Flaky execution of scheduled backups? No Sat. AM in "Daily"?

[DrDan in MA]

OK, Sys wakeup set for 03:30, CroniX modified my CronTab (originally set by SD! as 03:30) ahead 30 seconds to 3:30:30 as before.

I went to the NMS "SETUP SLEEP HOLDS" screen and as I think you wanted, entered the following info into the 8 boxes at the bottom of the screen. [n] is box numbering convention, rows first.

[1] [sdcopy.root] [SuperDuper:0] [4]

[1] [2] [Copy Job:0] [4]

I put sdcopy.root in box 2 of row 1 because the field had previously been filled with an example ending in .root -- shows ya that I have no real understanding of what's up here.

All three boxes -- 2 and 3 of row 1, and 3 of row 2, now have system-supplied checkboxes to their left. I made no other changes to the SETUP SLEEP HOLDS screen.

I've now QUIT out of NMS Sleep Assist and await events tonight.

I'm not quite clear on why this exercise was actually necessary; after all, last nite the backup was in fact done, though SD was launched at 03:31 rather than 03:30:30 as the modified CronTab said. More data by tomorrow in any case.

[dnanian]

We'll see if this prevents sleep from happening too quickly in those cases where you had problems, Dan.

[DrDan in MA]

This morning's data: Mini backup took place successfully; SysWakeup 0329, SD! session scheduled 0330, no CronniX or NMS Sleep Assist installed or active, log of session says that it was scheduled for 03:30, log of session records that activity actually began at 03:30:30.

Al-PbG4 backup successful; SysWakeup 0329, SD! session scheduled 0330, CronniX moved that crontab to 03:30:30, NMS Sleep Assist settings as described by you and executed by me, title of log of session says that it was scheduled for 3:31, log of session records that activity actually began 03:31:15 (I wasn't there to see what happened when, but it's a safe assumption that SD! was summoned at 03:31. The processor on Al-PbG4 is slightly faster than the Mini's... Does that explain the 15 seconds less in startup time? Think not).

Anyhow, that's today's batch. More later. Still wondering whether anyone else is reporting flaky SD runs when invoked from sleep...?

[dnanian]

Well, that's good so far, Dan. Let's see how it works moving forward.

We have occasional reports of people with issues like this, but it's not terribly common, no.

[DrDan in MA]

I was up at 0325 this AM after both CPUs had been asleep for about 4 hours. I touched neither of 'em.

Mini: awoke normally from sleep at 0329 and ran SD! at 0330 without incident.

Al-PbG4: it never awoke from sleep, and so it never got a chance to run SD! or the other sleep-extenders etc. I woke it up and ran SD! myself later; when I awoke from my own sleep at 0700, I saw the successful 3-green-band window.

I would've liked to know where the log (if any) for that hand-started session is -- though I remember the trick on disclosing the hidden "Logs" subdir, nothing of interest was there... it seems to me that if that run had aborted, there would be a log that would exist somehow... is it anywhere?

I wonder whether there's a fix for "Sleeping Beauty syndrome" (when a Mac's scheduled to awake but doesn't)... and where I would find such a fix...

[dnanian]

You could perhaps try resetting the power manager, Dan. That's different for nearly every Mac, so check the Apple site.

The hand-started session log would be available by making the main window active and doing Cmd-L (or showing the log window).

[DrDan in MA]

Tnx for the pointer to the location of the last successful logfile. I look forward to the results of your thinking on how to somehow consolidate the world of LogFiles.

I just got off the phone with AppleCare -- they had me uncheck the OSX 10.4.5 Energy Saver option "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" -- these boxes had been checked on both of my computers.

Of course, the Mini had been doing its scheduled backup regularly, and the Pb hadn't; and now both of them are set "NOT to put their hard disk(s) to sleep." So I'm not entirely certain this is the fix for the PB.

The AppleCare rep put it well -- "so what you want is to be able to wake your Mac PowerBook up not from just sleep, but from deep sleep." Apparently the latter is when the disks are asleep as well. And the proposed fix is not to allow the disks to sleep -- which is fine by me, since all this is in "Settings for Power Adapter" anyhow.

More data on SD! performance by tomorrow. I promise to let enough time elapse before 0329 or 0330 to let any "deep sleep" set in; but I think that "deep sleep" is a thing of the past.

[dnanian]

Um, I really don't think he had an idea, actually, Dan...

[mikeap]

Hey Dave,
What about a built inn emailer, as used for sending the log file to support, that can email me at my address when a scheduled backup does not execture for whatever reason. My NAS device emails me every time the power goes out, a drive goes bad, a firmware is needed, etc. How about that kind of reporting when a backup fails?
Mike

[dnanian]

Take a look on the Forums, Mike, and I think you'll find some good examples of exactly that!

[drlotto]

Originally Posted by DrDan in MA

Tnx for the pointer to the location of the last successful logfile. I look forward to the results of your thinking on how to somehow consolidate the world of LogFiles.

I just got off the phone with AppleCare -- they had me uncheck the OSX 10.4.5 Energy Saver option "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" -- these boxes had been checked on both of my computers.

Of course, the Mini had been doing its scheduled backup regularly, and the Pb hadn't; and now both of them are set "NOT to put their hard disk(s) to sleep." So I'm not entirely certain this is the fix for the PB.

The AppleCare rep put it well -- "so what you want is to be able to wake your Mac PowerBook up not from just sleep, but from deep sleep." Apparently the latter is when the disks are asleep as well. And the proposed fix is not to allow the disks to sleep -- which is fine by me, since all this is in "Settings for Power Adapter" anyhow.

More data on SD! performance by tomorrow. I promise to let enough time elapse before 0329 or 0330 to let any "deep sleep" set in; but I think that "deep sleep" is a thing of the past.

DrDan,
Wish I had seen this thread sooner, hopefully you're still out there. I've had the same problem as you (with less determination to figure it out). I've got a Mini set to wake at 1:14 A with SD to "Erase and Back-up" to a FW ExtHD starting at 1:15 A. When I wake at ~8:30 A (I'm a bum) and manually wake my Mini at ~8:32 A, I see SD open and counting down to start backing up. I'm pretty sure SD doesn't have a 8 h 15 min countdown. I've rest the Power Managing Unit a couple of time to no avail.
The most I can add to this thread (despite empathy) is that I downloaded and installed DssW Sleepmonitor to track this behaviour. I highly recommend it. I've only had one back up session that has recorded and it shows the system waking at the appropriate time and shows the mini prepares to sleep 3 min 18 sec later. Interestingly, after 30 sec it logs that it cannot sleep. This "prepared-cannot wake" cycle repeated every 3-5 min until the computer finally went to sleep 7 h 39 m 1 s later. Unfortunately, I thought because of the "prepared-cannot wake" cycling that the back-up worked and did not pay attention to what happened when I manually woke it. After going back to the back-up files I realized they weren't updated. I have the mini set to back up 2x a week Sun and Wed so tomorrow I'll pay more attention and will try to report if anyone is interested. My current hypothesis: Since I have the hardrives set to sleep when possible, I think my internal HD starts but my external HD doesn't. SD may be waiting for the External to start. If that is the problem, I'm not sure how to fix it as I do not want the drives spinning all the time.

DrLotto

[dnanian]

Drive sleep should be entirely independent of "sleep" -- when we run, a "sleeping" drive should still appear to be connected, and we'd then use it, which would wake it up...

[drlotto]

OK I paid closer attention this time when I looked at the Mini this AM. The Mini was on this AM, although its monitor was asleep I could tell from the non-flashing light. The ExtHD was still asleep. I clicked the Mouse (BTW it is a BT Mouse and KeyBd if that matters) and the monitor turned on, then SD started and began a 10 sec countdown, and the ExtHD started spinning as SD was opening. I didn't have time to look at the sleepmonitor log but it looks like the Mini woke and couldn't return to sleep while SD and the ExtHD did not start. I'll post the sleep monitor log later tonight.

DrLotto

[drlotto]

Here's the log:

Today, 1:14:00 AM Preparing to wake
Today, 1:14:07 AM System powering on after 2 hours 25 minutes 10 seconds
Today, 1:18:55 AM Preparing to sleep after 16 minutes 33 seconds idle time
Today, 1:19:25 AM System will not sleep
Today, 1:21:57 AM Preparing to sleep after 19 minutes 22 seconds idle time
Today, 1:22:27 AM System will not sleep
...... "Prep to/System will not" sleep cycle repeats every 2-5 mins ........
Today, 6:28:28 AM Preparing to sleep after 5 hours 4 minutes 40 seconds idle time
Today, 6:28:58 AM System will not sleep
Today, 6:30:59 AM Preparing to sleep after 5 hours 7 minutes 1 second idle time
Today, 6:31:29 AM System will not sleep
...... I clicked on the mouse here ......
...... SD dialog opens and starts 10 s countdown as the Ext HD starts......
...... I canceled the backup and went to work ......
Today, 6:46:36 AM Preparing to sleep after 13 minutes 5 seconds idle time
Today, 6:46:36 AM System sleeping after 5 hours 32 minutes 29 seconds

Essentially the same thing occurred on Sun. Any comments?

DrLotto

[dnanian]

It just sounds like it's not "really" awake, DrLotto. Otherwise, we'd be running...