 Mayoff
Retrospect Backup Commando
Posts: 11522
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I am wondering what type of documentation do you use.
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 rhwalker
Lifetime Achievement Award
Posts: 5382
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In response to Mayoff
Robin,
Your question is a bit in the abstract because it isn't focused on Retrospect. There are examples of how other software packages work that might be closer to the ideal for some of us.
Right now, the Retrospect "Software Help" (a/k/a/ Help menu) is somewhat like a condensed version of the user manual. A suggestion for improvement, which some products have, is a "?" icon on each admin page such that, when you click the "?", you get a targeted help page for that particular admin page, explaining the options for that page rather than a generalized user manual.
One model, though far from perfect, would be how the SonicWALL firewalls have their help system. There's an online demo at:
SonicWALL demo site
You (and the Retrospect X developers) might want to poke around a bit there to get some ideas (but don't adopt the bad things about that interface).
Russ
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alternety
Occasional forum poster
Posts: 23
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In response to rhwalker
I do, and would if I could just find a manual for Retrospect Pro 7.6.
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Mayoff
Retrospect Backup Commando
Posts: 11522
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In response to alternety
http://kb.dantz.com has all documentation
Edited by Mayoff on 01-22-09 12:26 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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rhwalker
Lifetime Achievement Award
Posts: 5382
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In response to alternety
See the first entry in the drop down for "Support Resources" in the navigation bar near the top of this page.
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colin415
Newbie
Posts: 11
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In response to rhwalker
Just wanted to say this: the first option, printed/PDF documentation are two different universes for me! PDF I can search, printed I can not (and the poor trees!) (and you have to store it somewhere) so I practically put PDF into the "Software Help" section in my mind.
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jaotto
Newbie
Posts: 3
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In response to Mayoff
Very strange list of options.
My preference would actually be:
1) Website (structured document, not KB)
2) PDF
pdf and printed guides are completely different things. Read Me should be installation notes, not documentation. Knowledge base is useful for when things go wrong, not useful for documenting what should happen. Software help has potential, but is so often implemented in such a flimsy fashion as to be unusual.
Please html documentation (with an option to download the while document file tree).
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Joel Anderson
frequent Poster
Posts: 76
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In response to jaotto
I like when a form you are looking at in an application has a help button on it that takes you to information relevant to what you are looking at.
By the way the videos on v8 are awesome. Keep them coming. Better than any manual, except for advanced info.
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Brendon Randall
Occasional forum poster
Posts: 10
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In response to Mayoff
Another vote for resolving this. I am having the same issue: After a period of time (varies), server installations which have been previously functioning stop seeing any clients at all via multicast. Also, dependent scripts/viewing drive contents will consistently fail.
Adding the source via IP times out essentially... I've let this run for 2+ minutes per before losing patience.
This is on 2 separate installations of Retrospect 8.0.594.1, with mixed-environment clients, although predominantly Mac clients. Affects all scripts, proactive, timed, and manual executions. All software is up-to-date. One installation is 100% local and controlled for testing and exhibits these behaviors. Client software is responding in the client and ready to go, toggled on/off and restarted.
Furthermore, I am also experiencing the "I had to restart the physical server, which actually acted like a crashed/auto-recover server to get it running again" symptom on ALL 3 systems running the new Retro engine.
Lastly, I'll add that my attempts to stop the Retro engine through the prefpane do not respond as soon as this happens. In an attempt to kill the process through Terminal, I can generate consistantly a recurring error in Console log indicating that "(com.retrospect.RetroEngine[41]) Did not die after sending SIGKILL xxx seconds ago." This will recur up until restart (hard restart, natch) of the offending Retro server machine, up to 167165 seconds on longest spin through.
Advice? Info on the next patch?
Regards,
Brendon Randall
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Mayoff
Retrospect Backup Commando
Posts: 11522
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In response to Brendon Randall
Did you post in the right place? this topic is a poll about documentation.
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Brendon Randall
Occasional forum poster
Posts: 10
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In response to Mayoff
Hmmm, used the quick reply to another thread, not sure how this got over here?!! Actual post I was referring to (if you're looking, for it here, EU!): http://bit.ly/iNVJE
Edited by Brendon Randall on 04-09-09 02:17 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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arth1
Newbie
Posts: 5
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In response to Brendon Randall
Missing option: man pages
Seriously, though, most of what sysadmins do are through a command line interface, and PDFs and popup-help isn't too useful then. Plaintext files ("Read Me") should not be skipped in favour of GUI based documentation -- why not provide both?
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michelef
Newbie
Posts: 47
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In response to Mayoff
I do have an Apple RAID, but it's not one of the volumes that are backed up. Also in case it helps my is on a pair of external E-SATA drives.
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Mickelangelo
Newbie
Posts: 2
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In response to Mayoff
My preference is website
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JamesGraham
Newbie
Posts: 1
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In response to Mickelangelo
I'm disappointed that there's no User Manual for Retrospect 8.0 for Mac. There are many aspects of this software that remain a mystery to me. I don't think it should be the users' responsibility to go hunting around forums and the knowledge base to get answers. Even a robust help system would be worthwhile. I'm wondering how committed EMC is to this product.
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rhwalker
Lifetime Achievement Award
Posts: 5382
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In response to JamesGraham
I'm disappointed that there's no User Manual for Retrospect 8.0 for Mac. There are many aspects of this software that remain a mystery to me. I don't think it should be the users' responsibility to go hunting around forums and the knowledge base to get answers. Even a robust help system would be worthwhile.
From the Director of EMC Retrospect Product Management five months ago:
Where the @#%& is my Retrospect 8 User's Guide?
I'm wondering how committed EMC is to this product.
There is no tech writer on staff. Draw your own conclusions.
Russ
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Richy_Boy
Occasional Forum Poster
Posts: 365
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In response to rhwalker
I only seem to use documentation when something doesn't work as expected, for example, the WOL / system sleep functionality in 7.7.
Of course, I've usually stumbled on a bug or I'm left scratching around to try and find material to help out.
Rich
Retrospect 7.7 Multi Server + Value Pack
2x Xeon 2.8GHz CPU, 3GB RAM, Windows XP Pro, ReadyNAS Pro > Off-site over rSync
* Facebook group setup: "EMC Retrospect Users" |
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