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Deal · Jan 13, 2004, 02:13 PM

I would like to request everybody's opinion on the new Retrospect 6.

I have been using retrospect since version 3. Right now I am on 5 (3 different servers).

Retrospect is very familiar to me but right now I have 3 issues.

1) doesn't work with XRaid (I have been waiting a long time for this)

2) It forgets the names of my tapes (in a tape library this is very annoying)

3) It was compatible with 10.2 but not 10.3 (funny all the other backup software didn't have this issue)

Now they want to charge $300 for an upgrade to fix these bugs.

Keep this in mind, they have a maintenance plan that costs $280 for one year, but I still have to buy the $300 upgrade. So to keep from paying again within the next 365 days I have to pay $580. (how often are they planning to charge me?)

I might to switch to Bru, but would also like to ask if anybody knows much about it. They have a new Server-Client version coming out within a month. They've added incremental backup, it supports many (if not all) drives, supports XRaid, works with 10.3.... sounds great, but don't know anybody who has used it.

Retrospect is very comfortable to me but I am tired of being robbed. I know this sounds like a long rant, but I really need some feedback.

Thanks,

Deal

Nivag · Jan 15, 2004, 06:38 AM

Well, all i can say is has Retrospect ever let you down by not being able to recover your data?
I've never had a problem (tempting fate here) with it, it's always done what it was asked to do.
Which in my book is money well spent for peace of mind.

But, i've never heard of Bru, so i'll defo have a look at that now, cheers!

Deal · Jan 16, 2004, 11:38 AM

You are correct that it has backed up my server, but not everything. I have an XRAID that needs to be backed up. I have waited for this to be fixed for over a year.

Also, every time I switch tapes I have to tell it to Rescan media (it has to switch and read 8 tapes) that takes at least 20 minutes. I leave and come back later because I don't feel like sitting there for 20 minutes. If I come back right away, it has the names of the tapes so I can label them. If I don't make it back that day and it runs another backup, it forgets the names of the tapes again. Very annoying.

Now I would like to switch to Panther (as I have a maintanence agreement with Apple, so I have the upgrades) so I can use it's additional compatability with our Windows network. But no, can't do that either.

CatOne · Jan 20, 2004, 10:39 PM

Originally posted by Deal:
I would like to request everybody's opinion on the new Retrospect 6.

I have been using retrospect since version 3. Right now I am on 5 (3 different servers).

Retrospect is very familiar to me but right now I have 3 issues.

1) doesn't work with XRaid (I have been waiting a long time for this)

2) It forgets the names of my tapes (in a tape library this is very annoying)

3) It was compatible with 10.2 but not 10.3 (funny all the other backup software didn't have this issue)

Now they want to charge $300 for an upgrade to fix these bugs.

Keep this in mind, they have a maintenance plan that costs $280 for one year, but I still have to buy the $300 upgrade. So to keep from paying again within the next 365 days I have to pay $580. (how often are they planning to charge me?)

I might to switch to Bru, but would also like to ask if anybody knows much about it. They have a new Server-Client version coming out within a month. They've added incremental backup, it supports many (if not all) drives, supports XRaid, works with 10.3.... sounds great, but don't know anybody who has used it.

Retrospect is very comfortable to me but I am tired of being robbed. I know this sounds like a long rant, but I really need some feedback.

Thanks,

Deal

Bru is great. Everyone I know who's used it has had great things to say. I'd suggest you read the macos-x-server mailing list archives at lists.apple.com regarding Bru. It's enterprise backup software, sometimes Retrospect sometimes has issues with

Deal · Apr 21, 2004, 07:03 PM

Thanks. After buying Retrospect 6 Server (for my server) and Workgroup (for somebody else's little server) I have found that mine works great! But their's will appear to function up until the point it actually has to write to a tape (doh!)

This seems like an incompatibility with the device (which worked great in OS 9 and if I remember right, OS X 10.1, maybe 10.2? Longer than my memory allows for recall). It's an AIT-2 50/100GB four tape library (sony guts, LaCie case). Always worked great for me. Wish it would up and work great now >: |

Might have to switch them to Bru.

OreoCookie · Apr 21, 2004, 10:24 PM

If you're not afraid of the command line, check out Amanda, another option would be Bacula.

Both are free (GPL), but have commercial support.

Deal · Apr 23, 2004, 11:44 AM

I will look into it... right now : )

Thanks

Deal · Apr 23, 2004, 11:46 AM

hum, one question though...

Do you think either of these will support the resource fork?

OreoCookie · Apr 23, 2004, 01:36 PM

Originally posted by Deal:
hum, one question though...

Do you think either of these will support the resource fork?

I don't know.
In the company I worked for last (testing some Apple software), the people have used gnutar to exchange the resources ...

I'd just give it a try. One of them claims to support OS X as a client, so I would just give it a try.

At home, I use tar and rsync to backup a pc, but here, I just put the stuff on an external hd.

JLL · Apr 24, 2004, 09:27 AM

Originally posted by Deal:
Thanks. After buying Retrospect 6 Server (for my server) and Workgroup (for somebody else's little server) I have found that mine works great! But their's will appear to function up until the point it actually has to write to a tape (doh!)

This seems like an incompatibility with the device (which worked great in OS 9 and if I remember right, OS X 10.1, maybe 10.2? Longer than my memory allows for recall). It's an AIT-2 50/100GB four tape library (sony guts, LaCie case). Always worked great for me. Wish it would up and work great now >: |

Might have to switch them to Bru.

There was a problem with 6.0 and Mac OS X 10.3 - it should've been fixed in 6.0.193, but I don't know if that's what you're using.

Deal · Apr 26, 2004, 07:24 PM

I mis-spoke on my post when I said I had one working and one not. I actually had two not working

I had 6.0193 on it. I loaded up the original Retrospect 6.0 without any new drivers or updates and it seems to be working (almost done). I need to see if it succeeds by itself tonight and then I'll know for sure.

The other system is hopeless and I think I'm going to give the trial Bru software a try.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Y3a · May 1, 2004, 05:37 PM

Our X-Serves only have about 15 gig per server, so we got 2 120 gig firewire drives and drag everything from the work folders to them daily, and take one off site and return the other the next morning. No software involved, and we get a usable copy we can plop down elsewhere if required.

OreoCookie · May 1, 2004, 08:39 PM

Originally posted by Y3a:
Our X-Serves only have about 15 gig per server, so we got 2 120 gig firewire drives and drag everything from the work folders to them daily, and take one off site and return the other the next morning. No software involved, and we get a usable copy we can plop down elsewhere if required.

Sounds like a (no offense intended) unprofessional solution. An automated solution would be that much more reliable.

Y3a · May 13, 2004, 07:08 PM

Generally I would agree, but users are working all the time to support a few contract bids all over the globe, so we have to pick a time to back up, and it may be a different time each back-up, and a different selection of folders depending on what was dragged to users folders. The cheapness of the hard drives and lack of buying and configuring software is a plus.

OreoCookie · May 13, 2004, 07:32 PM

Originally posted by Y3a:
Generally I would agree, but users are working all the time to support a few contract bids all over the globe, so we have to pick a time to back up, and it may be a different time each back-up, and a different selection of folders depending on what was dragged to users folders. The cheapness of the hard drives and lack of buying and configuring software is a plus.

Yes, it may require a bit of thinking, but after you have automated such a backup it's `fire and forget'. That said, I find it very dangerous to back up like this. Especially if you are working globally.