Scheduler

I used the scheduler/'Action' last night for the first time.

I started an 'Interval' action at 10pm, for every 4 hours. So, then next being 2am, then 6am, 10am and so on.

I got in to work to find it saying the next action will be at 10am! Bingo, I thought. It's worked.

However, I open the archive and there is nothing in it to say anything happened after the initial 10pm action.

I restarted the action this morning and watched it! Even after that, it still shows nothing in the archive, nor in the logs window.

Am I missing something?

James

CaB Studios wrote:Am I missing something?

You're probably missing detail.

Move the detail slider in the log window to the right. My guess is the missing actions will appear in the log.

QRecall only captures changes. If there are no changes, no new layer is added to the archive. Also, the log messages for a capture action that didn't capture anything are demoted to "minutia" so it doesn't down out the more significant log messages about things that did happen.

Move the detail slider in the log window to the right. My guess is the missing actions will appear in the log.

Did that but nothing else to see: nice feature though!

QRecall only captures changes.

That explains it. No one was logged in at 2am.....funny that?

Just doing a backup of all the graphic design documents currently being actioned...over 700GB. Should give the quanta technology something to play with!

Still loving the software.....

Thanks,
James

CaB Studios wrote:

Move the detail slider in the log window to the right. My guess is the missing actions will appear in the log.

No one was logged in at 2am.....

QRecall doesn't normally run actions when the user is logged out.

If you want it to, set the Start and run actions while logged out option in the Scheduler preferences. This installs the scheduler process as a system daemon that runs even while you're logged out.

You can actually schedule an action to run when you log out (or in), if that's useful. There are also power management options that will wake/start your computer before an action runs, or shutdown/restart/sleep your system after it's finished.

QRecall doesn't normally run actions when the user is logged out.

Forgive me, I meant users on the domain were not working on any of the file shares on the server. The server is where QRecall resides, archiving data to several FW800 drives.

Then maybe I've misunderstood the problem.

If you scheduled an action to run, and it didn't (nothing in the log when set to the highest detail setting and the filters set to show all activity), then please send a diagnostic report (Help > Send Report...). It may contain some clue as to why the actions didn't run.

OK.

I'll have to wait for this mammoth 700GB to backup first. It's done 260GB so far and has been running for 3hrs 55mins.

Once complete I'll replicate the Action to do intervals throughout the day.

Are you guys in the US I take it?

CaB Studios wrote:I'll have to wait for this mammoth 700GB to backup first. It's done 260GB so far and has been running for 3hrs 55mins.

Yes, a 700GB capture is going to take awhile.

If QRecall ever gets in the way to doing something, you can always stop the capture and reschedule it to run later. It will leave an incomplete layer in the archive, but the next capture will still take advantage of the work that's been done and pick up where the last capture left off. (You can merge the two layers if you don't like incomplete layers in your archive.)

Are you guys in the US I take it?

Sunny Arizona!

If QRecall ever gets in the way to doing something, you can always stop the capture and reschedule it to run later. It will leave an incomplete layer in the archive, but the next capture will still take advantage of the work that's been done and pick up where the last capture left off. (You can merge the two layers if you don't like incomplete layers in your archive.)

I think that explains it better than the manual! That's a great way of consolidating archives!

We're just south of Birmingham in the UK. You just had to rub it in and mention 'sunny'! Wettest summer ever! Thankfully we're all feeling very proud of the best Olympics ever and Andy Murray finally winning a major! Woohoo!

I shall post tomorrow's results to you guys after I've tested some interval archives.

I'm thinking of rotating 2 x 4TB FireWire 800 drives to perform the archives so I can take them offsite. Does this sound sensible in terms of best practice?

Thanks
James

CaB Studios wrote:We're just south of Birmingham in the UK. You just had to rub it in and mention 'sunny'! Wettest summer ever!

Thankfully we're all feeling very proud of the best Olympics ever and Andy Murray finally winning a major! Woohoo!

I still have synchronized swimming saved on my DVR. Trying to make it last a little longer...

I'm thinking of rotating 2 x 4TB FireWire 800 drives to perform the archives so I can take them offsite. Does this sound sensible in terms of best practice?

There are action schedule features designed specifically for that. There are basically two approaches:

The first is to create capture actions that run on a regular schedule for archive A. Add a schedule condition to ignore the action if the archive isn't available. Duplicate all of those actions, then set the target of the duplicate actions to archive B. Now you have two concurrent set of actions that will run automatically, but only those that apply to the currently connected archive will run. You can then rotate your drives on whatever schedule you like.

The second alternative is a little more immediate. Create event-based schedules that run the capture action when the archive is mounted. Then your capture A action will start immediately when you plug in backup drive A. Eject A, put it in a safe place, plug in backup drive B, and the B capture starts immediately. Event actions can optionally be set to repeat if you leave the drive plugged in.