Click Activity Monitor>ProactiveAI from Retrospect’s navigation bar to monitor ProactiveAI Backup scripts.

You can start and stop all ProactiveAI Backups, pause and resume specific scripts, and modify the script schedules.

For more information on controlling ProactiveAI Backup and ProactiveAI Backup scripts, see Controlling ProactiveAI Backup.

Once a ProactiveAI Backup script starts, you can monitor the operation’s progress in the Executing tab. However, unlike other types of operations, if the required media or execution unit for a ProactiveAI Backup script is not available, the script will not move to the waiting tab or display a media request dialog. ProactiveAI Backup waits until all the required resources are available before beginning the operation.

If the required media is not available the Status column (visible when Sources or Backup Sets is selected in the list box) in the ProactiveAI tab will say “Media”. The script will execute automatically when the required media becomes available.

If the required execution unit is not available, the ProactiveAI Backup script will wait until it is.

For more information on execution units, see General Preferences,

Click Activity Monitor>Scheduled from Retrospect’s navigation bar to preview upcoming scripts (excluding ProactiveAI Backup scripts).

You can edit and delete specific scripts from this window, and also prevent all scheduled executions from starting.

The Scheduled tab includes the following commands:

Once a script’s scheduled execution time arrives, it moves from the Scheduled tab to the Executing tab, or, if the required resources are not available, to the Waiting tab.

Click Activity Monitor>Waiting from Retrospect’s navigation bar to view operations that are waiting for resources (Backup Sets, sources, execution units.).

For example, if an operation requires a specific execution unit that is already in use, or if all available execution units are currently in use, the operation will get put into the waiting queue. For more information about execution units and multiple simultaneous executions, see Multiple Concurrent Executions.

The Waiting tab includes the following commands:

Once an operation starts executing, you can monitor its progress in the Executing tab.

Click Activity Monitor>Executing from Retrospect’s navigation bar to view executing operations.

When an operation begins executing, the Activity Monitor’s Executing tab displays automatically.

You can monitor the performance of currently executing operations, temporarily pause, or permanently stop an operation, and view the log associated with an operation. If the operation requires media that is not available or accessible, the Media Request window displays during execution.

What Retrospect does after the operation is complete depends on whether it’s an immediate operation or a scripted operation and the preferences you have specified. See Startup Preferences and Schedule Preferences for more information.

While an operation is executing, it includes the following commands:

If the media required for the selected operation is not available, Retrospect displays a media request dialog. See Media Request Window for more information.

Once an operation is complete, it is removed from the Executing tab. Click the History tab to view details about the operation.

Click Activity Monitor>History from Retrospect’s navigation bar to view operations that are finished executing (successfully or unsuccessfully).

The History tab includes information about the date, time, and performance of the most recent operations and has the following commands:

Click Activity Monitor>Events from Retrospect’s navigation bar to see special messages from Retrospect concerning past and current operations.

For each event, Retrospect displays information about the event type, the date and time of the event, the event category, and a brief description of the event. You should periodically review the Events tab as part of your regular monitoring of the Retrospect backup computer.

Event types include Information, Warning, and Error. Information events are displayed for operations that complete successfully or are stopped before completion. Warning events can be more serious. For example, if a backup completes with errors, Retrospect displays a Warning event. Finally, Error events are the most serious. Retrospect displays an Error event when it cannot complete an operation, for example, if a script fails or a volume or device is not accessible.

Each event displayed by Retrospect falls into one of the following categories: Volume, Client, Device, SCSI, Backup Set, Engine, or Script.

You can delete a selected event or delete all events using the following commands:

When backing up to tapes or CD/DVDs, the media request window looks a lot like the Storage Devices window.

Click Stop to halt the current operation. If Retrospect is looking for new media, insert blank/erased media and click Proceed to continue the current operation. If Retrospect is looking for a specific named member of a Backup Set insert it and click Proceed. If the named member is unavailable click Choices (see Media Unavailable for more information).

The window has a toolbar with the same commands available from the Storage Devices window. See:

The most useful commands during a media request are:

Eject: unloads the selected medium from its drive so you can insert the correctly named medium or a blank/erased tape/CD/DVD.

Erase: erases the contents of the selected tape or CD/DVD and then uses the erased medium for the current operation.

When backing up to disk, the media request window looks a lot like adding a disk to a new disk Backup Set. The window displays when the disk is full or unavailable to Retrospect.

Click Cancel to halt the current operation.

Click Show Members to show all members of the Backup Set and view details about each with the Properties button. If any of the existing members has more disk space available, you can add it to the Backup Set in the Properties window. If you are able to add enough space, Retrospect continues the current operation.

Browse to and select a disk with available space and click Proceed to add it as a member of the Backup Set. Retrospect displays a window that summarizes information about the disk you are adding and lets you specify how much storage space to dedicate to the Backup Set.

Click the Advanced button, to specify additional options.

Click OK to add the disk and continue the current operation.

For disk Backup Sets with grooming enabled, Retrospect only displays the media request window after it has already groomed the Backup Set and determined that it still needs more disk space to complete the current operation. If the Backup Set is grooming to the Retrospect defined policy, you must add another disk (or increase the space available to the current disk) to continue the current operation.

If the grooming policy specifies the number of backups to keep, you can click Groom to decrease this number and delete older Snapshots and their associated files to reclaim disk space on the current Backup Set member. This frees up room for the current operation, but the groomed data cannot be recovered.

Click Groom, then enter a new, reduced number of backups to keep and click OK. Retrospect grooms the Backup Set and, if it now has enough available disk space, continues the current operation.

Retrospect comes pre-configured for multiple execution units, the exact number of which is based on the backup computer’s total amount of memory.

The software allows up to 8 concurrent executions, provided the computer has enough memory and backup devices to support such a configuration.

When you’re using multiple execution units, you can run multiple operations at the same time. If you start more operations than there are available execution units, the additional operations are placed in a “Waiting” queue until an execution unit becomes available. See Waiting Tab.

ProactiveAI Backup scripts operations do not go into the waiting queue. They only launch when an execution unit (and other required resources) is available.

Generally, in order to execute operations concurrently, the operations must each have a unique source and a unique destination. Disk Backup Sets are unique in that the same Backup Set can be used as the destination in one operation while, at the same time, as the source for one or more additional operations. This feature is discussed in Disk Backup Sets and Multiple Executions.

Subvolumes and mailboxes are not considered unique from the volume or Exchange Mailbox container on which they are stored. Therefore, you cannot back up from or restore to a volume and any of its subvolumes (or an Exchange Mailbox container and any of its mailboxes) concurrently. Retrospect will run these executions consecutively.

If you have multiple disk Backup Sets stored on the same disk, Retrospect recommends that you not use those Backup Sets in concurrent operations.

Retrospect server-class editions are unique in that they support a single write operation and multiple read operations simultaneously using the same disk Backup Set.

Write operations include:

Read operations include:

As long as you have enough execution units available, you can perform one write operation at the same time as one or more read operations. You can also perform multiple read operations at the same time.

For example, you can back up to a Backup Set, while simultaneously restoring a Retrospect Client from the same Backup Set. You can also:

The only limitation, other than execution units, is that none of the concurrent operations can require same volume/database/mailbox or the same non-disk Backup Set.

Certain operations require exclusive access to the Backup Set (e.g. updating a Catalog File, grooming, recycling, verifying media). When one of these operations is using a disk Backup Set, no other operations can use that Backup Set at the same time.

To take full advantage of these disk Backup Set capabilities, make sure your scripts specify that Retrospect use “Any Execution Unit”. See Assigning Execution Units for more information.

Other than specifying “Any Execution Unit” in your scripts, there is nothing you have to do to use this feature. Scripts that are unable to run simultaneously due to resource conflicts are placed in the Waiting queue and execute as soon as the required resources become available. For immediate operations and Backup Set management tasks, Retrospect either asks if you want to wait for the required resource to become available or displays error -843 (resource in use by another operation), in which case you’ll have to try again later.

Retrospect Desktop supports only one execution unit and therefore cannot take advantage of disk Backup Sets’ single write/multiple read capabilities.

You must have more than one execution unit to perform concurrent executions.

See General Preferences for information on specifying the number of execution units.

Retrospect automatically determines the optimal number of execution units based on the backup computer’s memory. Override this setting at your own risk.

You can decide whether you want an operation to use a specific execution unit or the first available execution unit (“Any Execution Unit”). When you have two or more execution units and you create a script or set up an immediate operation, its summary window includes an execution unit list box.

To take advantage of multiple executions, choose “Any Execution Unit”. In some cases, you may want executions to run consecutively. For example, you may back up a volume to hard disk, then back up the Catalog File to a CD. In this case, you should assign the same execution unit to both operations and schedule the main backup to start before the Catalog backup. This guarantees that the second operation will not execute until the first one is complete.

Concurrent executions to multiple tape drives requires Retrospect’s Advanced Tape Support add-on. You can perform concurrent executions to multiple stand-alone tape drives, or to tape libraries with multiple built-in drives.

Advanced Tape Support is not available for Retrospect Desktop or Retrospect Single Server (Disk-to-Disk).