Acronis Backup Advanced Version 11.
Copyright Statement Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2015. All rights reserved. “Acronis” and “Acronis Secure Zone” are registered trademarks of Acronis International GmbH. "Acronis Compute with Confidence", “Acronis Startup Recovery Manager”, “Acronis Active Restore”, “Acronis Instant Restore” and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis International GmbH. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. VMware and VMware Ready are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc.
Table of contents 1 Introducing Acronis Backup ............................................................................................ 11 1.1 What's new in Update 6 ..........................................................................................................11 1.2 What's new in Update 5 ..........................................................................................................12 1.3 What's new in Update 4 ...............................................................
Backup .......................................................................................................................... 55 4.1 Back up now.............................................................................................................................55 4.2 Creating a backup plan ............................................................................................................55 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5 4.2.6 4.2.7 4.2.8 4.2.9 4.2.10 4.2.11 4.
4.7.21 4.7.22 4.7.23 4.7.24 4.7.25 5 Recovery ..................................................................................................................... 132 5.1 Creating a recovery task ........................................................................................................132 5.1.1 5.1.2 5.1.3 5.1.4 5.1.5 5.1.6 5.2 5.3 What to recover ..........................................................................................................................................
7.2 Acronis Secure Zone ..............................................................................................................193 7.2.1 7.2.2 7.3 Removable devices ................................................................................................................197 7.4 Tape devices ..........................................................................................................................198 7.4.1 7.4.2 7.4.3 7.4.4 7.4.5 7.4.6 7.5 What is a tape device? .........
9.3.1 9.3.2 Setting up a display mode .......................................................................................................................... 266 Configuring iSCSI and NDAS devices .......................................................................................................... 266 9.4 List of commands and utilities available in Linux-based bootable media .............................267 9.5 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager ...................................................
11.5 Recovering SharePoint data ..................................................................................................306 11.5.1 11.5.2 11.5.3 Recovering a content database.................................................................................................................. 306 Recovering configuration and service databases ..................................................................................... 307 Recovering individual items............................................
14.6.5 14.6.6 14.6.7 14.6.8 Event tracing ................................................................................................................................................ 342 Log cleanup rules......................................................................................................................................... 344 Machine management................................................................................................................................
16.7 Limitations of the cloud storage ............................................................................................433 16.8 Terminology reference ..........................................................................................................434 17 10 Glossary .................................................................................................................
1 Introducing Acronis Backup 1.1 What's new in Update 6 Improvements added in build 43992 Support for Windows 10 – Home, Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions. Note At the time of this hotfix release, Windows 10 is not yet generally available. The tests were performed with the Windows 10 Insider Preview version. Acronis will perform additional test cycles as soon as Windows 10 is released. Agent for Windows can now back up NFS folders. Support for Linux kernel version 3.17, 3.18, 4.0, and 4.
Linux Support for Linux kernel version 3.14, 3.15, and 3.16. Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x, Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10, Fedora 21, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, Debian 7.6 and 7.7, CentOS 7.0, and Oracle Linux 7.0. 1.2 What's new in Update 5 The cataloging performance is improved. Acronis Active Restore now works faster, by using a random access memory cache, and supports Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Server 2012/2012R2. 1.
1.5 What's new in Update 2 Single-pass backup of Microsoft Active Directory data (p. 321) Back up a domain controller to any backup destination including Acronis Online Backup Storage. Recover the entire domain controller without a risk of a USN rollback. Extract Microsoft Active Directory data from a backup and replace the corrupted data in a few simple steps. Recovery of Exchange 2013 mailboxes and their contents from database backups to .pst files.
Back up and recover (without resize) volumes that have the ReFS file system or any data on these volumes. Back up storage spaces and recover them to the original location, to different storage spaces or as ordinary disks. Back up and recover (at a disk level) volumes where the Data Deduplication feature is enabled. Virtualization Support for new virtualization platforms: Back up and recover with Agent for ESX(i): VMware vSphere 5.1.
Exchange clustering support Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 supports SCC, CCR and DAG cluster configurations. You can choose to back up database replicas rather than active databases for minimal production impact. If the Mailbox role is moved to another server due to a switchover or a failover, the software will track all relocations of the data and safely back it up. Continuous Data Protection By using Continuous Data Protection, you can revert Exchange data to almost any point in time.
The Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi backup schemes are now available when backing up to Acronis Online Backup Storage. Tapes (only for advanced editions, now called Acronis Backup Advanced) File-level recovery is possible from disk backups stored on tapes. This feature can be enabled or disabled by setting the corresponding tape management option (p. 126). Centralized management Vault selection in Data catalog (p.
Bootable media builder With bootable media builder, you can create bootable media in order to use the agents and other rescue utilities in a rescue environment. Bootable Media Builder does not require a license if installed together with an agent. To use a media builder on a machine without an agent, you need to enter the license key or have at least one license on the license server. The license may be either available or assigned. 1.8.
Disk backup Disk-level data protection is based on backing up either a disk or a volume file system as a whole, along with all information necessary for the operating system to boot; or all the disk sectors using the sector-by-sector approach (raw mode.) A backup that contains a copy of a disk or a volume in a packaged form is called a disk (volume) backup or a disk (volume) image. It is possible to recover disks or volumes as a whole from such backup, as well as individual folders or files.
The agent uses Microsoft VSS to ensure the consistency of the backed-up databases. After a successful backup, the agent can truncate the SQL Server transaction log. The agent is included in the setup program of Acronis Backup Advanced. The agent is installed with Agent for Windows (p. 17) or on a machine where Agent for Windows is already installed. 1.8.
The most important function of a storage node is deduplication (p. 231) of backups stored in its vaults. This means that identical data will be backed up to this vault only once. This minimizes the network usage during backup and storage space taken by the archives. The storage nodes enable creating highly scalable and flexible, in terms of the hardware support, storage infrastructure. Up to 50 storage nodes can be set up, each being able to manage up to 20 vaults.
1.8.9 Bootable Media Builder Acronis Bootable Media Builder is a dedicated tool for creating bootable media (p. 439). There are two media builder distributions: for installation in Windows and installation in Linux. The media builder that installs on Windows can create bootable media based on either Windows Preinstallation Environment, or Linux kernel. The media builder that installs on Linux creates bootable media based on Linux kernel. 1.8.
ReFS - volume recovery without the volume resize capability. Supported in Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 (p. 50) only.
2 Getting started Step 1. Installation These brief installation instructions enable you to start using the product quickly. For the complete description of installation methods and procedures, please refer to the Installation documentation. Before installation, make sure that: Your hardware meets the system requirements. You have license keys for the product of your choice. You have the setup program. You can download it from the Acronis website.
c. Follow the on-screen instructions. Step 2. Running Run Acronis Backup Management Console. In Windows Start the console by selecting In Linux Log in as root or log in as an ordinary user and then switch user as required. Start the console with the command Acronis Backup from the Start menu. /usr/sbin/acronis_console For understanding of the GUI elements see "Using the management console" (p. 26). Step 3.
Tip. Using the bootable media, you can do off-line ("cold") backups in the same way as in the operating system. Create backup plan (p. 55) Create a backup plan if you need a long-term backup strategy including backup schemes, schedules and conditions, timely deleting of backups, or moving them to different locations. Notes for users of Acronis Backup Advanced: When creating a backup plan on the management server, you can: - Select entire machines or groups of machines.
If you opt for storing all backup archives in a single or a few networked locations, create centralized vaults in these locations. After a vault is created, you can view and administer its content by selecting Vaults > Centralized > 'Vault name' in the Navigation pane. The shortcut to the vault will be deployed to all the registered machines. The vault can be specified as a backup destination in any backup plan created by you or by the registered machines' users.
Menu bar 2.1.1 Appears across the top of the program window. Lets you perform most of operations available in Acronis Backup. The menu items change dynamically depending on the item selected in the Navigation tree and the main area. "Navigation" pane The navigation pane includes the Navigation tree and the Shortcuts bar. Navigation tree The Navigation tree enables you to navigate across the program views. Views depend on whether the console is connected to a managed machine or to the management server.
Dashboard. Use this view to estimate at a glance whether the data is successfully protected on the machines registered on the management server. Machines with agents. Use this view to manage machines registered on the management server. Backup plans and tasks. Use this view to manage centralized backup plans and tasks on the management server. Vaults.
2.1.2 Main area, views and action pages The main area is a basic place where you work with the console. Here you create, edit and manage backup plans, recovery tasks and perform other operations. The main area displays different views and action pages according the items you select in the menu, or Navigation tree. 2.1.2.1 Views A view appears on the main area when clicking any item in the Navigation tree in the Navigation pane (p. 27).
To Do the following Sort items by any column Click a column's header to sort items in ascending order. Click it once again to sort items in descending order. Filter items by predefined column value In a field below the corresponding column's header, select the required value from the drop-down list. Filter items by entered value In a field below the corresponding column's header, type a value. As a result you will see the list of values, fully or just partly coincide with the entered value.
Using controls and specifying settings Use active controls to specify a backup plan or recovery task settings and parameters. By default, such fields as credentials, options, comments, and some others are hidden. Most settings are configured by clicking the respective Show… links. Others are selected from the drop-down list, or typed manually in the page's fields. Action page - Controls Acronis Backup remembers the changes you made on the action pages.
If the option is enabled, the credentials for various locations that you enter during a console session are saved for use during later sessions. In Windows, the credentials are stored in the Windows Credential Manager. In Linux, the credentials are stored in a special encrypted file. If the option is disabled, the credentials are stored only until the console is closed. To clear the credentials cache for the current user account, click the Clear credentials cache button. 2.1.3.
Notify when the management console is connected to a component of a different version This option defines whether to display a pop-up window when a console is connected to an agent/management server and their versions differ. The preset is: Enabled. To make a selection, select or clear the Notify when the management console is connected to a component of a different version check box.
3 Understanding Acronis Backup This section attempts to give its readers a clear understanding of the product so that they can use the product in various circumstances without step-by-step instructions. 3.1 Owners This section explains the concept of a backup plan (task) owner and an archive owner. Plan (task) owner A local backup plan owner is the user who created or last modified the plan.
enter the credentials next time. The credentials are cached independently for each user who uses the console on the machine. Backup plan's credentials Any backup plan running on a machine runs on behalf of a user. In Windows By default, the plan runs under the agent service account, if created by a user having administrative privileges on the machine. If created by a regular user, such as a member of the Users group, the plan runs under this user's account.
In Linux You do not need to specify task credentials. In Linux, tasks always run under the root user account. 3.3 User privileges on a managed machine Windows When managing a machine running Windows, the scope of a user's management rights depends on the user's privileges on the machine.
of user rights, membership in security groups, and the Full Control permissions on respective registry keys in the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis. There are no permissions granted on other registry keys. The following table lists the services of Acronis Backup components and the privileges for their accounts.
Service name Purpose Account used by the service Privileges added to the account User rights Running a Local System Microsoft SQL Server that is (Auxiliary optionally service; created installed with only if a new SQL the management server is server installed) (Auxiliary service) Permissions on registry keys No additional privileges SQL Server (ACRONIS) Acronis Web Server Service Group membership Same as for Acronis Management Server Service Hosting the management server Web page Services for Ac
Acronis Scheduler2 Service Providing scheduling for tasks performed by Acronis components Local System Dependencies on other services The main services depend on Acronis Scheduler2 Service and on the following standard Windows services: Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and Protected Storage. Acronis Managed Machine Service and Acronis Storage Node Service also depend on the Windows Management Instrumentation standard service. To view the list of dependencies for a service, do the following: 1.
Incremental backup An incremental backup stores changes to the data against the latest backup. You need access to other backups from the same archive to recover data from an incremental backup. An incremental backup is most useful when: you need the possibility to roll back to any one of multiple saved states the data changes tend to be small as compared to the total data size.
A volume backup stores all files and folders of the selected volume independent of their attributes (including hidden and system files), the boot record, the file allocation table (FAT) if it exists, the root and the zero track of the hard disk with the master boot record (MBR). A disk backup stores all volumes of the selected disk (including hidden volumes such as the vendor's maintenance partitions) and the zero track with the master boot record.
acrocmd backup disk --volume=DYN --loc=\\srv1\backups --credentials=netuser1,pass1 --arc=alldyn_arc This will back up all dynamic volumes of the local machine to a network shared folder. Recovering dynamic volumes A dynamic volume can be recovered: Over any type of existing volume. To unallocated space of a disk group. To unallocated space of a basic disk. To a disk which has not been initialized.
Moving and resizing volumes during recovery You can manually resize the resulting basic volume during recovery, or change the volume's location on the disk. A resulting dynamic volume cannot be moved or resized manually. Preparing disk groups and volumes Before recovering dynamic volumes to bare metal you should create a disk group on the target hardware. You also might need to create or increase unallocated space on an existing disk group.
This option is useful in the following cases: When some data on the volume was lost, but no hard disks were replaced. When recovering a logical volume over a basic disk or volume. You can resize the resulting volume in this case. A system, recovered from a logical volume backup to a basic disk, cannot boot because its kernel tries to mount the root file system at the logical volume.
3.7.2.4 Assembling MD devices for recovery (Linux) In Linux, when performing recovery from a disk backup to an existing MD device (also called Linux Software RAID), make sure that this device is assembled at the time of recovery. If the device is not assembled, assemble it by using the mdadm utility. Here are two examples: Example 1. The following command assembles the device /dev/md0 combined from the volumes /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1: mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 -ayes /dev/sdb1 /sdc1 Example 2.
Creating the volume structure automatically Use the following procedure to automatically recreate the logical volume structure on a machine. Caution As a result of the following procedure, the current volume structure on the machine will be replaced with the one stored in the backup. This will destroy the data that is currently stored on some or all of the machine's hard disks. If disk configuration has changed. An MD device or a logical volume resides on one or more disks.
Note: This procedure will not work if you connect to Acronis Backup Bootable Agent remotely, because the command shell is not available in this case. Example Suppose that you previously performed a disk-level backup of a machine with the following disk configuration: The machine has two 1-gigabyte and two 2-gigabyte SCSI hard disks, mounted on /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, and /dev/sdd, respectively.
--- Volume group --VG Name my_volgroup ... VG Access read/write VG Status resizable ... VG Size 1.99 GB ... VG UUID 0qoQ4l-Vk7W-yDG3-uF1l-Q2AL-C0z0-vMeACu 5. Run the following command to create the logical volume; in the -L parameter, specify the size given by VG Size: lvm lvcreate -L1.99G --name my_logvol my_volgroup 6. Activate the volume group by running the following command: lvm vgchange -a y my_volgroup 7. Press ALT+F1 to return to the management console. Step 2: Starting the recovery 1. 2. 3. 4.
type: disk Num ----------Dyn1 Dyn2 Disk 1 1-1 1-2 1-3 Disk 2 2-1 2-2 Disk 3 Disk 4 4-1 4-2 Partition -------------------my_volgroup-my_lo... md0 sda sda1 sda2 sda3 sdb sdb1 sdb2 sdc sdd sdd1 sdd2 Flags ---------- Act,Pri Pri Pri Pri Pri Pri Pri Size ---------- Type ------------- 4 GB 2.007 16 GB 203.9 11.72 1.004 8 GB 2.007 2.007 1 GB 8 GB 2.007 2.007 Ext 3 Ext 2 DT_FIXED Ext 2 Reiser Linux swap DT_FIXED Ext 2 None DT_FIXED DT_FIXED Ext 2 None GB MB GB GB GB GB GB GB GUID ------ 2.
4K native (4Kn) disks have a 4-KB logical sector size. Modern operating systems can store data on these disks, but they generally cannot boot from these disks. These disks are commonly external drives with USB connection. By running the appropriate command To find out the logical sector size of a disk, do the following. In Windows: 1. Make sure that the disk contains an NTFS volume. 2.
The information in this section also applies to Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Limitations Acronis Disk Director Lite (p. 271) is not available under Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. The Windows To Go feature of Windows 8 is not supported. Disk management operations under bootable media may work incorrectly if storage spaces are configured on the machine. WinPE 4.0 and WinPE 5.
Data Deduplication In Windows Server 2012, you can enable the Data Deduplication feature for an NTFS volume. Data Deduplication reduces the used space on the volume by storing duplicate fragments of the volume's files only once. You can back up and recover a data deduplication–enabled volume at a disk level, without limitations. File-level backup is supported, except when using Acronis VSS Provider. To recover files from a disk backup, mount the backup (p.
2. Recover the system. The recovered data will be unencrypted. 3. Reboot the recovered system. 4. Turn on BitLocker. If you only need to recover one partition of a multi-partitioned disk, do so under the operating system. Recovery under bootable media may make the recovered partition undetectable for Windows. McAfee Endpoint Encryption and PGP Whole Disk Encryption You can recover an encrypted system partition by using bootable media only.
About the test message When configuring SNMP notifications, you can send a test message to check if your settings are correct. The parameters of the test message are as follows: Type of event OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.1.0 Value: "Unknown" Text description of the event OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.
4 Backup 4.1 Back up now Use the Back up now feature to configure and run a one-time backup in a few simple steps. The backup process will start immediately after you perform the required steps and click OK. For a long-time backup strategy that includes schedules and conditions, timely deleting of backups or moving them to different locations, consider creating a backup plan. Configuring immediate backup is similar to creating a backup plan (p.
Select the mode the removable device will be used in (p. 197) If the specified location is an RDX drive or USB flash drive, select the device mode: Removable media or Fixed drive. Backup file naming, access credentials, archive comments To access these settings, click Show backup file naming, access credentials, archive comments. File naming (p.
Set up a regular conversion of a disk or volume backup to a virtual machine. Plan parameters Plan name [Optional] Enter a unique name for the backup plan. A conscious name lets you identify the plan among others. Backup options [Optional] Configure parameters of the backup operation, such as pre/post backup commands, maximum network bandwidth allocated for the backup stream or the backup archive compression level. If you do nothing in this section, the default values (p. 105) will be used.
Microsoft SQL databases by means of single-pass disk and application backup, if Acronis Backup Agent for SQL is installed. Agent for SQL enables you to create application-aware disk backups and to recover Microsoft SQL databases from such backups. For more information, see the "Protecting Microsoft SQL Server..." (p. 310) section. Microsoft Active Directory data by means of single-pass disk and application backup, if Acronis Backup Agent for Active Directory is installed.
For more information about backing up Microsoft Exchange data see "Backing up Microsoft Exchange Server data". 2. In the tree below Data to back up section, select the items to back up. To back up all items of the selected data type present on a machine, select the check box next to the machine. To back up individual data items, expand the machine and select check boxes next to the required items.
4.2.3 Source files exclusion This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media. This option is effective for disk-level backup of NTFS, FAT, Ext3, and Ext4 file systems only. This option is effective for file-level backup of all supported file systems. The option defines which files and folders to skip during the backup process and thus exclude from the list of backed-up items. Note: Exclusions override selection of data items to back up.
Wildcard characters You can use one or more wildcard characters * and ? in the criterion. These characters can be used both within the full path and in the file or folder name. The asterisk (*) substitutes for zero or more characters in a file name. For example, the criterion Doc*.txt covers files such as Doc.txt and Document.txt The question mark (?) substitutes for exactly one character in a file name. For example, the criterion Doc?.txt covers files such as Doc1.txt and Docs.txt, but not the files Doc.
added, deleted or modified by another user or by the program itself according to scheduled operations. Use the Refresh button to refresh the list of archives. 3. Naming the new archive Once you select the archive destination, the program generates a name for the new archive and displays it in the Name field. The name commonly looks like Archive(N), where N is a sequence number. The generated name is unique within the selected location. If you are satisfied with the automatically generated name, click OK.
Destination Cloud storage Details To back up data to Acronis Cloud Storage, click Log in and specify the credentials to log in to the cloud storage. Then, expand the Cloud storage group and select the account. Prior to backing up to the cloud storage, you need to buy a subscription (p. 429) to the cloud backup service and activate (p. 430) the subscription on the machine(s) you want to back up. Cloud backup is not available under bootable media.
Destination Details FTP, SFTP To back up data to FTP or SFTP, type the server name or address in the Path field as follows: ftp://ftp_server:port _number or sftp://sftp_server:port number To establish an active mode FTP connection, use the following notation: aftp://ftp_server:port _number If the port number is not specified, port 21 is used for FTP and port 22 is used for SFTP. After entering access credentials, the folders on the server become available. Click the appropriate folder on the server.
Warning: According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer. 4.2.6 Backup schemes Choose one of the available backup schemes: Simple – to schedule when and how often to backup data and specify retention rules. Tower of Hanoi – to use the Tower of Hanoi backup scheme.
Full - selected by default for all backup locations (except for Acronis Cloud Storage). Incremental. At the first time a full backup will be created. The next backups will be incremental. Selected as the one and only backup type for Acronis Cloud Storage. Note: When the Incremental backup type is selected along with retention rules, the archive will be cleaned up using consolidation (p. 441), which is a more time-consuming and resource-intensive operation. 4.2.6.
Keep backups Specifies how long you want the backups to be stored in the archive. A term can be set in hours, days, weeks, months, or years. For monthly backups, you can also select Keep indefinitely if you want them to be saved forever. The default values for each backup type are as follows.
available through next Sunday, January 8; the first weekly backup, the one of Saturday, January 7, will be stored on the system until February 7. Monthly backups will never be deleted. Limited storage If you do not want to arrange a vast amount of space to store a huge archive, you may set up a GFS scheme so as to make your backups more short-lived, at the same time ensuring that your information can be recovered in case of an accidental data loss.
Monthly: 5 years Here, daily incremental backups will be created on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with weekly and monthly backups performed on Fridays. Note that, in order to choose Friday in the Weekly/monthly field, you need to first select it in the Back up on field. Such an archive would allow you to compare your financial documents as of the first and the last day of work, and have a five-year history of all documents, etc.
Parameter Meaning Clean up archive Specifies how to get rid of old backups: either to apply retention rules (p. 100) regularly or clean up the archive during a backup when the destination location runs out of space. By default, the retention rules are not specified, which means older backups will not be deleted automatically. Using retention rules Specify the retention rules and when to apply them. This setting is recommended for backup destinations such as shared folders or centralized vaults.
Here, all parameters except Schedule in Full backup are left empty. All backups in the archive are kept indefinitely (no archive cleanup is performed). Full and incremental backup plus cleanup With the following scheme, the archive will consist of weekly full backups and daily incremental backups. We further require that a full backup begin only after all users have logged off.
By default, a backup is not deleted as long as it has dependent backups that must be kept. For example, if a full backup has become subject to deletion, but there are incremental or differential backups that depend on it, the deletion is postponed until all the dependent backups can be deleted as well. For more information, see Retention rules (p. 100). 4.2.6.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 4 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 3 1 Backups of different levels have different types: Last-level (in this case, level 4) backups are full; Backups of intermediate levels (2, 3) are differential; First-level (1) backups are incremental. A cleanup mechanism ensures that only the most recent backups of each level are kept. Here is how the archive looks on day 8, a day before creating a new full backup.
On day 14, the interval is five days. It increases on subsequent days before decreasing again, and so on. 1 4 2 1 3 2 4 1 5 3 6 1 7 2 8 1 9 4 10 1 11 2 12 1 13 3 14 1 The roll-back period shows how many days we are guaranteed to have even in the worst case. For a four-level scheme, it is four days. 4.2.6.5 Manual start With the Manual start scheme, you do not have to specify the backup schedule. You can run the backup plan from the Plans and Tasks view manually at any time afterwards.
protection strategy and you prefer to be immediately informed whether the backed-up data is not corrupted and can be successfully recovered, think of starting the validation right after backup creation. 2. What to validate – select either to validate the entire archive or the latest backup in the archive. Validation of the archive will validate all the archive’s backups and may take a long time and a lot of system resources.
To add a text label to a backup: 1. On the Create backup plan (p. 55) page, click Show plan's credentials, comments, label. 2. In Label, enter the text label or select it from the drop-down menu. Parameters specification Parameter Value Description acronisTag.label A user-defined label. The label can be set by a user when creating a backup plan. acronisTag.hostname Host name (FQDN) acronisTag.os.type Operating system acronisTag.os.servicepack 0, 1, 2...
acronisTag.hostname = “superserver.corp.local” acronisTag.os.type = “windows7Server64Guest” acronisTag.os.servicepack = “1” acronisTag.os.sid = “S-1-5-21-874133492-782267321-3928949834” 4.2.10 Sequence of operations in a backup plan If a backup plan contains multiple operations, Acronis Backup performs them in the following order: 1. Cleanup (if configured Before backup) and validation (if cleanup has been performed and validation is configured to run After the retention rules are applied).
When you back up to a locally attached RDX drive or USB flash drive, the Name backup files using the archive name... check box does not appear. Instead, the removable device mode (p. 197) determines whether the standard or simplified naming scheme will be used. In Linux, the check box appears after you manually mount the device. In the welcome screen, click Back up now (p. 55). Simplified naming will be used whenever the backup destination supports it (see “Restrictions” below).
4.3.1 The [DATE] variable If you specify the [DATE] variable in the archive name, the file name of each backup will include that backup’s creation date. When using this variable, the first backup of a new day will be a full backup. Before creating the next full backup, the software deletes all backups taken earlier that day. Backups taken before that day are kept. This means you can store multiple full backups with or without incremental ones, but no more than one full backup per day.
You want to perform a daily full backup of your machine. You want to store the backup on a locally attached USB hard drive in the file MyMachine.tib. You want each new backup to replace the old one. In this scenario, create a backup plan with a daily schedule. When creating the backup plan, specify the USB hard drive as the archive location, specify MyMachine as the archive name, select the Name backup files using the archive name... check box, and select Full as the backup type. Result.
4.3.3.4 Example 4. Daily full backups with daily drive swaps Consider the following scenario: You want to perform a daily full backup of your machine. You want each new backup to replace the backup on the currently attached drive. You want to store the backup on a locally attached USB hard drive in the file MyMachine.tib. You have two such drives. You want to swap them before each backup so that one drive contains today’s backup and the other drive yesterday’s backup.
Result: Before creating a Monday backup (by the first backup plan), all backups will be deleted from the currently attached drive. While one drive is attached to the machine, you can keep the other drive off-site for extra data protection. In Windows, if you choose to back up to locally attached RDX drives or USB flash drives, the Name backup files using the archive name... check box does not appear. Instead, make sure that the removable device mode (p. 197) is set to Removable media. 4.3.3.
The scheduler uses local time of the machine the backup plan exists on. Before creating a schedule, be sure the machine’s date and time settings are correct. Schedule To define when a task has to be executed, you need to specify an event or multiple events. The task will be launched as soon as any of the events occurs. The table below lists the events available under Windows and Linux operating systems.
What if an event occurs while the scheduler is waiting for the condition required by the previous event? The event will be ignored. What if the condition is not met for a very long time? If delaying a backup is getting risky, you can force the condition (tell the users to log off) or run the task manually. To automatically handle this situation, you can set the time interval after which the task will run regardless of the condition. 4.4.
"Three-hour time interval lasting for three months" schedule Run the task every three hours. The task starts on a certain date (say, September 15, 2009), and ends after three months. The schedule's parameters are thus set up as follows. 1. Every: 1 day(s). 2. Every: 3 hours From: 12:00:00 AM (midnight) Until: 09:00:00 PM - thus, the task will be performed 8 times a day with a 3 hour time interval. After the last daily recurrence at 9 PM, the next day comes and the task starts over again from midnight. 3.
3. Effective: From: 09/20/2009. To: not set. 4.4.2 Weekly schedule Weekly schedule is effective in Windows and Linux operating systems. To specify a weekly schedule In the Schedule area, select the appropriate parameter as follows: Every: <...> week(s) on: <...> Specify a certain number of weeks and the days of the week you want the task to be run. For example, with the Every 2 week(s) on Mon setting, the task will be performed on Monday of every other week. In the During the day execute the task...
on workdays. For more details, see the Full and incremental backups plus cleanup example in the Custom backup scheme (p. 69) section. "Workdays" schedule Run the task every week on workdays: from Monday through Friday. During a workday, the task starts only once at 9 PM. The schedule's parameters are thus set up as follows. 1.
2. Every 3 hours From 09:00:00 AM until 09:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: not set. To: not set. Third schedule 1. Every: 1 week(s) on: Sat, Sun. 2. Once at: 09:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: not set. To: not set. 4.4.3 Monthly schedule Monthly schedule is effective in Windows and Linux operating systems. To specify a monthly schedule In the Schedule area, select the appropriate parameter as follows: Months: <...> Select a certain month(s) you want to run the task in. Days: <...
1. 2. 3. 4. Months: . Days: Last. The task will run on the last day of every month despite its actual date. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. Effective: From: empty. To: empty. This schedule is widely used when creating a custom backup scheme. The "Last day of every month" schedule is added to the full backups, while the differential backups are scheduled to be performed once a week and incremental on workdays.
Second schedule 1. Months: March, April, May, September, October, November. 2. On: . 3. Every: 12 hours From: 12:00:00 AM Until: 12:00:00 PM. 4. Effective: From: 11/01/2009. To: not set. Third schedule 1. 2. 3. 4. Months: June, July, August. Days: 1, 15. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. Effective: From: 11/01/2009. To: not set. 4.4.4 On Windows Event Log event This type of schedule is effective only in Windows operating systems.
One or more bad blocks that have suddenly appeared on a hard disk usually indicate that the hard disk drive will soon fail. Suppose that you want to create a backup plan that will back up hard disk data as soon as such a situation occurs. When Windows detects a bad block on a hard disk, it records an event with the event source disk and the event number 7 into the System log; the type of this event is Error.
3. In the Event Properties dialog box, view the event's properties such as the event source, shown in the Source field; and the event number, shown in the Event ID field. When you are finished, click OK to close the Event Properties dialog box. 4.4.5 Advanced scheduling settings The following advanced settings are available when setting up a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule in a centralized backup plan.
Second machine: Every day at 09:00:00 AM Third machine: Every day at 09:59:59 AM Example 2 Suppose that you are deploying a centralized backup plan with the following schedule to three machines: Run the task: Daily Every: 2 Hour(s) From: 09:00:00 AM Until: 11:00:00 AM Distribute start time within the time window Maximum delay: 1 Hour(s) Distribution method: Random In this case, the time of the task's first run on each machine may be any time between 09:00:00 AM and 09:59:59 AM; the interval between the firs
task anyway. With this setting, the program will automatically handle the situation when the conditions are not met for too long and further delaying the backup is undesirable. backup task start time matters - skip the backup task if the conditions are not met at the time when the task should be started. Skipping the task run makes sense when you need to back up data strictly at the specified time, especially if the events are relatively often.
(2) If 9:00 PM comes but the host is unavailable at the moment, the backup task will start on the next workday if the location's host is available. (3) If the location's host will never be available on workdays at 9:00 PM, the task never starts. 4.4.6.3 Fits the time interval Applies to: Windows, Linux Restricts a backup task's start time to a specified interval. Example A company uses different locations on the same network-attached storage for backing up users data and servers.
Enables to put a backup task run on hold until all users log off from Windows on the managed machine. Example Run the backup task at 8 PM on the first and third Friday of every month, preferably when all users are logged off. If one of the users is still logged on at 11 PM, run the task anyway. Event: Monthly, Months: ; On: , ; Once at 08:00:00 PM. Condition: Users logged off. Task start conditions: Wait until the conditions are met, Run the task anyway after 3 hour(s).
Similarly, you can copy or move backups from a second location to a third location and so on. Up to five consecutive locations are supported (including the primary one). Note: The replication feature replaces and enhances the Dual destination option, which was available in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. Example. You back up your machine to a local folder. The backup is immediately copied to a network folder. In the original local folder, the backup is stored for just one month.
Notes: Setting up both copying and moving backups from the same location is not possible. With simplified naming of backup files (p. 77), neither replication nor use of retention rules is available. 4.5.
As follows from the above description, the operation will be performed only if the machine with the agent is powered on. If the operation is scheduled, the schedule will use that machine's date and time. Copying and moving backups between managed vaults Copying or moving a backup from one managed vault to another managed vault is performed by the storage node. If the target vault is a deduplicating vault (p.
Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) scheme Backups of each type (daily, weekly, and monthly) are retained for the periods you specify in Keep backups, and then deleted. The retention rules are applied after creating a backup. They are applied sequentially in the primary, the second and all next locations. Tower of Hanoi scheme Each backup is retained based on its level (p. 72), and then deleted. You specify the number of levels in Number of levels. The retention rules are applied after creating a backup.
With these settings, a backup will be stored until it is older than five days and the size of the archive containing it exceeds 100 GB. b. Number of backups in the archive exceeds... If the number of backups exceeds the specified value, one or more of the oldest backups will be moved or deleted. The minimal setting is 1. 2. Select whether to delete the backups or to move them to another location if the specified conditions are met.
This mode is not available if you selected the Archive size greater than rule for any archive location except for Acronis Cloud Storage. What you need to know about consolidation Please be aware that consolidation is just a method of deletion but not an alternative to deletion. The resulting backup will not contain data that was present in the deleted backup and was absent from the retained incremental or differential backup. 4.5.
4.5.5.3 Example 3. Replicating backups to the cloud storage This example assumes that you have activated (p. 430) a cloud backup subscription (p. 415) for the machine that you are backing up. The following scenario assumes that the amount of data you want to back up is relatively small. For larger backups, see “Replicating large amounts of data to the cloud storage” later in this section. Consider the following scenario: You want to occasionally back up your machine to a local folder.
4.5.5.4 Example 4. Moving older backups to tapes Consider the following scenario: You want to perform a daily backup of your machine. You want to store the backups locally for one week. You want to move the backups that are older than one week to a tape device. Such scenario is sometimes called disk staging, or D2D2T (disk-to-disk-to-tape). In this scenario, create a backup plan with the Simple scheme and a daily schedule. (All backups will be full by default.
The storage node copies the backups to the tape device. No CPU resource from the machines is taken. The lifetime of backups on the hard disk does not exceed one month. On the tape library, the monthly backups are kept indefinitely. 4.6 How to disable backup cataloging Cataloging a backup adds the contents of the backup to the data catalog as soon as the backup is created. This process can be time-consuming, especially in environments with a large amount of machines.
Agent for Windows Agent for Linux Bootable media (Linux-based or PE-based) Disk backup File backup Disk backup File backup Disk backup File backup Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Additional settings (p. 107): Ask for the first media while backing up to removable media Deduplicate backup only after transferring it to the vault Dest: dedup. Dest: dedup. Dest: dedup. Dest: dedup. Dest: dedup.
Agent for Windows Agent for Linux Bootable media (Linux-based or PE-based) Disk backup File backup Disk backup File backup Disk backup File backup - + - + - - Preserve files’ security settings in archives - + - - - - In archives, store encrypted files in decrypted state - + - - - - LVM snapshotting (p. 119) - - + - - - Media components (p.
The preset is: Disabled. When the option is enabled, backing up to removable media may be not possible if the user is away, because the program will wait for someone to press OK in the prompt box. Hence, you should disable the prompt when scheduling a backup to removable media. Then, if the removable media is available (for example, a DVD is inserted), the task can run unattended. Reset archive bit The option is effective only for file-level backup in Windows operating systems and in bootable media.
4.7.2 Archive protection This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media. This option is effective for both disk-level and file-level backup. This option defines whether the archive will be protected with a password and whether the archive’s content will be encrypted. This option is not available when the archive already contains backups.
For a disk-level backup - disks, volumes, files, and folders. For an Exchange mailbox-level backup - mailboxes, folders, and e-mails. For a file-level backup - files and folders. For an Exchange database-level backup - databases or storage groups and mailboxes (always); folders and e-mails (depends on the Microsoft Exchange metadata collection option).
High – to maximize the backup process speed by taking resources from other processes. 4.7.4.2 HDD writing speed This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.
The following settings are available. Automatic With this setting, Acronis Backup will act as follows. When backing up to a hard disk or a network share: A single backup file will be created if the destination disk's file system allows the estimated file size. The backup will automatically be split into several files if the destination disk's file system does not allow the estimated file size.
compressed files, such as .jpg, .pdf or .mp3. However, formats such as .doc or .xls will be compressed well. To specify the compression level Select one of the following: None – the data will be copied as is, without any compression. The resulting backup size will be maximal. Normal – recommended in most cases. High – the resulting backup size will typically be less than for the Normal level. Maximum – the data will be compressed as much as possible. The backup duration will be maximal.
3. [Optional] Change the default value of the Subject field, if necessary. If you back up multiple machines with one centralized backup plan and want each machine user to receive a separate DRP e-mail about his/her machine only: a. Use the %MachineName% variable to show the name of the certain machine in the e-mail subject. b. Set up your mail server or client to filter or forward e-mails using the Subject field. 4. Enter the parameters of access to the SMTP server.
6. In the SMTP server field, enter the name of the outgoing mail server (SMTP). 7. In the Port field, set the port of the outgoing mail server. By default, the port is set to 25. 8. If the outgoing mail server requires authentication, enter User name and Password of the sender's e-mail account. If the SMTP server does not require authentication, leave the User name and Password fields blank.
If Acronis Cloud Storage is selected as the primary, the second, or a further backup location, the option value is automatically set to Enabled. Number of attempts: 300, regardless of the default value. Ignore bad sectors The preset is: Disabled. When the option is disabled, the program will display a pop-up window each time it comes across a bad sector and ask for a user decision as to whether to continue or stop the backup procedure.
4.7.10.2 Windows event log This option is effective only in Windows operating systems. This option is not available when operating under the bootable media. This option defines whether the agent(s) operating on the managed machine have to log events of the backup operations in the Application Event Log of Windows (to see this log, run eventvwr.exe or select Control Panel > Administrative tools > Event Viewer). You can filter the events to be logged.
The snapshot enables backing up of all files including files opened for exclusive access. The files will be backed up at the same point in time. Choose this setting only if these factors are critical, that is, backing up files without a snapshot does not make sense. To use a snapshot, the backup plan has to run under the account with the Administrator or Backup Operator privileges. If a snapshot cannot be taken, the backup will fail.
4.7.14 LVM snapshotting This option is effective only for Linux operating systems. This option is effective for both disk-level and file-level backup of volumes managed by Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM). Such volumes are also called logical volumes. This option defines how a snapshot of a logical volume is taken. Acronis Backup can do this on its own or rely on Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
To change the default size of a snapshot logical volume: 1. Decide how much unallocated space you want to use. If you are backing up two or more logical volumes, base your choice on the size of the biggest of them. Tip: To view the amount of unallocated space on a volume group, run the vgdisplay command and then examine the Free PE / Size line. To view the sizes of logical volumes, run the lvdisplay command and then examine the LV Size lines. 2. Open the file /etc/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery.
If such folder (a parent folder) is selected for backup, and the Mount points option is enabled, all files located on the mounted volume will be included in the backup. If the Mount points option is disabled, the mount point in the backup will be empty. During recovery of a parent folder, the mount point content will or will not be recovered, depending on whether the Mount points option for recovery (p. 166) is enabled or disabled.
The option enables you to define the commands to be automatically executed before and after the backup procedure. The following scheme illustrates when pre/post commands are executed. Pre-backup command Backup Post-backup command Examples of how you can use the pre/post commands: Delete some temporary files from the disk before starting backup. Configure a third-party antivirus product to be started each time before the backup starts. Selectively copy backups from an archive to another location.
Perform the backup only after the command is successfully executed. Fail the task if the command execution fails. command is executed despite execution failure or success. the command execution and irrespective of the command execution result. * A command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero. 4.7.18.2 Post-backup command To specify a command/executable file to be executed after the backup is completed 1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. 2.
To specify pre/post data capture commands 1. Enable pre/post data capture commands execution by checking the following options: Execute before the data capture Click Edit to specify a new command or a batch file Execute after the data capture 2. Do any of the following: Select the existing command or the batch file from the drop-down list 3. Click OK. 4.7.19.1 Pre-data capture command To specify a command/batch file to be executed before data capture 1.
4. Depending on the result you want to obtain, select the appropriate options as described in the table below. 5. Click Test command to check if the command is correct.
level (p. 112) option is set to None). Use the sector-by-sector backup for backing up drives with unrecognized or unsupported file systems and other proprietary data formats. 4.7.22 Tape management These options are effective when the backup destination is a tape device. Use a separate tape set for each single machine The preset is: Disabled. Tapes within one pool can be grouped into so-called tape sets.
Move a tape back to the slot after using The preset is: Enabled. If you disable this option, a tape will remain in the drive after an operation with the tape is completed. If both this option and the Eject tapes after successful backups option are enabled, the tape will be ejected. Always use a free tape By default, the software tries to write a backup onto a tape containing backups of the same backup chain or archive. If not found, the software searches for a tape of the same tape set.
The program will try to execute the failed task again if you select the Restart a failed task check box and specify the number of attempts and the time interval between the attempts. The program stops trying as soon as an attempt completes successfully OR the specified number of attempts is performed, depending on which comes first. If the task fails because of a mistake in the backup plan, you can edit the plan while the task is in the Idle state.
Time diagram: Wait until conditions are met Skip the task execution Delaying a backup might be unacceptable, for example, when you need to back up data strictly at the specified time. Then it makes sense to skip the backup rather than wait for the conditions, especially if the events occur relatively often. 4.7.25 Volume Shadow Copy Service These options are effective only for Windows operating systems.
VSS will use any available software-based provider. If one is not found, VSS will try to use the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider, and Acronis VSS Provider in turn. Software - Acronis VSS Provider VSS will use Acronis VSS Provider. Software - System provider (selected by default) VSS will use the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider.
If you use Acronis Backup Agent for Exchange or third-party software for backing up the Exchange Server data. This is because the log truncation will interfere with the consecutive transaction log backups. If you use third-party software for backing up the SQL Server data. The reason for this is that the third-party software will take the resulting disk-level backup for its "own" full backup. As a result, the next differential backup of the SQL Server data will fail.
5 Recovery When it comes to data recovery, first consider the most functional method: connect the console to the managed machine running the operating system and create the recovery task. If the machine's operating system fails to start or you need to recover data to bare metal, boot the machine from the bootable media (p. 439) or using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (p. 268) and configure recovery.
Where to recover This section appears after the required backup is selected and the type of data to recover is defined. The parameters you specify here depend on the type of data being recovered. Disks (p. 139) Volumes (p. 143) Files (p. 146) Microsoft Exchange databases or storage groups Microsoft Exchange mailboxes or public folders Microsoft SQL databases (p. 315) Microsoft Active Directory (p. 323) [On the management server only] Choose the registered machine to recover the data to.
Universal Restore for Windows/Linux (p. 148) Use Acronis Universal Restore when you need to recover and boot up an operating system on dissimilar hardware. After you complete all the required steps, click OK to create the recovery task. 5.1.1 What to recover 1. Specifying the archive location In the Data path field, specify the archive location path or click Browse and select the required location as described in "Selecting archive location" (p. 135).
The operating system cannot boot. The disk is new and does not have MBR. You are recovering custom or non-Windows boot loaders (such as LILO and GRUB). The disk geometry is different to that stored in the backup. There are probably other times when you may need to recover the MBR, but the above are the most common. When recovering the MBR of one disk to another Acronis Backup recovers Track 0, which does not affect the target disk’s partition table and partition layout.
Location Details If the archive is stored on an FTP or SFTP server, type the server name or address in the Path field as follows: FTP, SFTP ftp://ftp_server:port _number or sftp://sftp_server:port number To establish an active mode FTP connection, use the following notation: aftp://ftp_server:port _number If the port number is not specified, port 21 is used for FTP and port 22 is used for SFTP. After entering access credentials, the folders on the server become available.
Select Microsoft Exchange Information Store to browse and search for information stores, individual storage groups or databases in the database-level backups. Select Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes to browse and search for entire mailboxes, public folders, individual folders, e-mails, calendar events, tasks, contacts, notes both in the database-level and mailbox-level backups.
On a managed machine: Enable cataloging in the Backup cataloging option (Options > Machine options). On the management server: Enable cataloging by modifying the Windows registry (p. 414). On the storage node(s): Enable cataloging by modifying the Windows registry (p. 230). Run the full cataloging manually by clicking Catalog now. For the Data catalog, all backups stored in the managed vaults will be cataloged.
Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK. According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer. 5.1.3 Access credentials for destination To specify credentials 1.
virtualization product brand and settings. VMware ESX(i) may have multiple storages. A Microsoft Hyper-V server enables creating a new virtual machine in any local folder. The new virtual machine will be configured automatically, the source machine configuration being copied where possible. The configuration is displayed in the Virtual Machine Settings (p. 176) section. Check the settings and make changes if necessary. Then you proceed to the regular disk mapping procedure described below.
The software will keep the NT signature of the target disk if it is the same as the NT signature stored in the backup. (In other words, if you recover the disk to the same disk that was backed up.) Otherwise, the software will generate a new NT signature for the target disk. This is the default selection recommended in most cases. Use the following settings only if you absolutely need to. Create new Acronis Backup will generate a new NT signature for the target hard disk.
If there is enough unallocated space, the volumes will be recovered "as is". If unallocated space on the target disks is less than the size of the volumes being recovered, the volumes will be proportionally shrunk (by decreasing their free space) in order to fit the unallocated space. If the shrunk volumes still cannot fit the unallocated space, you have to map the volumes manually.
3. Examine the first value in the Sector size (logical/physical) line. For example, the output may be the following: Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B 5.1.4.2 Selecting target volumes Available volume destinations depend on the agents operating on the machine. Recover to: Physical machine Available when the Acronis Backup Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux is installed. The selected volumes will be recovered to the physical disks of the machine the console is connected to.
Recover [Disk #] MBR to: [If the Master Boot Record is selected for recovery] Disk # (p. 144) Choose the disk to recover the Master Boot Record to. NT signature: (p. 140) Select the way the disk's signature contained in the MBR will be handled. The disk signature is used by Windows and the Linux kernel version 2.6 and later. Recover [Volume] [Letter] to: Disk # /Volume Sequentially map each of the source volumes to a volume or an unallocated space on the destination disk. Size: (p.
Type A basic MBR disk can contain up to four primary volumes or up to three primary volumes and multiple logical drives. By default, the program selects the original volume's type. You can change this setting, if required. Primary. Information about primary volumes is contained in the MBR partition table. Most operating systems can boot only from the primary volume of the first hard disk, but the number of primary volumes is limited.
When recovering basic MBR and GPT volumes, you can select the alignment method manually if the automatic alignment does not satisfy you for some reason. The following options are available: Select automatically - (Default) recommended. The software will automatically set the appropriate alignment based on the source and target disk/volume properties. Use the following options only if you absolutely need to.
If you allow files to be overwritten, you still have an option to prevent overwriting of specific files by excluding them from the recovery operation. Recovery exclusions (p. 147) Specify files and folders you do not wish to be recovered. Recovery exclusions Set up exclusions for the specific files and folders you do not wish to recover. Note: Exclusions override selection of data items to recover. For example, if you select to recover file MyFile.tmp and to exclude all .tmp files, file MyFile.
Use current user credentials The task will run under the credentials with which the user who starts the tasks is logged on. If the task has to run on schedule, you will be asked for the current user's password on completing the task creation. Use the following credentials The task will always run under the credentials you specify, whether started manually or executed on schedule. Specify: User name.
Sometimes Universal Restore is applied in the background because the software knows what drivers or modules are required for the supported virtual machines. These cases are as follows: recovering a system to a new virtual machine recovering a system to any virtual machine by means of Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V. Universal Restore is not available when: the backup is located in Acronis Secure Zone you have chosen to use Acronis Active Restore (p.
Universal Restore settings Automatic driver search Specify where the program will search for the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), HDD controller driver and network adapter driver(s): If the drivers are on a vendor's disc or other removable media, turn on the Search removable media. If the drivers are located in a networked folder or on the bootable media, specify the path to the folder by clicking Add folder.
When Universal Restore is applied to a Linux operating system, it updates a temporary file system known as the initial RAM disk (initrd). This ensures that the operating system can boot on the new hardware. Universal Restore adds modules for the new hardware (including device drivers) to the initial RAM disk. As a rule, it finds the necessary modules in the /lib/modules directory of the operating system you are recovering.
When performing a recovery to a machine that has a type of firmware that is different from the firmware of the original machine, Acronis Backup: Initializes the disk to which you are recovering the system volume either as an MBR disk or as a GPT disk, depending on the new firmware. Adjusts the Windows operating system so that it can start on the new firmware. For details, including the list of Windows operating systems that can be adjusted this way, see “Recovering volumes” (p.
If the initialization may result in bootability loss, the software takes the partitioning style from the source volume ignoring the target disk size. In such cases, the software can select the MBR partitioning style for disks whose size is more than 2 TB; however, the disk space beyond 2 TB will not be available for use. If required, you can initialize the target disk manually by using the Disk management (p. 271) functionality.
The ability of the recovered system to boot up in different modes depends on the operating systems installed on the source disk. Operating systems can be convertible i.e. allow changing the boot mode from BIOS to UEFI and back, or non-convertible. For the list of convertible operating systems, see Recovering volumes (p. 152). When a source disk contains one or more operating systems and all of them are convertible, the boot mode can be automatically changed.
Original system Target hardware BIOS UEFI OS: nonconvertible UEFI The target disk will be initialized as the source one (GPT). The target machine must support UEFI. Additional steps 1. Turn on the UEFI mode in BIOS. 2. Boot from a bootable media, and perform the recovery. Recovery to large disks in BIOS After a recovery to a BIOS-based system, the target system disk is initialized as MBR.
If you enable Active Restore, the sequence of actions will be set as follows. Once the system recovery is started, the operating system boots from the backup. The machine becomes operational and ready to provide necessary services. The data required to serve incoming requests is recovered with the highest priority; everything else is recovered in the background. Because serving requests is performed simultaneously with recovery, the system operation can slow down even if recovery priority (p.
Please do not shut down or reboot the machine until the recovery is completed. If you switch off the machine, all the changes made to the system since the last boot up will be lost. The system will not be recovered, not even partially. The only possible solution in this case will be to restart the recovery process from a bootable media. 8.
The system uses Linux Loader (LILO) and was recovered from a normal (not from a raw, that is, sector-by-sector) backup LILO contains numerous references to absolute sector numbers and so cannot be repaired automatically except for the case when all data is recovered to the sectors that have the same absolute numbers as on the source disk. Solution: Reactivate the boot loader. You might also need to fix the loader configuration file for the reason described in the previous item.
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (2.6.24.4) root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.24.4 ro root=/dev/sda2 rhgb quiet initrd /initrd-2.6.24.4.img The lines starting with title, root, kernel, and initrd respectively determine: The title of the menu item. The path to the kernel on that device and the root partition—in this example, the path is /vmlinuz-2.6.24.4 and the root partition is /dev/sda2.
[boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Windows Vista and later A part of the loader resides in the partition boot sector, the rest is in the files bootmgr, boot\bcd. At starting Windows, boot\bcd is mounted to the registry key HKLM \BCD00000000. 5.
To view and change the default recovery options, connect the console to the managed machine and then select Options > Default backup and recovery options > Default recovery options from the top menu. Availability of the recovery options The set of available recovery options depends on: The environment the agent operates in (Windows, Linux, bootable media). The type of data being recovered (disk, file). The operating system being recovered from the disk backup (Windows, Linux).
Agent for Windows Agent for Linux Bootable media (Linux-based or PE-based) Disk recovery File recovery Disk recovery File recovery Mount points (p. 166) - + - Pre/Post recovery commands (p. 166) + + Recovery priority (p. 168) + Tape management (p. 168) - 5.7.
Restart the machine automatically after recovery is finished This option is effective when operating under bootable media. The preset is Disabled. This option enables booting the machine into the recovered operating system without user interaction. Change SID after recovery This option is not effective when recovery to a virtual machine is performed by Acronis Backup Agent for VMware or Acronis Backup Agent for Hyper-V. The preset is Disabled.
5. 6. 7. 8. The %subject% variable will be replaced by the following phrase: Task on machine . In the SMTP server field, enter the name of the outgoing mail server (SMTP). In the Port field, set the port of the outgoing mail server. By default, the port is set to 25. If the outgoing mail server requires authentication, enter User name and Password of the sender's e-mail account.
5.7.4 Event tracing It is possible to duplicate log events of the recovery operations, performed on the managed machine, in the Application Event Log of Windows; or send the events to the specified SNMP managers. 5.7.4.1 SNMP notifications This option is effective for both Windows and Linux operating systems. This option is not available when operating under the bootable media.
Use the setting set in the Machine options – to use the setting specified for the machine. For more information refer to Machine options. Log the following event types – to log events of the recovery operations in the Application Event Log. Specify the types of events to be logged: All events – log all events (information, warnings and errors) Errors and warnings Errors only Do not log - to disable logging events of the recovery operations in the Application Event Log. 5.7.
To specify pre/post commands 1. Enable pre/post commands execution by checking the following options: Execute before the recovery Click Edit to specify a new command or a batch file Execute after the recovery 2. Do any of the following: Select the existing command or the batch file from the drop-down list 3. Click OK. 5.7.7.1 Pre-recovery command To specify a command/batch file to be executed before the recovery process starts 1.
4. Select the Fail the task if the command execution fails check box if successful execution of the command is critical for you. The command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero. If the command execution fails, the task run result will be set to Failed. When the check box is not selected, the command execution result does not affect the task execution failure or success. You can track the command execution result by exploring the Log view. 5.
6 Conversion to a virtual machine Acronis Backup offers a number of ways of converting a disk backup into a virtual machine. This section helps you choose the method that best fits your needs and provides step-by-step instructions for conversion. 6.1 Conversion methods Depending on your needs, you can choose among the following conversion methods: a) Make the conversion a part of a backup plan When to use. If you want the backup and the conversion to be executed on a schedule.
During conversion which is part of a backup plan (p. 171), the software creates the virtual machine in addition to creating the backup. The virtual machine has the same configuration as the original machine. During recovery to the "New virtual machine" destination (p. 174), the software creates the virtual machine from a backup you already have. You can change the configuration of the virtual machine.
Conversion of logical volumes to basic ones may also prevent the system from booting up. For these reasons, if the machine uses a custom boot loader, you might need to configure the loader to point to the new devices and reactivate it. Configuring GRUB is normally not needed because Acronis Backup does this automatically. Should the need arise, use the procedure described in "How to reactivate GRUB and change its configuration" (p. 158).
Storage Choose the storage on the virtualization server or the folder to place the virtual machine files in. Resultant VMs Specify the name of the virtual machine. The default name is Backup_of_[Machine Name]. You can add more variables to the name.
Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux is installed on the machine You can choose the virtual machine type: VMware Workstation, Microsoft Virtual PC, Red Hat Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) or Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV). In the Storage step, you can select the virtual machine path. What is the machine's processing power? Conversion will take the selected machine's CPU resource. Multiple conversion tasks will be queued on that machine and it may take considerable time to complete them all.
and the old machine is given its previous name. This way, the conversion always ends up with a single machine. However, extra storage space is required during conversion to store the old machine. If you choose to create the virtual machine on a virtualization server The first conversion creates a new virtual machine. Any subsequent conversion works as follows: If there has been a full backup since the last conversion, the virtual machine is re-created from scratch, as described earlier in this section.
*Microsoft Virtual PC does not support disks that are larger than 127 GB. Acronis enables you to create a Virtual PC machine with larger disks so that you can attach the disks to a Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machine. With Acronis Backup Agent for Hyper-V or Agent for VMware, you can create a new virtual machine directly on the respective virtualization server. 6.2.3.1 Steps to perform To perform a recovery to a new virtual machine 1.
2. In the left part of the window, select the virtualization server. Use the right part of the window to review details on the selected server. [Only if the console is connected to the management server] If multiple agents manage the selected ESX(i) host, you can choose the agent that will perform recovery. For better performance, choose an Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) located on that ESX(i).
Name Initial setting: if not contained in the backup, New virtual machine. Enter the name for the new virtual machine. If the backup was created by Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V, the software takes the name from the virtual machine configuration contained in the backup. Processors Initial setting: if not contained in the backup or if the backed-up setting is not supported by the virtualization server, it is the default server's setting. This is the number of processors of the new virtual machine.
the old name. Configuring GRUB is normally not needed because Acronis Backup does this automatically. 6.3.2 Steps to perform To perform a recovery to a manually created virtual machine 1. [When recovering Windows] Prepare Windows drivers (p. 149) that correspond to the target virtualization platform. For machines running Linux, the necessary drivers are normally already present in the operating system. 2. Create a bootable media (p.
7 Storing the backed up data 7.1 Vaults A vault is a location for storing backup archives. For ease of use and administration, a vault is associated with the archives' metadata. Referring to this metadata makes for fast and convenient operations with archives and backups stored in the vault. A vault can be organized on a local or networked drive, detachable media or a tape device. There are no settings for limiting a vault size or number of backups in a vault.
'Vaults' view Vaults (on the navigation pane) - top item of the vaults tree. Click this item to display centralized and personal vaults. To perform actions on any vault, use the toolbar that is located at the top of the Vaults view. For centralized vaults, see the Actions on centralized vaults (p. 182) section. For personal vaults, see the Actions on personal vaults (p. 190) section. Centralized vaults.
What does the icon mean? When browsing archives on the Archive view tab, you may encounter a backup with the icon. This icon means that the backup is marked for deletion but cannot be deleted immediately for any of the following reasons: Other backups depend on it, but consolidation is either not possible or disabled by retention rules. The backup is stored on a tape. You cannot perform any operation on backups marked for deletion.
Functionality Managed vaults Unmanaged vaults SAN, NAS Yes Yes FTP/SFTP server No Yes 7.1.2.1 Actions on centralized vaults To access actions 1. Connect the console to the management server. 2. In the Navigation pane, click Vaults > Centralized. All the operations described here are performed by clicking the corresponding buttons on the vaults toolbar. These operations can be also accessed from the [Vault name] actions item of the main menu.
To Do in the Attaching a managed vault (p. 188) section. Note. Tape-based vaults cannot be attached. Validate a vault 1. Select the vault. 2. Click Validate. You will be taken to the Validation (p. 240) page with an already pre-selected vault as a source. The vault validation checks all the archives in this vault. Open an unmanaged vault folder 1. Select the unmanaged vault. 2. Click Explore. The vault will be available for examination with the standard file manager program. Delete a vault 1.
[Optional] Select whether to protect the vault with encryption. Anything written to the vault will be encrypted and anything read from it will be decrypted transparently by the storage node, using a vault-specific encryption key stored on the storage node. A vault located on a tape device cannot be protected with encryption. Path (p. 185) Specify where the vault will be created.
Compression [Optional] Select whether to compress the deduplication data stores. This setting is available only if the backward compatibility is turned on and deduplication is enabled. User accounts Vault administrators (p. 186) Add groups or user accounts that will have administrator rights on this vault. Vault administrators can view and manage all the archives stored in the vault.
stored on the node. If the storage medium is stolen or accessed by an unauthorized person, the malefactor will not be able to decrypt the vault contents without access to the storage node. This encryption has nothing to do with the archive encryption specified by the backup plan and performed by an agent. If the archive is already encrypted, the storage node-side encryption is applied over the encryption performed by the agent. To protect the vault with encryption 1.
You will be prompted to specify the domain account credentials, when you enter a user or group name that cannot be checked using your domain account; for example, if you are logged on using a domain account other than the domain name you have entered to check. Vault users Vault users can view and manage only their own archives in the vault. A vault user who is a member of the Administrators group on a machine can additionally view and manage any archives created from that machine in a managed vault.
Vault path To specify the path where the unmanaged vault will be created 1. Enter the full path to the folder in the Path field or select the desired folder in the folders tree. Unmanaged vaults can be organized: On Acronis Cloud Storage. On a network share (SMB/CIFS). On a Network File System (NFS) share. On a Storage Area Network (SAN). On a Network Attached Storage (NAS). On FTP and SFTP servers.
If the vault is deduplicating, we recommend that you move the deduplication database from the old storage node to the new one. Otherwise, the software will automatically re-create the deduplication database, which may take a long time to perform. For the information about the recommended location of the deduplication database, see "Deduplication best practices" (p. 234). The deduplication database consists of several files that are named _u.*.
7.1.3 Personal vaults A vault is called personal if it was created using direct connection of the console to a managed machine. Personal vaults are specific for each managed machine. Personal vaults are visible to any user that can log on to the system. A user's right to back up to a personal vault is defined by the user's permission for the folder or device where the vault is located.
To Do for accessing a vault In the appearing dialog box, provide the credentials required for accessing the vault. Create Acronis Secure Zone Click Explore a vault's content Click Validate a vault Click Create Acronis Secure Zone. The procedure of creating the Acronis Secure Zone is described in-depth in the Creating Acronis Secure Zone (p. 194) section. Explore. In the appearing Explorer window, examine the selected vault's content. Validate. You will be taken to the Validation (p.
3. Create a new vault. 4. Edit the backup plans and tasks: redirect their destination to the new vault. 5. Delete the old vault. How can I merge two vaults? Suppose you have two vaults A and B in use. Both vaults are used by backup plans. You decide to leave only vault B, moving all the archives from vault A there. To do this, proceed as follows 1. Make sure that none of the backup plans uses vault A while merging, or disable the given plans. See Actions on backup plans and tasks (p. 325). 2.
To specify a new cache folder in Linux: Add the following element inside the Configuration tag in /etc/Acronis/MMS.config: "/home/Catalog/" So, the configuration file will look like: ... "/home/Catalog/" Where /home/Catalog/ is a new folder path.
Offers a cost-effective and handy method for protecting data from software malfunction, virus attack, operator error. Since it is internal archive storage, it eliminates the need for a separate media or network connection to back up or recover the data. This is especially useful for mobile users. Can serve as a primary destination when using replication of backups (p. 99). Limitations Acronis Secure Zone cannot be organized on a dynamic disk. 7.2.
7.2.1.2 Acronis Secure Zone Size Enter the Acronis Secure Zone size or drag the slider to select any size between the minimum and the maximum ones. The minimum size is approximately 50MB, depending on the geometry of the hard disk. The maximum size is equal to the disk's unallocated space plus the total free space on all the volumes you have selected in the previous step.
As is apparent from the above, setting the maximum possible zone size is not advisable. You will end up with no free space on any volume which might cause the operating system or applications to work unstably and even fail to start. 7.2.2 Managing Acronis Secure Zone Acronis Secure Zone is considered as a personal vault (p. 449). Once created on a managed machine, the zone is always present in the list of Personal vaults. Centralized backup plans can use Acronis Secure Zone as well as local plans.
7.2.2.3 Deleting Acronis Secure Zone To delete Acronis Secure Zone: 1. On the Manage Acronis Secure Zone page, click Delete. 2. In the Delete Acronis Secure Zone window, select volumes to which you want to add the space freed from the zone and then click OK. If you select several volumes, the space will be distributed to each partition equally. If you do not select any volumes, the freed space becomes unallocated. After you click OK, Acronis Backup will start deleting the zone. 7.
Functionality Fixed drive Removable media You can set the option to clean up the archive "When there is insufficient space while backing up" within the Custom (p. 69) backup scheme. Yes No Simplified naming (p. 77) of backup files... ...is unavailable. ...is always used. You can replicate backups (p. 99) to the removable device. Yes No You can replicate backups from the removable device. No No An archive with several full backups can be created. Yes No.
device with several drives is attached to a storage node, multiple machines can simultaneously back up to tapes. 7.4.2.1 Compatibility with RSM and third-party software Coexistence with third-party software Acronis Backup cannot work with tapes on a machine where third-party software with proprietary tape management tools is installed. For Acronis Backup to use tapes on such machine, you need to uninstall or deactivate the third-party tape management software.
3. Add the registry key described below. Specify the new location path in the registry value ArsmDmlDbProtocol. Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\ARSM\Settings Registry value: ArsmDmlDbProtocol Possible data values: Any string 0 to 32765 characters long. Description: Specifies the folder where the tape management database is stored. 4. Start the Acronis Removable Storage Management service. To relocate the database in Linux: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Stop the acronis_rsm service.
Custom scheme Set up the custom scheme so that it creates full backups with a reasonable frequency. Otherwise, if you specify retention rules, the software will not be able to overwrite tapes as appropriate. In the retention rules of the Custom backup scheme (p. 69), the If a backup to be moved or deleted has dependencies: Consolidate these backups option is disabled. Only the Retain the backup until all dependent backups become subject to deletion option is available.
12. Barcode printers are not supported. 7.4.2.7 Readability of tapes written by the older Acronis products The following table summarizes the readability of tapes written by Acronis True Image Echo, Acronis True Image 9.1, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 and Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 product families in Acronis Backup. The table also illustrates the compatibility of tapes written by various components of Acronis Backup. ...is readable on a tape device attached to a machine with...
4. Click Detect tape devices. 5. If your tape device is a stand-alone drive, skip this step. Otherwise, do the following: a. Click Inventory to detect the loaded tapes. Select the Full inventorying method. Do not select the Move newly detected tapes from the 'Unrecognized tapes' or 'Imported tapes' pools to the 'Free tapes' pool check box. Result. The loaded tapes have been moved to proper pools as specified in the "Inventorying" (p. 212) section.
Tapes sent to the Imported tapes pool contain backups written by Acronis software. Before moving such tapes to the Free tapes pool, make sure you do not need these backups. c. Decide whether you want to back up to the default Acronis pool (p. 207) or to create a new pool (p. 208). Details. Having several pools enables you to use a separate tape set for each machine or each department of your company.
8. If any of the required tapes are not loaded for some reason, the software will show you a message with the identifier of the needed tape. Load the tape, and click Retry to continue the recovery. What if I do not see backups stored on tapes? It may mean that the database with the contents of tapes is lost or corrupted for some reason. To restore the database, do the following: If the backup is located on the machine 1. After you click Recover, click Select data, and then click Browse. 2.
9. Select the Unrecognized tapes pool. 10. Select the tapes to be rescanned. To select all the tapes of the pool, select the check box next to the Tape name column header. 11. If the tapes contain a password-protected archive, select the corresponding check box, and then specify the password for the archive in the Password box. If you do not specify a password, or the password is incorrect, the archive will not be detected. Please keep this in mind in case you see no archives after the rescanning. Tip.
7.4.4 7.4.4.1 Tape management Detecting tape devices When detecting tape devices, Acronis Backup finds tape devices attached to the machine and places information about them in the tape management database. Detecting tape devices is required: After you have attached or re-attached a tape device. After you have installed or reinstalled Acronis Backup on the machine to which a tape device is attached. When detecting tape devices, Acronis Backup disables them from RSM. To detect the tape devices 1.
backups from different departments of your company backups from different machines backups of system volumes and users' data filled tapes from tapes being written to (p. 208). Separating filled tapes You may want to separate filled tapes from incomplete ones. Let's assume you want the tapes filled over a month to be taken to an off-site location. To do this: 1. Create a custom tape pool (p. 208) (for example, Filled tapes). 2. Create another custom tape pool (for example, Current tapes).
To edit a pool: 1. In the Navigation tree, click Tape management. If connected to the management server, select the storage node to which your tape device is attached. 2. Select the required pool, and then click Settings. 3. You can change the pool name (except the name of the Acronis pool) or settings. For more information about pool settings, see the "Creating a pool" (p. 208) section. 4. Click OK to save the changes. Deleting a pool You can delete only custom pools.
You cannot move write-protected and once-recorded WORM (Write-Once-Read-Many) tapes to the Free tapes pool. Cleaning tapes are always displayed in the Unrecognized tapes pool; you cannot move them to any other pool. To move tapes to another pool: 1. In the Navigation tree, click Tape management. If connected to the management server, select the storage node to which your tape device is attached. 2. Click the pool that contains the necessary tapes, and then select the required tapes. 3.
After a tape is ejected either manually or automatically (p. 126), it is recommended to write its name on the tape. Erasing Erasing a tape physically deletes all backups stored on the tape and removes the information about these backups from the database. However the information about the tape itself remains in the database. After erasing, a tape located in the Unrecognized tapes or Imported tapes pool is moved to the Free tapes pool. A tape located in any other pool is not moved.
Note During the inventorying, do not select the Move newly detected tapes from the 'Unrecognized tapes' or 'Imported tapes' pools to the 'Free tapes' pool check box. 4. Click Rescan. 5. Select the vault where the newly detected archives will be placed. 6. Select the Unrecognized tapes pool. This is the pool to which most of the tapes are sent as a result of the fast inventorying. Rescanning the pool associated with the selected vault or the Imported tapes pool is also possible. 7.
Acronis Backup reads tags written by Acronis software and analyzes other information about the contents of the loaded tapes. Select this method to recognize empty tapes and tapes written by Acronis software on any tape device and any machine. The following table shows pools to which tapes are sent as a result of the full inventorying. Tape was used by... Agent Storage Node third-party backup application Tape is read by... Tape is sent to pool...
4. [Optional] Select the Move newly detected tapes from the 'Unrecognized tapes' or 'Imported tapes' pools to the 'Free tapes' pool check box. Warning. Only select this check box if you are absolutely sure that the data stored on your tapes can be overwritten. 5. [Optional] Select tape libraries and stand-alone drives to be inventoried. By default, all the tape libraries and stand-alone drives are selected. 6.
Personal tape-based vaults Before backing up a machine to a directly attached tape device, you can create a personal vault. If you do not want to, the software will automatically create a personal vault associated with the Acronis pool. If you create more than one personal vault, tapes with backups will be placed in the respective pools specified in the vaults' settings. However, each vault will show all the backups located in all of the vaults. To create a personal vault: 1.
2. Perform the fast inventorying (p. 212) with the Move newly detected tapes from the 'Unrecognized tapes' or 'Imported tapes' pools to the 'Free tapes' pool check box selected. Result. The loaded tapes are in the Free tapes pool. If some of them are sent to the Acronis pool or a custom pool, this means the tapes contain backups you did earlier on this machine. Move (p. 209) such tapes to the Free tapes pool manually if you don't need these backups. 3.
In Tape pool, select the pool where you will back up to (the Acronis pool or the newly created one). 7. When creating a centralized backup plan (p. 357): In Items to back up, select the machines you want to back up. Choose the created vault as the backup destination. Select the Custom backup scheme. Specify the schedules for full and incremental backups. In Clean up archive, select Using retention rules, and then click Retention rules.
7. After each backup is created and the tapes with it are ejected, send them to a secure off-site storage. If you do not have enough free tapes to continue backups, load new tapes and perform steps 2 and 4. Result The machine will be backed up to the local folder and to tapes. Tapes with each backups will be sent to the off-site storage. 7.4.6.4 Example 4. GFS.
Result The machine will be backed up to tapes according to the specified backup scheme. Tapes with full backups will be sent to a secure off-site storage. 7.5 Storage nodes The following sections describe how to use Acronis Backup Storage Node. Storage nodes are available only in Acronis Backup Advanced. 7.5.
Deduplication A managed vault can be configured as a deduplicating vault. This means that identical data will be backed up to this vault only once to minimize network usage during backup and to minimize storage space taken by the archives. For more information, see the "Deduplication" (p. 231) section. Encryption A managed vault can be configured so that anything written to it is encrypted and anything read from it is decrypted transparently by the storage node.
b. Select the storage node, then click Create vault. The Create centralized vault page will be opened with the pre-selected storage node. Perform the remaining steps to create the vault as described in "Creating a managed centralized vault" (p. 183). Details. When specifying the paths to the vault and to the deduplication database, follow the recommendations described in "Deduplication best practices" (p. 234). Backup to the storage node Create a local (p. 55) or centralized (p. 357) backup plan.
Additional right of machine administrators A vault user who is a member of the Administrators group on a machine can view and manage any archives created from that machine in a managed vault—regardless of the type of that user's account on the storage node. Example Suppose that two users on a machine, UserA and UserB, perform backups from this machine to a centralized vault managed by a storage node.
To Do storage node. Perform the remaining steps to create the vault. View details of the storage node 1. Select the storage node. 2. Click View details. In the Storage node properties (p. 224) window (its content is duplicated on the Information panel at the bottom of the Storage nodes view), examine information about the storage node and the vaults managed by this node. Run, stop or 1. Select the storage node. reschedule compacting 2. Click View details. In the Storage node properties (p.
7.5.6.3 Storage node properties The Storage node properties window accumulates in four tabs all information on the selected Acronis Backup Storage Node. This information is also duplicated on the Information panel. Storage node properties This tab displays the following information about the selected storage node: Name - the name of the machine where the storage node is installed.
Vaults This tab displays a list of vaults managed by the selected storage node. To update the list of vaults with the most recent information from the management server, click Refresh. Indexing This tab lets you examine the current status of indexing for the deduplicating vaults of the storage node and review the date and time of the last run. 7.5.6.
The size of the deleted data is 20 GB, and the size of the remaining data is 80 GB. The ratio of the deleted to remaining data is thus 20 GB / 80 GB = 0.25, or 25 percent. The storage node calculates the relative size of the remaining data as 100 percent – 25 percent = 75 percent. Because this relative size is less than 90 percent, the storage node starts checking for unused items.
See also the Fast Operation Connection Limit parameter. Backup Queue Limit Description: Specifies the maximum number of agents in the storage node's backup queue. Possible values: Any integer number between 1 and 2147483647 Default value: 50 The backup queue is a list of agents that are awaiting connection to the storage node for backup, recovery, or an operation with an archive (see the previous parameter).
A vault database contains information about archives and backups stored in the vault. When you create or attach a vault, the storage node places the database for that vault to the folder determined by this parameter. Changing this parameter does not affect the currently existing vault databases. If you want these databases to be moved to the new folder, detach (p. 182) the corresponding vaults and then attach (p. 188) them to the same storage node.
When the amount of free space in a vault is equal to the value in Vault Free Space Warning Limit or less, a warning is recorded in the storage node's log, indicating the vault in question. You can view storage node warnings in the Dashboard. Vault Free Space Warning Percentage Description: Specifies the amount of free space in a managed vault, as a percentage of its total size, below which a warning is recorded in the storage node's log.
The database is stored on the storage node in a local folder whose name is specified by the by the Vault Metadata Database Path parameter. Vault Database Free Space Error Limit Description: Specifies the amount of free space on the volume containing a managed vault's database, in megabytes, below which an error is recorded in the storage node's log and any backup to the vault becomes prohibited.
of RAM, but leave at least 2 GB of RAM for the operating system and other applications. You can change this behavior by using the DatastoreIndexCacheMemoryPercent and DatastoreIndexReservedMemory parameters.
The deduplication is performed on data blocks. The block size is 4 KB for disk-level backups and 1 B to 256 KB for file-level backups. Each file that is less than 256 KB is considered a data block. Files larger than 256 KB are split into 256-KB blocks. Acronis Backup performs deduplication in two steps: Deduplication at source Performed on a managed machine during backup.
Deduplication at target After a backup to a deduplicating vault is completed, the storage node runs the indexing activity. This activity deduplicates the data in the vault as follows: 1. It moves the data blocks from the temporary file to a special file within the vault, storing duplicate items there only once. This file is called the deduplication data store. 2. It saves the hash values and the links that are necessary to "assemble" the deduplicated data to the deduplication database. 3.
Compacting After one or more backups or archives have been deleted from the vault—either manually or during cleanup—the data store may contain blocks which are no longer referred to from any archive. Such blocks are deleted by the compacting task, which is a scheduled task performed by the storage node. By default, the compacting task runs every Sunday night at 03:00. You can re-schedule the task by selecting the corresponding storage node, clicking View details (p.
Place the deduplication database and deduplicating vault on separate physical devices To increase the speed of access to a deduplication database, the database and the vault must be located on separate physical devices. It is best to allocate dedicated devices for the vault and the database. If this is not possible, at least do not place a vault or database on the same disk with the operating system.
64-bit operating system The storage node must be installed in a 64-bit operating system. The machine with the storage node should not run applications that require much system resources; for example, Database Management Systems (DBMS) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Multi-core processor with at least 2.5 GHz clock rate We recommend that you use a processor with the number of cores not less than 4 and the clock rate not less than 2.5 GHz.
Disk-level backup Deduplication of disk blocks is not performed if the volume's allocation unit size—also known as cluster size or block size—is not divisible by 4 KB. Tip: The allocation unit size on most NTFS and ext3 volumes is 4 KB. This allows for block-level deduplication. Other examples of allocation unit sizes allowing for block-level deduplication include 8 KB, 16 KB, and 64 KB.
This method requires stopping the Acronis Storage Node Service. Both methods use the same principle: if the storage node does not find the database, it creates the database from scratch. This process length depends on the datastore size and disk I/O speed. On average, 1 TB of the datastore requires 3 hours. The next section describes how to find the datastore file.
Deduplication database and datastore are in the same folder 1. Detach the managed vault. 2. Move the old deduplication database files to another folder. 3. Attach the managed vault. When attaching, specify the same paths, including the same deduplication database path. Validating the result Once the operation is completed, verify that the database files are present in the corresponding folder.
8 Operations with archives and backups 8.1 Validating archives and backups Validation is an operation that checks the possibility of data recovery from a backup. Validation of a file backup imitates recovery of all files from the backup to a dummy destination. Validation of a disk or volume backup calculates a checksum for every data block saved in the backup. Both procedures are resource-intensive. Validation of an archive will validate all the archive's backups.
Credentials (p. 242) [Optional] Provide credentials for accessing the source if the task account does not have enough privileges to access it. When to validate Start validation (p. 243) Specify when and how often to perform validation. Task parameters Task name [Optional] Enter a unique name for the validation task. A conscious name lets you quickly identify the task among the others. Task's credentials (p. 243) [Optional] The validation task will run on behalf of the user who is creating the task.
To select a centralized vault (either managed or unmanaged), expand the Centralized group and click the vault. If you cannot access a managed vault (for example, when using bootable media), select the Storage nodes group, enter the storage node name in the Path box (by using the format bsp:///), and then click the arrow button. To select a personal vault, expand the Personal group and click the appropriate vault.
According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer. 8.1.5 When to validate As validation is a resource-intensive operation, it makes sense to schedule validation to the managed machine's off-peak period.
8.2 Exporting archives and backups The export operation creates a copy of an archive or a self-sufficient part copy of an archive in the location you specify. The original archive remains untouched. The export operation can be applied to: A single archive - an exact archive copy will be created. Your choice of backups belonging to the same archive - the resulting archive will contain only the specified backups.
The exported archive inherits the options of the original archive, including encryption and the password. When exporting a password-protected archive, you are prompted for the password. If the original archive is encrypted, the password is used to encrypt the resulting archive. Source and destination locations When the console is connected to a managed machine, you can export an archive or part of an archive to and from any location accessible to the agent residing on the machine.
Select the type of objects to export: Archive - in this case, you need to specify the archive only. Backups - you need to specify the archive first, and then select the desired backup(s) in this archive. Browse Select the Archive (p. 246) or the Backups (p. 246). Show access credentials (p. 247) [Optional] Provide credentials for accessing the source if the task account does not have enough privileges to access it. Where to export Browse (p.
8.2.3 Access credentials for source Specify credentials required for access to the location where the source archive, or the backup is stored. To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: Use the current user credentials The software will access the location using the credentials of the current user. Use the following credentials The program will access the location using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the task account does not have access permissions to the location.
After entering access credentials, the folders on the server become available. Click the appropriate folder on the server. You can access the server as an anonymous user if the server enables such access. To do so, click Use anonymous access instead of entering credentials. Note According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext.
The software will access the destination using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the task account does not have access permissions to the destination. Specify: User name. When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain). Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK.
Select volumes to mount and configure the mount settings for every volume: assign a letter or enter the mount point, choose the read/write or read only access mode. When you complete all the required steps, click OK to mount the volumes. 8.3.1 Archive selection To select an archive 1.
Specify: User name. When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain). Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK. According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer. 8.3.
8.4 Operations available in vaults By using vaults, you can easily access archives and backups and perform archive management operations. To perform operations with archives and backups 1. In the Navigation pane, select the vault whose archives you need to manage. 2. In the vault view, select the Archive view tab. This tab displays all archives stored in the selected vault. 3. Proceed as described in: 8.4.1 Operations with archives (p. 252) Operations with backups (p.
8.4.2 Operations with backups To perform any operation with a backup 1. In the Navigation pane, select the vault that contains archives. 2. On the Archive view tab of the vault, select the archive. Then, expand the archive and click the backup to select it. If the archive is protected with a password, you will be asked to provide it. 3. Perform operations by clicking the corresponding buttons on the toolbar. These operations can also be accessed from the '[Backup name]' actions item of the main menu.
8.4.3 Converting a backup to full When the chain of incremental backups in an archive becomes long, conversion of an incremental backup to a full one increases the reliability of your archive. You may also want to convert a differential backup if there are incremental backups that depend on it. During the conversion, the selected incremental or differential backup is replaced with a full backup for the same point in time. The previous backups in the chain are not changed.
Please be aware that consolidation is just a method of deletion but not an alternative to deletion. The resulting backup will not contain data that was present in the deleted backup and was absent from the retained incremental or differential backup. There should be enough space in the vault for temporary files created during consolidation. Backups resulting from consolidation always have maximum compression.
9 Bootable media Bootable media Bootable media is physical media (CD, DVD, USB flash drive or other removable media supported by a machine BIOS as a boot device) that boots on any PC-compatible machine and enables you to run Acronis Backup Agent either in a Linux-based environment or Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE), without the help of an operating system.
Bootable media based on WinPE versions earlier than 4.0 cannot boot on machines that use Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). When a machine is booted with a PE-based bootable media, you cannot select optical media such as CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Discs (BD) as a backup destination. 9.1 How to create bootable media Acronis offers a dedicated tool for creating bootable media, Acronis Bootable Media Builder. Bootable Media Builder does not require a license if installed together with an agent.
c. [Optional] The timeout interval for the boot menu plus the component that will automatically start on timeout. If not configured, the Acronis loader waits for someone to select whether to boot the operating system (if present) or the Acronis component. If you set, say, 10 sec. for the bootable agent, the agent will launch 10 seconds after the menu is displayed. This enables unattended onsite operation when booting from a PXE server or WDS/RIS. d.
vga=mode_number Specifies the video mode to be used by the bootable media's graphical user interface. The mode number is given by mode_number in the hexadecimal format—for example: vga=0x318 Screen resolution and the number of colors corresponding to a mode number may be different on different machines. We recommend using the vga=ask parameter first to choose a value for mode_number.
These calls might not work properly on some machines. But this may be the only way to get the interrupt routing table. 9.1.1.2 Network settings While creating Acronis bootable media, you have an option to pre-configure network connections that will be used by the bootable agent. The following parameters can be pre-configured: IP address Subnet mask Gateway DNS server WINS server.
the default port the currently used port the new port (enter the port number). If the port has not been pre-configured, the agent uses the default port number (9876.) This port is also used as default by the Acronis Backup Management Console. 9.1.1.4 Drivers for Universal Restore While creating bootable media, you have an option to add Windows drivers to the media.
Windows Vista (PE 2.0) Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 (PE 2.1) Windows 7 (PE 3.0) with or without the supplement for Windows 7 SP1 (PE 3.1) Windows 8 (PE 4.0) Windows 8.1 (PE 5.0) Bootable Media Builder supports both 32-bit and 64-bit WinPE distributions. The 32-bit WinPE distributions can also work on 64-bit hardware. However, you need a 64-bit distribution to boot a machine that uses Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).
To prepare a machine with ADK 1. Download the setup program of Assessment and Deployment Kit. Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 8 (PE 4.0): http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30652. Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 8.1 (PE 5.0): http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=39982. You can find system requirements for installation by following the above links. 2. Install Assessment and Deployment Kit on the machine. 3.
Click Add and specify the path to the necessary *.inf file for a corresponding SCSI, RAID, SATA controller, network adapter, tape drive or other device. 8. 9. 10. 11. Repeat this procedure for each driver you want to be included in the resulting WinPE boot media. Choose whether you want to create ISO or WIM image or upload the media on a server (Acronis PXE Server, WDS or RIS).
After you click OK, a new entry appears in the list of network adapters. If you need to remove a VLAN, click the required VLAN entry, and then click Remove VLAN. Local connection To operate directly on the machine booted from bootable media, click Manage this machine locally in the startup window. Remote connection To connect a management console to a remote machine booted from bootable media, select Connect > Manage a remote machine in the console menu, and then specify one of the machine's IP addresses.
9.3.1 Setting up a display mode For a machine booted from media, a display video mode is detected automatically based on the hardware configuration (monitor and graphics card specifications). If, for some reason, the video mode is detected incorrectly, do the following: 1. In the boot menu, press F11. 2. Add to the command prompt the following command: vga=ask, and then proceed with booting. 3.
9.4 List of commands and utilities available in Linux-based bootable media Linux-based bootable media contains the following commands and command line utilities, which you can use when running a command shell. To start the command shell, press CTRL+ALT+F2 while in the bootable media's management console.
grub poweroff vconfig gunzip ps vi halt raidautorun zcat hexdump readcd hotplug reboot 9.5 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is a modification of the bootable agent (p. 439), residing on the system disk in Windows, or on the /boot partition in Linux and configured to start at boot time on pressing F11. It eliminates the need for a separate media or network connection to start the bootable rescue utility.
Network booting: eliminates the need to have a technician onsite to install the bootable media into the system that must be booted during group operations, reduces the time required for booting multiple machines as compared to using physical bootable media. Bootable components are uploaded to Acronis PXE Server using Acronis Bootable Media Builder.
On a machine that has an operating system on the hard disk, the BIOS must be configured so that the network interface card is either the first boot device, or at least prior to the Hard Drive device. The example below shows one of reasonable BIOS configurations. If you don’t insert bootable media, the machine will boot from the network. In some BIOS versions, you have to save changes to BIOS after enabling the network interface card so that the card appears in the list of boot devices.
10 Disk management Acronis Disk Director Lite is a tool for preparing a machine disk/volume configuration for recovering the volume images saved by the Acronis Backup software. Sometimes after the volume has been backed up and its image placed into a safe storage, the machine disk configuration might change due to a HDD replacement or hardware loss.
1. Back up the disk on which volumes will be created or managed. Having your most important data backed up to another hard disk, network share or removable media will allow you to work on disk volumes being reassured that your data is safe. 2. Test your disk to make sure it is fully functional and does not contain bad sectors or file system errors. 3. Do not perform any disk/volume operations while running other software that has low-level disk access.
10.5 "Disk management" view Acronis Disk Director Lite is controlled through the Disk management view of the console. The top part of the view contains a disks and volumes table enabling data sorting and columns customization and toolbar. The table presents the numbers of the disks, as well as assigned letter, label, type, capacity, free space size, used space size, file system, and status for each volume.
10.6.1 Disk initialization If you add any new disk to your machine, Acronis Disk Director Lite will notice the configuration change and scan the added disk to include it to the disk and volume list. If the disk is still not initialized or, possibly, has a file structure unknown to the machine system, that means that no programs can be installed on it and you will not be able to store any files there. Acronis Disk Director Lite will detect that the disk is unusable by the system and needs to be initialized.
10.6.2.1 Selecting source and target disks The program displays a list of partitioned disks and asks the user to select the source disk, from which data will be transferred to another disk. The next step is selection of a disk as target for the cloning operation. The program enables the user to select a disk if its size will be sufficient to hold all the data from the source disk without any loss.
You have the following two alternatives to retain system bootability on the target disk volume: 1. Copy NT signature – to provide the target disk with the source disk NT signature matched with the Registry keys also copied on the target disk. 2. Leave NT signature – to keep the old target disk signature and update the operating system according to the signature. If you need to copy the NT signature: 1. Select the Copy NT signature check box.
Dynamic disk conversion: MBR to GPT Acronis Disk Director Lite does not support direct MBR to GPT conversion for dynamic disks. However you can perform the following conversions to reach the goal using the program: 1. MBR disk conversion: dynamic to basic (p. 278) using the Convert to basic operation. 2. Basic disk conversion: MBR to GPT using the Convert to GPT operation. 3. GPT disk conversion: basic to dynamic (p. 277) using the Convert to dynamic operation. 10.6.
System disk conversion Acronis Disk Director Lite does not require an operating system reboot after basic to dynamic conversion of the disk, if: 1. There is a single Windows 2008/Vista operating system installed on the disk. 2. The machine runs this operating system.
safe conversion of a dynamic disk to basic when it contains volumes with data for simple and mirrored volumes in multiboot systems, bootability of a system that was offline during the operation 10.6.7 Changing disk status Changing disk status is effective for Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 operating systems and applies to the current disk layout (p. 272).
Store backups (images) of other volumes/disks on a special volume; Install a new operating system (or swap file) on a new volume; Add new hardware to a machine. In Acronis Disk Director Lite the tool for creating volumes is the Create volume Wizard. 10.7.1.1 Types of dynamic volumes Simple Volume A volume created from free space on a single physical disk. It can consist of one region on the disk or several regions, virtually united by the Logical Disk Manager (LDM).
and is able to overcome the physical disk size limitations with a higher than mirrored disk-to-volume size ratio. 10.7.1.2 Create volume wizard The Create volume wizard lets you create any type of volume (including system and active), select a file system, label, assign a letter, and also provides other disk management functions.
To create a RAID-5 volume: Select three destination disks to create the volume on. After you choose the disks, the wizard will calculate the maximum size of the resulting volume, depending on the size of the unallocated space on the disks you chose and the requirements of the volume type you have previously decided upon.
If you are creating a basic volume, which can be made into a system volume, this page will be different, giving you the opportunity to select the volume Type — Primary (Active Primary) or Logical. Typically Primary is selected to install an operating system to a volume. Select the Active (default) value if you want to install an operating system on this volume to boot at machine startup. If the Primary button is not selected, the Active option will be inactive.
10.7.3 Set active volume If you have several primary volumes, you must specify one to be the boot volume. For this, you can set a volume to become active. A disk can have only one active volume, so if you set a volume as active, the volume, which was active before, will be automatically unset. If you need to set a volume active: 1. Select a primary volume on a basic MBR disk to set as active. 2. Right-click on the selected volume, and then click Mark as active in the context menu.
an application volume, DATA — a data volume, etc., but it does not imply that only the type of data stated with the label could be stored on such a volume. In Windows, volume labels are shown in the Explorer disk and folder tree: LABEL1(C:), LABEL2(D:), LABEL3(E:), etc. LABEL1, LABEL2 and LABEL3 are volume labels. A volume label is shown in all application dialog boxes for opening and saving files. If you need to change a volume label: 1. Right-click on the selected volume, and then click Change label. 2.
10.8 Pending operations All operations, which were prepared by the user in manual mode or with the aid of a wizard, are considered pending until the user issues the specific command for the changes to be made permanent. Until then, Acronis Disk Director Lite will only demonstrate the new volume structure that will result from the operations that have been planned to be performed on disks and volumes.
11 Protecting applications with disk-level backup This section describes how to use a disk-level backup to protect applications running on Windows servers. This information is valid for both physical and virtual machines, no matter if the virtual machines are backed up at a hypervisor level or from inside a guest OS.
If the application databases are located on a number of machines, back up all of the machines on the same schedule. For example, include all of the SQL servers belonging to a SharePoint farm in a centralized backup plan running on a fixed schedule. Use Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) should be used to ensure consistency of the database files in the backup.
Other available solutions include: 1. Truncating the logs manually or by using a script. For more information, see "Truncating transaction logs" (p. 292) 2. For Microsoft Exchange Server, using the dedicated Agent for Exchange. 3. For Microsoft SQL Server, using Agent for SQL. Application-specific recommendations See "Best practices when backing up application servers" (p. 295). 11.1.1 Locating database files This section describes how to find application database files.
Determining locations of database files by using SQL Server Management Studio Default locations SQL Server database files are in their default locations unless you have customized the paths manually. To find out the default locations of database files: 1. Run Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the necessary instance. 2. Right-click the instance name and select Properties. 3. Open the Database Settings page and view the paths specified in the Database default locations section.
Exchange 2003 1. Start Exchange System Manager. 2. Click Administrative Groups. Note: If Administrative Groups does not appear, it may not be turned on. To turn on Administrative Groups, right-click Exchange Organization, and then click Properties. Click to select the Display Administrative Groups check box. 3. To find out transaction log location, do the following: a. Right-click the storage group, and then click Properties. b. On the General tab you will see transaction log location. 4.
5. Repeat step 4 for other databases of the web application. 6. Repeat steps 3-5 for other web applications. 7. Use Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio to identify the database files. For detailed instructions, refer to "SQL Server database files" (p. 289). To find the configuration or service database files in SharePoint 2007 1. Open Central Administration site. 2. Select Application Management > Create or configure this farm's shared services. 3.
3. Switch the database back to the Full or Bulk-logged recovery model in the same manner as in step 1. Automating log truncation and shrinking You can automate the above truncation procedure by using a script and (optionally) add log file shrinking. If you add the script to the Post-backup command (p. 123), the logs will be truncated and shrunk immediately after a backup. This method assumes that you have Transact-SQL scripting skills and are familiar the sqlcmd utility.
11.1.2.2 Transaction log truncation for Exchange Server About Microsoft Exchange Server log Before committing a transaction to a database file, Exchange logs it to a transaction log file. To track which of the logged transactions have been committed to the database, Exchange uses checkpoint files. Once the transactions are committed to the database and tracked by the checkpoint files, the log files are no longer needed by the database.
committed to the database. Do not delete log files whose data has not been committed to the database, they are essential to recover the database consistency from unexpected shutdown. To delete the committed transaction logs 1. Determine which logs have been committed to the database by using the Eseutil tool: a. Execute the eseutil /mk command, where the is a path to the checkpoint file of the required database or the storage group. b.
verification can be time consuming. For information about using Eseutil /K, see: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123956(v=exchg.80). You can perform the consistency check before or after a backup. Before a backup. This ensures that you do not back up the damaged Exchange database files. a. Dismount the databases. b. Run Eseutil /K and review the verification results. c. If the databases are consistent, mount them again and run the backup. Otherwise, repair the damaged databases.
The Active Directory database and/or transaction logs were moved to a different location. An operating system on the domain controller was upgraded, or a service pack was installed. A hotfix that changes the Active Directory database was installed. The tombstone lifetime was changed administratively. The reason for this additional backup is that a successful recovery of Active Directory from the previous backups might not be possible. 11.1.3.
4. Select the required SQL Server database files and click Recover. By default, the data will be reverted to the state of the latest backup. If you need to select another point in time to revert the data to, use the Versions list. 5. On the recovery page under What to recover section: a. In Data paths, select Custom. b. In Browse, specify a folder where the files will be recovered to.
Details. When mounting an image in the "Read/write" mode, Acronis Backup creates a new incremental backup. We strongly recommend deleting this incremental backup. 11.2.3 Attaching SQL Server databases This section describes how to attach a database in SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio. Only one database can be attached at a time. Attaching a database requires any of the following permissions: CREATE DATABASE, CREATE ANY DATABASE, or ALTER ANY DATABASE.
To recover Exchange Server databases 1. 2. 3. 4. Connect the console to the machine on which you are going to perform the operation. Navigate to the vault containing the disk backup with the Exchange data files. Click the Data view tab. In the Show list, click Folders/files. Select the required Exchange database files and click Recover. By default, the data will be reverted to the state of the latest backup. If you need to select another point in time to revert the data to, use the Versions list. 5.
Exchange 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694(v=exchg.80) Exchange 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332351 Exchange 2003: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124427(v=exchg.65) 2. Recover the database files to the RDB/RSG folder structure. For information about recovering database files, see "Recovering Exchange Server database files from a disk backup" (p. 299). 3. Mount the recovery database.
All available backups are older than the tombstone lifetime. Tombstones are used during replication to ensure that an object deleted on one domain controller becomes deleted on other domain controllers. Thus, proper replication is not possible after the tombstones have been deleted. The domain controller held a Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) role, and you have assigned that role to a different domain controller (seized the role).
11.4.3 Restoring the Active Directory database If the Active Directory database files are corrupted but the domain controller is able to start in normal mode, you can restore the database in one of the following ways. Re-promoting the domain controller This method of restoring the database is available only if the domain has other domain controllers. It does not require having a backup.
11.4.4 Restoring accidentally deleted information If the domain has other domain controllers, you can use the Ntdsutil tool to perform an authoritative restore of certain entries only. For example, you can restore an unintentionally deleted user account or computer account. To restore accidentally deleted information 1. Perform steps 1–5 from "Restoring the Active Directory database" (p.
version on another. To prevent conflicts and loss of information, Active Directory tracks object versions on each domain controller and replaces the outdated versions with the up-to-date version. To track object versions, Active Directory uses numbers called Update Sequence Numbers (USNs). Newer versions of Active Directory objects correspond to higher USNs. Each domain controller keeps the USNs of all other domain controllers.
For more details about USNs and USN rollback, see the following Microsoft Technet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/virtual_active_directory_domain_controller_virtualizatio n_hyperv.aspx. 11.5 Recovering SharePoint data Different SharePoint servers and databases are recovered in different way. To recover separate disks or volumes of a front-end Web server, you can either create a recovery task (p.
To recover a content database to the original SQL server 1. If the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service is running, stop the service and wait for a few minutes for any running stored procedures to complete. Do not restart the service until you have recovered all the databases that you need to recover. 2. If you are recovering the database to the original location on the disk, do the following: a. Bring the destination database offline. b.
2. On the server that is running the Central Administration site, run the following command: iisreset /stop 3. Recover the database files as described in "Recovering SQL Server databases from a disk backup" (p. 297). 4. Start the SharePoint services that were stopped earlier.
Using Acronis SharePoint Explorer. This tool allows you to recover SharePoint items from single-pass disk and application backups (p. 310), from an attached database, or from database files. To use the tool, you need a working SharePoint farm. You must also purchase an Acronis Backup license that supports SharePoint backups. To access Acronis SharePoint Explorer, click Extract SharePoint Data on the Tools menu of Acronis Backup Management Console.
12 Protecting Microsoft SQL Server with single-pass backup This section describes how to use single-pass disk and application backups to protect Microsoft SQL Server data. A single-pass backup operation creates an application-aware disk backup which enables browsing and recovery of the backed-up application data without recovering the entire disk or volume. The disk or volume can also be recovered as a whole.
Mounting databases By using the agent, you can temporarily attach a backed-up database to a running SQL Server instance and use third-party tools to get various objects from this database. 12.1.
Granting the permissions to the agent During installation, the setup program includes the agent service account in the Backup Operators group. If you choose to create a new account for the agent, this account is also included in the Administrators group. Therefore, the agent always has the required privileges in Windows. To grant the agent the sysadmin role in SQL Server, you are asked to specify the sysadmin credentials for each Microsoft SQL instance installed on the machine.
12.2 Installation of Agent for SQL Agent for SQL can only be installed on a machine running Microsoft SQL Server. Remote installation of the agent is not possible. The agent is included in the setup program of Acronis Backup Advanced. The agent is installed with Agent for Windows (p. 17) or on a machine where Agent for Windows is already installed.
Follow these recommendations to ensure that a single-pass backup is successful. Back up entire machines. This will allow you to recover both the operating system and any SQL database present on a machine. Databases may be stored on more than one disk or volume. To ensure that all necessary files are included in a backup, back up the entire machine. This also ensures that the SQL Server will remain protected if you add more databases or relocate the log files in the future.
Leave the setting disabled if you use a third-party application, such as the SQL Server backup and restore component, for backing up the SQL Server data. Log truncation and ignoring application errors are mutually exclusive. This prevents truncating the Microsoft SQL log if the application metadata is not collected. 12.4 Recovering Microsoft SQL Server data This section describes only the steps and settings that are specific for recovering SQL databases from a single-pass backup.
Rename the recovered database This setting lets you retain the existing database. A recovered database will have the following name: -Recovered. If a database with this name already exists, the recovered database will be named as follows: -Recovered (). Examples: MyDatabase-Recovered, MyDatabase-Recovered (2). 6. For each database being recovered, you can select its state after recovery.
Active Restore supports the following backup locations: A local folder on the machine where the recovery is performed (except optical disks). Acronis Secure Zone. A network share. To use Active Restore, enable it on the Recover data page (p. 132) under How to recover. The recovery process 1. If the recovery task includes the master database, it is recovered first. During this process, the instance is in the single-user mode and, therefore, users cannot connect to it.
12.5 Mounting SQL Server databases from a single-pass backup When you mount a backed-up SQL database, it is temporarily attached to your SQL Server in the read-only mode. You can access the database like any other database of the instance. Mounting databases comes in handy when you need any of the following: To granularly restore individual database objects, such as tables, records, stored procedures. Mount the database and use third-party tools to get the necessary information from it.
If the selected database is in use, Acronis Backup forcibly disconnects all users from the database and then unmounts it. 12.6 Protecting clustered SQL Server instances and AAG SQL Server high-availability solutions The Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) functionality enables you to configure a highly available SQL Server through redundance at the instance level (Failover Cluster Instance, FCI) or at the database level (AlwaysOn Availability Group, AAG). You can also combine both methods.
13 Protecting Microsoft Active Directory with single-pass backup This section describes how to use single-pass disk and application backups to protect the Active Directory Domain Services role of Microsoft Active Directory. The single-pass backup functionality becomes available by installing Acronis Backup Agent for Active Directory. Without this agent, you can protect your Active Directory data by using disk-level backup.
Acronis Backup for Windows Server Essentials Acronis Backup Advanced for VMware / Hyper-V / RHEV / Citrix XenServer / Oracle VM Acronis Backup Advanced Universal License Each of these licenses enables you to install Agent for Windows on the same machine. If Agent for Windows is already installed, you can install Agent for Active Directory by using the Acronis Backup Advanced for Active Directory Add-On license. To use the product in the trial mode, you do not need licenses.
13.5.1 Re-promoting the domain controller This method of recovering the data is available only if the domain has other domain controllers. It does not require having a backup. To recover Microsoft Active Directory, use the Dcpromo tool to demote the domain controller with the corrupted data, and then to promote that domain controller again. To re-promote the domain controller, run the following commands: dcpromo /forceremoval dcpromo /adv 13.5.
b. Copy all of the contents from each of these folders to the root of the corresponding disk drive. For example, copy the contents from the Drive(C) folder to C:/ and from the Drive(E) folder to E:/. Choose to overwrite the files, if prompted. Completing the recovery 1. If the domain has only one domain controller, skip this step.
14 Administering a managed machine This section describes the views that are available through the navigation tree of the console connected to a managed machine and explains how to work with each view. This section also covers supplementary operations that can be performed on a managed machine, such as changing a license, adjusting Machine options, and collecting system information. 14.1 Backup plans and tasks The Backup plans and tasks view keeps you informed of data protection on a given machine.
To Do Validation task (p. 240) View details of a plan/task Click Details. In the respective Plan Details (p. 334) or Task Details (p. 335) window, review the plan or task details. View plan's/task's log Click Log. You will be taken to the Log (p. 335) view containing the list of the log entries grouped by the plan/task-related activities. Run a plan/task Backup plan 1. Click Run. 2. In the drop-down list, select the plan's task you need run.
To Do Edit a plan/task Click Edit. Backup plan editing is performed in the same way as creation (p. 55), except for the following limitations: It is not always possible to use all scheme options, when editing a backup plan if the created archive is not empty (i.e. contains backups). 1. It is not possible to change the scheme to Grandfather-Father-Son or Tower of Hanoi. 2. If the Tower of Hanoi scheme is used, it is not possible to change the number of levels.
State 2 Running How it is determined At least one task is running. How to handle No action is required. Otherwise, see 3. 3 Waiting At least one task is waiting. Otherwise, see 4. Waiting for condition. This situation is quite normal, but delaying a backup for too long is risky. The solution may be to set the maximum delay (p. 128) after which the task will start anyway or force the condition (tell the user to log off, enable the required network connection.
Once the task is started manually or the event specified by the schedule occurs, the task enters either the Running state or the Waiting state. Running A task changes to the Running state when the event specified by the schedule occurs AND all the conditions set in the backup plan are met AND no other task that locks the necessary resources is running. In this case, nothing prevents the task from running.
You can edit plans in the Acronis Backup graphical user interface when importing them or after. Backup plans are exported to .xml files, so you can edit the export files of backup plans (p. 330) with text editors. Passwords are encrypted in the export files. Usage examples Agent reinstallation Export the backup plans before reinstalling the agent and import them after reinstalling.
To modify credentials, change the and tags in the corresponding sections: plan's credentials – the section access credentials for the backed-up data – the section access credentials for the backup destination – the section. Pay special attention to modifying the tag. The tag that contains an encrypted password looks like ....
1. Delete the tag. 2. Edit the value of the tag , which contains information about data to back up; for example, replace "C:" with "D:". Replacing a directly specified item with a selection template Inside the section: 1. Add the tag with "disks" or "files" value, depending on the type of the template you need. 2. Add the tag. 3. Inside the tag, add the with the required template.
14.1.4 Deploying backup plans as files Assume that for some reason you cannot run Acronis Backup Management Server in your environment, but you need to apply one and the same backup plan to multiple machines. A good decision is to export the backup plan from one machine and deploy it to all the other machines. How it works A dedicated folder for storing deployed plans exists on every machine where an agent is installed. The agent tracks changes in the dedicated folder. As soon as a new .
"/usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/import" The change will be applied after a restart of the agent. To restart the agent, run the following command as the root user: /etc/init.d/acronis_mms restart The absence of the tag means that the agent does not monitor the dedicated folder. 14.1.
History The History tab lets you examine the history of all the backup plan's accomplished activities. What to back up The Source tab provides the following information on the data selected for backup: Source type - the type of data selected for backing up. Items to back up - items selected to back up and their size. Where to back up The Destination tab provides the following information: Name - name of the archive.
14.2.1 Actions on log entries All the operations described below are performed by clicking the corresponding items on the log toolbar. These operations can also be performed with the context menu (by right-clicking the log entry or the activity). The following is a guideline for you to perform actions on log entries. To Do Select a single activity Select Activities in the Display drop-down list and click an activity. The Information pane will show log entries for the selected activity.
To view details of the next or the previous log entry, click the down arrow button or correspondingly the up arrow button. To copy the details, click the Copy to clipboard button. Log entry data fields A log entry contains the following data fields: Type - Type of event (Error; Warning; Information). Module - It can be blank or the number of the program module where the event has occurred. It is an integer number that may be used by Acronis support service to solve the problem.
To export entire table contents to a *.txt or *.csv file, click Save all to file. Configuring alerts Use the following options at the top of the Alerts view to configure alerts: Show/hide alerts (p. 31) - specify the alert types to display in the Alerts view. Notifications (p. 342) - set up e-mail notifications about alerts. Settings (p. 340) - specify whether to move inactive alerts to the Accepted alerts table automatically; set how long to keep the accepted alerts in the Accepted alerts table.
To change a license for a virtualization host (except for a clustered host), connect the console to the management server, navigate to Virtual machines > Hosts and clusters, right-click the host, and then click Change license. To change licenses for all of the hosts of a virtualization cluster, connect the console to the management server, navigate to Virtual machines > Hosts and clusters, right-click the cluster, and then click Change license.
It determines Acronis Backup behavior when the system is shutting down. The system shutdown occurs when the machine is turned off or restarted. The preset is: Stop running tasks and shut down. If you select Stop running tasks and shut down, all of the running Acronis Backup tasks will be aborted. If you select Wait for task completion, all of the running Acronis Backup tasks will be completed. 14.6.2 Acronis Customer Experience Program This option is effective only for Windows operating systems.
14.6.3.2 Time-based alerts Last backup This option is effective when the console is connected to a managed machine (p. 446) or to the management server (p. 447). The option defines whether to alert if no backup was performed on a given machine for a period of time. You can configure the time period that is considered critical for your business. The preset is: alert if the last successful backup on a machine was completed more than 5 days ago.
5. If the outgoing mail server requires authentication, enter User name and Password of the sender's e-mail account. If the SMTP server does not require authentication, leave the User name and Password fields blank. If you are not sure whether the SMTP server requires authentication, contact your network administrator or your e-mail service provider for assistance. 6. Click Additional e-mail parameters... to configure additional e-mail parameters as follows: a. From – type the name of the sender.
You can override the settings set here, exclusively for the events that occur during backup or during recovery, in the Default backup and recovery options. In this case, the settings set here will be effective for operations other than backup and recovery, such as archive validation or cleanup. You can further override the settings set in the default backup and recovery options, when creating a backup plan or a recovery task. The settings you obtain in this case will be plan-specific or task-specific. 14.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components. Select Management and Monitoring Tools. Click Details. Select the Simple Network Management Protocol check box. Click OK. You might be asked for lmmib2.dll that can be found on the installation disc of your operating system. Linux To receive SNMP messages on a machine running Linux, the net-snmp (for RHEL and SUSE) or the snmpd (for Debian) package has to be installed.
In Windows XP and Server 2003: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\events.db3. In Windows Vista and later versions of Windows: %PROGRAMDATA%\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\events.db3. In Linux: /var/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/MMS/events.db3. The preset is: Maximum log size: 50 MB. On cleanup, keep 95% of the maximum log size. When the option is enabled, the program compares the actual log size with the maximum size after every 100 log entries.
To set up proxy server settings 1. Select the Use a proxy server check box. 2. In Address, specify the network name or IP address of the proxy server—for example: proxy.example.com or 192.168.0.1 3. In Port, specify the port number of the proxy server—for example: 80 4. If the proxy server requires authentication, specify the credentials in User name and Password. 5. To test the proxy server settings, click Test connection.
15 Centralized management This section covers operations that can be performed centrally by using the components for centralized management. The content of this section is only applicable to Acronis Backup Advanced. 15.1 Understanding centralized management This section contains an overview of centralized data protection with Acronis Backup. Please be sure you have an understanding of how data is protected on a single machine before reading this section. 15.1.
Storage Node (p. 448) and configure it to manage a centralized vault or multiple centralized vaults. Such vaults are called managed vaults (p. 446). The storage node helps the agent deduplicate (p. 442) backups before transferring them to managed vaults and deduplicates the backups already saved in the vaults. Deduplication results in reducing backup traffic and saving storage space.
15.1.2.2 Privileges for local connection Windows Local connection on a machine running Windows can be established by any user who has the "Log on locally" user right on the machine. Linux Establishing a local connection on a machine running Linux, and managing such machine, requires the root privileges on it. To establish a local connection as the root user 1.
To disable UAC Do one of the following depending on the operating system: In a Windows operating system prior to Windows 8: Go to Control panel > View by: Small icons > User Accounts > Change User Account Control Settings, and then move the slider to Never notify. Then, restart the machine. In any Windows operating system, including Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Server 2012/2012 R2: 1. Open Registry Editor. 2.
2. Add the names of the non-root users, whom you want to allow to connect to the machine remotely, to the Acronis_Trusted group. For example, to add the existing user user_a to the group, run the following command: usermod -G Acronis_Trusted user_a 3. Edit the file /etc/pam.d/acronisagent-trusted as follows: #%PAM-1.0 auth required auth required account required pam_unix.so pam_succeed_if.so user ingroup Acronis_Trusted pam_unix.
Acronis Centralized Admins A user who is a member of this group is a management server administrator. Management server administrators can connect to the management server by using Acronis Backup Management Console; they have the same management rights on the registered machines as users with administrative privileges on those machines—regardless of the contents of Acronis security groups there.
This section also provides information on configuring communication settings, selecting a network port for communication, and managing security certificates. 15.1.3.1 Secure communication Acronis Backup provides the capability to secure the data transferred between its components within a local area network and through a perimeter network (also known as demilitarized zone, DMZ).
15.1.3.3 Configuring communication settings You can configure communication settings, such as whether to encrypt transferred data, for Acronis Backup components installed on one or more machines, by using Acronis Administrative Template. For information on how to load the administrative template, see How to load Acronis Administrative Template (p. 400).
Linux Specify the port in the /etc/Acronis/Policies/Agent.config file. Restart the acronis_agent daemon. Configuring the port in a bootable environment While creating Acronis bootable media, you have the option to pre-configure the network port that will be used by the Acronis Backup Bootable Agent. The choice is available between: The default port (9876) The currently used port New port (enter the port number) If a port has not been pre-configured, the agent uses the default port number. 15.1.3.
"%CommonProgramFiles%\Acronis\Utils\acroniscert" --reinstall When using a 64-bit version of Windows: "%CommonProgramFiles(x86)%\Acronis\Utils\acroniscert" --reinstall 4. Restart Windows, or restart the running Acronis services. Non-self-signed certificates You have the option to use trusted third-party certificates or certificates created by your organization's CA as an alternative to self-signed certificates, by using Acronis Certificate Command-line Utility. To install a third-party certificate 1.
15.3 Creating a centralized backup plan A centralized backup plan can be applied to both Windows and Linux machines. The steps required for the creating centralized backup plan are similar to creating a backup plan (p. 55) except the following: When selecting what data to back up, you can either select items on the registered machines directly or use the selection rules. For more information, see "Selecting data to back up" (p. 357).
Backing up an entire virtual machine, its disks, or volumes yields a standard disk backup (p. 443). In addition, this backup stores the virtual machine configuration. This configuration will be suggested by default when recovering the backup content to a new virtual machine. For more information about backing up virtual machines see "Backing up virtual machines". Folders/files Available if Acronis Backup Agent for Windows or Acronis Backup Agent for Linux is installed.
Notes for Linux users: Logical volumes and MD devices are shown under Dynamic volumes. For more information about backing up such volumes and devices, see "Backup and recovery of logical volumes and MD devices (Linux)" (p. 43). Note for Linux users: We recommend that you unmount any volumes that contain non-journaling file systems—such as the ext2 file system—before backing them up. Otherwise, these volumes might contain corrupted files upon recovery; recovery of these volumes with resize might fail.
Some environment variables point to Windows folders. Using such variables instead of full folder and file paths ensures that proper Windows folders are backed up regardless of where Windows is located on a particular machine.
15.3.3 Selection rules for volumes Define volume selection rules, according to which the volumes on the machines included in the centralized backup plan will be backed up. To define volume selection rules 1. Select the rule from the drop-down list (or type it manually) and click Add rule. The program remembers the rules typed manually, and the next time you open the window, these rules will be available for selection in the list along with the default ones. 2.
To include In the selection rules box: Comments First disk Type or select: [Disk 1] Refers to the first disk of the registered machine, including all volumes on that disk. Linux volumes First partition on the first IDE hard disk of a Linux machine Type or select: /dev/hda1 hda1 is the standard device name for the first partition of the first IDE hard disk drive. For more details, see "Note on Linux machines" below.
case, you can type either /dev/hda3 or /home/usr/docs in the Volume field to perform a disk backup of the third partition. In general, when setting up a centralized backup plan to perform volume backups of Linux machines, make sure that the paths entered in the selection rules for volumes correspond to partitions (such as /dev/hda2 or /home/usr/docs in the previous example), and not to directories.
1. Selecting the archives destination Choose where to store machines' archives: Store all machines' archives in a single location To back up data to Acronis Cloud Storage, click Log in and specify the credentials to log in to the cloud storage. Then, expand the Cloud storage group and select the account. Prior to backing up to the cloud storage, you need to buy a subscription (p. 429) to the cloud backup service and activate (p. 430) the subscription on the machine(s) you want to back up.
FINDEPT3_SYSTEMBACKUP_Archive(1) 15.3.5 Centralized backup plan's credentials Provide the credentials under which the centralized tasks will run on the machines. To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: Use Acronis service credentials The tasks will run under the Acronis service account, whether started manually or executed on schedule. Use the following credentials The tasks will run under the credentials you specify, whether started manually or executed on schedule.
/dev/sda1 volume. This is because the [SYSTEM] volume is not found. The plan will get the Error status on Linux machines that do not have a SCSI device. 15.4 Administering Acronis Backup Management Server This section describes the views that are available through the navigation tree of the console connected to the management server, and explains how to work with each view. 15.4.1 Dashboard Use the Dashboard view to estimate at a glance the health of data protection on the registered machines.
Applications The Applications section displays the number of protected and unprotected applications running on the registered machines. An application on a machine is considered protected if the respective agent is installed on that machine in the trial mode or with a license key. If an agent is installed for cloud backup only, the application is not considered protected.
15.4.2.1 Machine groups Machine groups are designed for convenient protection of a large number of machines registered on the management server. While creating a centralized backup plan, select a group and the plan will be deployed to all machines of this group. Once a new machine appears in a group, the centralized backup plan is deployed to the machine. If a machine is removed from a group, the centralized backup plan will be removed from the machine.
15.4.2.2 Actions on machines Registering machines on the management server Once the machine is added or imported to the All machines with agents group, it becomes registered on the management server. Registered machines are available for deploying centralized backup plans and for performing other centralized management operations. Registration provides a trusted relationship between the agent, residing on the machine, and the management server.
To Do Add a machine to another static group Click Add to another group. In the Add to group (p. 373) window, specify the group to copy the selected machine to. The centralized backup plans of the groups the machine is a member of will be deployed to the machine. For machines in custom groups Add machines to a static group Click Move a machine to another static group Click Add machines to group. In the Add machines to group (p. 373) window, select the machines that you need to add.
To Do Upgrading from Acronis Backup to Acronis Backup Advanced Update all information related to the machine Click Refresh a list of machines Click Synchronize. The management server will query the machine and update the database with the most recent information. Along with synchronizing, the refresh operation will be performed automatically in order to update the list of the machines. Refresh.
2. Select from the menu Options > Machine options > Machine management. 3. Select Centralized management and specify the management server where to register the machine. Refer to "Machine management (p. 345)" for details. Synchronizing machines with a text file During synchronization, the management server adjusts the All machines with agents group in accordance with the list of machines provided in a .txt or .csv file.
To synchronize machines with a text file using command line 1. Log on as a member of the Acronis Centralized Admins security group. 2. In the command prompt, change the directory to the folder where Acronis Backup Management Server has been installed—by default: C:\Program Files\Acronis\AMS. 3. Run the following command: syncmachines [path_to_the_file] {username password} where: [path_to_the_file] is the path to a .txt or .csv file containing the list of machines.
Machine The tab displays the following information on the registered machine: Name - name of the selected machine (taken from the Computer name in Windows). IP address - IP address of the selected machine. Status - the machine protection status. This is the result of the latest backup of the machine's data. Results of other operations, such as validation, cleanup, or replication, do not affect the status. Possible status values are OK, Warning, and Error.
For the list of the operations available with machine's backup plans and tasks, see "Actions on backup plans and tasks" (p. 325). Filtering and sorting Filtering and sorting of the backup plans and task is performed as described in "Sorting, filtering and configuring table items" (p. 29). Member of This tab appears only if the selected machine is added to one or more custom groups and displays a list of the groups the machine is a member of. Operations To Do View details of a group Click Details.
To Do Click Add machine to AMS. In the Add machine (p. 371) window, select the machine that needs to be added to the management server. Synchronize machines with a list in the text file This action is enabled only for the Machines with agents view and for the All machines with agents group. Click Synchronize with file. Specify a text file with the list of machines. After synchronization, only the machines that are listed in the file remain registered on the management server.
To Do The management console will update the list of groups from the management server with the most recent information. Though the list of groups is refreshed automatically based on events, the data may not be retrieved immediately from the management server due to some latency. Manual Refresh guarantees that the most recent data is displayed. Creating a custom static or dynamic group To create a group 1. In the Name field, enter a name for the group being created. 2. Choose the type of group: a.
These criteria will add to the same group all of the machines whose operating system is Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 and belong to the SERVERS organizational unit and whose IP addresses are within the range 192.168.17.0 - 192.168.17.55. Organizational unit criterion Organizational unit criterion is specified for the domain the management server is currently in, as follows: OU=OU1 Select an organizational unit from the Active Directory tree by clicking Browse, or typing it manually.
The root folder of the machines tree contains groups of the first level. Groups that include other groups are called parent groups. Groups that are in parent groups are called child groups. All the centralized backup plans created for the parent group will be deployed to the machines of its child groups as well. 2. Click OK. Editing custom groups Editing a custom group is performed in the same way as creating (p. 377) one. Changing the type of group will result in its conversion.
To Do The centralized backup plan cannot be run manually, if at least one of the machines included in the plan runs Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent. Stop a backup plan Click Stop. Stopping the running backup plan stops all its tasks on all the machines the plan is deployed to. Thus, all the task operations will be aborted. The centralized backup plan cannot be stopped manually, if at least one of the machines included in the plan runs Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent.
Install and configure Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) or Agent for VMware (Windows). Register the agent on the management server. Result. The machine with the agent (the virtual appliance or the Windows host) appears under Machines with agents in the All machines with agents group. The virtual machines managed by the agent appear under Virtual machines in the All virtual machines group. Install Agent for Hyper-V on a Hyper-V host or on all nodes of a Hyper-V cluster.
To Do Create a new Click New, and select one of the following: backup plan, or Backup plan (centralized) (p. 357) a task on a registered Recovery task (p. 132) machine Validation task (p. 240) For the recovery or validation tasks creation, you have to specify the registered machine the selected task will run on. View details of the selected plan/task Click View details. In the Plan details/Task details window, examine all information related to the selected plan/task.
To Do Clone a backup Click Clone. plan The clone of the original backup plan will be created with default name "Clone of ". The cloned plan will be disabled immediately after cloning, so that it does not run concurrently with the original plan. You can edit the cloned plan settings before enabling it. Enable a plan Click Enable. The previously disabled backup plan will run again as scheduled. Disable a plan Click Disable. The backup plan will not run as scheduled.
Accessing the Licenses view To access the Licenses view when connected to the management server, click Licenses in the Navigation pane. To connect to the license server directly: 1. In the Tools menu of the console, select Manage licenses. 2. Specify the name or IP address of the machine with the license server. 3. Click OK. This opens the same Licenses view. Viewing information about licenses The Licenses view displays all license keys that are present on the license server.
15.4.6.3 Exporting licenses Before changing the license server, export the licenses from the license server that you plan to change (p. 384). All licenses are saved into .xml file. Later on, you can import (p. 384) these licenses to a new license server. To export licenses 1. Click Export licenses to XML. 2. Specify the file destination (and optionally, the file name). 3. Click OK to save the file. 15.4.6.
Adds a new license key to the specified license server. You can specify multiple license keys (space separated). --import-file Imports license keys from a .txt or .eml file. --help Shows usage. 15.4.7 Alerts An alert is a message that warns about actual or potential problems. The Alerts view lets you rapidly identify and solve the problems by monitoring the current alerts and view the alerts history.
moved to a new or to the existing inactive group. The number of associated machines (X) is reduced for the active group alert and increased for the inactive group alert respectively. To obtain information about machines associated with the group alert, click View details. Configuring alerts Use the following options at the top of the Alerts view to configure alerts: Show/hide alerts (p. 31) - specify the alert types to display in the Alerts view. Notifications (p.
The report will contain the information selected, grouped and sorted according to the template settings. Select whether to preview the report in the default browser or to save it to the .xml file. If previewed, the report appears in a separate interactive window that enables expanding and collapsing the tables. To open the saved .xml file use Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access. 15.4.8.
Deployment state: The deployment states of the backup plans—for example, Revoking. Owner: The list of users who created the backup plans. Execution state: The execution states of the backup plans—for example, Running. Status: The statuses of the backup plans—OK, Warning, and/or Error. Last finished time: The moment when the last backup plan's task has finished. Schedule: The types of the backup plans' schedules—Manual and/or Scheduled.
15.4.8.4 Report about the archives and backups In this view, you can generate a report about the archives that are stored in managed centralized vaults. This report consists of one or more tables. Filters Under Filters, choose which archives to include in the report. Only the archives that meet all filter criteria are included. Vaults: The list of centralized managed vaults that store the archives.
Specify which table columns to show, and in which order. Select which diagrams to include in the report. The diagrams show space usage in the vaults. 15.4.8.6 Report about the tasks' runs In this view, you can generate a report about the tasks that existed on registered machines within a chosen period. This report consists of one or more diagrams, one diagram per machine.
To allow active content permanently in Internet Explorer 1. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Advanced tab. 2. Select the Allow active content to run files on My Computer check box under Security. 3. Click OK. in Mozilla Firefox 1. On the Options menu, click Content. 2. Make sure, that the Enable JavaScript check box is selected. 3. Click OK. 15.4.
To Do The log entry's details will be displayed. See Log entry details (p. 393) for details of the log entry's operations. Save the selected log entries to a file 1. Display Activities and select activities or display Events and select log entries. 2. Click Save selected to file. 3. In the opened window, specify a path and a name for the file. All log entries of the selected activities or selected log entries will be saved to the specified file. Save all the log entries to a file 1.
Machine - The name of the machine where the event has occurred (if any). Module - It can be blank or the number of the program module where an error was occurred. It is an integer number that may be used by Acronis support service to solve the problem. Owner - The user name of the backup plan owner (p. 34). Code - It can be blank or the program error code if the event type is error. Error code is an integer number that may be used by Acronis support service to solve the problem.
The preset is: Disabled. When enabled, you can specify the keeping period for the accepted alerts. The accepted alerts older than this period will be deleted from the table automatically. Automatically move inactive alerts to "Accepted alerts" This option defines whether to accept all the alerts that become inactive and move them to the Accepted alerts table automatically. The preset is: Disabled. When enabled, you can specify the alert types to apply this option to.
credentials are given by this option, the program will ask you for credentials and save them in this option. It is sufficient to specify the credentials of a user who is a member of the Domain Users group on the domain. 15.4.10.4 E-mail settings The option enables you to configure e-mail settings to send notifications about alerts which occurred on the management server.
Alert notifications This option enables you to specify when to send e-mail notifications about alerts which occurred on the management server and to select the types of alerts to send. When using this option, make sure that the e-mail settings are properly configured in Management server options > E-mail settings (p. 396). The preset is: Disabled. To configure alert notifications 1.
Windows event log This option defines whether the management server has to record its own log events in the Application Event Log of Windows (to see this log, run eventvwr.exe or select Control Panel > Administrative tools > Event Viewer). You can filter the events to be recorded. The preset is: Disabled. To enable this option, select the Log events check box.
This parameter can also be set by using Acronis Administrative Template (p. 408). 15.4.10.7 Cloud backup proxy This option is effective only for connection to Acronis Cloud Storage over the Internet. This option defines whether the management server will connect to the Internet through a proxy server. Note The proxy server must be configured to redirect both HTTP/HTTPS and TCP traffic.
15.5.1.1 How to load Acronis Administrative Template The Administrative Template, provided by Acronis, enables the fine-tuning of some security related features, including encrypted communication settings. Through the Microsoft Group Policy mechanism, the template policy settings can be applied to a single computer as well as to a domain. To load the Acronis Administrative Template 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Run Windows Group Policy Objects Editor (%windir%\system32\gpedit.msc.
15.5.1.2 Acronis Backup This section of the administrative template specifies the connection parameters and event tracing parameters for the following Acronis Backup components: Acronis Backup Management Server Acronis Backup Agent Acronis Backup Storage Node Connection parameters Remote Agent ports Specifies the port that the component will use for incoming and outgoing communication with other Acronis components.
Do not use The use of SSL certificates is disabled. Any connection to a server application which requires the use of SSL certificates will not be established. Use if possible The use of SSL certificates is enabled. The client will use SSL certificates if their use is enabled on the server application, and will not use them otherwise. Always use The use of SSL certificates is enabled. The connection will be established only if the use of SSL certificates is enabled on the server application.
Event tracing parameters In Windows, the events occurring in Acronis Backup can be recorded into the event log, a file, or both.
Enable Information about the hardware configuration, the most and least used features and about any problems will be automatically collected from the machine and sent to Acronis on a regular basis. The end results are intended to provide software improvements and enhanced functionality to better meet the needs of Acronis customers. Acronis does not collect any personal data. The terms of participation can be found on the Acronis website. Disable The information will not be sent.
If, during a check for the license key (see License Check Interval earlier in this topic), Acronis Backup Agent could not connect to the license server, it will try to reconnect once in the number of hours given by License Server Connection Retry Interval. If the value is 0, no reconnection attempts will be performed; the agent will only check for the license as determined by License Check Interval. License Server Address Description: Specifies the network name or IP address of Acronis License Server.
Default value: Enabled Trace Level Description: Specifies the minimum level of severity of events for sending SNMP notifications about them. Only notifications about events of levels greater than or equal to Trace Level will be sent.
The initial size will not exceed the available space minus 50 MB. Pre-allocated storage size (in percent) This setting is effective only when the Pre-allocated storage size (in Megabytes) setting is 0. Description: Specifies the initial size of the snapshot storage as a percentage of the disk space that is available at the time of starting the backup. Possible values: Any integer number between 0 and 100 Default value: 50 If this setting is 0, the snapshot storage will not be created.
Description: Specifies whether Acronis Backup Agent will catalog backups in unmanaged vaults. Possible values: Enabled (catalog) or Disabled (do not catalog) Default value: Enabled If the value of this parameter is Disabled, the Data view for a vault will not display any data when the management console is directly connected to the machine. Suppress machine reboot on running task Description: Specifies what to do if the machine needs to be turned off or restarted while a task is running.
Windows Event Log Specifies when to record Acronis Backup Management Server's events into the Application Event Log in Windows. This parameter has two settings: Trace State Description: Specifies whether to record Acronis Backup Management Server's events into the event log. Possible values: Enabled or Disabled Default value: Enabled Trace Level Description: Specifies the minimum level of severity of events to be recorded into the event log.
This parameter has the following settings: Maximum Connections Description: Specifies the maximum number of simultaneous synchronization connections to keep. Possible values: Any integer number between 1 and 500 Default value: 200 If the total number of online registered machines does not exceed the value in Maximum Connections, connections to those machines are always kept, and the management server periodically performs synchronization with each machine.
Real-Time Monitoring Description: Specifies whether to perform real-time monitoring of registered machines instead of using a polling mechanism. Possible values: Enabled or Disabled Default value: Disabled By default, Acronis Backup Management Server connects to registered machines to perform synchronization—in particular, to retrieve data such as backup logs. This approach is known as a polling mechanism.
Snapshot Storage Specifies the location and initial size of the snapshot storage—a temporary file that is used when backing up data by taking a snapshot. This file is deleted as soon as the backup is complete. With the default settings, the snapshot storage is created in the temporary files folder of the corresponding agent and initially occupies 20 percent of the space available on the volume containing that folder. This size may then grow if more space is needed for the snapshot.
Default value: Enabled If the value of this parameter is Disabled, all of the following parameters are ignored.
Default value: Enabled Smart Error Reporting Description: Specifies whether an error message displayed by the management console will include a link to a relevant Acronis Knowledge Base article. Possible values: Enabled (include) or Disabled (do not include) Default value: Enabled 15.5.2 Parameters set by using Windows registry Cataloging The following parameter enables or disables cataloging on Acronis Backup Management Server.
16 Cloud backup This section provides details about using the Acronis Cloud Backup service. This service enables you to back up your data to Acronis Cloud Storage. Acronis Cloud Backup might be unavailable in your region. To find more information, click here: http://www.acronis.eu/my/cloud-backup/corporate To configure backup to the cloud storage or recovery from the storage, follow the regular steps described in the corresponding sections: Creating a backup plan (p.
For effective use of the storage space, you have the option to set up the "Delete backups older than" retention rule. Example You might want to use the following backup strategy for a file server. Back up the critical files twice a day on a schedule. Set the retention rule "Delete backups older than" 7 days. This means that after every backup the software will check for backups older than 7 days and delete them automatically. Run backup of the server's system volume manually as required.
you want to back up a pass-through disk of a Hyper-V virtual machine you want to use pre/post backup or pre/post data capture commands on the virtual machine you want to back up individual files and folders of the virtual machine you want to recover files directly to the virtual machine’s file system. The machine will be treated as a physical one. If you do not have a volume subscription, you will need a separate server or PC subscription for this machine.
Windows 7 – all editions except for the Starter and Home editions (x86, x64) Windows 8/8.1 – all editions except for the Windows RT editions (x86, x64) Virtualization products (host-based backup of virtual machines) VMware ESX(i) 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0 (Host-based backup is available only for paid licenses of VMware ESXi.
16.1.7.4 What if a network connection is lost during cloud backup or recovery? The software will try to reach the cloud storage every 30 seconds. The attempts will be stopped as soon as the connection is resumed OR a certain number of attempts are performed, depending on which comes first. The default number of attempts is 300 when backing up and 30 when recovering. You can change the number of attempts and the interval between the attempts in the Error handling > Re-attempt, if an error occurs option.
Acronis uploads the backup to the cloud storage. After that, you can add incremental backups to this full backup, either manually or on a schedule. The hard disk drive is sent back to you but it is not possible to recover from it. However, recovery from a locally attached device is possible with the Large scale recovery (p. 425) option. 16.1.8.2 Why would I want to use Initial Seeding? This service helps you save time and network traffic during the initial full backup.
16.1.8.8 How do I perform initial seeding? Preparing 1. Ensure that you have activated an Acronis Cloud Backup subscription on the machine where you will do initial seeding (skip this step if you have a volume subscription). 2. If you are currently using a trial subscription, ensure that you also have a paid subscription available and assigned to this machine. Do not use the Initial Seeding service if you do not have a paid subscription. 3. Decide on the media (p. 420) that you will send. 4.
Hard drive types Acronis accepts hard disk drives of the following interface types: IDE, ATA, SATA, USB connected drives. SCSI drives are not accepted. Packaging If possible, use the original packaging. Otherwise, packaging materials can be obtained at any shipping outlet or stationary store. You should also include all necessary cables or adapters to the drive. Acronis will not be able to process your initial seeding request if there are no cables included.
Step 4 Using the website of the shipping company that you chose, prepare and print two prepaid shipping labels: 1. Shipping label for sending your hard drive. This label is placed on the top of the box. You should send your package to one of the Acronis data centers. The data center address can be obtained on the Initial seeding / Recovery tab of your account management page by clicking Datacenter address.
Step 5 Securely seal the box with a sturdy tape. Then, stick the shipping label for sending your hard drive to the top of the box, so the label does not wrap around the edge of the package. 16.1.8.10 How do I track an Initial Seeding order status? On the Acronis website, the Initial Seeding / Recovery tab shows you the status of all your orders. In addition, you will receive e-mail notifications about the most important events. Available – The license is available for using on any machine.
specified). If a prepaid shipping label was not provided with the media, the media will be discarded. [Occasional] The order is on hold – Your order was placed on hold due to technical difficulties processing the order. Acronis is working on resolving these issues. [Occasional] The order has been cancelled – The order had been cancelled before the media was shipped, so returning the media is not required. [Occasional] The order has been cancelled.
16.1.9.7 How to buy a Large Scale Recovery license? You can buy a Large Scale Recovery license from an Acronis partner or from the Acronis online store. Having purchased a license from an Acronis partner, you receive a confirmation e-mail with a registration code. Log in to your Acronis account and enter the registration code in the product registration section. The registered license appears on the Initial Seeding / Recovery tab on your account management webpage.
16.1.10.1 How do I access my account management webpage? Go to http://www.acronis.eu/my/cloud-backup/corporate and log in to your account (create one if you are not registered). To access this webpage from Acronis Backup: 1. On the Actions menu, click Back up now or Create backup plan. 2. Click Location, and then click Buy or manage your subscriptions. 3. Log in to your account (create one if you are not registered). 16.1.10.
A subscription for virtual machines (now deprecated) can be renewed to a server subscription or to a volume subscription. Volume subscriptions To renew a volume subscription, go to the account management webpage, click Renew next to the volume subscription, and then follow the on-screen instructions. The new expiration date will appear in the Expires column. If the new subscription has the same storage quota as the old one, the subscription periods will be added together.
16.1.10.8 Can I cancel my subscription? Just wait until the subscription expires. Refunds are not available for the cloud backup subscriptions. 16.2 Where do I start? Go to http://www.acronis.eu/my/cloud-backup/corporate and log in to your account (create one if you are not registered). This is your account management webpage. Here you can get a trial subscription, locate an Acronis partner or buy subscriptions online.
On the account management webpage, click the cloud backup trial link, and then select the necessary subscription type. Install Acronis Backup, start the product, connect the console to the machine you want to back up, click Back up now or Create backup plan, click Location, and then click Get trial subscription. Log in to your account (create one if you are not registered yet). A trial subscription will be automatically created and assigned to the machine. 16.
16.4.2 Reassigning an activated subscription Sometimes you may want to use an already activated subscription instead of an available subscription. In these cases, for example: You no longer need to back up one of your machines and you want to reuse that machine’s subscription for another machine. You reinstalled Acronis Backup on a machine and want to resume its cloud backups.
All earlier created backups remain intact. You can delete them manually if necessary. Keep in mind though, backups can be deleted from a subscription only by the machine to which the subscription is assigned. In our example, you have the following options. Before reassigning Delete backups from Subscription 1 using Machine 1 (if it is available and turned on). Delete backups from Subscription 2 using Machine 2. After reassigning Delete backups from Subscription 1 using Machine 2.
To retrieve files from the cloud storage: 1. Go to the account management webpage (p. 427) and click Recover files from Acronis Cloud. You will see the list of the machines backed up by using the specified account. The list of machines that share a volume subscription appears when you select this subscription. 2. Click the name of the machine whose data you want to retrieve. The software displays both file-level and disk-level archives of this machine's data. Note for users of the Initial Seeding (p.
Setting up regular conversion of backups to a virtual machine Operations with backups: Validating a backup* Exporting a backup Mounting a backup Replicating or moving backups from the cloud storage Converting an incremental backup to full Operation with archives (an archive is a set of backups): Validating an archive Exporting an archive These limitations also apply to backing up data using Initial Seeding and to recovering data using Large Scale Recovery.
Increase storage quota Replace a subscription with another one that has a greater storage quota. The remaining subscription period is reduced in proportion to the capacity increase. Initial Seeding An extra service that enables you to save an initial full backup locally and then send it to Acronis on a hard disk drive. Acronis uploads the backup to the cloud storage. After that, you can add incremental backups to this full backup, either manually or on a schedule.
Subscription period The period during which the subscription remains activated. You can back up and recover the machine during this period. Recovery is possible for extra 30 days after this period ends. Unassign a subscription Make an assigned subscription available again. You can unassign a subscription as long as it is not activated.
17 Glossary A Acronis Active Restore The Acronis proprietary technology that brings a system online immediately after the system recovery is started. The system boots from the backup (p. 443) and the machine becomes operational and ready to provide necessary services. The data required to serve incoming requests is recovered with the highest priority; everything else is recovered in the background.
Acronis Universal Restore The Acronis proprietary technology that helps boot up Windows or Linux on dissimilar hardware or a virtual machine. Universal Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for the operating system start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset. Universal Restore is not available: when the image being recovered is located in Acronis Secure Zone (p. 437) or when using Acronis Active Restore (p.
Backup options Configuration parameters of a backup operation (p. 438), such as pre/post backup commands, maximum network bandwidth allotted for the backup stream or data compression level. Backup options are a part of a backup plan (p. 439). Backup plan (Plan) A set of rules that specify how the given data will be protected on a given machine. A backup plan specifies: what data to back up [optionally] additional operations to perform with the backups (replication (p. 448), validation (p.
Bootable media A physical media (CD, DVD, USB flash drive or other media supported by a machine (p. 446) as a boot device) that contains the bootable agent (p. 439) or Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) (p. 450) with the Acronis Plug-in for WinPE (p. 437). A machine can also be booted into the above environments using the network boot from Acronis PXE Server or Windows Deployment Service (WDS). These servers with uploaded bootable components can also be thought of as a kind of bootable media.
creating and managing centralized vaults (p. 441) for storing archives managing storage nodes (p. 448) monitoring activities of the Acronis Backup components, creating reports, viewing the centralized log and more. Centralized task A task (p. 449) propagated to a machine from the management server (p. 447). Such task can be modified only by editing the original task or centralized backup plan (p. 440) on the management server.
the next incremental (p. 445) one. The backups will be combined into a single full backup which will be dated with the incremental backup's date. Since consolidation may take a lot of time and system resources, retention rules provide an option to not delete backups with dependencies. In our example, the full backup will be retained until the incremental one also becomes obsolete. Then both backups will be deleted.
disk management operations, such as clone a disk, create volume, convert volume. A kind of direct management is performed when using bootable media (p. 439). Disaster recovery plan (DRP) A document that contains a list of backed up data items and detailed instructions on how to recover these items from a backup. If the corresponding backup option (p.
dynamic volumes' configuration. Each dynamic disk holds the complete information about all dynamic volumes existing in the disk group which makes for better storage reliability. The database occupies the last 1MB of an MBR disk. On a GPT disk, Windows creates the dedicated LDM Metadata partition, taking space from the Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR.
E Encrypted archive A backup archive (p. 438) encrypted according to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). When the encryption option and a password for the archive are set in the backup options (p. 438), each backup belonging to the archive is encrypted by the agent (p. 438) before saving the backup to its destination. Encrypted vault A managed vault (p. 446) to which anything written is encrypted and anything read is decrypted transparently by the storage node (p.
Indexing An activity (p. 438) performed by a storage node (p. 448) after a backup (p. 438) has been saved to a deduplicating vault (p. 442). During indexing, the storage node performs the following operations: Moves data blocks from the backup to a special file within the vault. This file is called the deduplication data store.
Managed vault A centralized vault (p. 441) managed by a storage node (p. 448). Archives (p. 438) in a managed vault can be accessed as follows: bsp://node_address/vault_name/archive_name/ Physically, managed vaults can reside on a network share, SAN, NAS, on a hard drive local to the storage node or on a tape library locally attached to the storage node. The storage node performs cleanup (p. 441) and validation (p. 449) for each archive stored in the managed vault.
Registered machine A machine (p. 446) managed by a management server (p. 447). A machine can be registered on only one management server at a time. A machine becomes registered as a result of the registration (p. 448) procedure. Registration A procedure that adds a managed machine (p. 446) to a management server (p. 447). Registration sets up a trust relationship between the agent (p. 438) residing on the machine and the server.
relieve managed machines (p. 446) of unnecessary CPU load by performing cleanup (p. 441), validation (p. 449) and other operations with backup archives (p. 438) which otherwise would be performed by agents (p. 438) drastically reduce backup traffic and storage space taken by the archives (p. 438) by using deduplication (p. 442) prevent access to the backup archives, even in case the storage medium is stolen or accessed by a malefactor, by using encrypted vaults (p. 445).
Virtual machine On Acronis Backup Management Server (p. 447), a machine (p. 446) is considered virtual if it can be backed up from the virtualization host without installing an agent (p. 438) on the machine. Such machine appears in the Virtual machines section. If an agent is installed into the guest system, the machine appears in the Machines with agents section.
