Shirt Pocket Discussions

Shirt Pocket Discussions (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/index.php)
-   General (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6)
-   -   Smart Scheduling? (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1199)

gryphonent 04-02-2006 05:33 AM

Smart Scheduling?
 
I’m running a customized backup script, so I’m not told when the last successful backup was running as SD only provides this information on the preinstalled scripts.

Today I was booting my Mac two minutes later than the scheduled weekly backup... and nothing happened. When looking into the schedule it said that the next backup would run the following week. No mentioning of the fact that one backup was just skipped because I was two minutes late in switching on my computer. No pop-up message notifying me of that fact. Whether SD is open or not. No option asking me to schedule for next week or run now, slightly later than scheduled originally (but warning me of the fact that no backup was made).

As my Powerbook is not always on I need to rely on that weekly backup, and if SD is not smart enough to handle this and do the thinking... what is the schedule good for then? Quite honestly, SynchronizePro was far advanced in this sector and reading the forum messages here it seems I’m not the only one wishing for a somewhat better scheduling solution than what is presented at the moment.

dnanian 04-02-2006 01:14 PM

Thanks for the feedback, Jurgen. I'll certainly take your feedback into account as we design future versions.

DaleMeyn 04-04-2006 08:15 PM

I'm probably missing something here, Jurgen, but why not set up the Mac to turn itself on 1 or 2 minutes before the scheduled backup? That way you don't have to worry about being there to boot it up for SD! to do its thing. You can also set the Mac to shut down 15-30 minutes later, depending on how long the backup should take. Dale Meyn.

gryphonent 04-05-2006 04:56 PM

I think the “early startup mechanism” is rather antiquated to be honest. However, to strengthen my argument about making SD smart enough to realize that a backup (even when working from a customized script) was not made and should be conducted the next time the computer is switched on (and connected to the backup drive): I’m a media management consultant on the move, literally. Most of the time I’m on set or in hotels or somewhere far away from my backup drive. Therefore, whenever I’m back home I don’t want it to be me who’s thinking about the backup when there’s a program installed that should do the job. SynchronizePro was perfect in this respect... though I got bogged down with all the features that I didn’t need (not to mention their odd upgrade policy).

Having said that, I don’t consider it a “feature” to have a backup program that is mirroring files in the intervals requested... and smart enough to do it not one week later (if I’m around at the time that is) when I’m one minute off the schedule but right thereafter. And if it cannot do so, because the drive is disconnected... please inform the user. There can still be a “never show this again” option... but at least offer the option to users to be informed. Just my two cents.

tiborg 04-11-2006 11:50 PM

I agree that this is the number one feature I need right now. Waking the computer up at a certain time is just not a good solution. If you need to backup everyday, the software should know that it hasn't run in the last 24 hours and attempt to back up as soon as possible, giving the user a warning that it is about to run.

Imagine an office full of laptop users coming in and out all day. You can't pick one time that they will all be in the office to connect to the backup drive and you can't rely on them to start a backup manually.

dnanian 04-12-2006 08:04 AM

If this is a critical thing for you, please use the "OneTouch" button FAQ to create an accessible executable, and schedule that with iCal rather than our built-in scheduler. iCal will fire its alarm even if the time has gone past, whereas cron -- the system tool we use to schedule -- will not.


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:35 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.