Mac / Win Storage Set Compatibility

[jhirschi]

We are currently using a Mac G4 (os 9.2) and Retrospect 4.3 to backup a client (also Mac G4, OS 9.2) on the network. We cant go to Retro 5 (bought it, tried it, had to go back) due to incompat. with the software running on the client to be backed up.

We will now have to change the client from mac to a windows machine, running Windows 2000 Server. (we have not yet received the server and so i couldnt try myself yet.. what i'm asking about here).

I know there is a client for windows 5.16 i think and i should be able to backup the win machine from my mac retrospect server (no win system software involved, just plain data from the sw on the server).

 

i'm sure it will be possible to restore the data from the mac retro server (backup actually done to a SDLT drive) to the win client via the network.

 

But, will it also be possible to use the storage set file created on the mac, that means in case of emergency, copy it to the win server, connect the SDLT to the server, use the appropriate Win version of retrospect and restore the data directly on the server, to save time instead of doing it over the network ? -> can storage sets be exchanged between mac and win versions of retrospect and used for restores ?

 

if not, then we would better change the retrospect server from mac to win as well, right ?

 

unfortunately due to serveral SW-issues, we can not run the backup itself directly on the server itself, it has to be done via the network. only in case of emergency when the server is done anyway, it would be convenient to run the restore on the server itself (as we have done it until now, with only macs involved)

 

thanks for any feedback

 

jürg

[AmyJ]

http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=kbase&ACTION=KBASE&id=27001

 

Retrospect cannot read tapes across our two platform (Mac/PC) products at this time. The main reason is the format we use for the Macintosh was created for the Macintosh file system (HFS). It was very precisely engineered to work well with the Macintosh file system and architecture.

 

The new format we use for the PC is more robust and capable of dealing with any/all file system formats (HFS, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, UFS, etc) on any platforms/OS's. Unix, Linux, Win9x, WinNT, Mac OS, Mac OSX, etc. It was designed to be quite extensible and allow us to easily add support for future file systems and platforms.

 

As a final note: Being backwards compatible is a MUST in backup software and thus we must keep our Macintosh format the same. You can imagine the horror of needing to retrieve files from a 6 year old tape to find out that the product you used to do the backup no longer works with your tape because it is too old. Not a good idea.

 

 

[jhirschi]

thanks for your answer. but to be sure that i understood correctly ->

 

- i can not exchange the storage sets between platforms for restore

 

but

 

- from a mac retro server, i can backup mac AND win machines using the retro client sw.

but for restore it will also have to be done from the mac and restored via the network back to the win machine.

 

thanks

jürg

[AmyJ]

Yes - that is correct.