Once you attune the backup software to your preferences, you will find that it requires a minimum of your daily attention. The software may communicate with you via notification alerts concerning successful or failed backups and via the history pane. The software will also allow you to schedule the time of your next backup.

Screenshots are available as complements to descriptions below. Simply click on the or the logo for a platform specific graphic.

This page includes the following five sections:

Life Sciences Backups Specifics

The Retrospect Client (Remote) Control Panel

User Preferences

Client-side Scheduling

Sessions

You may also wish to visit the Frequently Asked Questions section for more information.

Life Sciences Backups Specifics

Prior to each backup session, your software will ask you for permission to continue and allow you to reschedule a backup session.

Even though such requests for confirmation may minimise interruptions, you also have a choice to fully eliminate backup attempts during all work days or on a day to day basis. Our servers follow two backup schedules; the first allows backup session during work hours (currently, 8am through 5pm every Monday through Friday), while the other schedule covers all other times (currently, 5pm through 8am every Monday through Friday and all through the weekend). We run daytime backups for people who are uneasy about leaving computers running without their presence, but overall, the nightly and weekend schedule alleviates network congestion for everyone and gets rid of needless interruptions for you. So, if at all possible, let us back up your computer during off hours. To confirm your computer's backup schedule or switch it between schedules, just send us a request.

We keep backup sets for up to six months. Please do not rely on us to archive your data automatically. We will gladly archive your files by request onto your own media, and such, you may keep as long as you wish.

The Retrospect Client (Remote) control panel

Top pane

In addition to product related information, this pane identifies the version of the software on your computer. We periodically upgrade all clients automatically as the server software handles this task for us over the network.

Here, you also have access to the global On/Off switch. Please note that turning your control panel off will prevent any backups until you turn the software back on.

Finally, you'll find the Preferences button.

Main pane

The Activator Code, located near the top, allows for unencumbered distribution of the backup client software. As you may have found in the installation section, almost anyone has access to the software. As means of copy protection, this software is useless unless assigned a unique Activator Code.

Next down, you'll note the Client Name (or Remote Name) which serves as your network identity to our servers. For troubleshooting convenience, we name clients with the machine owner's last and first names followed by an optional computer name.

The Status pane relates the current state of your backup software. Here, you'll find messages concerning your connection to the server, software failure, or simply the Ready idle state indicator.

The History pane keeps a record of recent execution events; you may check previous events by clicking within the MacOS version's pane or via the scroll bar within the Windows version's pane. The detailed messages indicate the time and date of execution, the identity of the server responsible for the event, the volume backed up, and a count errors (if any occurred). If a file changes while a server attempts to back up your data, the backup software will log an execution error. These are especially common on computers running QuickMail or other software that tends to run continuously in the background. Should you grow concerned about persistent errors or should their number exceed 5 per session, please send us a problem report, and we will investigate on our end.

Preferences

Execution

The first three settings control the availability of your computer for backups. Wait at Shutdown allows you to turn your computer off at the end of the day, have it wait for a backup, and then shut itself fully off at completion. While your computer awaits a backup, a screen saver will automatically protect your monitor. It does not hurt to have this setting selected even if you rarely shut off your computer as you may always fully shutdown or restart your computer at a click of a mouse while it is wating. Restarting your computer does not invoke this feature.

Selecting Run in Background taps the multi-tasking features of the operating system and allows a backup to proceed while you are using your computer or if it is doing something else. We recommend that you keep this setting on. If you are concerned about conflicts with optimal use of your computer, consider scheduling your backups during off hours or temporarily deferring execution.

The Priority slider bar controls to what degree your computer resources will be diverted to a backup from other active tasks. Setting a high User priority may minimise your hassles, but it will adversely affect all other backup candidates. Consider, your computer allows the backup session to creep on at a slow pace; a session that would normally finish within minutes may evolve into hours and postpone sessions for all other folks scheduled you. The worst case scenario involves computers that run processor-intensive screen savers like AfterDark. A computer set for maximum User priority will devote most resources to the screen saver despite the fact that no one is using it at the time. We recommend that you keep priority set at maximum Backup and take advantage of our scheduling choices to solve possible inconveniences. Our server software also allows us to skip client machines that are too slow, and we take advantage of this feature (although, our current threshhold is rather forgiving). However, we do rely on it to skip computers that require 8 hours to back up 40MB of data, for example.

Access

If you are concerned about data security or privacy, the Read Access Only and the Private Files/Folders/Volumes switches may allay some of your fears.

Specifically, Read Access Only permits the server top copy your data, but not to write anything on your drives. Considering that we will only write back to your drives when we restore files at your request, this feature makes little sense within our environment. Conversely, keeping it switched on may prevent us from finishing a restore in a speediest manner possible as we may have to interrupt our porcess to wait for you to give us write privileges. Keeping Read Access Only off may simply save us hassles in the future.

The other security feature, Private Files/Folders/Volumes is a nifty alternative to storing private files on removable media or within password encrypted archives. The backup software will simply ignore any item designated as private and it will never be copied onto our tapes. However, should you lose a private file or folder, we will have no way to restore it (barring attempts to undelete it with a disk utility)!

Finally, the Windows version of the software allows one to explicitly exclude files and directories by adding them to a list kept internally by the backup software on each client.

Notification

The next two settings define a degree to which you wish to be notified about your backups. You may either be alerted about every successful backup, a lack of a backup after so many days, or both. Feel free to keep the success notification setting as you wish. However, we do urge you to keep the failure notification option turned on and set the period between backups to two or three days. As we strive to back up each computer daily, a lack of a backup after two days likely indicates a problem, and we recommend that you report such, should it occur.

BackupServer

This last area provides access to client-based scheduling options, a topic covered in a section to follow.

Client-side Scheduling

As soon as possible

This option requests a backup ahead of the next normally scheduled session. Please realise that this does not translate into an immediate backup. Rather, the server will periodically poll your client, note the As soon as possible request, and schedule your computer next after all other candidates currently due for a backup. One drawback of our two-schedule environment rests on a limitation of our server whereby it only checks clients it considers active under its current schedule. That is, if you've chosen the night and weekend schedule, but request an As soon as possible backup during the day, your request will not be processed until the evening script activates. The same is true for the daytime script.

Normal schedule

Your backup software provides a mechanism to cancel a custom schedule set previously. Simply select Back up according to normal schedule to accomplish this.

Run after

This third option allows you to defer execution until a certain day and time up to a week in the future. You may cancel such a postponed backup by either choosing another time or by choosing the normal schedule option.

Requests for Backup Session Permission

Permitting a session

Each time one of our server attempts to back up your computer, it will first attempt to get your permission to proceed. A request for permission will linger on your screen for a few seconds; should you not answer within the period allotted, the server will assume your permission. Thus, our servers do not require your presence to proceed with a backup session.

Deferring a session

Should you choose to defer a backup session, you may do so up to one week in the future. Should you choose otherwise, the server will start the backup session.