Why is the EMC Retrospect 8 manual so Lame

[fhyio123]

I don't understand why the manual is so poorly written. It kind of defeats the idea having a good program. I don't know how good the program is because the manual and videos are so flimsy.

 

What do the different warning signs mean on the backups ?

 

How do I set grooming to groom the last 10 backups ?

 

Where can I get advice on coming up with different backup strategies that reflect the design and potential of Retrospect 8 :confused: ?

 

 

Why are there so many people asking questions on forums ?

[scsctech]

I don't understand why the manual is so poorly written. It kind of defeats the idea having a good program. I don't know how good the program is because the manual and videos are so flimsy.

In comparison to having NO manual, like we have for the past year, I find it quite informative.

What do the different warning signs mean on the backups ?

See manual pages 79, and 125 for symbology

How do I set grooming to groom the last 10 backups ?

See the manual, page 236

Where can I get advice on coming up with different backup strategies that reflect the design and potential of Retrospect 8 :confused: ?

Strategies are so specific to your environment that its really hard to come up with models that fit everyone. Agreed that some more examples should come out of EMC HQ, but here is how I approach it.

Have a separate media set for every destination drive or partition. Have a separate script for each media set so that they can run concurrently. Separate your clients among the scripts if you are dealing with a high volume of clients. Set grooming, and do it often so it doesn't stack up and take forever.

 

Hope some of this helps.

 

Why are there so many people asking questions on forums ?

Retro 8 is a little premature and we are all contributing here to help each other and help EMC build a better product.

 

[fhyio123]

Hi,

 

thank you for your recent reply. I am having a problem with backing up where retrospect cannot find the media set in the backing up to NAS. I have created 1 media set mon-friday and scheduled to back up to that media set every day.

 

I tried following the script tutorial on the video but think it dosen't make sense to create a separate media set for each day as it will obviously (don't mean to sound patronising) take too much space. Now what is happening is that it is nesting 1 backup inside another and it is all a complete mess. The thing is that I do not have time to search through all the forums and there is not much written about strategies by people or the companies as with a lot of mac-related problems. By the way where did you find the big manual as the 1 I have is only about 20 pages.

 

Thank you

 

 

[NBArchives]

Click on this link to the Documentation. Scroll down to the Retrospect area. The pdf for Retro 8 should be the first on the list.

[fhyio123]

Sorry,

 

When I go to download it; it is corrupted. Dosen't display in the web browser. Its really bad, I've actually got more faith in NTBackup than retrospect software. Poor show

[NBArchives]

You should try a different browser and/or updating adobe reader. I've tried IE 7 and Firefox mobile with reader 9 without any issues.

[Mayoff]

go to kb.dantz.com and visit the documentation link. You can view it online or download it.

[scsctech]

I tried following the script tutorial on the video but think it dosen't make sense to create a separate media set for each day as it will obviously (don't mean to sound patronising) take too much space. Now what is happening is that it is nesting 1 backup inside another and it is all a complete mess. The thing is that I do not have time to search through all the forums and there is not much written about strategies by people or the companies as with a lot of mac-related problems. By the way where did you find the big manual as the 1 I have is only about 20 pages.

 

Tell us what server you have, what media sets you have and what clients you have.

 

Manual: http://www.retrospect.com/assets/en-Retrospect_8_Users_Guide.pdf

 

[fhyio123]

Hi,

 

I have an

 

Xserve dual quad-core 2.26ghz

Qnap turbo 1.8ghz Raid5 configuration

 

I have created a (Backup)mon-fri script with 1 media set mon-fri and scheduled it to run every day on the same media set as opposed to creating a separate media set for each day. All I want is to have a setup that works roughly like this

 

normal backup every 2 weeks

 

and differential every day within those two weeks.

 

Then a total wipe every 2 weeks for the normal.

 

The closest I could think of is backup to 1 media set mon-fri (No Media Action). Full or copy backup every 2 weeks.

 

whats happening with my mon-fri backup which should be around 600-650 gb is that it has become 1.3Tb. Because the backups are getting nested within each other.

 

 

Thank you

[CallMeDave]

it dosen't make sense to...

 

The program is very configurable and can accommodate just about anything a user finds sensible to him or her. YMMV, of course.

 

what is happening is that it is nesting 1 backup inside another

 

Then you have done something wrong, most likely when you added Members to your Media Set. Members of a Disk Media Set won't nest themselves; they go where you put them.

 

A NAS containing Members for multiple Disk Media Sets would have:

 

/Retrospect/BackupFoo/1-BackupFoo/AA000000.rdb [color:gray]etc[/color]

 

and

 

/Retrospect/BackupBar/1-BackupBar/AA000000.rbd [color:gray]etc[/color]

 

etc.

 

normal backup every 2 weeks

 

and differential every day within those two weeks.

 

 

Just so you know, Retrospect normally does "Incremental" backups (actually IncrementalPlus). If you're coming from another backup solution you'll want to unlearn the whole differential thing.

 

Then a total wipe every 2 weeks

 

Pay attention to the "Recycal" media action choice; it's probably what you're going to want, but only, for obvious reasons, _after_ you have already completed a new full backup.