Operation Manual

1.2.6 Agent for Active Directory

Acronis Backup Agent for Active Directory enables you to create single-pass disk and application

backups and to extract Microsoft Active Directory data from them to a folder on a file system.

The agent uses Microsoft VSS to ensure the consistency of the backed-up data.

The agent is included in the setup program of Acronis Backup Advanced.

The agent is installed with Agent for Windows (p. 13) or on a machine where Agent for Windows is

already installed.

1.2.7 Components for centralized management

This section lists the components that are included in Acronis Backup Advanced and provide the

centralized management capability. Besides these components, Acronis Backup Agents have to be

installed on all machines that need data protection.

1.2.7.1 Management Server

Acronis Backup Management Server is the central server that drives data protection within the

enterprise network. The management server provides the administrator with:

 a single entry point to the Acronis Backup infrastructure

 an easy way to protect data on numerous machines (p. 442) using centralized backup plans and

grouping

 integration with VMware vCenter to discover virtual machines for protection

 enterprise-wide monitoring and reporting functionality

 built-in license management

 the ability to create centralized vaults (p. 437) for storing enterprise backup archives (p. 434)

 the ability to manage storage nodes (p. 444)

 the centralized catalog (p. 438) of all data stored on the storage nodes.

If there are multiple management servers on the network, they operate independently, manage

different machines and use different centralized vaults for storing archives.

1.2.7.2 Storage Node

Acronis Backup Storage Node is a server designed to optimize the usage of various resources (such as

the corporate storage capacity, the network bandwidth, or the managed machines' CPU load) which

are required to protect the enterprise data. This goal is achieved by organizing and managing the

locations that serve as dedicated storages of the enterprise backup archives (managed vaults).

The most important function of a storage node is deduplication (p. 229) 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.

The administrator controls the storage nodes centrally from the Acronis Backup Management Server

(p. 15). Direct console connection to a storage node is not possible.