Thanks for the response on my original questions. In the sake of
clarity/brevity, I will do some cut and pasting with the response, and try to
make this note shorter..... Hopefully I won't delete too much so that it no
longer makes any sense (not that I have been accused of making sense in the
past). And yes, I was talking the Win32 client.
> [Nice comments about installation deleted]
One thing to tie in to another thread that's going around - I installed into
the same directory as before, and I found that the DSMCSVCI utility was NOT
deleted (FWIW).
> Do you have 3.1.0.1 installed? I didn't try this with 3.1.0.0, but I did
> try it with 3.1.0.1 and I did not notice this problem. With Backup/Archive
> events only checked, I saw only backup-archive schedules. With Admin events
> only checked, I saw only Admin schedules.
Yes, I have 3.1.0.1 - downloaded from your FTP server, via the ADSM home page
(through Netscape). I went back and checked again today, and it appears that
the check in the backup/archive box is ignored. If I remove the check from
the admin box, I don't get them, but I always get the backup schedules. I
have the 3 boxes below that set with a "*" in them - policy domain, node name
and schedule name. I will enter this as a problem later today.
Now for the real goodies - I am changing order here a little bit....
>> I haven't done a scheduled backup yet, but the interface here in the GUI
>> makes me wonder what the batch program will select as a local drive?
> I believe that DSMC will pick up only real local drives, excluding CD-ROMs,
> if the ALL-LOCAL domain is used.
The short answer is "I can't tell - the scheduled backup failed! And on what
appears to be another bug/design change. I have not excluded the two
registry files on my c:\Winnt directory - NTUSER.DAT and NTUSER.DAT.LOG.
Each day I would get two failures, as these are "locked" files. the V2.1.6
client would skip over them and keep chugging. This morning, I got the
messages indicating that the two files couldn't be backed up, but then the
backup terminated. There was no indication that it ever did back up anything
these files are not normally the first files that are encountered in the
backup of my C: drive. Now you could make the case that I should exclude
these files (and I probably will), but more importantly, my response back is
that you should NEVER terminate a backup because you couldn't gain access to
a file. I will contact you on this one also.
And now for the real Meat of the note :-)>
The thing that really got me going on this was how EASY (and in this case it was
not a virtue) to back up my Network or CD ROM.....
First, I did notice that the interface looks like the Windows Explorer - I am a
heavy user of the explorer, and the similarity was not lost on me. And
similarity (or should I say "consistent look and feel"? :-) is a good thing as
well - it leads to intuitive execution, which I always a supporter of.
What I don't want to see, and what should NOT be there, is the little gray box
on the first two levels of the hierarchy grid. Here is why I say that.
1. I open the backup window. I am faced with a dialog box with one entry - the
name of my computer. If I check this box, the result will be to back up EVERY
FILE I HAVE ACCESS TO REGARDLESS OF WHERE IT IS! If it is on my local drive -
fine. If it is on my CD ROM - fine. If it is on a server anywhere in my
network - fine. ADSM V3 will back it up.
I submit this is "not fine". The answer is simple - remove the gray box.
2. I click on the + box next to my computer name. I am faced with two entries
now - Network files spaces and local filespaces. Again, I have a gray box next
to each. Again, the choices are NOT what I want as an administrator, and not
what should be faced by a client - see above for results.
Again - this is "not fine" The answer is simple - remove the gray box.
3. If I then click on the + for my local drives, and I see all of my local
"stuff" This is where the little gray boxes start to mean something relevant to
what a client should want. I might be able to make a case for a change in
default here - what "might" be acceptable here is for the "round, brown
spinning" drives to be highlighted - at least some indication of what a default
operation would be. I want to think about this some more.
As for what I tried to do in the first place - In my first attempt to use the
backup client, I wanted to just backup the root of the c: drive. When I clicked
on the gray box next to the drive, I got everything on the C: drive. I
understand the process you included in your response; and the process is
consistent with Windows types of activities - again a good thing. But what I
was also looking for was consistency with the old release. In short - leave in
the "CNTL - left click" option on the name of the root.
In other words, If I click the box on a level of a directory hierarchy (except
on the top two as noted above), then select the level and everything below it.
But if I want to backup just a single level, let me "CNTL-click" on the name of
the directory (such as the root of my C: drive) and select just that level.
This has the benefit of being both consistent with the windows paradigm, and
with the tradition of previous releases. And it also gives the client the
option of selecting a directory "tree" at any point from the top of a drive on
down.
>> Type of backup box....
I agree with your comments - backing up a deleted file is an Oxymoron. Why not
just be consistent with the past here too - options should be "Incremental",
"Quick Incremental" and perhaps "absolute" or possibly "all files". This list
should NOT be in collating sequence - Incremental should be the default.
Old GUI comments - I was never what I would say "fond" of the old GUI - I
especially didn't like the OS/2 version that wouldn't collapse. I just told
people that the lack of an easy way to select more than one directory was a
design choice, and everyone seemed to agree with it. But the pendulum has gone
too far in the other direction.
**** This note has gone on for too long, but I do have some corrections and
additional findings....
First, I was incorrect yesterday - it did back up my MUSIC CD ROM - at least the
"director" entries - I have little files called Track01.cda, Track02.cda, etc.
each with a size of 44 bytes. More junk to fill up my DB!
In the restore window, something that is no longer available is the date of the
last incremental backup for this drive. This used to be right next to the
drive, and has helped me out more times than you can imagine. Now it doesn't
seem to be anywhere. This should never have been dropped.
Now for some Good things -
1. The GUI backup client now recognizes PASSWORDACCESS GENERATE (at least on NT
it does) - and doesn't ask for a password. Thank you!
2. In the admin GUI - the information on custom sizing that I do (such as
shrinking or expanding column widths) is saved and used the next time I enter a
screen. !!!!!! Thanks again.
End of soapbox.
Jerry Lawson
jlawson AT thehartford DOT com
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