.2 system) which indicates that it starts up pretty early in the game (and certainly before a user can log in to the console via the Login Window GUI) It runs outside the scope of normal "user space" as expected. Therefore, the retroclient SHOULD still run regardless of who is logged into the client Mac. Next time you have issues, you might want to try this: Just ssh into the Mac client and see if the retroclient process is running via the ps, lsof, & top commands (or other Unix tool of your choice). Also verify that the R8 server can "see" the client too (try to crawl the client's file system from the R8 admin console for example). I just did this on a Mac client with nobody logged into the console, and I can see the retroclient running as expected. Remember that the actual GUI Retrospect Client.app is a separate but related component of Retrospect. the Retrospect Client.app DOES run as the current user when its launched from Finder (and it will generally have a high pid number too, of course). Im not clear on how launchd knows how to start the client process. I just took a quick glance at a test Mac near me, and I didn't see a traditional launchd Launch Daemon or Launch Agent .plist file for retroclient in /Library, /System/Library, (or ~/Library for that matter). Perhaps its in a global System Events launchd config file somewhere or uses some deprecated System Starter paradigm. I was hoping to track down a launchd file to confirm if the retroclient will relaunch in the event that it crashes. There should be some "watchdog" provision in place by launchd to restart the retroclient if it dies. Of course, there's a chance that it doesn't come back from the dead for some reason or it gets zombied etc. I looked in the Retro client's log file (located in /private/var/log), but I didnt see too much interesting stuff in there. I do see a file named retroclient.state in /Library/Preferences. I havent looked too closely at it yet. Im surprised this file doesnt have a reverse-DNS style "Apple-blessed" name like "emc.retrospect.state" per Apple's developer guidelines, etc. Im nitpicking I know, but hey - I'm a big fan of an organized nomenclature. Consistency is a GOOD thing right? Robin can you elaborate please on how the retroclient launches and runs? Off-topic a little but still interesting to some perhaps: The Retro Mac client does look a little long in the tooth to me - IMHO. I find it odd that the Retro GUI Client is (still) an application bundle. It reminds me of the old OS 9 client back in the 90's. I havent used Retrospect in a few years until I just recently bought Retro 8 so Im catching up with the current version - most of which I love so far. Anyway, I would have guessed that the Retro client would be coded as a modern Mac OS X System Preference Pane by now. I also noticed that the client app bundle can be enabled/disabled/deleted/edited by *any* user, including non-admin users. Id like to request the ability to lock it down and require an admin password. :0) Edited February 17, 2010 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Perhaps (it) uses some deprecated System Starter paradigm... Yep. The Retrospect OS X Client software is started at system startup time using the original Apple method of a shell script in /Library/Startup Items/RetroClient/, unchanged since the client preview shipped for Retrospect 4.3 last century. They only just bundled it inside an Apple Installer package; perhaps the next step will be using launchd. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted March 11, 2010 Report Share Posted March 11, 2010 perhaps the next step will be using launchd. Oh, then it will really be fun trying to stop a respawning client. russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scsctech Posted March 11, 2010 Report Share Posted March 11, 2010 I have run into the problem with clients not being backed up while logged out. This was specific to 10.6.2 clients only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredturner Posted April 26, 2010 Report Share Posted April 26, 2010 There's a bug *somewhere*. I've seen this on rare occasion. I can log into the client -- backup will run. I can then log out of the client -- backup will not run (error -1101). If I then *reboot the client* -- leaving it at the login screen -- backup *will run*. Somehow, the client is losing some information. I do not see this often enough to be able to identify what triggers this problem. This is definitely the case, and continues w/ 10.6.3 clients also. One site I maintain has numerous machines that are logged out at the end of the day. They exhibit the -1101 error as well. You can either reboot them, or connect to the client, kill the retroclient process, then open Retrospect Client and turn it On again. Definitely is taking the "proactive" out of the Proactive Server! Do we need to post this in the Bug Report subforum, or is this thread sufficient? FT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maser Posted April 26, 2010 Report Share Posted April 26, 2010 Can't hurt to post it in the Bug Report subforum to see if there's any new information on this. To me, I think they need a client update -- I'm fairly sure this is not an "engine" problem... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kundza Posted April 27, 2010 Report Share Posted April 27, 2010 EMC is aware of this. Beside myself filing it months ago others have as well. The remote needs major overhauling. Time is incorrectly displayed (-4 hours difference on the server side). Retro turns itself off weekly at my clients. -541 Errors. Client not installed or running errors.....It's a mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredturner Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 EMC is aware of this. Beside myself filing it months ago others have as well. The remote needs major overhauling. Time is incorrectly displayed (-4 hours difference on the server side). Retro turns itself off weekly at my clients. -541 Errors. Client not installed or running errors.....It's a mess. Anyone know if there's a chance we'll see this (the backups of logged out 10.6 machines not working) addressed w/ a new client when (if) the Beta is released? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maser Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 Good question. I believe they are working on this, but they haven't explicitly said that the beta will come with a new client or not... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 Anyone know if there's a chance we'll see this (the backups of logged out 10.6 machines not working) addressed w/ a new client when (if) the Beta is released? Also would be nice if the next Retrospect Mac client release included an uninstaller, currently only available in an obscure thread in the Retrospect Windows forum. Release Notes for the Client would be a helpful improvement, too. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kundza Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 From what I was told a few weeks ago.... "Retro remote is being rewritten. No known time when it will surface." I hope soon cause what we have now is just a disaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 "Retro remote is being rewritten. No known time when it will surface." That sounds either like someone who has been working on/with Retrospect since 1990, or someone who doesn't really work with retrospect at all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 From what I was told a few weeks ago.... "Retro remote is being rewritten. No known time when it will surface." No, you misunderstood what you were told. While the "backup to remote volume" feature present in earlier versions of Retrospect for Macintosh, f/k/a/ FTP backups, is expected to return in some form in the future, this has nothing to do with Retrospect client. See Retrospect twitter re remote backup destinations Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 the "backup to remote volume" feature present in earlier versions of Retrospect for Macintosh, f/k/a/ FTP backups... Is "backup to remote volume" a WinRetro term? It was known as an Internet Backup Set/Storage Set in Retrospect 4/5/6.x. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 Whatever. There was/is no FTP backup support in Windows Retrospect, and there hasn't been for the Mac Retrospect for a year and a half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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