Retrospect (software)

Retrospect is a family of backup software applications for the classic Mac OS, macOS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems; it is "primarily used for backup by small and medium-sized businesses with mixed-platform networks".^[1] Its maker Dantz Development Corporation was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004. In May 2010 Retrospect was sold to Roxio/Sonic Solutions.^[2] In 2011, development of Retrospect was turned over to a privately held company operating under the name Retrospect, Inc. The first version from this company, Retrospect Macintosh 9, was released on November 2, 2011.^[3] Its foreign distribution rights are in demand as of 2016,^[4] no doubt because its "complete hybrid data protection for small and medium businesses" now includes cloud backup to a variety of providers or private servers.^[5]

Concepts prior to Retrospect Windows 7

Retrospect was both available for retail sale, and was also often bundled with an external hard drive (though often the limited Retrospect Express version). The most common variants were:

• Retrospect Express HD—now no longer sold, supported backup to single local and NAS hard drives.^[6]
• Retrospect Express—now no longer sold, added support for removable media such as CD/DVD "discs" and many kinds of "superfloppy". It was the successor to Dantz's DiskFit Direct backup product, which came bundled with Iomega's Zip 100 drive.^[7]
• Retrospect (originally sold as Retrospect Pro)—the ancestor of what is still sold—adds tape drives and LAN/WAN network backup support. In the network backup scenario a "backup server" computer host pulls data from host-attached drives and multiple networked workstations—called "Retrospect clients", according to a host-scheduled script or host-initiated immediate action. This makes Retrospect distinct from such backup applications as Time Machine and CrashPlan, in which the conceptual "client" pushes data to a backup "host" (which may not be a full-fledged computer) at its non-"host"-controlled option.

Ever since the software was first released, its UI has made the first letters of certain words upper-case to indicate a specific Retrospect meaning. The remainder of this article preserves that convention, which helps to clarify terminology that some have found confusing.^[8]

Retrospect maintains a separate Catalog File—distinct from any OS-maintained directory—on disk for each backup destination—originally known as a Backup Set. Backup Set is the original Retrospect term (still used in Retrospect Windows) for a group—which may have only a single member—of one or more tapes, CD/DVD discs, disks, or a single-member file or a single-member FTP site that serve as the destination; individual volumes of "media" are members of a backup set. The Catalog File enables Retrospect to do incremental backups to a Backup Set, copying only those files which have either not yet been copied to the Backup Set or which have changed since they were last copied. Retrospect thus does versioning, and can back up a wide-enough variety of files to be able to do a bare-metal restore of a boot disk. The Catalog File also enables a user to search for files—including older versions—without mounting the media of the Backup Set. Retrospect can also use its Catalog File to copy selected/all files—including older versions—from a Backup Set to another volume in the proper OS-specific format; this operation has always been called Restore when done to the volume from which they were backed up, and was originally called Duplicate when done to a different volume. However Retrospect does not use its Catalog File in doing an Archive operation, which is basically a non-incremental backup with a "move" option—an option which deletes the copied files/folders from their Source volume.^[9]

Retrospect does file-level deduplication, patented as IncrementalPLUS.^[9] To do so it also creates a hierarchical Snapshot of all files and folders on a volume whenever that volume is backed up. One Snapshot is kept up-to-date in the Backup Set's Catalog File, and a copy of the Snapshot for each backup is stored on the Backup Set's medium (disk, tape, disc, file, or Internet)—to allow complete rebuilding of the Backup Set's Catalog File from the medium in case of damage. When Retrospect backs up an exactly-matching file on another volume to the same Backup Set, it does not copy it again but instead makes a notation in the Snapshot for that volume. Using a Snapshot, the user can either choose one or more individual files/folders to Restore or can Restore a volume to its exact state as of the time of any completed backup.

Because Retrospect Pro was originally developed to work with error-prone tape drives (for which its custom-rewritten drivers were not always perfect),^[10] it was necessary to have it by default do a sequential reread of each backed-up file to verify that it was copied correctly. Retrospect does a verify of backups of drives locally attached to the "backup server" using a byte-by-byte comparison, but by default it does a verify of "client" drive backups using transmitted MD5 checksums for increased LAN/WAN throughput; in either case MD5 checksums are stored in the Catalog File entries.^[9] With Retrospect Macintosh 8 this was expanded into an “offline verification” capability, which enables the administrator to specify “No verification” for a backup script and then schedule a separate Verify script to run in the morning (accessing the Catalog-stored MD5 checksums instead of interfering with other use of the source files)—thus effectively making the nighttime a pure "backup window" for the maximum number of sources.^[11] Since at least 1991 Retrospect has optionally done software data compression that reduces the size of backups by 50% or more.^[12]

Retrospect originally supported Backup Set types Tape, Tape WORM,^[8] CD/DVD, Disk (renamed to Removable Disk in Retrospect Windows 8), and File. The original Disk type was intended for the many types of "superfloppy", but—since its Catalog File was on a hard disk—it could also be used to support a Backup Set containing multiple hard disks. The File type supports a Backup Set contained on a single hard disk; its Catalog File is on the same hard disk as the backed-up data. The more-expensive editions of Retrospect have long supported automated tape library hardware; this feature has been improved for subsequent versions.^[9]

Retrospect was originally developed for the Macintosh and provided LAN/WAN network backup support over Appletalk networks. However, by 2001 Dantz Development had already developed a Windows version of Retrospect.^[3] Since at least 2002 Retrospect has had its own "Piton Name Service based on TCP/IP"; it is the "proprietary Retrospect protocol Piton (for PIpelined TransactiONs), which gives Retrospect much of its network speed and reliability."^[9] Since about 2003 Retrospect has had the most-frequently-used option of using multicast access to communicate with "client" computers on the local subnet using well-known port 497. Retrospect has long supported e-mailing of notifications about operations to chosen recipients; this feature has been improved for subsequent versions.

Retrospect had—and still has—LAN/WAN "client" software for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris, and NetWare. In most cases, including the "legacy client" software for PowerPC Macintosh under early versions of macOS—which can backup attached drives created under classic Mac OS, this "client" software is still compatible with the latest version of the Retrospect backup host software.^[13] Although a Source in Retrospect is ultimately intended to be a hard drive volume or a folder on a hard drive volume, the program obliges the administrator to initially define a "client" computer as a Source in order to access its connected hard drive volumes.

Because of Retrospect's "pull" approach, a Backup script only backs up its designated Source volumes if they are connected to the network before the script is scheduled to run—or at least by the time the running Backup script starts to back up the network computer a Source volume is connected to. In order to handle environments in which mobile computers and removable disks irregularly appear on the network, Retrospect also has a special Proactive script type that—while it is running—maintains on the "backup server" a queue of its designated Source volumes in the oldest-first order of their most-recent backup date and time. Whenever a Source volume appears on the network, a running Proactive script causes that volume to be backed up next if it is queued in front of any other Source volume. Rather than the single Backup Set designated by a scheduled run of a Backup script, a Proactive script backs up to whichever of multiple designated Backup Sets is actually mounted and contains the least current data. Since a Retrospect "backup server" computer prior to Retrospect Macintosh 8 could only run one script at a time, running a Proactive script effectively turned the computer it was running on into a true backup server, which is why Macintosh Proactive scripts were originally called Backup Server scripts.^[9]

Retrospect Windows 7

The most-major new features added in 2005—each starting with the announcement section heading name in quotes—were:^[14]

• "Intuitive wizards"—that further simplify setup, backups, restores, and media duplication.
• "Improved disk-to-disk-to-tape capabilities"—enable automated transfers to tape for safe offsite storage of disk backups that were created for fast onsite restores. These use a Transfer Backup script or immediate operation for the transfer to tape or portable media. Transfer Backup can also be used for transfers of individual point-in-time backups between destination Backup Sets.
• "Create synthetic full backups"—for example onto tapes from existing disk backups. This is done by using a Transfer Snapshots script or immediate operation to copy multiple backups of the same Source(s) from one Media Set to another. This is termed a "synthetic backup" because, after the transfer, the destination Backup Set contains the same data it would after a full backup.
• "Automated data grooming"—frees up space on Disk Backup Sets by removing out-of-date backup data.

Because of the jump in numbering from Retrospect Macintosh 6 to Retrospect Macintosh 8, it appears there was—at least at one time on paper within EMC Dantz—a Retrospect Macintosh 7 with the same new features as Retrospect Windows 7. However, probably because of personnel layoffs,^[3] it was never released and perhaps not even completely coded.

Retrospect Macintosh 8

Retrospect Macintosh 8.0, released in March 2009, was completely redesigned to have more capabilities than Time Machine but less than enterprise-grade backup software.^[15] The redesign, which is the foundation for all subsequent version of Retrospect, had the following new features (some of which were evidently copied from Retrospect Windows 7)—each starting with the announcement section heading name in quotes:

• "Backup-to-disk features"—including support for local and LAN/WAN hard disks. The features allow combining multiple volume Members into a single Disk Media Set destination, with adjustable limitations on Member storage usage. They also include Grooming of a Disk Media Set to free up space by removing out-of-date backup data, a feature that was introduced in Retrospect Windows 7. The term "Media Set" replaces the term "Backup Set", and the term "member" is now capitalized as "Member". The Disk Media Set type is new; the old Disk Backup Set type—which was meant for "superfloppies" although it could be used for hard disks—has been eliminated from Retrospect Macintosh; it has been retained in Retrospect Windows as the Removable Disk Backup Set type.
• "Powerful new engine"—called the "Retrospect [backup] server". It runs as a root process in macOS, and is capable of simultaneously performing multiple Backup, Restore, and Copy operations. The "backup server" process is normally launched upon System Startup of any machine on which it is installed, and is stopped and started on such a machine from System Preferences. All the categories of Retrospect information for a particular "backup server" are stored by it; when a "Retrospect Console" (see next item) process is started, its process "synchronizes" with that information.
• "All-new, customizable [administrator] interface"—called the "Retrospect Console" and which runs as a user-space process in macOS. It can run on a Retrospect "backup server" machine, or it can run elsewhere on the LAN/WAN. Its window has a sidebar on the left, showing each "backup server"—there can be multiple ones—on the LAN/WAN. At the very top of the window is an unchanging Toolbar that refers to the currently-selected "backup server"; it launches script-creating Backup/Restore/Copy (Copy is the new term for what was formerly called Duplicate) Assistants, pauses running activities, and has a Search Field. Clicking the disclosure triangle for a "backup server" shows the clickable categories of Retrospect information for it; each category shows a panel; each panel has a top list pane and—when a line in that report list is clicked—below it a detail pane with clickable buttons to switch the detail shown. Just below the Toolbar, but still above the list pane, is a List View Toolbar that changes with the category shown in the panel. For most categories there is a Scope Bar below the List View Toolbar; besides category-sensitive buttons that restrict the list scope, it contains a Save Report button and an add condition (+) button for filtering the list.
  • The list at the top of the Activities category panel has a line for each current/past/future Backup or Restore or Copy activity on the "backup server". The line columns show the date-time, script name, activity type, first Source, Media Set/volume Destination, and performance in MB/min. The Scope Bar can be used to restrict the list to Scheduled or Waiting or Running or Past or Proactive activities. The buttons on the detail pane are used to show an Overview or Log for the activity.
  • The list at the top of the Past Backups category panel has a line for each individual volume backed up. The line columns show the start date-time, machine name, volume name, destination Media Set, number of files backed up, and a files/folders browse button. The List View Toolbar can be used to Retrieve an older backup's Catalog File and Snapshot for the volume to restore files from, to Remove a backup from the Media Set, to Copy the files in the selected backup to a different volume Destination, and to perform a Restore of the selected volume from the selected backup. A Restore or a Copy of a volume can be of the entire volume—erasing all files/folders that are either not in the backup volume's Snapshot or have different dates (in which case the files are overwritten with the Snapshot version), or it can can be of only selected files/folders—with the selection done from a hierarchical file/folder window that can be invoked from the browse button. The Scope Bar can be used to restrict the list to Mac or Windows or Other "clients". The buttons on the detail pane are used to show a Summary and Options for the backed-up volume.
  • The list at the top of the Scripts category panel has a line for each Script. The line columns show the Script name, type of activity, last Activity date-time, and next Activity date-time if scheduled. The List View Toolbar can be used to Add, Remove, Duplicate, Run immediately, Save, or Revert a Script. The Scope Bar can be used to restrict the list to Backup, Restore, or Utility Scripts. The buttons on the detail pane are used to show a Summary and to define Sources, Media Sets or Copy Destinations, Rules, Schedules, and Options for the Script. By dragging in the Sources list of the Summary detail pane view—not in the unchangingly-alphabetized check-box list of the Sources detail pane view, the administrator can change the sequence in which Sources are processed by the Script—which is otherwise determined by the Source's alphanumeric computer name at time it is added to the Script.
  • The list at the top of the Sources category panel has a line for each volume local to the "backup server", logged-in LAN/WAN share, and added "Retrospect client" computer—broken down into a line for each chosen volume connected to that "client" computer when a disclosure triangle is clicked. The line columns show the volume name, the computer it resides on, the OS that computer is running, the volume capacity, how much of that capacity is used, last backup date-time, and a bar graph of percent used. The List View Toolbar can be used to Add a Source and to Add Favorite Folders for any Source; it can also be used to do additional things for "client" Sources. The Scope Bar can be used to restrict the list to Servers or Desktop and Laptop Sources; it can also be used to restrict the list to Local or Client or Share Sources. The buttons on the detail pane are used to show a Summary and to define Options and Tags for Source computers.
  • The list at the top of the Media Sets category panel has a line for each Media Set that can be used as a backup destination. The line columns show the Media Set name, the Media Set type—Disk/Tape/File/etc., the total number of files saved in existing Members, the total bytes used in existing Members, the total bytes free in existing Members, the total bytes capacity in existing Members, the current number of Members of the Media Set, and a bar graph of percent used. The List View Toolbar can be used to Add or Remove a Media Set or to Locate and open its Catalog File; it can also be used to perform additional utility functions on a Media Set. The Scope Bar can be used to restrict the list to Tape or Disk or Optical or File Media Sets. The buttons on the detail pane are used to show a Summary and Backups for a Media Set, and to define Options and Members and Bindings for it.
  • The list at the top of the Storage Devices category panel has a line for each hardware device such as optical and tape-drive/tape-library. The line columns show the device name, status, and location. The List View Toolbar can be used to Scan the selected device for media, to Erase its media, or to Eject its media. There is no Scope Bar for this category. The buttons on the detail pane are used to show a Summary and Options for a hardware device.
• "True disk-based backup staging"—which copies the "Improved disk-to-disk-to-tape" and "Create synthetic full backups" capabilities of Retrospect Windows 7 with different terminology. This uses a Copy Backup Script for later transfer to tape or portable media for safe offsite storage of disk backups that were created for fast onsite restores. Copy Backup can also be used for transfers of individual point-in-time backups between destination Media Sets. One can also use a Copy Media Set Script to copy multiple backups of the same Source(s) from one Media Set to another.
• "Simultaneous streaming of data"—the new "backup server" allows this to multiple disks, or to multiple tape storage systems with the Advanced Tape Support Add-On.
• "Custom reporting"— on nearly any piece of information that Retrospect tracks.
• "Certified AES-256 encryption"—encryption was already optionally being done for backup data,^[8] but the encryption method is improved. Data transfers between a particular "Retrospect client" computer and the "Retrospect server" may also be encrypted.
• "Advanced network client support"—includes support for multiple network interfaces. Also includes a wake-on-LAN feature [which may no longer work] to wake sleeping computers for backup, reducing overall energy expenditure.
• "Complete backup of server clients"—applies to physical and virtual Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows XP/Vista clients. That includes those running within VMware Fusion and Parallels, and provides preservation of system state and backup of open files.

The same beta announcement included a new edition/pricing structure ^[15]—which has basically remained the same since—of three English language editions:

• "Retrospect 8.0 Desktop 3-User"—protected a single, non-OS-X-Server "backup server" Mac and up to two additional [since expanded to five additional] "client" Mac, Linux, or Windows desktops and laptops. Additional desktop/laptop "client" licenses and support and maintenance were marketed separately.
• "Retrospect 8.0 Single Server"—protected a single Mac OS X Server (on a machine which had to be also the "backup server"^[16]) and an unlimited number of "client" Mac, Linux, and Windows desktops and laptops. It included 1 year support and maintenance.
• "Retrospect 8.0 Multi Server"—protected an unlimited number of LAN/WAN Mac servers (any of which could be "backup servers"), Linux and Windows servers, "client" desktops, and "client" laptops. It included 1 year support and maintenance.

There were two major problems with Retrospect Macintosh 8:^[3] Its UI made significant changes—including terminology—to prior versions of Retrospect, and it was very buggy—especially the Retrospect Console. That may explain why it was apparently canceled at one point,^[10] and why its User's Guide wasn't put on the Web until 2011.

Retrospect Macintosh 9

Along with continued fixes of bugs left over from Retrospect Macintosh 8, the most-major new features added in 2011—each starting with the Retrospect Inc. feature name in quotes—were:^[17]

• "User-initiated backups and restores"—from a "client" computer so long as an appropriate "backup server" process is running. These supplement the administrator-initiated backups and restores which Retrospect has always had. A user-initiated backup cannot be used to fully backup a "client" system; it is instead intended for quick protection of a few folders or files. The administrator, using the Console, pre-designates the Media Set onto which user-initiated "client" backups are to be done; if a Member of that Media Set is not mounted on the "backup server" when a user initiates a backup, the administrator may respond to the backup's message on the Console's Activity panel by either mounting an existing or new Member or by stopping the backup. The user designates the date of the past backup from which files or folders are to be restored; if the proper Member of the proper Media Set is not mounted on the "backup server" when a user initiates a restore, the administrator may respond to the restore's message on the Console's Activity panel by either mounting the Member or by stopping the restore.^[11]
• "Improved client preferences"—which may be accessed by clicking on an icon on the "client's" menu bar.
• "Support for WebDAV and network shares"^[11]—can be backed up or used for a Media Set location. Cloud/LAN/WAN address and any required log-in information must be specified.
• "[view-only] Console for iPhone"—application released as a view-Activities-only experimental project around 2010. Its expanded-to-view-all-categories existence was acknowledged in later editions of the User's Guide—in the "Retrospect for iOS" appendix.^[11]

Retrospect Macintosh 10 and Retrospect Windows 8

The most-major new features added in 2013—each starting with the Retrospect Inc. feature name in quotes—were:^[1]

• "Instant Scan technology"—reduces scanning time on both backups and restores. An optional additional root process, running on the "backup server" and/or a "Retrospect client", now pre-scans NTFS volumes—by employing the USN Journal—and HFS+ volumes—by employing FSEvents registration—connected to that machine.^[18] This enables Retrospect, in combination with the Media Set's Catalog File, to determine which files have changed since the previous backup. Because the additional root process requires substantial RAM, a user can disable Instant Scan via the Retrospect Preferences on a particular "client". However, from the Console Sources panel detail pane for a particular "client", the administrator can prevent the user from disabling Instant Scan on that "client"—thus choosing backup speed^[1] over user RAM conservation.
• "All-new Retrospect Client for Windows"—incorporates the features that were added to the Retrospect Client for Macintosh software in Retrospect Macintosh 8 and 9.

In 2013 almost all of the underlying features of Retrospect Macintosh 8 that had not already been in Retrospect Windows 7, together with the new features of Retrospect Macintosh 9 and 10, were ported to a new Retrospect Windows 8. One exception is that, because of security features added to Windows Vista and beyond, the equivalent of the separate Retrospect Mac Console user-space process and "backup server" root process must be a single user-space process under Windows—which can result in access problems if the Windows "backup server" Retrospect process is not kept running continually. Another exception is that the old Disk type has been kept as the Removable Disk type, because some Retrospect Windows administrators continue to backup to "superfloppies". In addition a Dissimilar Hardware Restore Add-On was added to Retrospect Windows 8, giving it the capability of restoring an entire machine to a completely different computer—including after-the-fact automatic adjustment of drivers to account for differences in the hardware.

At the same time the User's Guide for Retrospect Windows^[18] was expanded from slightly over 250 pages to nearly 700 pages. Some of the extra pages describe the extra Add-On features available only for Retrospect Windows 8, but a lot of them describe the use of features in much more fine-grained detail than in the Retrospect Macintosh 10 User's Guide. Contributing to the need for this detail is the fact that Retrospect Windows 8 and following editions have kept—probably to avoid confusing the administrator as Retrospect Macintosh 8 had—the same non-Macintosh-style UI and former terminology that Retrospect Windows 7 had. For instance, what Retrospect Macintosh 8 and following editions call a Media Set is still called a Backup Set in Retrospect Windows. Moreover, what is called a Copy Media Set operation in Retrospect Macintosh 8 and following is called a Transfer Backup Set operation in Retrospect Windows. In Retrospect Windows, what is called a Copy operation in Retrospect Macintosh 8 and following is still called a Duplicate operation.

On the other hand, starting with Retrospect Macintosh 8 its User's Guide had—possibly in an attempt to keep from expanding the existing number of pages despite new features—eliminated Snapshot (see "Concepts prior to Retrospect Windows 7" section above) as official terminology. It still says in the Glossary of Terms "Retrospect now uses the term backup to include both session and Snapshot data."^[19] It will be evident from this quote that Snapshots still exist in the Retrospect Macintosh Engine/Console/Client programs; it's just that the absence of the Snapshot as terminology makes it impossible for modern Retrospect Macintosh User's Guides to satisfactorily explain the functioning of the Retrieve and Forget buttons in the List View Toolbar for the Console's Past Backups pane.

Retrospect Macintosh 11 and Retrospect Windows 9

The most-major new features added in 2014—each starting with the announcement section heading name in quotes—were:^[11]

• "Block Level Incremental Backup"—the ability to back up only the blocks of a file that have changed, a refinement of incremental backup. Many applications have large files that are constantly changing by small increments; such applications include FileMaker and Microsoft Outlook for Windows.
• "High-level Dashboard"—within this Console panel displayed by clicking the name of the "backup server" itself in the sidebar, an Activities pane on the top left has a moving bar graph for each activity going on for the chosen "backup server" together with a Pause and Stop Button for the activity. To the right of that, a Backups pane has a line for each day—most-recent to least-recent—of the past week, showing the total number of bytes backed up followed by a bar graph that breaks that total down into alternating-color segments by Source—sequenced in reverse order of the Source's time of backup. When the cursor is hovered over a bar graph segment in the Backups panel, the Source's name and a count of files and bytes backed up appear. Below these panes are two Sources panes; the left one shows a line for each Source backed up in the last 7 days in most-recent to least-recent sequence; the right one shows a line for each Source not backed up in the past 7 days. Below the Sources panes is a Storage pane with a line for each Media Set in ascending last-modified-date sequence; each line shows the last-modified date, total bytes used, a bar graph of the percent used vs. available, and the total bytes available for that Media Set.
• "Improved Email Reporting"—an e-mail body that consists of the backup script's log, thus pinpointing the errors and warnings.
• "Improved Linux support"—adds "client" software for a number of native 64-bit Linux distributions, in addition to the existing/new "client" software for a number of native 32-bit Linux distributions.

Retrospect Macintosh 12 and Retrospect Windows 10

The most-major new features added in 2015—each starting with the announcement section heading name in quotes—were:^[19]

• "Improved Grooming"—in addition to increased speed, there is a new option allowing specification of the number of months of backup to keep. This option, which works within the Retrospect policy of keeping the last backup of each day/week/month for the last respective week/month/specified-number-of-months, permits compliance with regulatory requirements.
• "Improved Reporting"—customized e-mail summaries are now generated for runs of backup scripts. These include a one-line summary at the top, a subject line that now includes the script name and number of errors and warnings, and an e-mail body that (as with Retrospect v11/v9) consists of the script log—pinpointing the errors and warnings.

Retrospect Macintosh 13 and Retrospect Windows 11

The most-major new features added in 2016—each starting with the Retrospect Inc. feature name in quotes—were:^[20]

• "Cloud Backup"—a new Cloud Media Set Type enables backup/restore/utility operations on data stored with Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage (and Dropbox as of v13.5/11.5^[21]), and with various certified regional AWS-S3-compatible cloud storage providers. This supplements the (poorly-documented for Retrospect Windows) WebDAV-compatible cloud provider shares available since Retrospect Macintosh 9. Retrospect is now also certified for AWS-S3-compatible Basho Riak S2 free open-source (and for non-free Cloudian HyperStore as of v13.5/11.5) software for private cloud storage.^[21] In "cloud backup/restore" operations, the "backup server" acts as a "second-level client" intermediary between LAN/WAN "Retrospect client" machines and the actual cloud storage. A key UI facility^[22] permits switching a Cloud Media Set's Member Type from Local Storage to Cloud Storage, so that backups stored on a local dis-connectable disk can be physically shipped to the cloud storage site, and then "seeded" to a previously-established cloud storage account. In reverse, switching a Cloud Backup Set's Member Type from Cloud Storage to Local Storage enables "large scale recovery" of data copied from the cloud storage account onto a dis-connectable disk, and then physically shipped to the local site of the "backup server".
• "Performance-Optimized Grooming"—a new mode of Grooming only removes outdated information from a Media Set that it can quickly delete. This is the only mode of Grooming allowed for Cloud Media Sets. However "performance-optimized" Grooming is also up to 5 times as fast when used on locally stored Disk Media Sets. The trade-off is that the "storage-optimized" Grooming mode, which has existed since Retrospect Windows 7, reclaims more space because it rewrites the Media Set.

• "Faster Catalog [File] Rebuild"—rebuilding a Media Set's Catalog File by scanning the Media Set's members is now up to 3 times as fast. This operation is occasionally necessary for such reasons as failure of the disk where the Catalog File is stored.

Documentation

Retrospect software is aimed at a different class of administrator users than Time Machine or CrashPlan, and thus has facilities—including on-demand and utility functions not covered in this article—that are demonstrably not graspable in half-an-hour spent only with the Console UI. In the past, a typical administrator new user has had to at least skim 100 to 150 pages of (1) User's Guide text, and has had to spend about 5 hours setting up multi-script multi-client automated backup. During the last 4 years Retrospect Inc. has tried to simplify this using two different approaches: (2) How-To Video Tutorials on YouTube to enable new users to skip reading sections of the User's Guide.^[23] (3) Knowledge Base articles discussing particular features in more detail without further expanding the User's Guides.^[24]

There are some problems with each of these approaches:

• (1) The sequence in which Sources are processed by Scripts—both the default and the method of changing it, mentioned in the "Retrospect Macintosh 8" section above, is not discussed in any User's Guide. Moreover the need for some administrators using multicast access to reliably communicate with "client" computers on the local subnet by giving them fixed DHCP addresses (via the router) is not discussed in any User's Guide (although this used not to be necessary in earlier versions, and may be an unfixed bug). On the other hand, because the Retrospect Windows User's Guide is now substantially different from the Retrospect Macintosh User's Guide, there seem to be some problems keeping the updates in sync. For example, both User's Guides have since v12/v10 had a section in an introductory chapter entitled "High-level Dashboard", which describes the feature added in v11/v9. However recent Macintosh User's Guides also have a section entitled "Using the Dashboard" in a chapter towards the back of the UG entitled "Managing Retrospect"; this section still describes the Dashboard prior to v11/v9, when it was simply an overview of some "reports that come with the program" as well as some "ones that you have created yourself".^[19] For another example, the only mention of WebDAV shares in the Retrospect Windows User's Guides for v9 and above is a Release Note for Retrospect Windows 8 that refers to an incorrect page number—but gives an apparently-important requirement for the UNC path.^[18] However the equivalent WebDAV mention in the "What's New" chapter in the Retrospect Macintosh 9 User's Guide Addendum did make its way to a paragraph in another chapter of later versions of the Macintosh User's Guide.^[11]
• (2) The How-To Video Tutorials, which (from similarities between the voice on these and the voicemail announcement on his office phone extension) are obviously created by the Director of Retrospect Support Services, are each designed to be less than 3 minutes in length. This means that certain tricky key concepts, such as how to do "seeding" in "Changing paths Cloud Mac",^[22] go by so quickly that many users have not been able to grasp them without multiple viewings.
• (3) The Retrospect Inc. team of people that currently writes most of the Knowledge Base articles, undoubtedly because it is aware of the underlying technical similarities between Retrospect Windows and Retrospect Macintosh, has from v13.0/11.0 been writing single articles that show both the Retrospect Windows and Retrospect Macintosh UIs for a particular feature. That can result in skipping a UI step for one platform or the other, as it has recently done for Retrospect Macintosh "Adding Cloud Storage in Retrospect" in "Cloud Backup - How to Set Up Dropbox for Cloud Backup".^[25] It also makes it difficult to split the same Knowledge Base articles for later insertion in the appropriate User's Guides.

Also, as noted in the last paragraph of the "Retrospect Macintosh 10 and Retrospect Windows 8" section, there is at least one deficiency that seems to have resulted from trying to control any increase in the number of pages in the (1) Retrospect Macintosh User's Guide. In at least that case it helps the Macintosh administrator user to read the Retrospect Windows User's Guide.

"Backup server" Editions and Add-Ons

(A user's "backup server" Edition and Add-Ons are controlled by license codes; there is only one "server" executable distributed for Retrospect Macintosh and one distributed for Retrospect Windows. In addition, one Retrospect "client" executable is distributed for each applicable combination of machine architecture and OS.)

As in Retrospect Macintosh 8, a user's "Retrospect backup server" Edition is dictated by the number of macOS Server or Windows Server computers being backed up in the installation. If there are no such Server OS computers being backed up, the installation can use the Desktop Edition—which for Retrospect Macintosh restricts the Console process to being on the same computer as the single single-threaded "backup server" process (thus mimicking the UI situation prior to Retrospect Macintosh 8).

Each Edition marketed by Retrospect Inc. specifies a maximum number of "Retrospect client" computers that may be accessed by the "Retrospect server". Licenses for additional "Workstation Clients n-Packs" and "Server Clients" are also marketed.

One Add-On is to protect open NTFS files on Windows systems. This is needed if the installation needs to backup e.g. Quickbooks continuously running on Windows. The Add-On is free for the Desktop Edition.

Another Add-On is Advanced Tape Support, for backing up to multiple single tape drives simultaneously or to a dual-tape autoloader. Even the Desktop Edition supports backing up to a single non-autoloader tape drive, but backing up to a single autoloader tape drive requires at least the Single Server Edition.

Retrospect Inc. markets additional Retrospect Windows Add-Ons for installations backing up Microsoft Exchange servers, Microsoft SQL servers, and VMware servers. It also markets Retrospect Windows Add-Ons for Dissimilar Hardware Restore of boot volumes.

The combinations of Editions and Add-Ons marketed are complicated enough that Retrospect Inc. has an online Product Configurator that prices purchases and upgrades.^[26] The sophistication of the Dantz Development online store is reportedly one reason why EMC bought that company.^[3]

References

External links

• Official website