Re: ARCserve vs Retrospect Server Backup
I have lots to comment on this thread! I Love Retro and ditched Arcserve for Retro about six months ago. I had used it for years to back up Macs, and now I'm using it for about ten NT servers, Including one that has over 160 GB of Drive space, a couple that run MS SQL Server 7, and a Lotus Notes server. Lots of open DBs on that one. Here are some things I've found: Retro is much more reliable than Arcserve. It just works. Its easier to setup, more flexible, and most importantly, easier to restore from. Open File Manager works to back up the open databases just fine, BUT there is a conflict between OFM and NT's services for macintosh that causes nasty crashes on the server being backed up. There is apparently fix for this available from MS, but it is not available for download, it requires a (paid) service call to MS Support. I is supposed to be fixed in the next NT SP, but with Win2k on the market, that may never come. I don't know it it is a problem in Win2k. I'll be finding out soon... I have also had trouble with the 400,000 file/defined volume limit in Retrospect. As web developers we are working with a lot of little files in pretty complex directory structures. When a Retrospect volume contains more than 400,000 files you will start to get -519 out of memory errors and the backup will fail. The workaround for this is to define the Retrospect volumes at a lower level of the directory structure, which is a bit of a pain. If that is not workable, you could try scheduling an automated task with an NT "at" command to have the large folder zipped into an archive before the backup runs and them backup the archive. A little Rube Goldberg, but it should work. I haven't tried it though... I have been told that this will be fixed in the next version of Retrospect. I can't wait! Backing up servers is one thing, but Retrospect's advantages really become apparent when you want to backup workstations as well. the "backup server" function is really cool, especially if you have laptop users. Retrospect uses the network very efficiently! And since the Server version comes with 100 clients, you should have no trouble with client licensing unless you have a pretty big organization. I hope this helps, Tom. -- Ben Eastwood IT Manager wilweb.com 5650 Hollis St. Suite 2 Emeryville CA, 94608 510-594-7037 [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "Stephen Jones" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: "retro-talk" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 12:45:58 -0500 To: "'retro-talk'" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: ARCserve vs Retrospect Server Backup I wonder if St. Bernard's Open File Manager will work in conjunction with Retrospect? It works with a ton of other software vendors. Their web site is www.stbernard.com. I do not have any affiliation with that package, I'm just making it known it exists and may help guys looking for SQL, Exchange or Open file backup. Steve -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Irena Solomon Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 11:59 AM To: retro-talk Subject: Re: ARCserve vs Retrospect Server Backup Hi Jim, Thanks for the feedback! I just wanted to clarify a few points though, as you seem to be running into limitations that should not exist. for some reason the support for the HP DLT drive was dropped in that version. Drive support is never removed when we release a software update. Any device supported in 5.11 is also supported in 5.15. If 5.15 is having trouble seeing your drive for some reason, there's something going on that is preventing Retrospect from loading the correct driver. A Mac backup server will not back up a NT4 server which has MSSQL 7 installed, there is some sort of conflict. Having MSSQL 7 installed on a machine won't, on it's own, prevent a backup of that computer to a Mac. The only limit you'll run into is that Retrospect is unable to back up open databases, but this isn't a function of backing up to a Mac server. This is because database files have a "lock range," which locks in all or part of a database so that it cannot be accessed by any other application when it is being accessed by the database software. One more annoying thing about Retro Windows is that you cannot browse to your target files In what situation? There are very few situations that would require you to know a path name to access a volume. And retro cannot not run as a service Retrospect uses the Retrospect Launcher Service to automatically launch when the program is not open. You needn't even be logged in to Windows for the program to automatically launch! For more on this, see page 154 of the 5.0 User's Guide. I advise you to contact Tech Support with any questions. We can help you get your drive showing up in 5.15 or configure any aspect of Retrospect to take advantage of it's features. Best Regards, Irena Solomon
Re: ARCserve vs Retrospect Server Backup
David- Are you also using Open File Manager, and if so does it work OK in Win2k with Services for Mac? ( I know this is not really a retrospect issue, but not totally offtopic..) -- Ben Eastwood IT Manager wilweb.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "Kraut, David" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: "retro-talk" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 17:11:38 -0500 To: 'retro-talk' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: ARCserve vs Retrospect Server Backup I use it to back up a mix of (20) NT4 and Win2000 Servers. The retrospect program is running on a 2000 Server and works fine. I've also used ArcServe in the past and wild horses couldn't drag me back to that nightmare of a product!! :) David Kraut -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 8:53 AM To: retro-talk Subject: ARCserve vs Retrospect Server Backup I've been using ARCserve for many years to backup my NT 4.0 Server and NT Workstations and long time ago to backup a Novell server. For the Mac side of things though I've always preferred and used Retrospect. I prefer Retrospect because it's much easier to install, use and maintain than ARCserve. Both products have been very reliable though I'd have to say that Retrospect has proved to be a little more reliable than ARCserve. Now I'm finding myself needing to upgrade ARCserve to the new ARCserve 2000. However, I'd really rather drop ARCserve and switch to Retrospect Server Backup to perform the NT 4.0 Server (and eventually Windows 200 Server) and NT Workstation backups. Comparing the the two product's features and supported drives looks to be essentially the same. Anyone out there with experience using Retrospect Server Backup on a Windows NT 4.0 Server? I'd love to get some feedback about it. Thanks!! -- Tom Roth * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * tel 336.716.4493 Wake Forest University School of Medicine Dept of Biomedical Communications Medical Center Blvd * Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1011 http://www.wfubmc.edu/biomed/ -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ Search: http://www.mail-archive.com/retro-talk%40latchkey.com/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050. -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ Search: http://www.mail-archive.com/retro-talk%40latchkey.com/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050. -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ Search: http://www.mail-archive.com/retro-talk%40latchkey.com/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
tape library question
I have an Exabyte 230 D and when I click the "scan media" button, nothing happens. Isn't it supposed to load each tape and get the name? Will it then associate the name with the barcode label and be able to tell if I remove one cartridge (5 tapes) and put in another, as long as the barcoding is unique? --Ben -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
BSOD with Retrospect 5.1 Server
I get a reproducable blue screen on a compaq 1600 R with two smart array controllers (221 and 3200) both controlling RAID 5 arrays. The crash happens everytime I do the device scan. I think it's related to the RAID controllers, but I'm not sure. Has anyone seen this behavior before? Machine is running NT 4.0 SP 6a, and we have St Bernard's Open File Manager on it as well. TIA Ben -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
RE: BSOD with Retrospect 5.1 Server
I called Dantz and they quickly solved the problem for me. In the Retrospect directory (C:\program files\dantz\retrospect) is a file called aspichk.exe. Run this to find out which version (if any) of aspi is installed on your server. Mine had none. ASPI stands for Advanced SCSI Programming Interface, BTW (I had to look that up!). By default, Retrospect uses ASPI to acess the SCSI drives, but can use something called "NT Passthu," which uses the installed specific drivers. I think that there is a conflickt between the SmartArray drivers and retrospect, because without ASPI, I got the BSOD every time. The answer is to install ASPI on the system. this doesn't seem to affect the smart array cards at all, they still use their own drivers, but it made Retrospect much happier. Dantz supplies this, too. In the same directory, run aspiinst.exe and then reboot the system. Now I can scan the SCSI busses and see the tape drives! It also appears to ignore the Smart arrray cards and the RAIDs on those busses. Pretty cool, thanks to Dantz tech support! On a related note, I found that OFM was incompatible with my Anti-virus software(McAfee Net Shield 4.0), and had to remove it 'till I can upgrade the AV later this week. It also caused a nasty BSOD. --Ben Rob Davies [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 12/04/2000 02:54:22 PM Please respond to "retro-talk" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "'retro-talk'" [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc:(bcc: Ben Eastwood/HMG/Wilson Learning/US) Subject: RE: BSOD with Retrospect 5.1 Server Yes! I also have a 1600R with RAID 5 and Retrospect 5.15. It also crashes everytime it does a device scan in ineteractive mode. It doesn't crash when it autolaunches (well, usually - I have found some unexpected restarts the next morning, but can't be certain of the cause). The server is running WinNT, SP5. It runs NT Backup perfectly (though with some open files) The Compaq tech has replaced the internal DAT drive and is considering replacing the RAID controller, SCSI card etc. Any ideas would be gratefully accepted. Thanks, Rob -- From: Ben Eastwood Reply To:retro-talk Sent: Tuesday, 5 December 2000 3:52 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: BSOD with Retrospect 5.1 Server I get a reproducable blue screen on a compaq 1600 R with two smart array controllers (221 and 3200) both controlling RAID 5 arrays. The crash happens everytime I do the device scan. I think it's related to the RAID controllers, but I'm not sure. Has anyone seen this behavior before? Machine is running NT 4.0 SP 6a, and we have St Bernard's Open File Manager on it as well. TIA Ben -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050. -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
How Long does this take for you?
I have questions for y'all: When running a backup operation of a LOCAL disk (RAID 5 Array, actually)to a DLT7000 drive, I noticed that the Performance reported varied widely, from a high of 450MB/min to a low of 13 MB/min, and the "Time Remaining" would jump around pretty much based on this. Is that normal? The folder I backed up had over 36 GB in it, mostly little files. In fact there were over 300,000 files in about 10,000 folders, if that matters. Also the "Scanning" before the backup took a long time. The actual backup took about 6 hours, and then it went into "Updating catalog" for about 45 minutes and then on to "building snapshot," where it is now. During these last two sections, it has said "time remaining 00:00:00," but it's not really done... and the progress bar is only about halfway across. Is that any real indication of how much time I have left? comments appreciated --ben -- -- To subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives:http://list.working-dogs.com/lists/retro-talk/ For urgent issues, please contact Dantz technical support directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 925.253.3050.
