Acronis® Backup & Recovery ™ 10 Advanced Server Update 3 User's Guide
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2010. All rights reserved. “Acronis” and “Acronis Secure Zone” are registered trademarks of Acronis, Inc. "Acronis Compute with Confidence", “Acronis Startup Recovery Manager”, “Acronis Active Restore” and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. VMware and VMware Ready are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions.
Table of contents 1 Introducing Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10 ........................................................................8 1.1 Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 overview ..................................................................................8 1.2 Getting started...........................................................................................................................9 1.2.1 1.3 Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components ................................................
2.14.4 2.14.5 2.14.6 2.14.7 2.14.8 3 Options ............................................................................................................................... 89 3.1 Console options .......................................................................................................................89 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4 3.1.5 3.2 3.3 Machine management..................................................................................................................................
.7 Conditions ..............................................................................................................................179 5.7.1 5.7.2 5.7.3 5.7.4 5.7.5 6 User is idle .................................................................................................................................................... 180 Location's host is available .........................................................................................................................
.7.1 6.7.2 6.7.3 6.7.4 6.7.5 6.7.6 6.8 Acronis Secure Zone ..............................................................................................................258 6.8.1 6.8.2 6.9 Task credentials ........................................................................................................................................... 254 Archive selection .........................................................................................................................................
8.1.1 8.1.2 8.1.3 8.1.4 8.1.5 8.1.6 8.1.7 8.1.8 8.1.9 8.2 Where do I start? ...................................................................................................................391 8.3 Choosing a subscription .........................................................................................................391 8.4 Activating online backup subscriptions .................................................................................392 8.4.1 8.4.
1 Introducing Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10 1.1 Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 overview Based on Acronis’ patented disk imaging and bare metal restore technologies, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 succeeds Acronis True Image Echo as the next generation disaster recovery solution.
Controlling user rights to perform operations and access backups Running services with minimal user rights Restricted remote access to a backup agent Secure communication between the product components Using third-party certificates for authentication of the components Data encryption options for both data transmission and storage Backup of remote machines to a centralized storage node behind firewalls. 1.2 Getting started Direct management 1.
4. Start the console. Create the bootable media. 5. Connect the console to the management server. The simplified way of centralized management Backup Using the Back up control, select the machine which you want to back up and then create a backup plan (p. 400) on the machine. You can create backup plans on multiple machines in turn. Recovery Using the Recover control, select the machine where the data recovery is required and create a recovery task on the machine.
Creating a backup policy rather than backup plans Set up a centralized backup policy and apply it to the All machines group. This way you will deploy backup plans on each machine with a single action. Select Actions > Create backup policy from the top menu and then refer to the context help. Grouping the machines registered on the management server Group the registered machines by appropriate parameters, create several policies and apply each policy to the appropriate group of machines.
Key elements of the console workspace Name Description Navigation pane Contains the Navigation tree and the Shortcuts bar and lets you navigate to the different views (see the Navigation pane (p. 12) section.) Actions and tools pane Contains bars with a set of actions that can be performed and tools (see the Actions and Tools pane (p. 13) section). Main area The main place of working, where you create, edit and manage backup plans, policies, tasks and perform other operations.
[Management server name]. Root of the tree also called a Welcome view. Displays the name of the management server the console is currently connected to. Use this view for quick access to the main operations, available on 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. Backup policies. Use this view to manage backup policies existing on the management server.
actions bar will be named as 'System backup' actions and will have the set of actions typical to backup plans. All actions can also be accessed in the respective menu items. A menu item appears on the menu bar when you select an item in any of the navigation views. Examples of "'Item name' actions" bars Actions Contains a list of common operations that can be performed on a managed machine or on a management server. Always the same for all views.
Help Contains a list of help topics. Different views and action pages of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provided with lists of specific help topics. 1.2.1.3 Operations with panes How to expand/minimize panes By default, the Navigation pane appears expanded and the Actions and Tools - minimized. You might need to minimize the pane in order to free some additional workspace. To do this, click the chevron ( - for the Navigation pane; - for the Actions and tools pane).
"Tasks" view Common way of working with views Generally, every view contains a table of items, a table toolbar with buttons, and the Information panel. Use filtering and sorting capabilities to search the table for the item in question In the table, select the desired item In the Information panel (collapsed by default), view the item's details Perform actions on the selected item.
Action page - Create backup plan Using controls and specifying settings The action pages offer two ways of representation: basic and advanced. The basic representation hides such fields as credentials, comments, etc. When the advanced representation is enabled, all the available fields are displayed. You can switch between the views by selecting the Advanced view check box at the top of the action page. Most settings are configured by clicking the respective Change… links to the right.
Navigation buttons 1.3 Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components This section contains a full list of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components with a brief description of their functionality. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 includes the following main types of components. Components for a managed machine (agents) These are applications that perform data backup, recovery and other operations on the machines managed with Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.
File backup File-level data protection is based on backing up files and folders residing on the machine where the agent is installed or on a network share. Files can be recovered to their original location or to another place. It is possible to recover all files and folders that were backed up or select which of them to recover.
recovered to their original location or to another place. It is possible to recover all files and directories that were backed up or select which of them to recover. 1.3.2.1 Deduplication This add-on enables the agent to back up data to deduplicating vaults managed by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node. 1.3.3 Components for centralized management This section lists the components included in the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 editions that provide the centralized management capability.
VMware vCenter integration This feature provides the capability to view virtual machines managed by a VMware vCenter Server in the management server GUI, view the backup status of these machines in the vCenter, and automatically register virtual machines created by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 in the vCenter. Integration is available in all Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 advanced editions; a license for Virtual Edition is not required. No software installation is required on the vCenter Server.
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 the network usage during backup and storage space taken by the archives. For more information, please see the "Deduplication (p. 71)" section in the User Guide.
The media builder that installs on Windows can create bootable media based on either Windows Preinstallation Environment, or Linux kernel. The Universal Restore (p. 19) add-on enables you to create bootable media with the restore to dissimilar hardware functionality. Universal Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for Windows start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset. The media builder that installs on Linux creates bootable media based on Linux kernel.
Windows Server 2008 - the Standard, Enterprise, Small Business Server, Foundation editions (x86, x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 - the Standard, Enterprise, Small Business Server, Datacenter, Foundation editions Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console Windows XP Professional SP2+ (x86, x64) Windows Vista - all editions (x86, x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 - the Standard, Enterprise, Small Business Server, Datacenter, Foundation editions Wind
Windows Server 2008 - the Standard, Enterprise, Small Business Server, Foundation editions (x86, x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 - the Standard, Enterprise, Small Business Server, Datacenter, Foundation editions Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux Linux with kernel 2.4.20 or later (including 2.6.x kernels) and glibc 2.3.2 or later Various 32-bit and 64-bit Linux distributions, including: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.x and 5.x Ubuntu 9.
Management Console 30 MB 950 MB 450 MB Management Server 40 MB 250 MB 250 MB 400 MB for SQL Express Server 400 MB for SQL Express Server Wake-on-LAN Proxy Negligible 30 MB 5 MB Storage Node 100 MB 150 MB 150 MB When using a tape library, space required for tapes database: approx.
2 Understanding Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 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. 2.1 Basic concepts Please familiarize yourself with the basic notions used in the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 graphical user interface and documentation. Advanced users are welcome to use this section as a step-by-step quick start guide. The details can be found in the context help.
The following diagram illustrates the notions discussed above. For more definitions please refer to the Glossary. 28 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Backup using bootable media You can boot the machine using the bootable media, configure the backup operation in the same way as a simple backup plan and execute the operation. This will help you extract files and logical volumes from a system that failed to boot, take an image of the offline system or back up sector-bysector an unsupported file system. Recovery under operating system When it comes to data recovery, you create a recovery task on the managed machine.
The following diagram illustrates data recovery under the operating system (online). No backup can proceed on the machine while the recovery operation is taking place. If required, you can connect the console to another machine and configure a recovery operation on that machine. This ability (remote parallel recovery) first appeared in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10; the previous Acronis products do not provide it.
If the machine fails to boot or you need to recover data to bare metal, you boot the machine using the bootable media and configure the recovery operation in the same way as the recovery task. The following diagram illustrates the recovery using the bootable media. 2.2 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.
Members of the Administrators group also can: View and manage backup plans and tasks owned by any user on the machine. Linux When managing a machine running Linux, the user has or obtains the root privileges, and so can: Back up and recover any data or the entire machine, having full control over all Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent operations and log files on the machine. Manage local backup plans and tasks owned by any user registered in the operating system.
Manual start You can skip the Plan's (Task) credentials step. Every time you start the task, the task will run under the credentials with which you are currently logged on. Any person that has administrative privileges on the machine can also start the task. The task will run under this person's credentials. The task will always run under the same credentials, regardless of the user who actually starts the task, if you specify the task credentials explicitly. To do so, on the plan (task) creation page: 1.
you need to roll back the system to its initial state this initial state does not change often, so there is no need for regular backup. Example: An Internet cafe, school or university lab where the administrator often undoes changes made by the students or guests but rarely updates the reference backup (in fact, after installing software updates only). The backup time is not crucial in this case and the recovery time will be minimal when recovering the systems from the full backup.
Recovery time 2.5 Minimal Medium Maximal GFS backup scheme This section covers implementation of the Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) backup scheme in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. With this backup scheme you are not allowed to back up more often than once a day. The scheme enables you to mark out the daily, weekly and monthly cycles in your daily backup schedule and set the retention periods for the daily, monthly and weekly backups.
Weekly/Monthly This step forms the daily, weekly and monthly cycles in the schedule. Select a day of the week from the days selected in the previous step. Each 1st, 2nd and 3rd backup created on this day of the week will be considered as a weekly backup. Each 4th backup created on this day of the week will be considered as a monthly backup. Backups created on the other days will be considered as daily backups. Assume you select Friday for Weekly/Monthly backup.
backups’ retention period cannot be less than the weekly backups’ retention period. It is usually set several times longer. You have the option to keep the monthly backups indefinitely. The resulting archive: ideal Assume you select to keep daily backups for 7 days, weekly backups for 2 weeks and monthly backups for 6 months. Here is how your archive would appear after the backup plan is launched if all the backups were full and so could be deleted as soon as the scheme requires.
The resulting archive: real In reality, the archive content will somewhat differ from the ideal scheme. When using the incremental and differential backup methods, you cannot delete a backup as soon as the scheme requires if later backups are based on this backup. Regular consolidation is unacceptable because it takes too much system resources. The program has to wait until the scheme requires the deletion of all the dependent backups and then deletes the entire chain.
2.6 Tower of Hanoi backup scheme The need to have frequent backups always conflicts with the cost of keeping such backups for a long time. The Tower of Hanoi (ToH) backup scheme is a useful compromise. Tower of Hanoi overview The Tower of Hanoi scheme is based on a mathematical puzzle of the same name. In the puzzle a series of rings are stacked in size order, the largest on the bottom, on one of three pegs. The goal is to move the ring series to the third peg.
Tower of Hanoi by Acronis The Tower of Hanoi backup scheme is generally too complex to mentally calculate the next media to be used. But Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides you with automation of the scheme usage. You can set up the backup scheme while creating a backup plan.
For information about using Tower of Hanoi for tape libraries, see Using the Tower of Hanoi tape rotation scheme (p. 155). 2.7 Retention rules The backups produced by a backup plan make an archive. The two retention rules described in this section enable you to limit the archive size and set the lifetime (retention period) of the backups. The retention rules are effective if the archive contains more than one backup.
There is a certain risk that all but one backup will be deleted if the maximum archive size is set improperly (too small) or a regular backup turns out to be too large. To protect the recent backups from deletion, select the Never delete backups younger than check box and specify the maximum age of backups that must be retained. The diagram below illustrates the resulting rule. Combination of rules 1 and 2 You can limit both the backups’ lifetime and the archive size.
Retain the backup until all dependent backups become subject to deletion The outdated backup will be kept until all backups that depend on it also become outdated. Then all the chain will be deleted at once during the regular cleanup. This mode helps to avoid the potentially time-consuming consolidation but requires extra space for storing backups whose deletion is postponed. The archive size and/or the backup age can exceed the values you specify.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 can back up and recover dynamic volumes and, with minor limitations, basic GPT volumes. Backing up dynamic volumes Dynamic and basic GPT volumes are backed up in the same way as basic MBR volumes. When creating a backup plan through the GUI, all types of volumes are available for selection as Items to back up. When using the command line, specify the dynamic and GPT volumes with the DYN prefix.
Backed up (source): Recovered to: Dynamic volume Basic MBR volume Basic GPT volume Dynamic volume Type as of the target Dynamic volume Simple Dynamic volume Type as of the target N/A Basic MBR volume Dynamic volume Type as of the target Dynamic volume Type as of the source Basic MBR volume Basic MBR volume Basic MBR volume Basic GPT volume Basic GPT volume Basic GPT volume Basic GPT volume Unallocated space (basic MBR disk) Basic MBR volume Basic MBR volume Basic MBR volume Unallocated spa
Backup (GUI) In Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 GUI, logical volumes appear under Dynamic & GPT Volumes at the end of the list of volumes available for backup. To back up all available disks, specify all logical volumes plus basic volumes not belonging to them. This is the default choice when you open the Create backup plan page. Basic volumes included in logical volumes are shown in the list with None in the File system column. If you select such volumes, the program will back them up sector-by-sector.
When recovering MD devices under bootable media, the structure of MD devices can be automatically created if it has been saved in the backup (p. 47). For detailed information about recovering MD devices under bootable media, see Recovering MD devices and logical volumes (p. 274). For information about assembling MD devices when performing recovery in Linux, see Assembling MD devices for recovery (Linux) (p. 242). 2.9.
Num ---Disk 1-1 1-2 1-3 Partition -------------------1 (sda): sda1 sda2 sda3 Unallocated 1-4 Acronis Secure Zone Unallocated Disk 2 (sdb): 2-1 sdb1 2-2 sdb2 Unallocated Disk 3 (sdc): Table Unallocated Disk 4 (sdd): 4-1 sdd1 4-2 sdd2 Unallocated Dynamic & GPT Volumes: DYN1 VolGroup00-LogVol00 DYN2 Flags Start Size Type ----------- ---------- ---------- ----------Pri,Act Pri Pri 63 417690 24997140 27101655 32499495 33543720 208813 12289725 1052257 2698920 522112 5356 Ext2 ReiserFS Linux Swap Unallocated
2.11 Tape support Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 supports tape libraries, autoloaders, SCSI and USB tape drives as storage devices. A tape device can be locally attached to a managed machine (in this case, the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent writes and reads the tapes) or accessed through the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node (p. 21). Storage nodes ensure fully automatic operation of tape libraries and autoloaders (p. 138).
Backup to a locally attached tape device When creating a backup plan, you are able to select the locally attached tape device as the backup destination. An archive name is not needed when backing up to a tape. An archive can span multiple tapes but can contain only one full backup and an unlimited number of incremental backups. Every time you create a full backup, you start with a new tape and create a new archive. As soon as the tape is full, a dialog window with a request to insert a new tape will appear.
The value may be "Information", "Warning", 'Error" and "Unknown". "Unknown" is sent only in the test message. Text description of the event Object identifier (OID): 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.0 Syntax: OctetString The value contains the text description of the event (it looks identical to messages published by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 in its log). Example of varbind values: 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.1.0:Information 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.
Should the disk experience a physical failure, the zone and the archives located there will be lost. That's why Acronis Secure Zone should not be the only location where a backup is stored. In enterprise environments, Acronis Secure Zone can be thought of as an intermediate location used for backup when an ordinary location is temporarily unavailable or connected through a slow or busy channel.
to start the bootable rescue utility. This feature has the trade name "Acronis Startup Recovery Manager". Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is especially useful for mobile users. If a failure occurs, the user reboots the machine, hits F11 on prompt "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager…" and performs data recovery in the same way as with ordinary bootable media. The user can also back up using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, while on the move.
The Universal Restore technology provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent system recovery by replacing the crucial Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers. Universal Restore is applicable for: 1. Instant recovery of a failed system on different hardware. 2. Hardware-independent cloning and deployment of operating systems. 3. Physical-to-physical, physical-to-virtual and virtual-to-physical machine migration. The Universal Restore principles 1.
Getting Universal Restore Universal Restore comes free with Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server SBS Edition and Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server Virtual Edition. Universal Restore for the other product editions is purchased separately, has its own license, and is installed as a separate feature from the setup file. You need to re-create bootable media to make the newly installed add-on operational in the bootable environment. 2.13.
multimedia files. Some of these storage volumes can be extremely large as compared to the system and so practically all the recovery time will be dedicated to recovering the files, which might be used much later on, if in any near future at all. If you opt for Acronis Active Restore, the system will be operational in a short time.
2.14.1 Basic concepts Applying backup policies and tracking their execution To protect data on a single machine, you install on the machine an agent (p. 399) or multiple agents for various data types you want to protect. You connect the console to the machine and create a backup plan (p. 400) or multiple backup plans.
More than one storage node, each managing a number of vaults, can be set up and controlled centrally from the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server. For more detailed information about storage nodes please refer to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node (p. 21). 2.14.2 Setting up centralized data protection in a heterogeneous network Assume that the network infrastructure includes servers (1, 2, 9) and workstations (3, 5-8) running Windows and Linux.
When installing the agents, register each of the machines on the management server. To do so, enter the server's name or IP address and the server's administrator credentials in the appropriate window of the installation wizard. Or, alternatively, add the machines to the management server later using their names or IP addresses. 4. Install Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for ESX/ESXi [Agent (ESX)] on the ESX server (4) to back up the virtual machines from the host.
2. Create a static group named, say, S_1. Add all the servers to this group. (A storage node can be added in case the managed vault is not on the local node's drives. Otherwise the archive storage will be backed up to itself). 3. Apply the policy to the S_1 group. Make sure that the policy has been successfully deployed to each of the servers. The policy deployment state has to change from Deploying to Deployed and its status has to be OK. To see the resulting backup plans on each of the servers: a.
2.14.2.3 Protecting the virtual machines Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for ESX/ESXi provides the flexibility to protect virtual machines in multiple ways: Connect the console to the virtual appliance (Agent for ESX/ESXi) and create a backup plan that will back up all or some of the virtual machines. Connect the console to the virtual appliance (Agent for ESX/ESXi) and create an individual backup plan for each machine. The plan will back up the volumes you specify.
IP address range. Multiple criteria can be specified for a dynamic group. For example, a set of criteria "OS equals Windows 2000, OS equals Windows 2003, OU equals Accounting” is interpreted as "all machines running Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 and belonging to the Accounting organizational unit". The All machines group can be thought of as a dynamic group with the single built-in criterion: include all the registered machines. 2.14.3.
3, 4, 5, 6 - the salesmen's machines (Windows XP) from the "Sales department" AD organization unit. An example of group hierarchy The backup policy on the server has to differ from that on the workstations. The administrator creates the G1 dynamic group that contains machines with the server operating systems, and applies a backup policy to the group.
edit a group, that is: change the group description change the dynamic membership criteria transform a static group into a dynamic one by adding membership criteria transform a dynamic group into a static one with two options: change the group name keep the group members remove the group members move a group from the root to another group (any group type to any group type) move a group from the parent group to the root move a group from one parent group to another (any group
2.14.4.1 A policy on a machine or a group In the diagrams below, each numbered scheme illustrates the result of the respectively numbered action. The container stands for a group; the colored circle stands for a machine with applied policy; the dark colored circle stands for a machine with two applications of the same policy; the white circle stands for a machine to which no policy is applied. Policy on a machine 1. A policy can be applied to a machine. 2. A policy can be revoked from a machine.
2.14.4.2 Operations with a machine This section is a simplified illustration of what happens with the policies on a machine when the machine is moved, copied, or deleted from a group. In the diagram below, the container stands for a group; the one-color circle stands for a machine with one applied policy; the two-color circle stands for a machine with two applied policies; the white circle stands for a machine with no policy applied. 1.
2.14.4.3 Inheritance of policies Policy inheritance can be easily understood if we assume that a machine can be a member of only one group besides the All machines group. Let's start from this simplified approach. In the diagram below, the container stands for a group; the two-color circle stands for a machine with two applied policies; the three-color circle stands for a machine with three applied policies and so on.
#4 #5 or #6 "green" Inherited All machines -> #4 "orange" Inherited G1 -> G2 -> #4 "blue" Inherited G2 -> #4 "violet" Applied directly "green" Inherited All machines -> #5 or #6 "orange" Inherited G1 -> G2 -> #5 or #6 "blue" Inherited G2 -> #5 or #6 2.14.5 Backup policy's state and statuses Centralized management presumes that the administrator can monitor the health of the entire product infrastructure using a few easily understandable parameters.
another policy. In this case, the first policy's state on the machine will be Revoking and the second policy's state will be Deploying. The policies can appear in the GUI simultaneously or one after another. Backup policy state diagram 2.14.5.2 Policy status on a machine To see this parameter, select any group of machines in the tree, then select the machine, and then select the Backup policies tab on the Information pane.
The policy gets the Warning status on Windows machines that have either a D: or F: volume, unless an event that will result in an error occurs. The policy that has to back up the [System] and the /dev/sda1 volumes, will get the Warning status on the Windows machines (since /dev/sda is not found) and on the Linux machines that have the /dev/sda1 volume (since the [System] volume is not found). The policy will get the Error status on Linux machines that do not have a SCSI device.
This status is defined as the most severe status of the policy on the machines included in the group and its child groups. If the policy is currently not applied to any machine, its status is "OK". 2.14.5.5 Cumulative state and status of a policy In addition to the deployment state and status as related to a specific machine or group, the backup policy has a cumulative deployment state and a cumulative status.
Deduplication at source Performed on a managed machine during backup. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent uses the storage node to determine what data can be deduplicated, and does not transfer the data whose duplicates are already present in the vault. Deduplication at target Performed in the vault after a backup is completed. The storage node analyses the vault's archives and deduplicates data in the vault. When creating a backup plan, you have the option to turn off deduplication at source for that plan.
Deduplication at target After backup to a deduplicating vault is completed, the storage node runs the indexing task to deduplicate data in the vault as follows: 1. It moves the items (disk blocks or files) from the archives to a special file within the vault, storing duplicate items there only once. This file is called the deduplication data store. If there are both disk-level and file-level backups in the vault, there are two separate data stores for them.
The deduplicated items that have changed are not identical anymore and therefore will not be deduplicated. 2.14.6.4 Deduplication best practices Follow these recommendations when using deduplication: When creating a deduplicating vault, place the vault and its deduplication database on different disks. This will make deduplication faster, because deduplication involves extensive simultaneous use of both the vault and the database.
Similarly, in case of three machines, the ratio becomes 1.5:1; for four machines, it is 1.6:1. It approaches 2:1 as more such machines are backed up to the same vault. This means that you can buy, say, a 10-TB storage device instead of a 20-TB one. The actual amount of capacity reduction is influenced by numerous factors such as the type of data that is being backed up, the frequency of the backup, and the backups' retention period. 2.14.6.
2.14.7 Privileges for centralized management This section describes the users' privileges that are required to manage a machine locally and remotely, to manage a machine registered on Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server, and to access and manage Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node. 2.14.7.1 Types of connection to a managed machine There are two types of connection to a managed machine: local connection and remote connection.
2. Click Manage this machine. To allow a non-root user to start the console As a root user, add the name of the non-root user whom you want to allow to start the console, to the file /etc/sudoers—for example, by using the visudo command. Caution: As a result of this procedure, the non-root user will not only be allowed to start the console with the root privileges, but also may be able to perform other actions as the root user. To establish a local connection as a non-root user 1.
Remote connection as a non-root user Since accessing the system as the root user should be restricted, the root user can create an authentication policy to enable remote management under non-root credentials. The following are two examples of such policies. Note: As a result, the specified non-root users will be able to connect to the machine remotely as if they were root users.
2.14.7.5 Acronis security groups On a machine running Windows, Acronis security groups determine who can manage the machine remotely and act as Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server administrator. These groups are created when Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agents or Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server are being installed. During installation, you can specify what users to include in each group.
Tip: To ensure proper group names, you should install Acronis components in a domain controller after you have set up the domain controller itself. If the components were installed before you set up the domain controller, create the groups DCNAME $ Acronis Remote Users and DCNAME $ Acronis Centralized Admins manually, and then include the members of Acronis Remote Users and Acronis Centralized Admins in the newly created groups. 2.14.7.
For users whom you want to act as storage node administrators, add their accounts to the Administrators group. For other users, add their user accounts to the Users group. Additional right of machine administrators A 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.
If you choose to specify an existing user account for the management server service, this account will be added to the Acronis Centralized Admins group automatically. If the machine is part of an Active Directory domain, make sure that the domain's security policies do not prevent the accounts described in this section (whether existing or newly created) from having the above listed user rights. Important: After the installation, do not specify a different user account for a component's service.
2.14.8.2 Client and server applications There are two stakeholders of the secure communication process: Client application, or client, is an application that tries to establish connection. Server application, or server, is an application to which the client tries to connect. For example, if Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console is connecting to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent on a remote machine, the former is the client and the latter is the server.
4. For the new communication settings to take effect, restart all running Acronis components— preferably, by restarting Windows. If restart is not possible, make sure you do the following: If Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console is running, close it and start it again. If other Acronis components, such as Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows or Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server are running, restart their correspondent services from the Services snap-in in Windows.
Authentication parameters Selecting the Trust self-signed certificates check box allows the client to connect to the server applications that use self-signed SSL certificates such as certificates created during the installation of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components—see SSL certificates (p. 86). You should keep this check box selected, unless you have a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in your environment.
The use of SSL certificates is enabled. The server will use SSL certificates if their use is enabled on the client 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 client application. Disabled The same as Not configured. 2.14.8.4 Network port configuration Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components use the 9876/TCP network communication port by default.
Self-signed certificates, such as certificates automatically generated during the installation of an Acronis component. Non-self-signed certificates, such as certificates issued by a third-party Certificate Authority (CA)—for example, by a public CA such as VeriSign® or Thawte™—or by your organization's CA. Certificate path All Acronis components installed on a machine, when acting as a server application, use an SSL certificate called the server certificate.
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 Commandline Utility. To install a third-party certificate 1. 2. 3. 4. Click Start, then click Run, and then type: certmgr.msc In the Certificates console, double-click the name of the certificate that you want to install.
3 Options This section covers Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 options that can be configured using Graphical User Interface. The content of this section is applicable to both stand-alone and advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. 3.1 Console options The console options define the way information is represented in the Graphical User Interface of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. To access the console options, select Options > Console options from the top menu. 3.1.
The preset is: Enabled for all results. To make a setting for each result (successful completion, failure or success with warnings) individually, select or clear the respective check box. 3.1.3 Time-based alerts Last backup This option is effective when the console is connected to a managed machine (p. 407) or to the management server (p. 408). The option defines whether to alert if no backup was performed on a given machine for a period of time.
The option defines the fonts to be used in the Graphical User Interface of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. The Menu setting affects the drop-down and context menus. The Application setting affects the other GUI elements. The preset is: System Default font for both the menus and the application interface items. To make a selection, choose the font from the respective combo-box and set the font's properties. You can preview the font's appearance by clicking the button to the right. 3.
This parameter can also be set by using Acronis Administrative Template (p. 344). 3.2.3 Event tracing You can configure the management server to log events in the Application Event Log of Windows, besides the management server's own log. You can configure the management server to send Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) objects to a specified SNMP manager. 3.2.3.
3.2.4 Domain access credentials This option determines the user name and password that the management server will use to access the domain. The preset is: No credentials The management server needs domain access credentials when working with a dynamic group that is based on the Organizational unit criterion (p. 318). When you are creating such group and no credentials are given by this option, the program will ask you for credentials and save them in this option.
3.2.6.1 VMware vCenter integration This option defines whether to show virtual machines managed by a VMware vCenter Server in the management server and show the backup status of these machines in the vCenter. Integration is available in all Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 advanced editions; a license for Virtual Edition is not required. No software installation is required on the vCenter Server.
Note: Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Online supports only HTTP and HTTPS proxy servers. Proxy settings for the agent and the management server are configured separately, even if both are installed on the same machine. 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.
3.3.2 Event tracing It is possible to duplicate log events generated by the agent(s), operating on the managed machine, in the Application Event Log of Windows; or send the events to the specified SNMP managers. If you do not modify the event tracing options anywhere except for here, your settings will be effective for each local backup plan and each task created on the machine.
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 (p. 99). 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.
/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf - configuration file for the Net-SNMP SNMP agent /etc/snmp/snmptrapd.conf - configuration file for the Net-SNMP trap daemon. 3.3.3 Log cleanup rules This option specifies how to clean up the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent log. This option defines the maximum size of the agent log folder (in Windows XP/2003 Server, %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\LogEvents). The preset is: Maximum log size: 1 GB. On cleanup, keep 95% of the maximum log size.
If you choose Yes, I want to participate in the ACEP, 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.
Pre/Post backup commands (p. 103) + + + + PE only PE only Pre/Post data capture commands (p. 105) + + + + - - Multi-volume snapshot (p. 107) + + - - - - File-level backup snapshot (p. 107) - + - + - - Use VSS (p. 107) + + - - - - Compression level (p. 108) + + + + + + + + + + - - HDD writing speed (p. 109) Dest: HDD Dest: HDD Dest: HDD Dest: HDD Dest: HDD Dest: HDD Network connection speed (p.
Overwrite data on a tape without prompting for user confirmation Dest: Tape Dest: Tape Dest: Tape Dest: Tape Dest: Tape Dest: Tape Dismount media after backup has finished Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Dest: removable media Reset archive bit - + - - - + Restart the machine autom
The AES cryptographic algorithm operates in the Cipher-block chaining (CBC) mode and uses a randomly generated key with a user-defined size of 128, 192 or 256 bits. The larger the key size, the longer it will take for the program to encrypt the archive and the more secure your data will be. The encryption key is then encrypted with AES-256 using a SHA-256 hash of the password as a key.
Exclusion examples Criterion Example Description Windows and Linux By name By mask (*) By mask (?) F.log Excludes all files named "F.log" F Excludes all folders named "F" *.log Excludes all files with the .log extension F* Excludes all files and folders with names starting with "F" (such as folders F, F1 and files F.log, F1.log) F???.log Excludes all .log files with names consisting of four symbols and starting with "F" Windows By file path C:\Finance\F.log Excludes the file named "F.
To specify pre/post commands 1. Enable pre/post commands execution by checking the following options: Execute before the backup Click Edit to specify a new command or a batch file Execute after the backup 2. Do any of the following: Select the existing command or the batch file from the drop-down list 3. Click OK. Pre-backup command To specify a command/batch file to be executed before the backup process starts 1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file.
4. If successful execution of the command is critical for your backup strategy, select the Fail the task if the command execution fails check box. In case the command execution fails, the program will remove the resulting TIB file and temporary files if possible, and the task will fail. When the check box is not selected, the command execution result does not affect the task execution failure or success.
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.
fails. 3.4.1.5 File-level backup snapshot This option is effective only for file-level backup in Windows and Linux operating systems. This option defines whether to back up files one by one or by taking an instant data snapshot. Note: Files that are stored on network shares are always backed up one by one. The preset is: Create snapshot if it is possible. Select one of the following: Always create a snapshot The snapshot enables backing up of all files including files opened for exclusive access.
transactions, at the moment of taking the data snapshot by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. Data consistency, in turn, ensures that the application will be recovered in the correct state and become operational immediately after recovery. The preset is: Create snapshots using VSS Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 will select the VSS provider automatically based on the operating system running on the machine and whether the machine is a member of an Active Directory domain.
Maximum – the data will be compressed as much as possible. The backup duration will be maximal. You may want to select maximum compression when backing up to removable media to reduce the number of blank disks required. 3.4.1.9 Backup performance Use this group of options to specify the amount of network and system resources to allocate to the backup process. Backup performance options might have a more or less noticeable effect on the speed of the backup process.
Click Writing speed stated in kilobytes per second, and then enter the writing speed in kilobytes per second. Network connection speed This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media. This option is available when a location on the network (network share, managed vault or an FTP/SFTP server) is selected as the backup destination. The option defines the amount of network connection bandwidth allocated for transferring the backup data.
4. For the e-mail message to include the log entries related to the backup, select the Add full log to the notification check box. 5. Click Additional e-mail parameters, to configure additional e-mail parameters as follows, then click OK: From - type the e-mail address of the user from whom the message will be sent. If you leave this field empty, messages will be constructed as if they are from the destination address. Use encryption – you can opt for encrypted connection to the mail server.
The When user interaction is required check box – to send notification during the operation when user interaction is required – is always selected. Click Send test WinPopup message to check if the settings are correct. 3.4.1.11 Event tracing It is possible to duplicate log events of the backup operations, performed on the managed machine, in the Application Event Log of Windows; or send the events to the specified SNMP managers.
Use the setting set in the Machine options – to use the setting specified for the machine. For more information refer to Machine options (p. 95). Send SNMP notifications individually for backup operation events – to send the events of the backup operations to the specified SNMP managers. Types of events to send – choose the types of events to be sent: All events, Errors and warnings, or Errors only.
If the destination disk runs out of free space while creating the backup, the task enters the Need interaction state. You have the ability to free additional space and retry the operation. If you do so, the resulting backup will be split into the parts created before and after the retry. When backing up to removable media (CD, DVD or a tape device locally attached to the managed machine): The task will enter the Need interaction state and ask for a new media when the previous one is full.
3.4.1.15 Media components This option is effective for both Windows and Linux operating systems, when the backup destination is removable media. When backing up to removable media, you can make this media work as regular Linux-based bootable media (p. 401) by writing additional components to it. As a result, you will not need a separate rescue disc. The preset is: None selected.
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. In order to back up the valid information on a rapidly dying disk, enable ignoring bad sectors. The rest of the data will be backed up and you will be able to mount the resulting disk backup and extract valid files to another disk. 3.4.1.
This option determines the program behavior in case a backup task is about to start (the scheduled time comes or the event specified in the schedule occurs), but the condition (or any of multiple conditions) is not met. For more information on conditions please see Scheduling (p. 168) and Conditions (p. 179). The preset is: Wait until the conditions are met.
This option determines the program behavior when any of the backup plan's tasks fails. The preset is not to restart a failed task. 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.
When this option is enabled, the backups, belonging to the policy or plan being created, will be located on a separate tape set. Other backups will not be written to this tape set. If the console is connected to the management server The Use a separate tape set option has more precise definitions. So for the backup policy to be created you can use a separate tape set for all machines or for each single machine. The A single tape set for all machines option is selected by default.
When starting backup to a non-empty tape in a locally attached tape device, the program will warn that you are about to lose data on the tape. To disable this warning, select this check box. Dismount media after backup has finished This option is effective in Windows and Linux operating systems. This option is effective when backing up to a removable media (CD, DVD, tape or floppy disk.) The preset is: Disabled.
For example, if the machine boots from a hard disk drive by default and you select this check box, the machine will be restarted and the operating system will start as soon as the bootable agent has finished creating the backup. Deduplicate backup only after transferring it to the vault (do not deduplicate at source) This option is available only in advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.
You can also customize a default option itself by changing its value against the pre-defined one. The new value will be used by default in all recovery tasks you will create later on this machine. 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.
Windows recovery - Windows recovery - Windows recovery - E-mail (p. 125) + + + + - - Win Pop-up (p. 126) + + + + - - Windows events log (p. 127) + + - - - - SNMP (p. 127) + + + + - - Change SID after recovery Notifications: Event tracing: 3.4.2.1 Pre/Post commands This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and PE-based bootable media. The option enables you to define the commands to be automatically executed before and after the data recovery.
Check box Selection Fail the task if the command execution fails Selected Cleared Selected Cleared Do not recover until the command execution is complete Selected Selected Cleared Cleared N/A Perform the recovery concurrently with the command execution and irrespective of the command execution result. Result Preset Perform the recovery after the Perform the recovery command is only after the executed despite command is execution failure successfully executed. or success.
Low – to minimize resources taken by the recovery process, leaving more resources to other processes running on the machine Normal – to run the recovery process with normal speed, allocating resources on a par with other processes High – to maximize the recovery process speed by taking resources from the other processes. 3.4.2.3 File-level security This option is effective only for recovery from file-level backup of Windows files.
Some Internet service providers require authentication on the incoming mail server before being allowed to send something. If this is your case, select the Log on to incoming mail server check box to enable a POP server and to set up its settings: Incoming mail server (POP) – enter the name of the POP server. Port – set the port of the POP server. By default, the port is set to 110. User name – enter the user name Password – enter the password.
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 recovery 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 preset is: Use the setting set in the Machine options.
Community – type the name of SNMP community to which both the host running SNMP management application and the sending machine belong. The typical community is "public". Click Send test message to check if the settings are correct. Do not send SNMP notifications – to disable sending the log events of the recovery operations to SNMP managers. 3.4.2.6 Error handling These options are effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.
Check file system after recovery This option is effective only when recovering disks or volumes. When operating under bootable media, this option is not effective for the NTFS file system. The preset is Disabled. This option defines whether to check the integrity of the file system after a disk or volume recovery. Restart machine automatically if it is required for recovery This option is effective when recovery takes place on a machine running an operating system. The preset is Disabled.
4 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 attached to the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node. There are no settings for limiting a vault size or number of backups in a vault.
Way of working with the "Vaults" view Vaults (on the navigation pane) - top element of the vaults tree. Click this item to display groups of centralized and personal vaults. Centralized. This group is available when the console is connected to a managed machine or to a management server. Expand this group to display a list of centralized vaults added by the management server administrator. Click any centralized vault in the vaults tree to open the detailed view of this vault (p.
To learn more about privileges depending on the user rights, see the User privileges on a storage node (p. 80) section. Unmanaged vaults An unmanaged vault is a centralized vault that is not managed by a storage node. To access an unmanaged vault, a user has to have access privileges for the location from the network. Any user that has permission to read/write files in an unmanaged vault can: back up data to the unmanaged vault recover data from any backup located in the unmanaged vault.
Related sections: Operations with archives stored in a vault (p. 164) Operations with backups (p. 165) Filtering and sorting archives (p. 167) Bars of the "Actions and tools" pane [Vault Name] The Actions bar is available when clicking the vault in the vaults tree. Duplicates actions of the vault's toolbar. [Archive Name] The Actions bar is available when you select an archive in the archives table. Duplicates actions of the archives toolbar.
Delete a vault 1. Select the vault. 2. Click Delete. You'll be asked whether to keep the archives stored in the vault, or delete the vault along with all the archives. The plans and tasks that use this vault will fail. If you choose to keep the archives for a managed vault, the vault will be detached from the storage node. Later on, you'll be able to attach this vault to the same or to another storage node. Explore an unmanaged vault 1. Select the unmanaged vault. 2. Click Explore.
Storage node Select the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node that will manage the vault. You may need to enter access credentials for the storage node. Path (p. 135) Specify where the vault will be created. Managed centralized vaults can reside on a network share, SAN, NAS, or on a hard drive local to the storage node. Database path (p. 136) Specify a local folder on the storage server to create a vault-specific database.
Vault database path To specify the path where the vault's database will be created 1. In the Local folders of the storage node, select the desired folder or enter the full path to the folder in the Path field. To create a new folder for the database, click 2. Click OK. Create folder. When choosing a folder for the vault's database, follow these considerations: The folder must reside on a fixed drive. Please do not try to place the database on external detachable drives.
4.1.2.2 Creating an unmanaged centralized vault To create an unmanaged centralized vault, perform the following steps. Vault Name Specify a unique name for the vault. The creation of two centralized vaults with the same name is prohibited. Comments Enter the distinctive description of the vault. Type Select the Unmanaged type. Path (p. 137) Specify where the vault will be created. After you have performed all the required steps, click OK to commit creating the unmanaged centralized vault.
To attach a managed vault to a storage node, perform the following steps. Vault Storage node Select the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node that will manage the vault. Path Specify the path to the location where the archives are stored. Database path Specify a local folder on the storage server to create a vault-specific database. This database will store the metadata required for cataloguing the archives and performing deduplication.
by different components of other versions of the product by means of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, see the Tape compatibility table (p. 49) section. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 enables you to set up distribution of backups by media. For example, a separate tape set can be used to back up some specific data, and the backups of all other data will be written onto any currently mounted tape, which does not belong to the tape set. See the Tape support (p. 118) section for more information.
4. A tape with backups written by the storage node cannot be read on a tape device, locally attached to a machine, the agent is installed on, because of a difference in tape format. To get information about the readability of the archives on tapes, written by different components of other versions of the product by means of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, see the Tape compatibility table (p. 49) section. 5. Barcode printers are not used. 4.1.3.
4.1.3.5 Getting started with a tape library If you have a tape library device attached to a machine with Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node installed, all you need to do to back up onto the tape library is to create an archive vault on the device under storage node management. Prerequisites A tape library device has to be installed on a machine running Windows in accordance with the device manufacturer’s installation instructions.
If the tape barcode cannot be read, another Tasks Need Interaction window asks you to label a tape. Actions on a tape library vault If a tape library vault is selected on the Navigation pane of the console, the Centralized vaults page toolbar will contain the following two actions that are used for tape libraries only: Manage tapes displays the Tape Management window allowing you to refresh information on the library slots, inventory tapes in the slots, and define labels for the tapes.
To change the settings of the backup policy/plan to be created click Change… in the Backup options section on the Create backup policy/plan page. It opens the Backup options window where the Tape support page is contained with the pre-defined values. When backing up to a tape and the end of the tape is reached, a free tape will be mounted automatically and the operation will continue onto the new tape.
Any user with access to a managed vault on a tape library is able to perform these operations. However two or more users cannot manage a tape library drive simultaneously, because some operations can take minutes, hours or even days. For example, if a user launches a tape library Rescan task, all other users' requests to perform the same task will be canceled automatically, as it is already running on the vault.
Labeling When a tape required for data recovery is not found, the Task Need Interaction window will ask the user to bring the tape and insert it into a tape library slot. So, all the tape cartridges need a barcode or other readable labels. If a tape does not get a label, you should define it before the tape will be used.
If you leave this option unchanged, then the backups, belonging to the policy or plan being created, might be written onto tapes containing backups written by different backup policies and comprising of data from different machines. Similarly, backups from other policies might be written onto the tapes containing this policy's backups. You will not have a problem with such tapes, as the program manages all the tapes automatically.
cycle. The same tape rotation enables you to get by with the minimum number of cartridges and not to be buried in used tapes. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 enables you to achieve full automation of tape rotation while backing up onto tape libraries. This section provides you with useful information to choose a backup scheme and tape options for tape rotation. To calculate the number of tapes required for tape rotation schemes, you can use the method described in the Tape planning (p. 158) section.
capability of the tape library (number of drives, loaders, slots and available tapes; capacity of tapes) requirements for performing data recovery (maximal duration) You need to analyze every argument that is relevant for your case and select the main criteria for the choice. Then choose a backup scheme and specify the tape options. Note, that any backup scheme in combination with different tape options will have quite different results for efficient use of both tapes and devices.
backup policy/plan starts on Wednesday and full backups should be created on every fourth Friday, on Wednesday the first backup will be full instead of an incremental one. There are analyzed examples showing how the GFS scheme can be combined with different tape options in the following sections: GFS Example 1 (p. 149). The Use a separate tape set option is selected. All the Always use a free tape options are cleared. It requires 25 tapes in rotation. GFS Example 2 (p. 152).
The next figure demonstrates the data backup archive at the moment. The differential backup is drawn as a blue rectangle in the figure. Number 1 in the green rectangle marks the incremental backup created on Monday of the 1st week of the year. Then the following backups are written onto tape 02: four incremental and one differential backup on the second week four incremental and one differential backup on the third week four incremental backups on the 4th week.
Below, the figure shows the deleted backups as actual, but demonstrates tape usage during the whole year for the GFS backup scheme in combination with the specified tape options. A number in the green rectangle marks an incremental backup created on Monday of the corresponding week of the year. Tape usage during the first year The next figure shows the actual usage of the tapes with free space instead of the deleted backups on the first Friday of the following year.
The full backup stored on tape 01 is deleted after the next full backup is created onto both tapes 23 and 24 on Friday of the 52nd week. As all backups of tape 01 have been deleted, the tape is considered as free and can be reused. Further analysis of the example proves that the maximal number of tapes required to store the data backups is 25 tapes. This maximum occurs on the 16th week of the following year.
If all the backups have to be kept during the year, the archive will require 28 tapes. As the GFS backup scheme forces automatic deletion of the outdated backups, on the first Friday of the second year the tapes keep only the backups displayed in the next figure. 153 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
This figure demonstrates that the GFS Example 2 tape rotation scheme is more suitable for the case than GFS Example 1. The advantages of the GFS Example 2 tape rotation scheme for the analyzed case are the following: it uses 16 tapes instead of 25 a data recovery task requires one (25%) or two (75%) tapes data recovery from a full backup requires only one tape that makes the data recovery from an incremental or differential backup faster.
backup deletion frees a tape so it can be reused. The main drawback is the large number of required tapes that is used 5-10%. If we have to keep a daily backup for a week (4 backups) and a weekly backup for a month (4 backups), the total number of required tapes will be equal to 4+4+13+1 = 22. Using the Tower of Hanoi tape rotation scheme The ToH scheme requires fewer tapes for rotation as compared with the GFS scheme.
ToH Example 1 Suppose, the backup plan has the following tape options: the Use a separate tape set option is selected the Always use a free tape: For each full backup option is cleared the Always use a free tape: For each incremental backup option is cleared the Always use a free tape: For each differential backup option is cleared. The figure below shows the tapes’ usage for the ToH scheme combined with the above mentioned tape options.
five-level scheme requires up to five tapes for this case. ToH Example 2 Suppose, the backup plan has the following tape options: the Use a separate tape set option is selected the Always use a free tape: For each full backup option is selected the Always use a free tape: For each incremental backup option is cleared the Always use a free tape: For each differential backup option is cleared.
ToH Example 3 Imagine the backup plan has the following tape options: the Use a separate tape set option is selected the Always use a free tape: For each full backup option is selected the Always use a free tape: For each incremental backup option is selected the Always use a free tape: For each differential backup option is selected. The figure shows tape rotation for the ToH scheme with these options.
To simplify the tape planning lets discard the possibility that the calculated tapes might contain backups of other data. It is implied that the Use a separate tape set option is enabled.
Total number of required tapes = round up ((2*F_GB + 12*I_GB + 11*D_GB) * CL / T_GB) + 1 = round up ( (2*320 + 12*16 + 11*40) * 1 / 400 ) + 1 = round up ( 3.18 ) + 1 = 5 (tapes).
node database has all the required information about the content of the moved tapes. So all you need to do is to perform the inventory (p. 144) procedure for the managed vault on the library where the tapes were placed to. 2. If you move tapes to a tape library managed by another storage node, you should rescan (p. 144) each relocated tape to provide the storage node with information about backups contained on the tape.
Metadata The .meta folder is created during backup in every personal vault. This folder contains additional information about archives and backups stored in the vault, such as archive owners or the machine name. If you accidentally delete the .meta folder, it will be automatically recreated next time you access the vault. But some information like owner names and machine names may be lost. 4.2.
[Archive Name] The Actions bar is available when you select an archive in the archives table. Duplicates actions of the archives toolbar. [Backup Name] The Actions bar is available when you expand the archive and click on any of its backups. Duplicates actions of the archives toolbar. 4.2.2 Actions on personal vaults To perform any operation (except for creation) with a vault, you must select it first.
4.2.2.1 Creating a personal vault To create a personal vault 1. In the Name field, type a name for the vault being created. 2. [Optional] In the Comments field, add a description of the vault. 3. In the Path field, click Change... In the opened Personal Vault Path window, specify a path to the folder that will be used as the vault. A personal vault can be organized on detachable or removable media, on a network share, or on FTP. 4. Click OK.
To Do Validate an archive Click Validate. The Validation (p. 244) page will be opened with the pre-selected archive as a source. Validation of an archive will check all the archive's backups. Export an archive Click Export. The Export (p. 252) page will be opened with the pre-selected archive as a source. The export of an archive creates a duplicate of the archive with all its backups in the location you specify. Delete a single archive or multiple archives 1.
Validate a backup Click Validate. The Validation (p. 244) page will be opened with the pre-selected backup as a source. Validation of a file backup imitates recovering of all files from the backup to a dummy destination. Validation of a disk backup calculates a checksum for every data block saved in the backup. Export a backup Click Export. The Export (p. 252) page will be opened with the pre-selected backup as a source.
4.3.4 Filtering and sorting archives The following is a guideline for you to filter and sort archives in the archives table. To Do Sort backup archives by any column Click the column's header to sort the archives in ascending order. Filter archives by name, owner, or machine. In the field below the corresponding column's header, type the archive name (the owner name, or the machine name). Click it once again to sort the archives in descending order.
5 Scheduling Acronis scheduler helps the administrator adapt backup plans to the company’s daily routine and each employee’s work style. The plans’ tasks will be launched systematically keeping the critical data safely protected. 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 specified period of time has passed since the last successful backup completed + + The scheduler behavior, in case the event occurs but the condition (or any of multiple conditions) is not met is defined by the Task start conditions (p. 116) backup option. What-ifs What if an event occurs (and a condition, if any, is met) while the previous task run has not completed? The event will be ignored.
Examples "Simple" daily schedule Run the task every day at 6PM. The schedule's parameters are thus set up as follows. 1. Every: 1 day(s). 2. Once at: 06:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: not set. The task will be started on the current day, if it has been created before 6PM. If you have created the task after 6 PM, the task will be started for the first time on the next day at 6 PM. To: not set. The task will be performed for an indefinite number of days.
task's recurrences is 4 hours, and between the third, fourth and fifth is 2 hours. In this case, the optimal way is to add two schedules to the task. First daily schedule 1. Every: 3 day(s). 2. Every: 4 hours. From: 08:00:00 AM Until: 12:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: 09/20/2009. To: not set. Second daily schedule 1. Every: 3 day(s). 2. Every: 2 hour(s). From: 03:00:00 PM Until: 07:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: 09/20/2009. To: not set. 5.
Examples "One day in the week" schedule Run the task every Friday at 10PM, starting from a certain date (say 05/14/2009) and ending after six months. The schedule's parameters are thus set up as follows. 1. Every: 1 week(s) on: Fri. 2. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: 05/13/2009. The task will be started on the nearest Friday at 10 PM. To: 11/13/2009. The task will be performed for the last time on this date, but the task itself will still be available in the Tasks view after this date.
Thursday: every 3 hours from 9 AM till 9 PM Friday: twice at 12 PM and 9 PM (i.e. same as on Monday) Saturday: once at 9 PM Sunday: once at 9 PM Combining the identical times, the following three schedules can be added to the task: First schedule 1. Every: 1 week(s) on: Mon, Fri. 2. Every: 9 hours From: 12:00:00 PM Until: 09:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: not set. To: not set. Second schedule 1. Every 1 week(s) on: Tue, Wed, Thu. 2. Every 3 hours From 09:00:00 AM until 09:00:00 PM. 3.
Every: <...> From: <...> Until: <...> Set up how many times the task will be run during the specified time interval. For example, setting the task frequency to Every 1 hour From 10:00:00 AM until 10:00:00 PM allows the task to be run 12 times from 10 AM to 10 PM during one day. In the Effective... area, set the following settings: From: <...> Set up a date when this schedule will be enabled (an effective date).
To: 12/01/2010. Actually the task will end on the last workday of November. By setting up this date we just define that the task must be discontinued in 2010, after autumn ends in the northern hemisphere. Several monthly schedules for one task In the case when the task needs to be run on different days or weeks with different time intervals depending on the month, consider adding a dedicated schedule to every desired month or several months. Suppose that the task goes into effect on 11/01/2009.
For example, you may want to set up a backup plan that will automatically perform an emergency full backup of your data as soon as Windows discovers that your hard disk drive is about to fail. Parameters Log name Specifies the name of the log.
WindowsUpdateClient and event number 18 into the System log; the type of this event is Information. When creating the plan, type or select the following in the Schedule area: Log name: System Event source: Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient Event type: Information Event ID: 18 Tip: To set up a similar backup plan for machines running Microsoft Windows XP, replace the text in Event source with Windows Update Agent and leave the remaining fields the same.
Distribute start time within the time window When this setting is enabled, the backup task on each registered machine will start with a specific delay from the start time set in the policy. This distributes the tasks' actual start times within a time interval. You may want to use this setting when creating a backup policy for backing up multiple machines to a network location, to avoid excessive network load.
2. In How to back up, select the Simple, Tower of Hanoi, or Custom scheme, and then click Change to specify a schedule for the scheme. 3. Under Run the task, select Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. 4. In the Advanced settings area, click Change. 5. To enable the use of the Wake-On-LAN functionality, select the Use Wake-on-LAN check box. 6.
Adding multiple conditions Multiple conditions must be met simultaneously to enable task execution. Example: It is required to run the backup task after free space on the managed machine is changed by at least 1 GB, but only if all users are logged off and more than 12 hours have passed since the last backup. Set the schedule, conditions and the Task start conditions backup option as follows: Schedule: When free space changed; Value: Run task if free space has changed by at least: 1 GB.
Event: Weekly, Every 1 week(s) on ; Once at 09:00:00 PM. Condition: Location's host is available Task start conditions: Skip the task execution. As a result, (1) If 9:00 PM comes and the location's host is available, the backup task starts right on time. (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.
If the task start conditions are Wait until the conditions are met and the Run the task anyway after check box is cleared, the task (scheduled to run at 3:00 PM) will start at 6:00 PM—the time when the condition is met. If the task start conditions are Wait until the conditions are met and the Run the task anyway after check box is selected with, say, the 1 Hour waiting time, the task (scheduled to run at 3:00 PM) will start at 4:00 PM—the time when the waiting period ends. 5.7.
(3) if the machine is never restarted, the task will never start. You can start the backup manually, if need be, in the Backup plans and tasks view. 183 Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
6 Direct management This section covers operations that can be performed directly on a managed machine by using the direct console-agent connection. The content of this section is applicable to both stand-alone and advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. 6.1 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. 6.1.
licenses. After a successful license check the agent will start working. Please make sure you have a valid license on Acronis License Server. Trial version of product expires in X day(s) Connect Once the trial version of the product is installed, the program starts the countdown of days remaining until the trial period expires. Connect 15 day trial period has expired. Enter a full license key.
How it is determined Errors Highlight the date in red if at least one "Error" entry appeared in the log on this date. Warnings Highlight the date in yellow if no "Error" entries appeared and at least one "Warning" entry appeared in the log on this date. Information Highlight the date in green if only "Information" log entries appeared on this date (normal activity.) The Select current date link focuses selection to the current date.
In the backup table, select the backup plan (task). Use the Information panel to review detailed information on the selected plan (task). The panel is collapsed by default. To expand the panel, click the chevron. The content of the panel is also duplicated in the Plan details (p. 196) and Task details (p. 194) windows respectively. Use the toolbar's buttons to take an action on the selected plan (task). See the Actions on backup plans and tasks (p. 190) section for details.
A backup plan status is derived from the results of the last run of the plans' tasks. 1 Status How it is determined How to handle Error At least one task has failed.
Need interaction Any running task can put itself into the Need interaction state when it needs human interaction such as changing media or ignoring a read error. The next state may be Stopping (if the user chooses to stop the task) or Running (on selecting Ignore/Retry or another action, such as Reboot, that can put the task to the Running state.) Stopping The user can stop a running task or a task that needs interaction. The task changes to the Stopping state and then to the Idle state.
centralized plan has failed 2 Warning Last result is "Succeeded View the log to read the warnings -> [optionally] Perform with warning" actions to prevent the future warnings or failure. 3 OK Last result is "Succeeded", "-", or "Stopped" 6.1.2.2 No action is required. The "-" state means that the task has never been started or has been started, but has not finished yet and so its result is not available.
Run a plan/task Backup plan Click Run. In the Run Backup Plan (p. 194) window, select the task you need to be run. Running the backup plan starts the selected task of that plan immediately in spite of its schedule and conditions. Why can't I run the backup plan? Do not have the appropriate privilege Without the Administrator privileges on the machine, a user cannot run plans owned by other users. Task Click Run. The task will be executed immediately in spite of its schedule and conditions.
Edit a plan/task Backup plan Click Edit. Backup plan editing is performed in the same way as creation (p. 199), 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.
Delete a plan/task Backup plan Click Delete. What will happen if I delete the backup plan? The plan's deletion deletes all its tasks. Why can't I delete the backup plan? The backup plan is in the "Running" state A backup plan cannot be deleted, if at least one of its tasks is running. Do not have the appropriate privilege Without the Administrator's privileges on the machine, a user cannot delete plans owned by other users. The backup plan has a centralized origin.
Configuring backup plans and the tasks table By default, the table has six columns that are displayed, others are hidden. If required, you can hide the displayed columns and show hidden ones. To show or hide columns 1. Right-click any column header to open the context menu. The menu items that are ticked off correspond to the column headers presented in the table. 2. Click the items you want to be displayed/hidden.
Recovery (disk) Disk backup recovery Recovery (file) File and folder recovery Recovery (volume) Recovery of volumes from a disk backup Recovery (MBR) Master boot record recovery Recovery (disk to existing VM) Recovery of a disk/volume backup to an existing virtual machine Recovery (disk to new VM) Recovery of a disk/volume backup to a new virtual machine Recovery (existing VM) Recovery of a virtual machine backup to an existing virtual machine Recovery (new VM) Recovery of a virtual machine b
Progress The Progress tab is available while the task is running. It is common for all types of tasks. The tab provides information about task progress, elapsed time and other parameters. Backup plan details The Backup plan details window (also duplicated on the Information panel) aggregates in four tabs all the information on the selected backup plan. The respective message will appear at the top of the tabs, if one of the plan's tasks requires user interaction.
Validation (if selected) - events before or after which the validation is performed, and validation schedule. Backup options - backup options changed against the default values. 6.1.3 Log The Log stores the history of operations performed by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 on the machine, or actions a user takes on the machine using the program. For instance, when a user edits a task, the respective entry is added to the log. When the program executes a task, it adds multiple entries.
View a log entry’s details 1. Select a log entry. 2. Do one of the following Click View Details. The log entry's details will be displayed in a separate window. Expand the Information panel, by clicking the chevron. Save the selected log entries to a file 1. Select a single log entry or multiple log entries. 2. Click Save Selected to File. 3. In the opened window, specify a path and a name for the file. Save all the log entries to a file 1. Make sure, that the filters are not set. 2.
Configuring the log table By default, the table has seven columns that are displayed, others are hidden. If required, you can hide the shown columns and show the hidden ones. To show or hide columns 1. Right-click any column header to open the context menu. The menu items that are ticked off correspond to the column headers presented in the table. 2. Click the items you want to be displayed/hidden. 6.1.3.
To create a backup plan, perform the following steps. General Plan name [Optional] Enter a unique name for the backup plan. A conscious name lets you identify the plan among others. Plan's credentials (p. 202) [Optional] The backup plan will run on behalf of the user who is creating the plan. You can change the plan account credentials if necessary. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box . Comments [Optional] Type a description of the backup plan.
[Optional] Provide credentials for the location if the plan account does not have access permissions to the location. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box. Archive comments [Optional] Enter comments on the archive. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box. How to back up Backup scheme (p.
Virtualization server (p. 222) Here you select the resulting virtual machine type and location. Available options depend on the host you selected in the previous step. Storage (p. 222) 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. After you have performed all the required steps, click OK to create the backup plan. After that, you might be prompted for the password (p. 202).
Files Available if the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows (or for Linux) is installed. Select this option to back up specific files and folders. If you are not concerned about recovery of the operating system along with all the settings and applications, but plan to keep safe only certain data (the current project, for example), choose file backup. This will reduce the archive size, thus saving storage space.
Windows The swap file (pagefile.sys) and the file that keeps the RAM content when the machine goes into hibernation (hiberfil.sys) are not backed up. After recovery, the files will be re-created in the appropriate place with the zero size.
6.2.6 Exclusions Set up exclusions for the specific types of files you do not wish to back up. For example, you may not want database, hidden and system files and folders, as well as files with specific extensions, to be stored in the archive. To specify which files and folders to exclude: Set up any of the following parameters: Exclude all hidden files and folders This option is effective only for file systems that are supported by Windows.
Windows By file path C:\Finance\F.log Excludes the file named "F.log" located in the folder C:\Finance By folder path C:\Finance\F\ Excludes the folder C:\Finance\F (be sure to specify the full path starting from the disk letter) Linux By file path /home/user/Finance/F.log Excludes the file named "F.log" located in the folder /home/user/Finance By folder path /home/user/Finance/ Excludes the folder /home/user/Finance 6.2.
To back up data to a locally attached tape device, expand the Tape drives group, then click the required device. 2. Using the archives table To assist you with choosing the right destination, the table displays the names of the archives contained in each location you select. While you are reviewing the location content, archives can be 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.
This behavior can be suppressed by adding the [Date] variable (p. 211) to the archive name. If you do not select the Name backup files using the archive name... check box: Each backup will have a unique file name with the exact time stamp and the backup type; for example: MyData_2010_03_26_17_01_38_960D.tib. This standard file naming allows for a wider range of backup destinations and backup schemes.
Your script can move older backups based on the date stamp. See also “The *Date+ variable” (p. 211). Example 3. Hourly backups within a day Consider the following scenario: You want to perform hourly backups of your server's critical files every day. You want to keep older backups in the archive. You want the first backup of each day to be full and to run at midnight; and the subsequent backups of the day to be differential and to run at 01:00, 02:00, and so on.
You want to swap the drives each Monday, so that one drive contains backups of the current week (Monday through Sunday), and the other drive those of the previous week. In this scenario, you need to create two backup plans as follows: a) When creating the first backup plan, specify MyMachine as the archive name and D:\ as the archive location, select the Name backup files using the archive name... check box, select Full as the backup type, and schedule the backups to run every week on Monday.
6.2.8.2 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.
The program will access the source data using the credentials of the backup plan account specified in the General section. Use the following credentials The program will access the source data using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the plan account does not have access permissions to the location. You might need to provide special credentials for a network share or a storage node vault. Specify: User name.
In the Backup type field, select whether you want to create a full, incremental or differential backup (p. 33). 6.2.10.2 Back up later scheme With the Back up later scheme, the backup will be performed only once, at the date and time you specify. Specify the appropriate settings as follows Backup type Select the type of backup: full, incremental, or differential. If there is no full backup in the archive, a full backup will be created regardless of your selection.
Feb 5—Feb 11 D D D D W - - Feb 12—Feb 18 D D D D W - - Feb 19—Feb 25 D D D D M - - Feb 26—Mar 4 D D D D W - - Daily backups run every workday except Friday, which is left for weekly and monthly backups. Monthly backups run every fourth Friday, and weekly backups run on all other Fridays. Monthly ("Grandfather") backups are full; Weekly ("Father") backups are differential; Daily ("Son") backups are incremental.
Keep monthly backups indefinitely. Backup scheme parameters can then be set up as follows. Start backup at: 11:00 PM Back up on: All days Weekly/monthly: Saturday (for example) Keep backups: Daily: 1 week Weekly: 1 month Monthly: indefinitely As a result, an archive of daily, weekly, and monthly backups will be created. Daily backups will be available for seven days since creation.
Have a weekly summary of file changes since last month (Friday weekly differential backup). Have a monthly full backup of your files. Moreover, assume that you want to retain access to all backups, including the daily ones, for at least six months.
Parameters You can set up the following parameters of a Tower of Hanoi scheme. Schedule Set up a daily (p. 169), weekly (p. 171), or monthly (p. 173) schedule. Setting up schedule parameters allows creating simple schedules (example of a simple daily schedule: a backup task will be run every 1 day at 10 AM) as well as more complex schedules (example of a complex daily schedule: a task will be run every 3 days, starting from January 15.
Number of levels Full backup every On different days, can go back Roll-back period 2 2 days 1 to 2 days 1 day 3 4 days 2 to 5 days 2 days 4 8 days 4 to 11 days 4 days 5 16 days 8 to 23 days 8 days 6 32 days 16 to 47 days 16 days Adding a level doubles the full backup and roll-back periods. To see why the number of recovery days varies, let us return to the previous example. Here are the backups we have on day 12 (numbers in gray denote deleted backups).
Incremental Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform an incremental backup. If the archive contains no backups at the time of the task run, a full backup is created instead of the incremental backup. Differential Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform a differential backup. If the archive contains no full backups at the time of the task run, a full backup is created instead of the differential backup.
Examples Weekly full backup The following scheme yields a full backup performed every Friday night. Full backup: Schedule: Weekly, every Friday, at 10:00 PM 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.
Finally, we create retention rules for the archive: let us retain only backups that are no older than six months, and let the cleanup be performed after each backup task and also on the last day of every month. Retention rules: Delete backups older than 6 months Apply the rules: After backing up, On schedule Cleanup schedule: Monthly, on the Last day of All months, at 10:00 PM By default, a backup is not deleted as long as it has dependent backups that must be kept.
6.2.11 Archive validation Set up the validation task to check if the backed up data is recoverable. If the backup could not pass the validation successfully, the validation task fails and the backup plan gets the Error status. To set up validation, specify the following parameters 1. When to validate – select when to perform the validation. As the validation is a resourceintensive operation, it makes sense to schedule the validation to the managed machine's offpeak period.
Which agent is installed on the host? The resulting virtual machine type and location depend on the agent that resides on the selected host. Agent for Windows is installed on the host You have a choice of virtual machine types: VMware Workstation, Microsoft Virtual PC, or Parallels Workstation. Files of the new virtual machine will be placed in the folder you select. Agent for ESX/ESXi is installed on the host A VMware virtual machine will be created on the ESX/ESXi server.
If the managed machine's operating system fails to start or you need to recover data to bare metal, boot the machine from the bootable media (p. 401) or using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (p. 52). Then, create a recovery task. Acronis Universal Restore (p. 53) lets you recover and boot up Windows on dissimilar hardware or a virtual machine. A Windows system can be brought online in seconds while it is still being recovered. Using the proprietary Acronis Active Restore (p.
Access credentials (p. 228) [Optional] Provide credentials for the archive location if the task account does not have the right to access it. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box. 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. 229) Volumes (p.
After any of the settings is changed against the default value, a new line that displays the newly set value appears. The setting status changes from Default to Custom. Should you modify the setting again, the line will display the new value unless the new value is the default one. When the default value is set, the line disappears and so you always see only the settings that differ from the default values in the Settings section. Clicking Reset to default resets all the settings to default values.
If the archive is located on removable media, e.g. DVDs, first insert the last DVD and then insert the discs in order starting from the first one when the program prompts. If the archive is stored on a network share, expand the Network folders group, then select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them.
6.3.4.1 Disks/volumes selection To select a backup and disks/volumes to recover: 1. Select one of the successive backups by its creation date and time. Thus, you can revert the disk data to a certain moment in time. Specify the items to recover. By default, all items of the selected backup will be selected. If you do not want to recover certain items, just uncheck them. To obtain information on a disk/volume, right-click it and then click Information. 2. Click OK.
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. You might need to provide special credentials for a network share or a storage node vault. 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.
Disk #: Disk # (MODEL) (p. 232) Select the destination disk for each of the source disks. NT signature (p. 230) Select the way the recovered disk's signature will be handled. The disk signature is used by Windows and the Linux kernel version 2.6 and later. Disk destination To specify a destination disk: 1. Select a disk where you want the selected disk to recover to. The destination disk's space should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data. 2. Click OK.
6.3.6.2 Volumes Available volume destinations depend on the agents operating on the machine. Recover to: Physical machine Available when the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 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. On selecting this, you proceed to the regular volume mapping procedure described below. New virtual machine (p. 233) If Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows is installed.
MBR destination To specify a destination disk: 1. Select the disk to recover the MBR to. 2. Click OK. Volume destination To specify a destination volume: 1. Select a volume or unallocated space where you want the selected volume to be recovered to. The destination volume/unallocated space should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data. 2. Click OK.
set as active. If you recover a system volume to another hard disk with its own volumes and operating system, you will most likely need only the data. In this case, you can recover the volume as logical to access the data only. File system Change the volume file system, if required. By default, the program selects the original volume's file system. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 can make the following file system conversions: FAT 16 -> FAT 32 and Ext2 -> Ext3.
Storage Initial setting: the default storage of the virtualization server if the new machine is created on the virtualization server. Otherwise the current user's documents folder. This is the place where the new virtual machine will be created. Whether you can change the storage on the virtualization server or not, depends on the virtualization product brand and settings. VMware ESX may have multiple storages. A Microsoft Hyper-V server enables creating a new virtual machine in any local folder.
Recovery exclusions Set up exclusions for the specific files you do not wish to recover. Use the Add, Edit, Remove and Remove All buttons to create the list of file masks. Files whose names match any of the masks will be skipped during recovery. You can use one or more wildcard characters * and ? in a file mask: The asterisk (*) substitutes for zero or more characters in a file name; for example, the file mask Doc*.txt yields files such as Doc.txt and Document.
Do not overwrite existing file - this will give the file on the hard disk priority over the file in the backup. If you allow files to be overwritten, you still have an option to prevent overwriting of specific files by excluding (p. 235) them from the recovery operation. 6.3.7 Access credentials for destination To specify credentials 1.
DVD supplied by the hardware vendor or download the drivers from the vendor’s Web site. The driver files should have the *.inf, *.sys or *.oem extensions. If you download the drivers in the *.exe, *.cab or *.zip format, extract them using a third-party application, such as WinRAR (http://www.rarlab.com/) or Universal Extractor (http://legroom.net/software/uniextract).
Drivers for a virtual machine When recovering a system to a new virtual machine, the Universal Restore technology is applied in the background, because the program knows what drivers are required for the supported virtual machines. When recovering the system to an existing virtual machine that uses SCSI hard drive controller, be sure to specify SCSI drivers for the virtual environment, in the Mass storage drivers to install anyway step.
8. [Optionally] Review the Virtual machine settings (p. 233) and make changes if necessary. Here you can change the path to the new virtual machine. The same type of machines with the same name cannot be created in the same folder. Change either the VM name, or the path if you get an error message caused by identical names. 9. Select the destination disk for each of the source disks or source volumes and MBRs.
Windows was recovered to a dynamic volume that cannot be bootable Solution: Recover Windows to a basic, simple or mirrored volume. A system volume was recovered to a disk that does not have an MBR When you configure recovery of a system volume to a disk that does not have an MBR, the program prompts whether you want to recover the MBR along with the system volume. Opt for not recovering, only if you do not want the system to be bootable.
6.3.11.1 How to reactivate GRUB and change its configuration Generally, you should refer to the boot loader manual pages for the appropriate procedure. There is also the corresponding Knowledge Base article on the Acronis Web site. The following is an example of how to reactivate GRUB in case the system disk (volume) is recovered to identical hardware. 1. Start Linux or boot from the bootable media, and then press CTRL+ALT+F2. 2.
9. Specify the disk on which GRUB is located—typically, the boot or root partition: root (hd0,0) 10. Install GRUB. For example, to install GRUB in the master boot record (MBR) of the first disk, run the following command: setup (hd0) 11. Exit the GRUB shell: quit 12. Unmount the mounted file systems and then reboot: umount umount umount umount reboot /mnt/system/dev/ /mnt/system/proc/ /mnt/system/boot/ /mnt/system/ 13.
If the recovery requires the machine to be rebooted (usually, when the volumes to recover include the boot partition), follow these guidelines: If all parts of the MD device are volumes (a typical case, such as in the first example), make sure that the type of each volume—called partition type or system ID—is Linux raid automount; the hexadecimal code of this partition type is 0xFD. This will guarantee that the device will be automatically assembled following the reboot.
6.3.14 Recovering the storage node In addition to backing up data to centralized vaults managed by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node, you may want to perform a disk backup of the machine where the storage node itself is installed. This section describes how to recover the storage node registered on the management server in case the storage node and the management server are installed on different machines (if they are installed on the same machine, simply recover that machine).
You can access the Validation page from the Vaults (p. 130) view. Right-click the object to validate (archive, backup or vault) and select Validate from the context menu. The Validation page will be opened with the pre-selected object as a source. All you need to do is to select when to validate and (optionally) provide a name for the task. To create a validation task, perform the following steps. General Task name [Optional] Enter a unique name for the validation task.
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. To learn more about using credentials in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, see the Owners and credentials (p. 32) section. To learn more about operations available depending on the user privileges, see the User privileges on a managed machine (p. 31) section. 6.4.
To access a managed vault, type the following string in the Path field: bsp://node_address/vault_name/ To access an unmanaged centralized vault, type the full path to the vault's folder. 2. In the table to the right of the tree, select the archive. The table displays the names of the archives contained in each vault/folder you select. While you are reviewing the location content, archives can be added, deleted or modified by another user or by the program itself according to scheduled operations.
Use the task credentials The program will access the location using the credentials of the task account specified in the General section. 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. You might need to provide special credentials for a network share or a storage node vault. Specify: User name.
"Band aid" database recovery solution: mount up an image that contains an SQL database from a recently failed machine. This will give access to the database until the failed machine is recovered. Offline virus clean: if a machine is attacked, the administrator shuts it down, boots with bootable media and creates an image. Then, the administrator mounts this image in read/write mode, scans and cleans it with an antivirus program, and finally recovers the machine.
If the archive is stored on an FTP or SFTP server, type the server name or address in the Path field as follows: ftp://ftp_server:port _number or sftp://sftp_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. You can access the server as an anonymous user if the server enables such access.
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. 6.5.
6.7 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 resulting archive's options 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.
[Optional] The export task will run on behalf of the user who is creating the task. You can change the task credentials if necessary. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box. What to export Export Select an object to export: Archive (p. 226) - in that case, you need to specify the archive only. Backups (p. 256) - specify the archive first, and then select the desired backup(s) in this archive Access credentials (p.
6.7.2 Archive selection To select an archive 1. Enter the full path to the location in the Path field, or select the desired folder in the folders tree. If the archive is stored in Acronis Online Backup Storage, click Log in and specify the credentials to log in to the online storage. Then expand the Online backup storage group and select the account. Exporting and mounting are not supported for backups stored in Acronis Online Backup Storage.
6.7.3 Backup selection To specify a backup(s) to export 1. At the top of the window, select the respective check box(es). To ensure that you choose the right backup, click on the backup and look at the bottom table that displays the volumes contained in the selected backup. To obtain information on a volume, right-click it and then select Information. 2. Click OK. 6.7.
To export data to a network share, expand the Network folders group, select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them. Note for Linux users: To specify a Common Internet File System (CIFS) network share which is mounted on a mount point such as /mnt/share, select this mount point instead of the network share itself.
6.7.6 Access credentials for destination Specify credentials required for access to the location where the resulting archive will be stored. The user whose name is specified will be considered as the archive owner. To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: Use the task credentials The program will access the location using the credentials of the task account specified in the General section.
[Optional] Protect the Acronis Secure Zone from unauthorized access with a password. The prompt for the password appear at any operation relating to the zone. After you configure the required settings, click OK. In the Result confirmation (p. 260) window, review the expected layout and click OK to start creating the zone. 6.8.1.1 Acronis Secure Zone Disk The Acronis Secure Zone can be located on any fixed hard drive. Acronis Secure Zone is always created at the end of the hard disk.
6.8.1.4 Result confirmation The Result confirmation window displays the expected partition layout according to the settings you have chosen. Click OK, if you are satisfied with the layout and the Acronis Secure Zone creation will start. How the settings you make will be processed This helps you to understand how creating the Acronis Secure Zone will transform a disk containing multiple volumes. Acronis Secure Zone is always created at the end of the hard disk.
2. Select volumes from which free space will be used to increase the Acronis Secure Zone. 3. Specify the new size of the zone by: dragging the slider and selecting any size between the current and maximum values. The maximum size is equal to the disk’s unallocated space plus the total free space of all selected partitions; typing an exact value in the Acronis Secure Zone Size field. When increasing the size of the zone, the program will act as follows: first, it will use the unallocated space.
Activate Enables the boot time prompt "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager…" (if you do not have the GRUB boot loader) or adds the "Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" item to GRUB's menu (if you have GRUB). If the system fails to boot, you will be able to start the bootable rescue utility, by pressing F11 or by selecting it from the menu, respectively. The system disk (or, the /boot partition in Linux) should have at least 70 MB of free space to activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager.
Linux-based bootable media Linux-based media contains Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Bootable Agent based on Linux kernel. The agent can boot and perform operations on any PC-compatible hardware, including bare metal and machines with corrupted or non-supported file systems. The operations can be configured and controlled either locally or remotely using the management console.
Windows Vista (PE 2.0) Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 (PE 2.1) Windows 7 (PE 3.0) If you already have media with PE1.x distribution, unpack the media ISO to a local folder and start the Bootable Media Builder either from the management console, by selecting Tools > Create Bootable Media or, as a separate component. The wizard will guide you through the necessary operations. Please refer to Adding the Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 1.x (p. 269) for details. To be able to create or modify PE 2.
Universal Restore can be enabled if Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore is installed on the machine where the media is created. 3. [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.
noapic Disables Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC). You may want to use this parameter when experiencing problems with a particular hardware configuration. vga=ask Prompts for the video mode to be used by the bootable media's graphical user interface. Without the vga parameter, the video mode is detected automatically. vga=mode_number Specifies the video mode to be used by the bootable media's graphical user interface.
pci=nobios Disables the use of PCI BIOS; only direct hardware access methods will be allowed. You may want to use this parameter when the bootable media fails to start, which may be caused by the BIOS. pci=biosirq Uses PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt routing table. You may want to use this parameter if the kernel is unable to allocate interrupt requests (IRQs) or discover secondary PCI buses on the motherboard. These calls might not work properly on some machines.
Example The bootable agent could use one of the network adapters for communication with the management console through the production network. Automatic configuration could be done for this connection. Sizeable data for recovery could be transferred through the second NIC, included in the dedicated backup network by means of static TCP/IP settings. Network port While creating bootable media, you have an option to pre-configure the network port that the bootable agent listens for incoming connection.
To remove drivers: 1. Select the INF file. 2. Click Remove. 6.10.1.2 Adding the Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 1.x Acronis Plug-in for WinPE can be added to: Windows PE 2004 (1.5) (Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2) Windows PE 2005 (1.6) (Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1). To add Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 1.x: 1. Unpack all files of your WinPE 1.x ISO to a separate folder on the hard disk. 2.
2. Start the Bootable Media Builder either from the management console, by selecting Tools > Create Bootable Media or, as a separate component. 3. Select Bootable media type: Windows PE. When creating a new PE ISO: Select Create Windows PE 2.x or 3.0 automatically Select Use WinPE files located in the folder I specify The software runs the appropriate script and proceeds to the next window. When adding the plug-in to the existing PE ISO: 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
5. Run the following command: export_license.bat 6. Copy the contents of the current folder—by default: C:\Program Files\Acronis\Bootable Components\WinPE—to the %BartPE folder%\plugins\Acronis. 7. Insert your Windows distribution CD if you do not have a copy of Windows installation files on the HDD. 8. Start the Bart PE builder. 9. Specify the path to the Windows installation files or Windows distribution CD. 10. Click Plugins and check whether the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 plug-in is enabled.
5. There is no Navigation tree in the media GUI. Use the Navigation menu item to navigate between views. 6. Backup to Acronis Secure Zone is not possible. 7. Tasks cannot be scheduled; in fact, tasks are not created at all. If you need to repeat the operation, configure it from scratch. 8. The log lifetime is limited to the current session. You can save the entire log or the filtered log entries to a file. 9. Centralized vaults are not displayed in the folder tree of the Archive window.
7. If prompted, specify the user name and password to access the iSCSI device. To add an NDAS device 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. In a Linux-based bootable media, run the management console. Click Configure iSCSI/NDAS devices. In NDAS devices, click Add device. Specify the 20-character device ID. If you want to allow writing data onto the device, specify the five-character write key. Without this key, the device will be available in the read-only mode. 6. Click OK. 6.10.
echo mknod swapon egrep mkswap sysinfo fdisk more tar fsck mount tune2fs fxload mtx udev gawk mv udevinfo gpm pccardctl udevstart grep ping umount growisofs pktsetup uuidgen grub poweroff vconfig gunzip ps vi halt raidautorun zcat hexdump readcd hotplug reboot 6.10.
To create the volume structure by using the management console 1. Boot the machine from a Linux-based bootable media. 2. Click Acronis Bootable Agent. Then, click Run management console. 3. In the management console, click Recover. Under the archive contents, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 will display a message saying that it detected information about the volume structure. 4. Click Details in the area with that message. 5. Review the volume structure, and then click Apply RAID/LVM to create it.
7. Return to the management console by pressing CTRL+ALT+F1, or by running the command: /bin/product (Do not reboot the machine at this point. Otherwise, you will have to create the volume structure again.) 8. Click Recover, then specify the path to the archive and any other required parameters, and then click OK. Note: This procedure does not work when connected to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Bootable Agent remotely, because the command shell is not available in this case.
lvm pvcreate /dev/md0 /dev/md1 lvm vgcreate my_volgroup /dev/md0 /dev/md1 lvm vgdisplay The output of the lvm vgdisplay command will contain lines similar to the following: --- 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.
Num Idx Partition Flags Start Size ---- --- --------- ----- ----- --------Disk 1: Table 0 Disk 2: Table 0 ... Dynamic & GPT Volumes: DYN1 4 my_volgroup-my_logvol 12533760 Type -----Table Table Ext2 You will need the volume's index, given in the Idx column, in the next step. 2. Use the --mount command, specifying the volume's index in the -i parameter. For example: trueimagemnt --mount /mnt --filename smb://server/backups/linux_machine.
6.10.6.2 Setting up a machine to boot from PXE For bare metal, it is enough that the machine’s BIOS supports network booting. 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.
6.11 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 & Recovery 10 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.
Running Acronis Disk Director Lite from a bootable media You can run Acronis Disk Director Lite on a bare metal, on a machine that cannot boot or on a nonWindows machine. To do so, boot the machine from a bootable media (p. 401) created with the Acronis Bootable Media Builder; run the management console and then click Disk Management. 6.11.
Displaying operation results The results of any disk or volume operation, you have just planned, are immediately displayed in the Disk management view of the console. For example, if you create a volume, it will be immediately shown in the table, as well as in graphical form at the bottom of the view. Any volume changes, including changing the volume letter or label, are also immediately displayed in the view. 6.11.
If you decide to change the disk settings it can be done later using the standard Acronis Disk Director Lite disk tools. 6.11.5.2 Basic disk cloning Sometimes it is necessary to transfer all the disk data onto a new disk. It can be a case of expanding the system volume, starting a new system layout or disk evacuation due to a hardware fault. In any case, the reason for the Clone basic disk operation can be summed up as the necessity to transfer all the source disk data to a target disk exactly as it is.
data loss , then the user will be allowed to proceed. If due to the size limitations safe transfer of all the source disk data to the target disk is impossible even with the proportional resizing of the volumes, then the Clone basic disk operation will be impossible and the user will not be able to continue. If you are about to clone a disk comprising of a system volume, pay attention to the Advanced options. By clicking Finish, you'll add the pending operation of the disk cloning.
5. Wait until the task is finished. 6.11.5.3 Disk conversion: MBR to GPT You would want to convert an MBR basic disk to a GPT basic disk in the following cases: If you need more than 4 primary volumes on one disk. If you need additional disk reliability against any possible data damage. If you need to convert a basic MBR disk to basic GPT: 1. Select a basic MBR disk to convert to GPT. 2. Right-click on the selected volume, and then click Convert to GPT in the context menu.
Please note, a volume, belonging to a GPT disk to convert, will be a logical one after the operation and is irreversible. 3. By clicking OK, you'll add a pending operation of GPT to MBR disk conversion. (To finish the added operation you will have to commit (p. 294) it. Exiting the program without committing the pending operations will effectively cancel them.) 6.11.5.
You will be advised about the changes that will happen to the system if the chosen disk is converted from dynamic into basic. E.g.
the following Microsoft knowledge base article: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc732026.aspx. 6.11.6 Volume operations Acronis Disk Director Lite includes the following operations that can be performed on volumes: Create Volume (p. 288) - Creates a new volume with the help of the Create Volume Wizard. Change Letter (p. 293) - Changes the selected volume letter Delete Volume (p. 292) - Deletes the selected volume. Set Active (p.
A volume, also sometimes called RAID 0, consisting of equal sized stripes of data, written across each disk in the volume; it means that to create a striped volume, a user will need two or more dynamic disks. The disks in a striped volume don’t have to be identical, but there must be unused space available on each disk that you want to include in the volume and the size of the volume will depend on the size of the smallest space.
Striped Mirrored RAID-5 You will obtain a brief description of every type of volume for better understanding of the advantages and limitations of each possible volume architecture. If the current operating system, installed on this machine, does not support the selected type of volume , you will receive the appropriate warning. In this case the Next button will be disabled and you will have to select another type of volume to proceed with the new volume creation.
minimum and the maximum values or click on the special handle, and hold and drag the borders of the disk's picture with the cursor. The maximum value normally includes the most possible unallocated space. But in some cases the possible unallocated space and the proposed maximum volume size might differ (e.g. when the size of one mirror establishes the size of the other mirror, or the last 8Mb of the disk space is reserved for the future conversion of the disk from basic to dynamic).
6.11.6.2 Delete volume This version of Acronis Disk Director Lite has reduced functionality because it is mainly a tool for preparing bare-metal systems for recovering previously saved volume images.
6.11.6.4 Change volume letter Windows operating systems assign letters (C:, D:, etc) to hard disk volumes at startup. These letters are used by applications and operating systems to locate files and folders in the volumes. Connecting an additional disk, as well as creating or deleting a volume on existing disks, might change your system configuration. As a result, some applications might stop working normally or user files might not be automatically found and opened.
to save additional space which is being lost due to the cluster size on the FAT16 or FAT32 file systems as a quick and more or less reliable way of destroying data, residing in this volume If you want to format a volume: 1. Select a volume to format. 2. Right-click on the selected volume, and then click Format in the context menu. You will be forwarded to the Format Volume window, where you will be able to set the new file system options.
Quitting Acronis Disk Director Lite without committing the pending operations effectively cancels them, so if you try to exit Disk management without committing the pending operations, you will receive the appropriate warning. 6.12 Collecting system information The system information collection tool gathers information about the machine to which the management console is connected, and saves it to a file. You may want to provide this file when contacting Acronis technical support.
7 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 advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. 7.1 Administering Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 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. 7.1.
Vaults with low free space: X View vaults The alert is displayed if at least one centralized vault has less than 10% free space. View vaults will take you to the Centralized vaults (p. 132) view where you can examine the vault size, free space, content and take the necessary steps to increase the free space. Bootable media was not created Create now To be able to recover an operating system when the machine fails to boot, you must: 1.
Statistics for the selected date are displayed to the right of the chart. All the statistics fields are interactive, i.e. if you click any field, the Log view will be opened with the log entries pre-filtered by this field. At the top of the chart, you can select the activities to display depending on the presence and severity of the errors. The Select current date link focuses selection to the current date.
7.1.2.1 Backup policy deployment states A backup policy deployment state is a combination of the policy deployment states on all machines the policy is applied to. For example, if the policy is applied to three machines and has the "Deploying" state on the 1st machine, the "Updating" state on the 2nd machine and the "Deployed" state on the 3rd machine, the state of the policy will be "Deploying, Updating, Deployed.
In the Log view, apply the Error filter if there are too many log entries. You can also sort the "error" entries by backup plans, managed entities or machines. 2. Once the reason of the failure is clear, do one or more of the following: Remove the reason of the failure. After that, you may want to start the failed task manually to maintain the backup scheme consistency, for example, if the policy uses the GFS or Tower of Hanoi backup scheme. Edit the backup policy to prevent future failure.
Edit a policy Click Edit. Editing policies is performed in the same way as creating (p. 357). Once the policy is edited, the management server updates the policy on all machines the policy was deployed to. Delete a policy Click Delete. As a result, the policy will be revoked from the machines it was deployed to and deleted from the management server. If the machine is currently offline, the policy will be revoked when the machine comes online again.
To Do Sort backup policies by any column Click the column's header to sort the backup policies in ascending order. Filter backup policies by name/owner Type a policy's name / owner's name in the fields below the corresponding column's header. Click it once again to sort the backup policies in descending order. As a result you will see the list of the backup policies, whose names (or their owners' names) fully or just partly coincide with the entered value.
Actions To Do View details of the machine (group). Click View tasks of the machine (group). Click View log of the machine (group) Click Revoke policy from the machine (group). Click 7.1.3 View details. In the Machine details (p. 310)/Group details (p. 319) window, examine all information on the selected machine (or the selected group). View tasks. The Tasks (p. 329) view will display a list of the tasks, pre-filtered by the selected machine (group). View log. The Log (p.
Static groups Static groups contain machines manually added to the group by the administrator. A static member remains in the group until the administrator removes the member from the group or deletes the corresponding managed machine from the management server. Dynamic groups Dynamic groups contain machines added automatically according to the criteria specified by the administrator.
In the Add machine (p. 307) window, select the machine that needs to be added to the management server. Import machines from Active Click Import machines from Active Directory. Directory In the Import machines from Active Directory (p. 307) window, specify the machines or organizational units whose machines you need to import to the management server. Import machines from a text Click Import machines from file. file In the Import machines from file (p. 309) window, browse for a .txt or .
Remove a machine from the Click Remove from group. current static group The backup policies applied to the group will be revoked from the machine automatically. Deleting the selected machine from the management server To Do Delete a machine from the management server Click Delete machine from AMS. As a result, backup policies are revoked and shortcuts to centralized vaults are deleted from the machine.
Adding a machine to the management server To be able to deploy backup policies from Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server to a managed machine and perform other centralized management operations, you need to register the machine on the management server. To add a machine 1. In the Navigation tree, select Physical machines. 2. Click Add a machine to AMS on the toolbar. 3. In the IP/Name field, enter the machine's name or its IP address, or click Browse... and browse the network for the machine.
If more than 1000 matches are found, only the first 1000 items will be displayed. In this case, it is recommended that you refine your search and try again. The right part of the window displays the items you selected for import. If required, remove the erroneously selected items by using the respective Remove and Remove all buttons. 4. Click OK to start import.
Synchronization command line tool Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server has a command line tool that enables you to create a batch file and schedule the synchronization task using Windows scheduler. To synchronize machines with a text file using command line 1. Log on as a member of the Acronis Centralized Admins security group. 2.
Moving a machine to another group To move the selected machine to another group 1. In the group tree, select the group the machine will be moved to. 2. Click OK. The machine being moved leaves one group and becomes a member of another group. As a result, the backup policies applied to the first group will be revoked from the machine, and the backup policies applied to the second group will be deployed to the machine. Adding machines to a group To add machines to the selected group 1. 2. 3. 4.
Unknown - this status is displayed until the first connection between the management server and the machine is established after adding the machine or starting the management server's service. Withdrawn - the machine was registered on another management server, or the Standalone management parameter is selected in the Options > Machine options > Machine management (p. 95). As a result, it is not possible to control the machine from the current management server.
Plans and tasks Displays a list of the plans (both local and centralized) and tasks existing on the selected machine. Operations The following is a guideline for you to perform operations with backup plans and tasks. To Do View details of a plan/task Backup plan Click View details. In the Plan Details (p. 196) window, review the plan details. Task Click View details. In the Task Details (p. 194) window, review the task details. View plan's/task's log Backup plan Click View log.
recovery task (from the disk backup): The target volume will be deleted and its space unallocated – you will get the same result if the recovery is unsuccessful. To recover the "lost" volume, you will have to run the task once again. recovery task (from the file backup): The aborted operation may cause changes in the destination folder. Some files may be recovered, but some not, depending when you stopped the task. To recover all the files, you will have to run the task once again.
Delete a plan/task Backup plan Click Delete. What will happen if I delete the backup plan? The plan's deletion deletes all its tasks. Why can't I delete the backup plan? The backup plan is in the "Running" state A backup plan cannot be deleted, if at least one of its tasks is running. The backup plan has a centralized origin. A centralized plan can be deleted by the management server administrator by revoking the backup policy that produced the plan. Task Click Delete.
This opens Log view with pre-filtered log entries of the selected group. Remove machine from a group. Click Remove. The centralized plans, which were deployed to the parent group, will no longer affect this machine. Hosted virtual machines The tab displays a list of the machines hosted on the selected virtualization server or managed by the specified virtual appliance. You can create a dynamic group based on the list of the hosted virtual machines. To do this, click Create a dynamic group.
To show or hide columns 1. Right-click any column header to open the context menu. The menu items that are ticked off correspond to the column headers presented in the table. 2. Click the items you want to be displayed/hidden. 7.1.3.2 Actions on groups Actions are available when you select the then click on a group. Physical machines view in the Navigation tree, and The following is a guideline for you to perform actions on selected groups.
Refresh a list of groups Click Refresh. 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.
IP range: 192.168.17.0 - 192.168.17.55 will add to the same group all the machines whose operating system is Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 and belong to the SERVERS organizational unit and whose IP addresses are within the range 192.168.17.0 - 192.168.17.55. How long does a dynamic group member remain in the group? A dynamic group member remains in the group as long as the member meets the criteria.
when the machine was initially added to the management server. Otherwise, the machine will not be added to the group. The registration address of each machine can be found in the Registration address column in any management server view that contains the machine (the column is hidden by default). Move one group to another To move the selected group to another group or to the root 1. In the groups tree, click the group to move the selected group to.
To Do View details of a policy Click View details. In the Policy details (p. 302) window, examine all information related to the selected backup policy. View tasks of a policy Click View tasks. The Tasks (p. 329) view will display a list of the tasks related to the selected backup policy. View log of a policy Click View log. The Log (p. 331) view will display a list of the log entries related to the selected backup policy. Revoke a policy from the group.
Adding a virtual machine as a physical machine Install Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux on the virtual machine and register (p. 307) it on the management server. The machine will be treated as a physical one. You will be able to apply any backup policy to the machine, including policies that back up files.
7.1.4.1 Virtual machines on a management server Availability of virtual machines Virtual machines are displayed as available when both the agent is available for the management server and the machines are available for the agent. The list of virtual machines is refreshed dynamically every time the management server synchronizes with the agents. When the virtualization server or the virtual appliance becomes unavailable or is withdrawn, the virtual machines are grayed out.
7.1.4.2 VMware vCenter integration If you are using VMware vSphere, it is recommended that you integrate the management server with your vCenter Server. To integrate the management server with a VMware vCenter Server: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
For a vCenter Server, a list of ESX/ESXi hosts and clusters obtained from the vCenter Server will be displayed. Select the hosts and clusters to deploy the agent to, or check the Select all check box. In a vCenter cluster, a single Agent for ESX/ESXi backs up virtual machines hosted on all the cluster’s hosts. For more information, please see "Support for vCenter clusters (p. 325)". You can add a single host to the list by specifying its IP address or name.
To be able to deduplicate backups, an agent needs a separately sold license for deduplication. If you have imported such licenses into the license server, you can select the Enable deduplication... check box to let the agents acquire these licenses. When installing the product for online backup only, select Online backup only (license key is not required). This option presumes that you have or will obtain a subscription to the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Online service by the time of the first backup. 6.
Creating a cluster of servers that already have agents It is recommended that you remove Agents for ESX/ESXi from all but one of the servers. Retain the agent whose VA resides on the shared storage. Restart the VA so that it becomes aware of the cluster. 7.1.5 Storage nodes Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node helps you to optimize usage of various resources required for the enterprise data protection. This goal is achieved through organizing managed vaults (p.
7.1.5.1 Actions on storage nodes All the operations described here, are performed by clicking the corresponding buttons on the toolbar. The operations can be also accessed from the Storage nodes bar (on the Actions and tools pane) and from the Storage nodes item of the main menu. To perform an operation with a storage node added to the management server, first select the storage node. The following is a guideline for you to perform operations with storage nodes.
storage nodes The management console will update the list of storage nodes from the management server with the most recent information. Though the list of storage nodes 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. Adding a storage node To add a storage node 1.
Archives - the total number of archives stored in all the vaults managed by the storage node Backups - the total number of backups stored within the archives in all the vaults managed by the storage node. Vaults This tab displays a list of the vaults, managed by the storage node. To open a managed vault for detailed examination and to perform operations on it, select the vault, then click View vault (on the tab's toolbar). In the Centralized vault (p. 131) view, perform the required actions.
View a task's log Click View log. The Log (p. 331) view will display a list of the log entries related to the selected task. Run a task Click Run. The task will be executed immediately in spite of its schedule. Stop a task Click Stop. What will happen if I stop the task? Generally, stopping the task aborts its operation (backup, recovery, validation, exporting, conversion, migration). The task enters the Stopping state first, then becomes Idle. The task schedule, if created, remains valid.
Refresh tasks table Click Refresh. The management console will update the list of tasks existing on the machines with the most recent information. Though the list of tasks is refreshed automatically based on events, the data may not be retrieved immediately from the managed machine due to some latency. Manual refresh guarantees that the most recent data is displayed. 7.1.6.2 Filtering and sorting tasks The following is a guideline for you to filter and sort tasks.
personal vaults, executing a recovery task, will generate events logged in the local event log. Physically, a local event log is a collection of XML files stored on the machine. The managed machine local event log is accessible when the console is connected to the machine. Local event logging cannot be disabled. Operations performed using bootable media are logged as well, but the log’s lifetime is limited to a current session.
To Do Select a single log entry Click on it. Select multiple log entries non-contiguous: hold down CTRL and click the log entries one by one contiguous: select a single log entry, then hold down SHIFT and click another entry. All the entries between the first and last selections will be selected too. View a log entry’s details 1. Select a log entry. 2. Do one of the following Click View Details. The log entry's details will be displayed in a separate window.
Filter log entries by the original backup plan or managed entity type Under the Backup plan (or Managed entity type) column header, select the backup plan or the type of managed entity from the list. Filter log entries by task, Type the required value (task name, machine name, owner name, etc.) in the field below managed entity, the respective column header. machine, code, owner As a result you will see that the list of log entries fully or just partly coincide with the entered value.
---------------------------Log Entry Details--------------------------Type: Information Date and time: DD.MM.YYYY HH:MM:SS Backup plan: Backup plan name Task: Task name Managed entity type: Machine Managed entity: ENTITY_NAME Machine: MACHINE_NAME Message: Description of the operation Code: 12(3x45678A) Module: Module name Owner: Owner of the plan ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.1.
the tables. You can export the report to an XML file and open it later using Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access. 7.1.8.1 Report about the machines In this view, you can generate a report about the machines that are registered on the management server. This report consists of one or more tables. Filters Under Filters, choose which machines to include in the report. Only the machines that meet all filter criteria are included. Machines: The list of machines.
Schedule: The types of the backup policies' schedules—Manual and/or Scheduled. Manual schedule means that the corresponding centralized backup plan runs only when you start it manually. Owner: The list of users who created the backup policies. With the default filter settings, the report includes all backup policies. Report view Under Report view, choose how the report will look: Select whether to show all items in a single table or to group them by a particular column.
Filters Under Filters, choose which tasks to include in the report. Only the tasks that meet all filter criteria are included. Origin: The types of origin of the tasks—Centralized, Local, and/or Local without backup plan. A centralized task belongs to a centralized backup plan. A local task might not belong to a backup plan (for example, a recovery task). Backup policies (centralized tasks only): The backup policies on which the tasks are based.
Report view Under Report view, choose how the report will look: Select whether to show all items in a single table or to group them by a particular column. Specify which table columns to show, and in which order. Specify how to sort the table. 7.1.8.6 Report about the vaults' statistics In this view, you can generate a report about the use of the centralized managed vaults that are currently added to the management server. This report consists of one or more tables and diagrams.
Backup policies (centralized tasks only): The backup policies on which the tasks are based. The default setting means all backup policies that ever existed during the report period. Machines: The list of machines on which the tasks exist. Type: The task types—for example, disk backup tasks. Owner: The list of users who created the tasks. With the default filter settings, the report includes all tasks that existed on the registered machines any time during the report period. 7.1.8.
By using the graphical user interface (GUI) By modifying the Windows registry In Linux, instead of using the administrative template and modifying the registry, parameters are configured by editing the corresponding configuration files.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374177.aspx 7.2.1.2 Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node The following are the parameters of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node that can be set by using Acronis Administrative Template. Client Connection Limit Description: Specifies the maximum number of simultaneous connections to the storage node by the agents that perform backup or recovery.
In this case, the component's connection to the storage node will fail. If the component is an Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent, the corresponding backup or recovery task will stop with the Failed status. Vault Warnings and Limits Specifies the amount of free space in a vault (both as an absolute value and as a percentage) below which a warning or error is recorded in the log.
When the amount of free space in a vault is equal to the value in Vault Free Space Error Limit or less, an error is recorded in the storage node's log. Backups performed to the vault will keep failing until the vault's free space is above the limit. Vault Database Free Space Warning Limit Description: Specifies the amount of free space, in megabytes, on the volume containing a managed vault's database, below which a warning is recorded in the storage node's log.
Possible values: 0 (Internal event), 1 (Debugging information), 2 (Information), 3 (Warning), 4 (Error), or 5 (Critical error) Default value: 0 (all entries will be collected) Log Cleanup Rules Specifies how to clean up the centralized event log stored in the management server's reporting database. This parameter has the following settings: Max Size Description: Specifies the maximum size of the centralized event log, in kilobytes.
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.
Each worker performs synchronization for exactly one machine at a time. A connected machine to be synchronized waits for an available worker. For this reason, the actual number of workers will never exceed the maximum number of connections (see Maximum Connections described previously).
When connecting to a registered machine, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server first uses the machine's network name—provided that the machine was added to the management server by name. If Second Connection Attempt is set to True and a connection to the machine by using its network name has failed, the management server performs a second connection attempt, this time using the latest IP address which was associated with that network name.
Snapshot Storage Absolute Size Description: Specifies the initial size of the snapshot storage, in megabytes. Possible values: Any integer number between 0 and 2147483647 Default value: 0 If this setting is 0, the management server uses the Snapshot Storage Relative Size setting. The initial size will not exceed the available space minus 50 MB. Snapshot Storage Relative Size This setting is effective only when the Snapshot Storage Absolute Size setting is 0.
If Acronis License Server is unavailable, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 will continue working with full functionality for the number of days specified in Maximum Time Without License Server, as counted from the moment of installation or from the last successful check. License Server Connection Retry Interval (in hours) Description: Specifies the interval, in hours, between connection attempts when Acronis License Server is unavailable.
Default value: 4 (only errors and critical errors will be recorded—if Trace State is set to True) SNMP Specifies the types of the agent's events to send notifications about by means of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). This parameter has the following settings: Trace State Description: Specifies whether to send the SNMP notifications.
You can specify a local folder on any volume, including a volume you are backing up. Snapshot Storage Absolute Size Description: Specifies the initial size of the snapshot storage, in megabytes. Possible values: Any integer number between 0 and 2147483647 Default value: 0 If this setting is 0, the management server uses the Snapshot Storage Relative Size setting. The initial size will not exceed the available space minus 50 MB.
The component will use the default settings, which is to use encryption if possible and to trust self-signed SSL certificates (see the following option). Enabled Encryption is enabled. In Encryption, select one of the following: Enabled Data transfer will be encrypted if encryption is enabled on the server application, otherwise it will be unencrypted. Disabled Encryption is disabled; any connection to a server application which requires encryption will not be established.
Disabled Encryption is disabled; any connection to a client application which requires encryption will not be established. Required Data transfer will be performed only if encryption is enabled on the client application (see "Client Encryption options"); it will be encrypted. Authentication parameters In Use Agent Certificate Authentication, select one of the following: Do not use The use of SSL certificates is disabled.
File Trace Minimal Level Description: Specifies the minimum severity level of events to be recorded in the file. Only events of levels greater than or equal to File Trace Minimal Level will be recorded.
7.2.3 Parameters set through Windows registry The following are the parameters of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node that can be set only by editing the registry. Parameter related to deduplication CompactingTriggerThreshold Description: Specifies the percentage of used items in the data stores below which compacting occurs.
Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\ASN\Configuration\StorageNode\DatabasePath TapesDatabasePath Description: Specifies the folder where Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node stores its tape vaults database. This database contains a list of tape vaults that are managed by the storage node. Its size depends on the number of archives stored in the tape libraries, and approximately equals 10 MB per hundred archives.
Exclusions (p. 365) [Optional] Set up exclusions for the specific types of files you do not wish to back up. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box. Where to back up Archive (p. 366) Specify the path to the location, where the backup archive will be stored, and the archive name. It is advisable that the archive name be unique within the location. The location must be available at the time when the management server starts to deploy the policy. Access credentials (p.
By setting up regular conversion, you obtain a copy of your server or workstation on a virtual machine which can be readily powered on in case the original machine fails. The conversion can be performed by any machine that is registered on the management server and has Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent with the corresponding functionality. The archive has to be stored in a shared location, such as a network folder or a managed vault, so that the selected machine can access the archive. When to convert (p.
2. Click OK. To learn more about Acronis service credentials, see the Rights for Acronis services (p. 81) section. To learn more about operations available depending on the user privileges, see the User privileges on a managed machine (p. 31) section. 7.3.2 Items to back up Specify selection rules for backing up items, selected in the Source type field of the General section. Volumes to back up selection rules (p. 360) Files to back up selection rules (p. 363) 7.3.2.
Boot volume Type or select: [BOOT] Refers to the registered machine's boot volume. The boot volume contains the Windows folder and the supporting files for the Windows operating system (typically located in the Windows\System32 folder). It may or may not be the same as the system volume. If multiple operating systems are installed on the computer, this is the boot volume of the operating system in which the agent is working. For more details, see "Note on Windows machines" below.
Linux A volume backup stores all files and folders of the selected volume independent of their attributes, a boot record and the file system super block. A disk backup stores all disk volumes as well as the zero track with the master boot record. Volumes with unsupported file systems will be backed up sector-by-sector.
In general, the standard name for a Linux partition consists of three components: Disk type; hd for IDE drives, sd for SCSI drives, md for software RAID drives (for example, dynamic volumes); Disk number; a for the first disk, b for the second disk, etc.; Partition number on the disk; 1 for the first partition, 2 for the second partition, etc.
Windows Full path Point to the folders and files to be backed up. If you specified a path to a file or folder explicitly, the policy will back up this item on each machine where this exact path will be found. To include In the Files and folders column, type or select: File Text.doc in folder D:\Work D:\Work\Text.doc Folder C:\Windows C:\Windows Environment variables Some environment variables point to Windows folders.
Linux To include In the Files and folders column, type or select: Text file file.txt on the volume /dev/hda3 mounted on /home/usr/docs /dev/hda3/file.txt Home directory of the common users /home The root user's home directory /root Directory for all userrelated programs /usr Directory for system configuration files /etc 7.3.3 or /home/usr/docs/file.txt Access credentials for source Specify credentials required for access to the data you are going to back up. To specify credentials 1.
Exclude all system files and folders This option is effective only for file systems that are supported by Windows. Select this check box to skip files and folders with the System attribute. If a folder is System, all of its contents — including files that are not System — will be excluded. You can view file or folder attributes in the file/folder properties or by using the attrib command. For more information, refer to the Help and Support Center in Windows.
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 Online Backup Storage, click Log in and specify the credentials to log in to the online storage. Then, expand the Online backup storage group and select the account. Prior to backing up to the online storage, you need to buy a subscription (p. 391) to the online backup service and activate (p.
FINDEPT2_SYSTEM_BACKUP_Archive1 FINDEPT3_SYSTEM_BACKUP_Archive1 2. Click OK. The name looks like ArchiveN, where N is a sequence number. If the program finds that the archive Archive1 is already stored in the location, it will automatically suggest the name Archive2. 7.3.6 Access credentials for location Specify credentials required for access to the location where the backup archive will be stored. The user name of these credentials will be considered as the archive owner. To specify credentials 1.
backup levels, you automatically obtain the rollback period – the guaranteed number of sessions that you can go back at any time. The automatic cleanup mechanism maintains the required rollback period by deleting the expired backups and keeping the most recent backups of each level.
Custom retention periods for backups of each type Description Let us suppose that we want to set up a backup plan that will regularly produce a series of daily (D), weekly (W), and monthly (M) backups. Here is a natural way to do this: the following table shows a sample two-month period for such a plan.
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.
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.
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.
Recur: Every 1 day Frequency: Once at 6 PM Number of levels: 4 This is how the first 14 days (or 14 sessions) of this scheme's schedule look. Shaded numbers denote backup levels. 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 new level 3 differential backup has not yet been created, so the backup of day five is still stored. Since it depends on the full backup of day one, that backup is available as well. This enables us to go as far back as 11 days, which is the best-case scenario. The following day, however, a new third-level differential backup is created, and the old full backup is deleted.
The archive will be cleaned up only during backup and only if there is not enough space to create a new backup.
Retention rules: Delete backups older than 12 months Apply the rules: After backing up By default, a one-year-old full backup will not be deleted until all incremental backups that depend on it become subject to deletion too. For more information, see Retention rules (p. 41). Monthly full, weekly differential, and daily incremental backups plus cleanup This example demonstrates the use of all options available in the Custom scheme.
In the first of the previous examples, we set up a schedule only for full backups. However, the scheme will still result in three backup tasks, enabling you to manually start a backup of any type: Full backup, runs every Friday at 10:00 PM Incremental backup, runs manually Differential backup, runs manually You can run any of these backup tasks by selecting it from the list of tasks in the Backup plans and tasks section in the left pane.
8 Online backup This section provides details about using the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Online service. This service enables you to do online backups to Acronis Online Backup Storage. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Online might be unavailable in your region. To find more information, click here: http://www.acronis.
8.1.2 What data can I back up and recover? You can back up files, volumes, disks, or the entire physical machine as often as you wish. Unlike most online backup solutions, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Online enables bare metal recovery directly from the online storage. Files can be recovered from disk-level backups as well as from filelevel backups. For information about backing up virtual machines see "How to back up virtual machines to the online storage? (p. 380)" 8.1.
Host-based backup is available only for paid licenses of VMware ESXi. Choose the below approach if your ESXi Server uses a free license. Install Acronis software into the guest system The machine will be treated as a physical one. You will need a separate server or workstation subscription for this machine.
8.1.6.4 What if a network connection is lost during online backup or recovery? The software will try to reach the online storage every 30 seconds. After five unsuccessful attempts the backup or recovery task will fail. You can change the number of attempts and the interval between the attempts in the Error handling > Re-attempt, if an error occurs option. Every backup plan or recovery task includes this option. 8.1.6.
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. 387) option. 8.1.7.2 Why would I want to use Initial Seeding? This service helps you save time and network traffic during the initial full backup. It is useful when backing up very large volumes of data or entire machines to the online storage. 8.1.7.
8.1.7.8 How to perform initial seeding? 1. Decide on the media (p. 383) that you will send. 2. Attach the media to the machine you are going to back up. Alternatively, you can back up to a local or network folder and then copy/move the backup to the media. 3. Start Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, click Back up and create a backup plan on this machine: 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. In Where to back up, specify Online Backup Storage.
Step 1 Delicately remove your hard disk drive from the machine. Step 2 Place the hard drive into an anti-static bag to protect the drive from electrostatic discharge. If you do not have an anti-static bag, simply wrap the hard drive into aluminum foil. Step 3 Use a sturdy box that is at least twice the size of the drive. Pack the drive with a bubble wrap around all 6 sides so it can fit tight into the box and cannot be moved within.
Step 4 Choose the transport company that you will use for shipping. On this company's web site, 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 Show data center address.
An order was created – The first backup is about to start and the license cannot be used for any other machine. From this point on, you can cancel the order if something goes wrong. This will return the license to the pool of available licenses. A full backup has started – This status is set when the first backup starts. The order start time occurs at this moment. A full backup has been successfully completed – The backup has been completed and the order is ready to ship.
Once you order Large Scale Recovery for a particular machine, Acronis sends you a USB hard disk drive with all of the backups made from this machine. You can recover data directly from the disk or copy the backups to a local or network folder. 8.1.8.2 Why would I use Large Scale Recovery? In the event of a disaster or the need to recover large volumes of data or the entire machines quickly, this service helps you save time and network traffic.
can cancel the order if something goes wrong. This will return the license to the pool of available licenses. The order is being processed - Order processing in the datacenter started. Writing data has been completed – Your backups have been successfully written to the media. [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.
If you purchased your subscriptions online using the Acronis Web site, they are available immediately on your account management Web page. The newly obtained subscriptions are listed at the Manage Subscriptions tab. 8.1.9.3 When does my subscription begin? Your subscription begins when you choose to have it begin, not at the time of purchase. The time count will begin as soon as the subscription is activated. The first activation occurs when you assign a subscription to a certain machine.
What does "Auto-renew" mean? Auto-renewal means that when the current subscription expires, the next subscription will be automatically selected from the available subscriptions. The next subscription must be identical to the current subscription. If an identical subscription is not found, auto-renewal will not take place and your backups may fail. No subscriptions will be bought automatically. Only those subscriptions available at the time of autorenewal can be used.
Windows Server 2008 R2 - the Standard, Enterprise, Small Business Server, Datacenter, Foundation editions Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 Workstation operating systems supported by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Online: Windows 2000 Professional SP4 Windows XP Professional SP2+ (x86, x64) Windows Vista - all editions except for Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium (x86, x64) Windows 7 - all editions except for the Starter and Home editions (x86, x64) Virtualization products supported by A
As soon as a subscription is activated, its subscription period starts. To avoid losing subscription time, activate the subscription only when you are ready to back up the machine. If a machine already has a subscription, the new subscription will replace the old one. You can reassign the old subscription to a different machine—see “Reassigning an activated subscription” later in this section. 8.4.
Depending on your settings, this backup will be either full or incremental. But its size is not likely to be less than a full backup size. Therefore, it is not practical to reassign a subscription to a machine whose first backup was done as an initial seeding. You will need to either redo the initial seeding (which requires a new license) or to transfer the sizeable backup over the Internet. All earlier created backups remain intact. You can delete them manually if necessary.
To configure proxy settings for an agent 1. 2. 3. 4. Connect the console to the machine for which you want to configure proxy settings. In the Options menu, located on the toolbar, click Machine options. Click Online backup proxy. Enter the proxy server settings. For detailed information (p. 98) about the settings please refer to the context-sensitive help. 5. Repeat steps 2–5 for all machines that connect to the Internet through a proxy server. To configure proxy settings for the management server 1. 2.
Dual destination (p. 116) By using the Backup performance > Network connection speed option, you can vary the transferring speed as kilobytes per second, but not as a percentage. Command-line mode Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 command-line utilities do not support online backup. 8.7 Terminology reference The following is the list of terms related to the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Online service. Activate a subscription Allow the machine to use the online storage according to the subscription.
Reassign a subscription Assign a subscription that is already activated, to a different machine. Registration code A character string for registering a subscription or license that was bought from an Acronis partner. When you purchase such subscriptions or licenses, you receive a confirmation e-mail containing the registration codes for each of them. You then enter the registration codes on the account management Web page, and these subscriptions and licenses become available for use.
9 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. 404) 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.
Limitation: requires re-activation of loaders other than Windows loaders and GRUB. Agent (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent) An application that performs data backup and recovery and enables other management operations on the machine (p. 407), such as task management and operations with hard disks. The type of data that can be backed up depends on the agent type.
Backup options Configuration parameters of a backup operation (p. 399), 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. 400). 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] the archive validation rules (p. 411) where to store the backup archive (p.
4. On each machine, the agent (p. 399) installed on the machine finds data items using the selection rules. For example, if the selection rule is [All volumes], the entire machine will be backed up. 5. On each machine, the agent installed on the machine creates a backup plan (p. 400) using other rules specified by the policy. Such backup plan is called a centralized plan (p. 402). 6. On each machine, the agent installed on the machine creates a set of centralized tasks (p. 402) that will carry out the plan.
Built-in groups cannot be deleted, moved to other groups or manually modified. Custom groups cannot be created within built-in groups. There is no way to remove a physical machine from the built-in group except for removing the machine from the management server. Virtual machines are removed as a result of their host server removal. A backup policy (p. 400) can be applied to a built-in group. C Centralized backup plan A backup plan (p. 400) that appears on the managed machine (p.
Cleanup Deleting backups (p. 399) from a backup archive (p. 399) in order to get rid of outdated backups or prevent the archive from exceeding the desired size. Cleanup consists in applying to an archive the retention rules set by the backup plan (p. 400) that produces the archive. This operation checks if the archive has exceeded its maximum size and/or for expired backups. This may or may not result in deleting backups depending on whether the retention rules are violated or not.
Direct management Any management operation that is performed on a managed machine (p. 407) using the direct console (p. 403)-agent (p. 399) connection (as opposed to centralized management (p. 402) when the operations are configured on the management server (p. 408) and propagated by the server to the managed machines). The direct management operations include: creating and managing local backup plans (p.
222189 Description of Disk Groups in Windows Disk Management http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222189/EN-US/ Dynamic disk A hard disk managed by Logical Disk Manager (LDM) that is available in Windows starting with Windows 2000. LDM helps flexibly allocate volumes on a storage device for better fault tolerance, better performance or larger volume size. A dynamic disk can use either the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style.
the administrator changes the criteria so that the machine does not meet them anymore. There is no way to remove a machine from a dynamic group manually except for deleting the machine from the management server. Dynamic volume Any volume located on dynamic disks (p. 405), or more precisely, on a disk group (p. 404). Dynamic volumes can span multiple disks.
F Full backup A self-sufficient backup (p. 399) containing all data chosen for backup. You do not need access to any other backup to recover the data from a full backup. G GFS (Grandfather-Father-Son) A popular backup scheme (p. 401) aimed to maintain the optimal balance between a backup archive (p. 399) size and the number of recovery points (p. 409) available from the archive.
Managed vault A centralized vault (p. 402) managed by a storage node (p. 409). Archives (p. 399) 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 storage node-side cleanup (p. 410) and storage node-side validation (p. 410) for each archive stored in the managed vault.
Plan See Backup plan (p. 400). Policy See Backup policy (p. 400). R Recovery point Date and time to which the backed up data can be reverted to. Registered machine A machine (p. 407) managed by a management server (p. 408). A machine can be registered on only one management server at a time. A machine becomes registered as a result of the registration (p. 409) procedure. Registration A procedure that adds a managed machine (p. 407) to a management server (p. 408).
prevent access to the backup archives, even in case the storage medium is stolen or accessed by a malefactor, by using encrypted vaults (p. 406). Storage node-side cleanup Cleanup (p. 402) performed by a storage node (p. 409) according to the backup plans (p. 400) that produce the archives (p. 399) stored in a managed vault (p. 407). Being an alternative to the agentside cleanup (p. 399), the cleanup on the storage node side relieves the production servers of unnecessary CPU load.
U Universal Restore (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore) The Acronis proprietary technology that helps boot up Windows on dissimilar hardware or a virtual machine. The Universal Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for the operating system start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset. The Universal Restore is not available: when the machine is booted with Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (p.
Virtual machine On Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server, a machine (p. 407) is considered virtual if it can be backed up from the virtualization host without installing an agent (p. 399) on the machine. A virtual machine appears on the management server after registration of the virtualization server that hosts the machine, provided that Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent for virtual machines is installed on that server.
