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Retro crashes nightly on automated startup


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I have been running Retro on an xserve since August with MULTIPLE glitches. The latest is that is crashes everynight. I am using the supported ATTO card WITH the latest drivers and a supported Overland Library drive with the latest firmware and using 5.0.238 and still I get a crash EVERYNIGHT!!!

 

Here is what happens. I run backup server through the day to backup all of the clients on the network. Then in the evenings WHILE backup server is running a script is set to run and backup 3 servers in the office. This is when the system crashes, reboots, and says that the automatic backup caused a system crash. The script works great if backup server is not running. Doesn't seem to complicated for backup server to stop what it is doing to run a script but this does not surprise me.

 

This is only the latest MANY incompatability problems. One would think if they did the research and bought ALL of the recommended hardware that the system would work but not the case with Dantz.

 

Should I have the backup server stop several minutes before the script is to run or is there another solution I should look into.

 

Thanks

P. Nelson

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Quote:

This is when the system crashes, reboots, and says that the automatic backup caused a system crash.

 


 

Could you explain this a little more?

 

- What exactly is crashing? Your system or console log should have specific information.

- Why does it reboot (is this an XServe feature)?

- What is "saying" that the automatic backup caused the crash, and what is the exact information that is provided?

 

Dave

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Quote:

- What exactly is crashing? Your system or console log should have specific information.

- Why does it reboot (is this an XServe feature)?

- What is "saying" that the automatic backup caused the crash, and what is the exact information that is provided?

 


 

Today this problem happened during and immediate backup of one of my xserves drives without backup server running in the background. This is the first time that I was at the system when it happened. The system halted, mouse stopped moving and everything - then the screen goes black and the xserve begins a reboot. Automatic reboot is a feature built into the xserve and osx server upon the system freezing.

 

This is the line from the system log - Feb 7 09:56:17 xserve syslogd: restart

There are not errors prior to that restart.

 

After the reboot takes place a window pops up over the logon screen with a warning that retropsect terminated and the check the log for details.

 

This is all that the retro log says

 

+ Normal backup using Server Daily Backup at 2/7/2003 9:48 AM

To backup set Server.nightly.gr [001]…

 

- 2/7/2003 9:48:27 AM: Copying NetworkDrive…

 

? Retrospect version 5.0.238

launched at 2/7/2003 9:57 AM

+ Retrospect Driver Update, version 3.1.105

 

Thanks for any help!

 

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It's time for you to post specific information regarding your hardware setup, such as what sort of device are you backing up to, what host adapter (if any), etc.

 

The auto-reboot must be a feature of the XServe hardware; I've can't find such an option on my OS X Server machine. Is there a configuration for this? Time out before reboot?

 

I'd be interested to know the exact wording of the dialog you get when you restart; is it from the OS or is it from Retrospect?

 

OS X monitors processes and writes crashes to either

/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/

or

~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/

(Retrospect.crash.log will be written to the former)

 

The Console log will say if it's something has been written to that file.

 

Dave

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Quote:

It's time for you to post specific information regarding your hardware setup, such as what sort of device are you backing up to, what host adapter (if any), etc.

 


 

I have an ATTO EPCI-UL3S-066 which is the same card that Mac is now selling with the xserve. Kextstat says that it is running com.ATTO.driver.ATTOExpressPCIPlus (1.0.1f3). I have an Overland LXL1U11 with firmware 01.25 which is also on the Dantz hardware compatibility list. My xserve is a single processor running 10.2.3 and is a 1GHz G4 with 1.25 GB Memory.

 

Quote:

The auto-reboot must be a feature of the XServe hardware; I've can't find such an option on my OS X Server machine. Is there a configuration for this? Time out before reboot?

 


 

I searched for the setting and am not finding the reboot setting in the xserve though I know that I have seen it in the past.

 

Quote:

I'd be interested to know the exact wording of the dialog you get when you restart; is it from the OS or is it from Retrospect?

 


 

As soon as this happens again I will jot it down and post it.

 

Quote:

OS X monitors processes and writes crashes to either

/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/

or

~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/

(Retrospect.crash.log will be written to the former)

 

The Console log will say if it's something has been written to that file.

 

Dave

 


 

The crash log, without copying the entire sections, shows the following:

 

Date/Time: 2003-02-10 07:20:52 -0600

OS Version: 10.2.3 (Build 6G30)

Host: xserve

 

Command: Retrospect

PID: 548

 

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)

Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0xc0000002

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Well it happened again Sat night - here is the message:

 

Quote:

From Retrospect: Automatic execution unexpectedly terminated (possible due to power failure or system crash)

 


 

This box comes up at the logon screen with a big red exclamation mark on the left and a button at the bottom of the box to click ok and move on.

 

Thanks for any help!

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Quote:

Automatic execution unexpectedly terminated (possible due to power failure or system crash)

 


 

That error is because Retrospect did not have an opportunity to rewind your tape drive. It was discussed here on the Forum in the context of Retrospect's preferences to Shutdown or Restart after automatic execcution.

 

This whole thing is pretty odd. I'd suggest you connect to the XServe via ssh and observe what terminal messages (if any) are displayed when this happens. I can't imagine that the unix part of OSX would reboot the system without sending a message to all logged in users.

 

Dave

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After looking at this again I am going to suggest that this is not what is going on. The regular backup that is scheduled to run each evening @ 11pm begins and backsup the 1 HD on the xserve. It crashes only when the system begins to backup the RAID drive that consists of HD 2 and HD 3. The tape must have rewound in order to do the first part of the backup.

 

FYI in the background backup server is also running backing up clients on the network. Thanks for your help.

 

P. Nelson

 

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Mac OS X Server has a feature called watchdog which will cause Mac OS X Server to restart if it appears to lock up. You can turn watchdog on or off by setting "Restart automatically if the computer "freezes" under Options in System Preferences->Energy Saver.

 

I found that my server seemed to be crashing every other day and it seemed to be Retrospect related. I am still trying to track it down.

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I am having the same problem woth retro, atto ul3s-066 and an overland loaderexpress. I have swapped the scsi card and checked out the cables. I am almost sure it is not a hardware problem.

 

I am able to clone from a raid to the internal HD with no problem. I can also kick off an imediate backup which seems to work. Only automated backups seem to fail when I run them overnight.

 

What verion of X were you running when this started?

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have just set up retrospect backup on a 10.2.4 client machine (Clean install). Unlike the server version of 10.2, 10.2 client does not have watch dog and thus does not restart when there is a serious problem. What I am getting is a kernel panic and the os X version of a Bomb screen.

 

What this indicates is that your XServe is probably experienceing a kernel panic. And then watch dog restarts the server.

 

I am running a quicksilver G4 and two adaptec 2930UW cards. Two internal ATA's, Four SCSI drives and an HP DDS TAPE unit.

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