Too many files open, can't backup

[jswingchun]

My backup failed today with an error -42 (too many files open). Now I cannot run an incremental to pick up the files that were missed in the failed backup.

 

Here is the entry from the log for the failure:

5/10/2010 7:19:11 AM: Connected to GazXserve2

Can't read file “0428_SPO_PREPSOCCER0011.jpgâ€, error -42 (too many files open), path: “April 2010/04_27/IOWA_CITY_SOCCER_JMS/0428_SPO_PREPSOCCER0011.jpgâ€.

Trouble reading files, error -42 (too many files open).

5/10/2010 10:44:21 AM: Execution incomplete.

Remaining: 4650 files, 18.9 GB

Completed: 37103 files, 149.2 GB

 

You can see that there is 18.9 GB left to backup after the failure. When I run an incremental, it tells me that there are no files to back up.

 

5/10/2010 2:15:19 PM: Connected to GazXserve2

5/10/2010 2:15:19 PM: No files need to be copied.

5/10/2010 2:15:23 PM: Execution completed successfully.

 

I cannot run a recycle backup, because the catalog is used every month and already contains info for 450 GB of data that I don't want to have to restore and then back up again. This is for an archival process, not a normal daily backup.

 

Any ideas how I can get Retrospect to realize those files are not really backed up?

 

I could create a new catalog for 2010 from April on and start over, but I would rather not have to manage that.

 

Retrospect 6.1.230 on Xserve running OS version 10.3.9.

[twickland]

A couple of things come to mind:

 

-Did you use exactly the same selection criteria and backup options in your 2:15 PM incremental backup that you used in the 7:19 AM backup?

 

-Is there any chance that the files that were not backed up in the morning were deleted before the afternoon backup attempt?

 

If you have time, you might want to dig into the files that were backed up in the morning session to see if you can find any files on the source that were missed. (Go to Reports> Contents and select the backup session in question.) In all my years of experience with Retrospect, I have never run into a situation where Retrospect did not back up files that were missed earlier, no matter what the reason for the initial failure. If that did indeed happen in your case, it would be a serious bug.

 

You can force Retrospect to completely back up GazXserve2 without resetting the catalog. First, make a copy of your usual backup script (for safety's sake). In this backup script copy, modify the sources to include only GazXserve2. Go to Options> Matching and deselect the options "Match source files to catalog" and "Don't add duplicates to backup set." You might also want to adjust your selection criteria to eliminate certain files you obviously don't want to back up again. Then, perform a single backup of your source volume using this special script.

[jswingchun]

Thank you for the reply.

 

I realized this morning that all of the jobs on my Retrospect server that back up data on that particular Xserve were finding no files to back up. It wasn't just that specific archive job. At that point I figured it was probably a client issue. I restarted the client computer and re-ran the same backup job from the first post. It is currently running and backing up all 18.9 GB of the missing files, so all is good.

 

I probably could have stopped and started the client on the GazXserve2, but I just went ahead and rebooted.

 

If anyone has any idea what my original error (error -42 too may files open) means, or can shed any light on why this happened in the first place I would be interested.

Edited May 11, 2010 by Guest

[Lennart_T]

Some program running on GazXserve2 keeps opening lots of files and never closes them. The OS has the ability to open a limited (but fairly high) number of files at the same time.

Quitting an application will close all its open files, so it's probably an application that runs for a long time.