Debugging client failure

[jshelton]

I am trying to debug a problem with Retrospect 6 backing up a client. About one time in four, I get a stream of "Piton" errors:

 

PitonPacket::netimport, unknown Piton packet type 0

necoDispatch: unknown packet code from responder: 0

 

eventually, the backup will quit with

Trouble reading files, error -515 (Piton protocol violation)

 

Documentation suggests a network hardware failure. Problem only happens with one client (a laptop) and not other client (a desktop.) But I don't have any other network problems with that client. And this problem seems to wait until several hundred MB into the backup; i.e. the first few hundred work OK. Indeed, last night I was able to backup over 5gb from the laptop before having this error.

 

Any helpful suggestions? I'm trying to backup to DVD+R, and these failures are expensive (wasting 2 discs.)

 

[AmyJ]

But I don't have any other network problems with that client

 

But what other programs are steadily streaming hundreds of meg of data? The hardware is unable to sustain the prolonged transfer required for the backup.

 

Try a different cable (preferably a crossover cable dirctly to the server to rule out the existing network)

Update/reinstall NIC drivers

Reinstall TCP/IP protocols

Try a different NIC

 

While testing, you can backup this client to a hard drive (disk backup set) if you have the space available for this size backup. This will allow you to test the connection without sacrificing additional DVD+R's.

[jshelton]

Actually, I have been backing up this same client for > 6 months to hard disk. I have encountered the problem twice before: once when backing up to disk, and the other when trying to DVD.

I can try some of the recommended approaches, but with intermittent failures, it is hard to know when it's fixed. And what could be going wrong only after moving gigs of data?

Thanks for your ideas.