As of version 8, Retrospect uses port 22024 when the Retrospect Console needs to communicate with the engine. It just so happens that this can become unresponsive when the engine itself decides to stop working. Therefore, if you’re using Retrospect 8, you can run a port scan against port 22024 ( i.e. stroke <IP_ADDRESS> 22024 22024 ) and then restart the engine if it goes unresponsive. To restart the engine, simply unload and then load com.retrospect.launchd.retroengine. For example: /bin/launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.retrospect.launchd.retroengine.plist; /bin/launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.retrospect.launchd.retroengine.plist I have found that if you alter the nice value that the engine crashes less (not that I’m saying that it crashes a lot or is buggy…
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Retrospect 8 For Mac Now Available
It’s official. Retrospect 8 is now available for purchase and upgrade at the EMC Insignia site (or at 318 of course). Two quick features that really jump out at me as immediate reasons to upgrade: grooming and enhanced GUI. Now, I’m a command line guy, so for me to say enhanced GUI usually means there’s some kind of a productivity gain out the GUI. When I tap in and check backups, I usually also check available disk space, which Retrospect 8 shows you saving a quick check of the file system. It also displays the disks color coded to let you know if you’re almost out of disk space. Some…
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Retrospect 8 – Grooming
One of the things I’ve loved about Retrospect for Windows over the years is the ability to groom a backup set. Grooming is essentially taking the old data that doesn’t need to be in the set and removing it, providing there’s still a copy if the file is still resident on the source. I’ve always felt that for clients with Retrospect for Mac the lack of grooming left them at a serious disadvantage. Well, in Retrospect 8 the Mac should end up with this same feature. When you go to Scripts you can add a Utility Script. In this case, we’ll select Groom. You then check the box for each…
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iWork/iLife Documents 2008 and Retrospect
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal iWork ‘08 applications (Keynote, Numbers, Pages) and iLife ‘08 components including iPhoto, iTunes, Garage Band have a slight issue with Retrospect – their data files are not considered documents using the Documents Selector. Now in the case of iPhoto, iTunes and Garage Band this is probably a good thing. However, for Keynote, Numbers and Pages it’s more than likely that if you’re using these then you will want Retrospect to back them up. So if you are using selectors and you are using the Documents selector then check out this Knowledgebase article from EMC/Dantz: http://kb.dantz.com/display/2n/articleDirect/index.asp?aid=9632&r=0.2114527
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Cage Match: Retrospect vs. BRU
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Retrospect is the most historically respected backup package for Macs. After a lot of issues with the switch to OS X, Version 6 is a stable rendition of what Version 4.3 was for OS 9. The tried and true Retrospect interface is still used (just a little more soft around the edges). Retrospect 6 Server edition is capable of backing up server and client computers over the network and has increased backup performance dramatically. Tape loaders and libraries support has increased and barcode labeling of tapes is now supported. Retrospect 6 has also improved in the area of removable disc support, namely with CD…