Acronis® Backup & Recovery ™ 10 Advanced Server SBS Edition User's Guide
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2009. 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 is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Table of Contents 1. Introducing Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10 ......................................................... 7 1.1. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 overview ............................................................................ 7 1.2. Getting started .................................................................................................................... 8 1.2.1. 1.3. 1.3.1. 1.3.2. 1.3.3. 1.3.4. 1.3.5. Using the management console ...........................................
3.1.3. 3.1.4. 3.1.5. 3.2. 3.2.1. 3.2.2. 3.2.3. 3.2.4. 3.2.5. 3.2.6. 3.3. 3.3.1. 3.3.2. 3.3.3. 3.4. 3.4.1. 3.4.2. 4. Time-based alerts ...................................................................................................................................... 82 Number of tasks ......................................................................................................................................... 82 Fonts ........................................................................
6.2.1. 6.2.2. 6.2.3. 6.2.4. 6.2.5. 6.2.6. 6.2.7. 6.2.8. 6.2.9. 6.2.10. 6.2.11. 6.3. 6.3.1. 6.3.2. 6.3.3. 6.3.4. 6.3.5. 6.3.6. 6.3.7. 6.3.8. 6.3.9. 6.3.10. 6.3.11. 6.3.12. 6.3.13. 6.4. 6.4.1. 6.4.2. 6.4.3. 6.4.4. 6.4.5. 6.4.6. 6.5. 6.5.1. 6.5.2. 6.5.3. 6.5.4. Why is the program asking for the password? ......................................................................................196 Backup plan's credentials .........................................................................................
.10.5. 6.10.6. 6.11. 6.11.1. 6.11.2. 6.11.3. 6.11.4. 6.11.5. 6.11.6. 6.11.7. 6.12. 7. Recovering MD devices and logical volumes .........................................................................................265 Acronis PXE Server ...................................................................................................................................269 Disk management ...........................................................................................................
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.
• Enterprise level of security 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.
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. 372) 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. You can create recovery tasks on multiple machines in turn.
• 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. 11) 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. 12) 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. o o o o o o o 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 • 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 list of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components with a brief description of their functionality. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 includes three 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. Agents require a license to perform operations on each managed machine.
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.
Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for Windows start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset. 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. Besides these components, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agents have to be installed on all machines that need data protection. 1.3.3.1.
VMware vCenter integration This add-on 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.
This functionality cannot be disabled in a managed vault. The next two operations are optional. 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. 64)" section in the User Guide.
1.3.5. Acronis Wake-On-LAN Proxy Acronis Wake-On-LAN Proxy enables Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server to wake up for backup machines located in another subnet. Acronis Wake-On-LAN Proxy installs on any server in the subnet where the machines to be backed up are located. 1.4.
1.5.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server Item Minimum requirements Recommended System memory 512 MB 1 GB or more Installation disk space 25 MB Space required for Operational SQL Server and Reporting SQL Server 200 MB Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node Item Minimum requirements Recommended System memory 1 GB 4 GB Installation disk space 40 MB Space required for tapes database About 1 MB per 10 archives Acronis License Server Item Minimum requirements Recommended System mem
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. 26 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-by-sector 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. Full, incremental and differential backups Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides the capability to use popular backup schemes, such as Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi, as well as to create custom backup schemes.
It is widely accepted that a full backup is the slowest to do but the fastest to restore. With Acronis technologies, recovery from an incremental backup may be not slower than recovery from a full one. A full backup is most useful when: • • 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.
specifications of the devices, the backup/recovery options you set, to name a few. Practice is the best guide to selecting the optimal backup scheme. Parameter Full backup Differential backup Incremental backup Storage space Maximal Medium Minimal Creation time Maximal Medium Minimal Recovery time Minimal Medium Maximal 2.3. User privileges on a managed machine When managing a machine running Windows, the scope of a user's management rights depends on the user's privileges on the machine.
Managing a plan (task) owned by another user Having Administrator privileges on the machine, a user can modify tasks and local backup plans owned by any user registered in the operating system. When a user opens a plan or task for editing, which is owned by another user, all passwords set in the task are cleared. This prevents the "modify settings, leave passwords" trick. The program displays a warning each time you are trying to edit a plan (task) last modified by another user.
2.5. 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.
Keep backups: Monthly This step defines the retention rule for monthly backups. The cleanup task will run after each monthly backup and delete all monthly backups that are older than you specify. The monthly 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 infinitely.
Starting from the third week, weekly backups will be regularly deleted. After 6 months, monthly backups will start to be deleted. The diagram for weekly and monthly backups will look similar to the week-based timescale. 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.
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. 148). 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. 1. Delete backups older than This is a time interval counted back from the moment when the retention rules are applied.
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.
o o If the data size is less than 20GB, then one disk can hold, say, 10GB; the other will hold the remaining 10GB. This way, a striped volume will be created on both disks and 20GB on the second disk will remain unallocated. If the data size is more than 20GB, the data cannot be distributed evenly between the two disks, but can fit into a single simple volume. A simple volume accommodating all the data will be created on the second disk. The first disk will remain untouched.
2.9. 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. 20). Storage nodes ensure fully automatic operation of tape libraries and autoloaders (p. 131).
Tape written on a tape device through... Backup Server Storage Node 2.9.2. ATIE 9.1 + + + + ATIE 9.5 - - - + ATIE 9.7 - - - + ABR10 - - - + Using a single tape drive A tape drive that is locally attached to a managed machine can be used by local backup plans as a storage device. The functionality of a locally attached autoloader or tape library is limited to the ordinary tape drive.
Recovery from a locally attached tape device Before creating a recovery task, insert or mount the tape containing the backup you need to recover. When creating a recovery task, select the tape device from the list of available locations and then select the backup. After recovery is started, you will be prompted for other tapes if the tapes are needed for recovery. 2.10.
With the new Acronis Secure Zone behavior, you obtain the ability to: • • list archives located in the zone and backups contained in each archive • • mount a disk backup to copy files from the backup to a physical disk examine a backup's content safely delete archives and backups from the archives. For more information about operations available in Acronis Secure Zone, see the Personal vaults (p. 155) section.
2.10.3. Universal Restore (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore) Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore is the Acronis proprietary technology that helps recover and 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.
Universal Restore relies on the built-in Plug and Play discovery and configuration process to handle hardware differences in devices that are not critical for the system start, such as video, audio and USB. Windows takes control over this process during the logon phase, and if some of the new hardware is not detected, you will have a chance to install drivers for it later manually. Universal Restore and Microsoft Sysprep Universal Restore is not a system preparation tool.
Limitation The only supported archive location is a local drive, or more precisely, any device available through the machine’s BIOS. This may be Acronis Secure Zone, a USB hard drive, a flash drive or any internal hard drive. How it works When configuring a recovery operation, you select disks or volumes to recover from a backup. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 scans the selected disks or volumes in the backup.
4. Configure the system recovery: select the system disk or volume and select the Use Acronis Active Restore check box. Acronis Active Restore will choose for the boot-up and subsequent recovery the first operating system found during the backup scan. Do not try to recover more than one operating system using Active Restore if you want the result to be predictable. When recovering a multi-boot system, choose only one system volume and boot volume at a time. 5.
Since you connect the console to the management server rather than to each machine and perform all management operations through the central management unit, this way of management is called centralized management (p. 374). Centralized management does not rule out the direct management (p. 376) of each machine. You can connect the console to each machine and perform any direct management operation.
You have to protect each server as a whole, the users' data on the workstations, and the virtual machines. You want to be able to track the health of the data protection, be sure that the backup archives do not store duplicated information and that the obsolete backups are deleted from the storage in a timely manner. These goals can be achieved by regular backup of the desired data items to a centralized vault with deduplication. Setting up the Acronis infrastructure 1.
5. Install Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node [ASN] on one of the Windows servers (9). The storage node enables you to organize the infrastructure for storing backup archives and to use the deduplication functionality. The node can be installed together with the management server if the host is capable enough. When installing the storage node, register it on the management server in the same way as you register the agents.
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. navigate to the All machines group or the S_1 group b. select the server c. select the Backup plans and tasks tab on the Information pane.
2.11.2.3. Protecting the virtual machines Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for ESX provides the flexibility to protect virtual machines in multiple ways: • Connect the console to the virtual appliance (Agent for ESX) 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) and create an individual backup plan for each machine. The plan will back up the volumes you specify.
Deploying a policy transfers the established correspondence to the machines. Physically, a bundle of tasks is created on each machine according to the configuration provided by the policy. Revoking a policy is the reverse action to the aggregate of applying and deploying. Revoking removes the correspondence between the policy and one or more machines and then removes the tasks from the machines.
The same policy on a group and on a machine 1. The same policy can be applied to a group and to a machine. Nothing changes on the machine at the second application of the same policy, but the server remembers that the policy has been applied twice. 2. A policy, revoked from the group, remains on the machine. 3. A policy, revoked from the machine, remains on the group and therefore on the machine. 4. To completely revoke the policy from the machine, revoke it from both the group and the machine. 2.11.4.2.
2.11.4.3. 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. Copyright © Acronis, Inc.
Besides the All machines group, we have the custom G1 group in the root and the custom G2 group, which is G1's child. The "green" policy, applied to the All machines group, is inherited by all machines. The "orange" policy, applied to G1, is inherited by the G1 members and all its child groups, both immediate and indirect. The "blue" policy, applied to G2, is inherited only by the G2 members since G2 does not have child groups. The "violet" policy is applied straight to machine #4.
#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 2.11.5. 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.
You may change grouping conditions or the machine may change its properties so that the machine leaves one group and is included into another. This may result in revoking one policy and deploying 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 2.11.5.2.
Examples Assume, the selection rule states that the policy has to back up volumes D: and F:. The policy is applied to both Linux and Windows machines. Once the first backup is started, the policy gets the Error status on the Linux machines and on the Windows machines that do not have such volumes. 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.
"Deploying, Deployed". When the deployment completes on both machines, the state will be "Deployed". 2.11.5.4. Policy status on a group To see this parameter, select Machines in the tree, then select the group, and then select the Backup policies tab on the Information pane. 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". 2.11.5.5.
Deduplication may also reduce network load: if, during a backup, a file or a disk block is found to be a duplicate of an already stored one, its content is not transferred over the network. Deduplication is performed on disk blocks (block-level deduplication) and on files (file-level deduplication), for disk-level and file-level backups respectively. In Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, deduplication consists of two steps: Deduplication at source Performed on a managed machine during backup.
Before sending the item to the vault, the agent queries the deduplication database to determine whether the item's hash value is the same as that of an already stored item. If so, the agent sends only the item's hash value; otherwise, it sends the item itself. Some items, such as encrypted files or disk blocks of a non-standard size, cannot be deduplicated, and the agent always transfers such items to the vault without calculating their hash values.
• When performing incremental backups of data that does not change itself, but changes its location. Such is the case when multiple pieces of data circulate over the network or within one system. Each time a piece of data moves, it is included in the incremental backup which becomes sizeable while it does not contain new data. Deduplication helps to solve the problem: each time an item appears in a new place, a reference to the item is saved instead of the item itself.
What ratio to expect Although, in some situations, the deduplication ratio may be very high (in the previous example, increasing the number of machines would lead to ratios of 3:1, 4:1, etc.), a reasonable expectation for a typical environment is a ratio between 1.2:1 and 1.6:1. As a more realistic example, suppose that you are performing a file-level or disk-level backup of two machines with similar disks.
• If you protected the archive with a password Files that were not deduplicated are stored in the archive as they would be in a non-deduplicating vault. Deduplication and NTFS data streams In the NTFS file system, a file may have one or more additional sets of data associated with it—often called alternate data streams. When such file is backed up, so are all its alternate data streams. However, these streams are never deduplicated—even when the file itself is. 2.11.7.
2.11.7.2. Privileges for local connection Local connection on a machine running Windows can be established by any user who has the "Log on locally" user right on the machine. 2.11.7.3. Privileges for remote connection in Windows To establish a remote connection to a machine running Windows, the user must be a member of the Acronis Remote Users security group on that machine.
To be able to connect to the management server remotely, an administrator of the management server must also be a member of the Acronis Remote Users group. No user—even a member of the Administrators group—can be an administrator of the management server without being a member of the Acronis Centralized Admins group. By default, this group includes all members of the Administrators group.
Recommendations on user accounts To allow users to access the centralized vaults managed by a storage node, you must ensure that those users have a right to access the storage node from the network. If both the users' machines and the machine with the storage node are in one Active Directory domain, you probably do not need to perform any further steps: all users are typically members of the Domain Users group and so can access the storage node.
2.11.7.7. Rights for Acronis services The Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server, and Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node components run as services. When installing any of these components, you need to specify the account under which the component's service will run. For each service, you can either create a dedicated user account (recommended in most cases) or specify an existing account of a local or domain user—for example: .
2.11.8. Communication between Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components This section describes how Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components communicate with each other using secure authentication and encryption. This section also provides information on configuring communication settings, selecting a network port for communication, and managing security certificates. 2.11.8.1.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node Yes Yes Acronis PXE Server No Yes Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Bootable Agent Yes Yes 2.11.8.3. Configuring communication settings You can configure communication settings, such as whether to encrypt transferred data, for Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components installed on one or more machines, by using Acronis Administrative Template. For information on how to load the Administrative Template, see How to load Acronis Administrative Template (p. 332).
Disabled The same as Not configured. For details about the network port and instructions on how to specify it in Linux and a bootable environment, see Network port configuration (p. 78). Client Encryption options Specifies whether to encrypt the transferred data when the component acts as a client application, and whether to trust self-signed SSL certificates.
Always use The use of SSL certificates is enabled. The connection will be established only if the use of SSL certificates is enabled on the server application. Disabled The same as Not configured. Server Encryption options Specifies whether to encrypt the transferred data when the component acts as a server application. Select one of the following: Not configured The component will use the default setting, which is to use encryption if possible (see the following option). Enabled Encryption is enabled.
2.11.8.4. Network port configuration Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components use the 9876/TCP network communication port by default. The server listens to this port for incoming connection. This port is also used as default by the Acronis client. During component installation you might be asked to confirm the port opening or to open the port manually, in case you are using a firewall other than Windows Firewall.
In Windows, the certificate path and the server certificate's file name are specified in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\Encryption\Server. The default path is %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Agent. To ensure reliability, the certificate is stored in Windows Certificate Store at the following location: Certificates (Local Computer)\Acronis Trusted Certificates Cache.
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. Click Start, then click Run, and then type: certmgr.msc 2. In the Certificates console, double-click the name of the certificate that you want to install. 3. In the Details tab, in the list of fields, click Thumbprint. 4.
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. 3.1.1.
The option defines whether to display the pop-up messages about task run results: successful completion, failure or success with warnings. When displaying of pop-up messages is disabled, you can review the task execution states and results in the Tasks view. 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.
3.1.5. Fonts This option is effective when the console is connected to a managed machine or to the management server. 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.
entries. You can select the amount of log entries to retain. The default 95% setting will keep most of the log. With the minimum 1% setting, the log will be nearly cleared. Even if you remove the log size limit, logging events to an SQL Server Express database will stop after the log size reaches 4 GB, because SQL Express Edition has the 4 GB per database limit. Set the maximum log size to approximately 3.8 GB if you want to use the maximum capacity of the SQL Express database.
To set up sending SNMP messages 1. Select the Send messages to SNMP server check box. 2. Specify the appropriate options as follows: o Types of events to send – choose the types of events: All events, Errors and warnings, or Errors only. o Server name/IP – type the name or IP address of the host running the SNMP management application, the messages will be sent to. o Community – type the name of the SNMP community to which both the host running SNMP management application and the sending machine belong.
b. Click Add, and then enter the name or IP address of the machine where the Acronis WOL Proxy is installed. Provide access credentials for the machine. c. Repeat this step if there are several Acronis WOL Proxies. 3. When scheduling a backup policy, enable the Use Wake-On-LAN setting. You also have the ability to delete proxies from the list. Please keep in mind that any change to this option affects the entire management server.
On the vCenter Server side When integration is enabled, the vCenter Server will store and show information about when and how successful each virtual machine was backed up. The same information is displayed in the Status and the Last backup columns on the management server. Backup status - the most severe status of all backup plans and backup policies on the machine. For more information, see "Backup plan statuses (p. 182)" and "Policy status on a machine (p. 62)".
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.
The option defines whether the agent(s) operating on the managed machine have to send the log events to the specified Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) managers. You can choose the types of events to be sent. 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. 90).
5. Click OK. You might be asked for lmmib2.dll that can be found on the installation disc of your operating system. Linux To receive SNMP messages on a machine running Linux, the net-snmp (for RHEL and SUSE) or the snmpd (for Debian) package has to be installed. SNMP can be configured using the snmpconf command. The default configuration files are located in the /etc/snmp directory: • • /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf - configuration file for the Net-SNMP SNMP agent /etc/snmp/snmptrapd.
• • The type of the data being backed up (disk, file) • The backup scheme (Back up now or using the scheduler) The backup destination (networked location or local disk) The following table summarizes the availability of the backup options. Agent for Windows Bootable media (Linux-based or PE-based) Disk backup File backup Disk backup File backup + + + + Source files exclusion (p. 93) + + + + Pre/Post backup commands (p. 94) + + PE only PE only Pre/Post data capture commands (p.
media media Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode) + + + + Re-attempt if an error occurs + + + + Ignore bad sectors + + + + Dest: local Dest: local - - Task start conditions (p. 108) + + - - Task failure handling (p.
3.4.1.1. Archive protection This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media. This option is effective for both disk-level and file-level backup. The preset is: Disabled. To protect the archive from unauthorized access 1. Select the Set password for the archive check box. 2. In the Enter the password field, type a password. 3. In the Confirm the password field, re-type the password. 4.
• Exclude all system files and folders 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.
The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause"). To specify pre/post commands 1. Enable pre/post commands execution by checking the following options: o Execute before the backup o Execute after the backup 2. Do any of the following: o Click Edit to specify a new command or a batch file o Select the existing command or the batch file from the drop-down list 3. Click OK.
Post-backup command To specify a command/executable file to be executed after the backup is completed 1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. 2. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will be executed. 3. In the Arguments field, specify the command execution arguments, if required. 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.
o Select the existing command or the batch file from the drop-down list 3. Click OK. Pre-data capture command To specify a command/batch file to be executed before data capture 1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".) 2. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will be executed. 3.
Check box Selection Fail the task if the command execution fails Selected Cleared Selected Cleared Do not back up until the command execution is complete Selected Selected Cleared Cleared Result Preset Continue the backup only after the command is successfully executed. Delete the TIB file and temporary files and fail the task if the command execution fails. 3.4.1.5. Continue the backup after the command is executed despite command execution failure or success.
The option determines whether to take snapshots of multiple volumes at the same time or one by one. The preset is: Enable. When this option is set to Enable, snapshots of all volumes being backed up will be created simultaneously. Use this option to create a time-consistent backup of data spanned across multiple volumes, for instance for an Oracle database. When this option is set to Disable, the volumes' snapshots will be taken one after the other.
3.4.1.8. Compression level This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media. The option defines the level of compression applied to the data being backed up. The preset is: Normal. The optimal data compression level depends on the type of data being backed up. For example, even maximum compression will not significantly reduce the archive size if the archive contains essentially compressed files, such as .jpg, .pdf or .mp3. However, formats such as .doc or .
• Normal – to run the backup process with normal speed, allocating resources on a par with other processes • High – to maximize the backup process speed by taking resources from other processes. HDD writing speed This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.
3.4.1.10. Notifications Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides the ability of notifying users about backup completion through e-mail or the messaging service. E-mail This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems. This option is not available when operating under the bootable media. The option enables you to receive e-mail notifications about the backup task's successful completion, failure or need for interaction along with the full log of the task. The preset is: Disabled.
• Password – enter the password. 6. Click Send test e-mail message to check if the settings are correct. Messenger service (WinPopup) This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems on the sending machine and only for Windows on the receiving machine. This option is not available when operating under bootable media. The option enables you to receive WinPopup notifications about the backup task's successful completion, failure or need for interaction. The preset is: Disabled.
To select whether to log the backup operations events in the Application Event Log of Windows: Choose one of the following: • Use the setting set in the Machine options – to use the setting specified for the machine. For more information refer to Machine options (p. 87). • Log the following event types – to log events of the backup operations in the Application Event Log.
• Do not send SNMP notifications – to disable sending the log events of the backup operations to SNMP managers. 3.4.1.12. Fast incremental/differential backup The option is effective in Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media. This option is effective for incremental and differential disk-level backup. This option defines whether a file change is detected using the file size and time stamp or by comparing the file contents to those stored in the archive. The preset is: Enabled.
to multiple CDs or DVDs later on. You might also want to split the backup destined to an FTP server, since data recovery directly from an FTP server requires the backup to be split into files no more than 2GB in size. 3.4.1.14. File-level security These options are effective only for file-level backup in Windows operating systems. In archives, store encrypted files in a decrypted state This option defines whether to decrypt files before saving them to a backup archive. The preset is: Disabled.
Select the check boxes for the components you want to put on the bootable media: • One-Click Restore is the minimal addition to a disk backup stored on removable media, allowing for easy recovery from this backup. If you boot a machine from the media and click Run Acronis One-click Restore, the disk will be immediately recovered from the backup contained on the same media.
the data will be backed up and you will be able to mount the resulting disk backup and extract valid files to another disk. 3.4.1.17. Dual destination This option is effective for both Windows and Linux operating systems, when the primary backup destination is a local folder or Acronis Secure Zone and the secondary destination is another local folder or network share. Managed vaults and FTP servers are not supported as secondary destinations. The preset is: Disabled.
The preset is: Wait until the conditions are met. Wait until the conditions are met With this setting, the scheduler starts monitoring the conditions and launches the task as soon as the conditions are met. If the conditions are never met, the task will never start. To handle the situation when the conditions are not met for too long and further delaying the backup is becoming risky, you can set the time interval after which the task will run irrespective of the condition.
The program will try to execute the failed task again if you select the Restart a failed task check box and specify the number of attempts and the time interval between the attempts. The program stops trying as soon as an attempt completes successfully OR the specified number of attempts is performed, depending on which comes first. If the task fails because of a mistake in the backup plan, you can edit the plan while the task is in the Idle state.
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. Generally this option ensures more efficient usage of tapes, than the A separate tape set for each single machine option.
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.
When the option is enabled, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 will restart the machine after the backup process is completed. 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.
3.4.2. Default recovery options Each Acronis agent has its own default recovery options. Once an agent is installed, the default options have pre-defined values, which are referred to as presets in the documentation. When creating a recovery task, you can either use a default option, or override the default option with the custom value that will be specific for this task only. You can also customize a default option itself by changing its value against the pre-defined one.
Validate backup archive before recovery + + + + Check file system after recovery + - + - Reboot machine automatically if it is required for recovery + + - - Windows recovery - Windows recovery - E-mail (p. 117) + + - - Win Pop-up (p. 118) + + - - Windows events log (p. 119) + + - - SNMP (p. 119) + + - - Change SID after recovery Notifications: Event tracing: 3.4.2.1.
Pre-recovery command To specify a command/batch file to be executed before the recovery process starts 1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".) 2. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will be executed. 3. In the Arguments field specify the command’s execution arguments, if required. 4.
3.4.2.2. Recovery priority This option is effective for both Windows and Linux operating systems. This option is not available when operating under the bootable media. The priority of a process running in a system determines the amount of CPU and system resources allocated to that process. Decreasing the recovery priority will free more resources for other applications.
To configure e-mail notification 1. Select the Send e-mail notifications check box to activate notifications. 2. In the E-mail addresses field, type the e-mail address to which notifications will be sent. You can enter several addresses separated by semicolons. 3.
The Messenger service is not started by default in the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 family. Change the service Startup mode to Automatic and start the service. To configure WinPopup notifications: 1. Select the Send WinPopup notifications check box. 2. In the Machine name field, enter the name of the machine to which notifications will be sent. Multiple names are not supported. 3.
This option is not available when operating under the bootable media. The option defines whether the agent(s) operating on the managed machine have to send the log events of the recovery operations to the specified Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) managers. You can choose the types of events to be sent. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides the following Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) objects to SNMP management applications: 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.1.
When a recoverable error occurs, the program re-attempts to perform the unsuccessful operation. You can set the time interval and the number of attempts. The attempts will be stopped as soon as the operation succeeds OR the specified number of attempts is performed, depending on which comes first. For example, if the network location becomes unavailable or not reachable, the program will attempt to reach the location every 30 seconds, but no more than 5 times.
The preset is Disabled. This option enables booting the machine into the recovered operating system without user interaction. Change SID after the recovery is finished The preset is Disabled. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 can generate an unique security identifier (SID) for the recovered system. You do not need a new SID when recovering a system over itself or when creating a system replica that will replace the original system.
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.
A vault is called personal if it was created using direct connection of the console to a managed machine. Personal vaults are specific for each managed machine. 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.
Accessing managed vaults To be able to back up to a managed vault, a user must have an account on the machine where the storage node is installed. The scope of a user's privileges in a vault depends on the user's rights on the storage node. A user who is a member of the Users group can view and manage his/her own archives. Members of the Administrators group can view and manage any archive stored on the storage node.
• [for managed vaults only] encryption state (Yes, No) Vault content The Vault content section contains the archives table and toolbar. The archives table displays archives and backups that are stored in the vault. Use the archives toolbar to perform actions on the selected archives and backups. The list of backups is expanded by clicking the "plus" sign to the left of the archive's name.
password (if the vault is encrypted) and information in the Comments field. Validate a vault • The Edit unmanaged vault page lets you edit the vault's name and information in the Comments field. 1 Select the vault. 2 Click Validate. You will be taken to the Validation (p. 234) page with an already pre-selected vault as a source. The vault validation checks all the archives in this vault. Delete a vault 1 Select the vault. 2 Click Delete.
4.1.2.1. Creating a managed centralized vault To create a managed centralized vault, perform the following steps Vault Name Specify a unique name for the vault. Creation of two centralized vaults with the same name is prohibited. Comments [Optional] Enter the distinctive description of the vault being created. Type Select the Managed type. 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.
o o o o o on the hard drives local to the storage node on a network share on a Storage Area Network (SAN) on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) on a tape library locally attached to the storage node. To create a new folder for the vault in the selected location, click Create folder. 2. Click OK. A vault can be created in an empty folder only. We do not recommend creating a deduplicating managed vault on a FAT32 volume.
o o o AES 128 – the vault contents will be encrypted using the Advanced Standard Encryption (AES) algorithm with a 128-bit key AES 192 – the vault contents will be encrypted using the AES algorithm with a 192-bit key AES 256 – the vault contents will be encrypted using the AES algorithm with a 256-bit key. 5. Click OK. 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.
To create a new folder for the vault, click Create folder. A vault can be created in an empty folder only. 2. Click OK. 4.1.2.3. Attaching a managed vault A vault managed by a storage node can be attached to another storage node. You might need to do so when retiring storage node hardware, when the storage node is lost or when balancing loads between storage nodes. As a result, the first node stops managing the vault.
4.1.3.1. Overview Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides full support of a tape library through Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node. The storage node should be installed on the machine a tape library is attached to. Storage node can simultaneously use more than one tape library for keeping archives. To manage a tape library media, the storage node uses the Windows Removable Storage Manager (RSM). See the RSM Media Pools (p. 133) section for more information.
If all cartridges in a tape library have barcodes, the library is ready to be automatically managed by software. Tape libraries are a cost-effective solution for data storages with huge capacity. Moreover, tape is perfect for archiving because cartridges can be stored off-site for enhanced data security. However reading even a small amount of data from a tape library takes much more time (from several seconds to several minutes) than from other types of data storages.
If a tape was used previously, the RSM tries to detect the registered application the tape is concerned to. If the application is not found, the RSM will move the tape into the Unrecognized pool. If the application is not found, but the RSM database has no information about the tape, it will be moved into the Import pool. If the RSM database has the information, the tape moves into its own pool of the application.
Fill the library slots with tape cartridges. If a tape does not get a barcode or its barcode is corrupted, you can define the tape label for identification purposes later. You should have Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server and Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console installed on local or remote machines, as well as Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node, installed on the machine with the tape library device, and registered in the management server.
At the Delete operation, the vault content will be deleted from the storage node database without accessing the tapes. The plans and tasks that use this vault will fail. The backup archives, belonging to a deleting centralized vault on a tape library, will be deleted as well, but these archives might be recovered by any storage node through the Rescan operation.
The program finds the tapes and inserts them automatically in the right order. The Task Need Interaction window comes up if a required tape is not found. Keep in mind that a data recovery operation may require access to a number of tapes.
To launch the procedure select the tape library vault in the Navigation pane of the console, click Manage tapes and then click Start inventory on the Tape Management window. When inventorying is completed a user has the list of tapes currently loaded into the library. Perform the procedure every time you load new tapes into tape library slots. Rescan As stated above the storage node keeps information about tapes and their contents in a dedicated database.
Tapes from the Free or the Imported pool can be renamed on condition that the user account used to run the storage node service (ASN User) has write permissions for these pools. These permissions are not assigned to ASN User during installation, so you might need to add them manually. To define your own label for a tape, select a related data field, type in a new label, click Eject tape, write the same label on the tape cartridge (to make association with the label) and insert it back into the same slot.
• Ask for user interaction - the backup task will enter the Need Interaction state and wait for the tape, with the required label, to be loaded into the tape library device. • Use a free tape - the backup will be written onto a free tape, so the operation will be paused only if there is no free tape in the library. Always use a free tape If you leave the options below unchanged, then each backup will be written onto the tape specified by the Use a separate tape set option.
Simple backup scheme is disabled, because backup consolidation is impossible for archives located on tapes. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides automation of tape rotation for Grandfather-Father-Son, Tower of Hanoi, and Custom backup schemes. Grandfather-Father-Son (p. 33) (GFS) and Tower of Hanoi (p. 37) (ToH) are the most popular backup schemes to use on tape library devices.
• • the full size of the data to protect is approximately 320 GB • • the approximate size of weekly changes of data is no more than 40 GB the approximate size of daily changes of data is about 16 GB tape capacity is 400 GB. Let’s analyze the results of a combination of GFS and ToH schemes with different tape options for the case. All the below analyzed examples are a simplistic approach to a real case, but provide you with a general conception of backup distribution onto tapes.
• GFS Example 3 (p. 147). The Use a separate tape set option is selected. All the Always use a free tape options are selected. It requires 28 tapes in rotation. These examples demonstrate how the number of tapes required for automated rotation depends on the tape options. If a tape library does not have enough tapes for automated rotation, the Tasks Need Interaction window will sometimes ask you to load a free tape into the library.
• four incremental backups on the 4th week. The next full backup (320 Gb) should be written on Friday of the 4th week. However tape 02 has only 104 Gb of free space at the moment. So after the tape reaches the end, the recording continues from the beginning of free tape 03. Keep in mind, that the Cleanup task is launched after each backup operation for the GFS scheme. This task deletes all the outdated backups.
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. At the time the differential backup (blue rectangle) is written onto tape 24. 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.
GFS 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. The example has only one difference from the previous one. That is selection of the Always use a free tape: For each full backup option.
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. This figure demonstrates that the GFS Example 2 tape rotation scheme is more suitable for the case than GFS Example 1.
These options define the tape rotation scheme that is classical for GFS. The figure shows the beginning of the rotation scheme that uses 8 tapes for daily backups, 6 tapes for weekly backups and 13 tapes for monthly backups (since there are 13 four-week cycles in a year) for the analyzed case. And one tape is required for the next backup. In total this rotation scheme, combined with the options requires 28 tapes.
go back in the archive) is 8 weeks. Tape rotation for the second case includes 128 daily sessions, i.e. it allows the roll-back period equal 64 days. The roll-back period is always half the number of sessions. Each additional level doubles not only the number of sessions but also the oldest backup age. Let’s return to the analyzed case described in the Case to analyze (p. 141) section, and suppose the ToH settings are the following: • • Schedule: Start the task every 1 day at 11:00 PM. Repeat once.
As the Tower of Hanoi backup scheme forces presence of only one backup on each level, all the outdated backups are deleted automatically. In the next figure the deleted backups are drawn as dark-gray rectangles. Actually the deleted backup is still stored on the tapes, but the information about it is deleted from the storage node database.
The first figure shows the tapes’ usage for the ToH scheme combined with the above mentioned tape options. The recurring part of the scheme contains sixteen backup sessions. The figure displays the backup archive state at the moment when the 17th session is finished. In the figure below the backups deleted at the moment are drawn as dark-gray rectangles.
The figure shows tape rotation for the ToH scheme with these options. Maximal number of tapes used in the rotation is seven that is more than in classical five-level ToH scheme. Two additional tapes used for: 1. keeping an old full backup (postponed deletion) as it is a base for other level backups 2. keeping an old backup on a level until a new backup has been successfully created on the level. The example demonstrates that the tapes’ usage efficiency is reduced.
• • tape rotation scheme ( frequency of backups, retention rules) • requirements to support off-site tape cartridge archives. tape-append options There is no common formula to calculate a number of tapes required in all possible combinations of above listed considerations. But the general way to get a number of tapes for a case includes the following steps: 1. Draw (or write) a chain of backups until the first backup can be deleted 2.
• • average size of incremental backups is I_GB • • compression level provides CL average reduction coefficient average size of differential backups is D_GB selected tape rotation scheme is Custom with the following settings: o full backup - every 10 days o differential backup - every 2 days o incremental backup - every 1 day, every 6 hours o retention rules: delete backups older than 5 days • tape options are the following: o the Use a separate tape set option is selected o the Always use a free tape
• What if I need to use a tape from the tape library in the local tape device and vice versa? Acronis agents create backups on tapes in a format that differs from the format used by the storage node. It is the reason why it is impossible to interchange tapes between tape devices attached to a storage node and attached to a managed machine: a tape written by a storage node cannot be read by an agent in a locally attached tape device. However the storage node can read tapes written by an agent.
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. 4.2.1. Working with the "Personal vault" view This section briefly describes the main elements of the Personal vault view, and suggests the ways to work with them. Vault toolbar The toolbar contains operational buttons that let you perform operations with the selected personal vault.
• [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.
All the operations described below are performed by clicking the corresponding buttons on the toolbar. These operations can be also accessed from the [Archive name] actions bar (on the Actions and tools pane) and from the [Archive name] actions item of the main menu respectively. The following is a guideline for you to perform operations with archives stored in a vault. To Do Validate an archive Click Validate. The Validation (p. 234) page will be opened with the pre-selected archive as a source.
The Recover data (p. 214) page will be opened with the pre-selected backup as a source. Recover a disk/volume as a virtual machine Validate a backup Right-click the disk backup, then select Recover as virtual machine. The Recover data (p. 214) page will be opened with the pre-selected backup as a source. Select the location and the type of new virtual machine and then proceed as with regular disk or volume recovery. Click Validate. The Validation (p.
Please be aware that consolidation is just a method of deletion but not an alternative to deletion. The resulting backup will not contain data that was present in the deleted backup and was absent from the retained incremental or differential backup. There should be enough space in the vault for temporary files created during consolidation. Backups resulting from consolidation always have maximum compression. 4.3.4.
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 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. 108) 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. • What if an event occurs while the scheduler is waiting for the condition required by the previous event? 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.
The obvious way is to add five simple schedules. If you spend one minute for examination, you can think out a more optimal way. As you can see, the time interval between the first and the second 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.
Advanced scheduling settings (p. 170) are available only for machines registered on Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server. To specify these settings, click Change in the Advanced settings area. All the settings you made are displayed in the Result field at the bottom of the window. 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.
Several weekly schedules for one task In the case when the task needs to be run on different days of the weeks with different time intervals, consider adding a dedicated schedule to every desired day of the week, or to several days. For example, you need the task to be run with the following schedule: • • • • Monday: twice at 12 PM (noon) and 9 PM • • • Friday: twice at 12 PM and 9 PM (i.e.
To specify a monthly schedule In the Schedule area, select the appropriate parameter as follows: Months: <...> Select a certain month(s) you want to run the task in. Days: <...> Select specific days of the month to run the task on. You can also select the last day of the month, irrespective of its actual date. On: <...> <...> Select specific days of the weeks to run the task on. In the During the day execute the task... area, select one of the following: Once at: <...
"Season" schedule Run the task on all workdays during the northern autumn seasons of 2009 and 2010. During a workday, the task is performed every 6 hours from 12 AM (midnight) till 6 PM. The schedule's parameters are set up as follows. 1. Months: September, October, November. 2. On: . 3. Every: 6 hours. From: 12:00:00 AM Until: 06:00:00 PM. 4. Effective: From: 08/30/2009. Actually the task will be started on the first workday of September.
From: 11/01/2009. To: not set. Third schedule 1. Months: June, July, August. 2. Days: 1, 15. 3. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. 4. Effective: From: 11/01/2009. To: not set. 5.4. Advanced scheduling settings The following advanced settings are available when setting up a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule in a backup policy.
Run the task: Daily Once at: 09:00:00 AM Distribute start time within the time window Maximum delay: 1 Hour(s) Distribution method: Random Then the task's start time on each machine may be any time between 09:00:00 AM and 09:59:59 AM—for instance: First machine: Every day at 09:30:03 AM Second machine: Every day at 09:00:00 AM Third machine: Every day at 09:59:59 AM Example 2 Suppose that you are deploying a backup policy with the following schedule to three machines: Run the task: Daily Every: 2 Hour(s) Fr
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.
Having downloaded one or more updates and scheduled their installation, the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system records an event with the event source Microsoft-WindowsWindowsUpdateClient and event number 18 into the System log; the type of this event is Information.
• backup task start time matters - skip the backup task if the conditions are not met at the time when the task should be started. Skipping the task run makes sense when you need to back up data strictly at the specified time, especially if the events are relatively often. Adding multiple conditions Multiple conditions must be met simultaneously to enable task execution.
Example: Backing up data to the networked location is performed on workdays at 9:00 PM. If the location's host is not available at that moment (for instance, due to maintenance work), skip the backup and wait for the next workday to start the task. It is assumed that the backup task should not be started at all rather than failed. • • • 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.
For example: • • Event: Daily, Every 1 day(s); Once at 03:00:00 PM. Condition: Fits time interval, from 06:00:00 PM until 11:59:59 PM. In this case, whether and when the task will run depends on the task start conditions: • If the task start conditions are Skip the task execution, the task will never run.
• • Condition: Time since last backup, Time since the last backup: 12 hour(s). Task start conditions: Wait until the conditions are met. As a result, (1) if the free space changes by more than 1GB before 12 hours pass since the successful completion of the last backup, the scheduler will wait until 12 hours pass, and then will start the task. (2) if the free space changes by more than 1GB after 12 hours pass since the last backup successful completion, the backup task will start immediately.
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. 6.1.1.
server and run Acronis License Server to manage licenses. license key data was not corrupted. 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.
unneeded columns and show the hidden ones. See the Filtering and sorting backup plans and tasks (p. 187) section for details. • • • In the backup table, select the backup plan (task). Use the toolbar's buttons to take an action on the selected plan (task). See the Actions on backup plans and tasks (p. 184) section for details. You can run, edit, stop and delete the created plans and tasks. Use the Information panel to review detailed information on the selected plan (task). The panel is chevron.
Backup plan statuses A backup plan can have one of the following statuses: Error; Warning; OK. A backup plan status is derived from the results of the last run of the plans' tasks. 1 State How it is determined How to handle Error At least one task has failed.
A task may also change to the Waiting state when the event specified by the schedule occurs but the condition set in the backup plan is not met. See Task start conditions (p. 108) for details. 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.
• Edit the local plan to prevent its future failure in case a local plan has failed • Edit the backup policy on the management server in case a centralized plan has failed 2 Warning Last result is "Succeeded with warning" View the log to read the warnings -> [optionally] Perform actions to prevent the future warnings or failure. 3 OK Last result is "Succeeded", "-", or "Stopped" No action is required. 6.1.2.2.
Run a plan/task Backup plan Click Run. In the Run Backup Plan (p. 188) 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. 194), 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 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.
Settings The Settings tab displays the following information: • • • Backup scheme - the selected backup scheme and all its settings with schedules. 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.
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. • Expand the Information panel, by clicking the chevron.
Sort log entries by date and time Click the column's header to sort the log entries in ascending order. Click it once again to sort the log entries in descending order. 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.
6.2. Creating a backup plan Before creating your first backup plan (p. 372), please familiarize yourself with the basic concepts (p. 25) used in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. 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. 196) [Optional] The backup plan will run on behalf of the user who is creating the plan.
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. 202) Specify when and how often to back up your data; define for how long to keep the created backup archives in the selected location; set up schedule for the archive cleanup procedure. Use well-known optimized backup schemes, such as Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi; create a custom backup scheme, or back up data once.
Specify the machine that will perform the conversion. The machine has to have Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows, Agent for ESX/ESXi or Agent for Hyper-V installed. Virtualization server (p. 213) Here you select the resulting virtual machine type and location. Available options depend on the host you selected in the previous step. Storage (p. 213) Choose the storage on the virtualization server or the folder to place the virtual machine files in.
6.2.3. Source type Select the type of data you want to be backed up on the managed machine. The list of available data types depends on the agents running on the machine: 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.
What does a disk or volume backup store? For supported file systems, with the sector-by-sector option turned off, a disk or volume backup stores only those sectors that contain data. This reduces the resulting backup size and speeds up the backup and recovery operations. 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.
o Use the following credentials The program will access the source data using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the plan's account does not have access permissions to the data. 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. 6.2.6. Exclusions Set up exclusions for the specific types of files you do not wish to back up.
Mask (?) 6.2.7. my???.log Excludes all .log files with names consisting of five symbols and starting with “my”. Archive Specify where the archive will be stored and the name of the archive. 1. Selecting the destination Enter the full path to the destination in the Path field, or select the desired destination in the folders tree. • • • • To back up data to a centralized vault, expand the Centralized group and click the vault.
Backing up to an existing archive You can configure the backup plan to back up to an existing archive. To do so, select the archive in the archives table or type the archive name in the Name field. If the archive is protected with a password, the program will ask for it in the pop-up window. By selecting the existing archive, you are meddling in the area of another backup plan that uses the archive.
6.2.9. Backup schemes Choose one of the available backup schemes: • Back up now – to create a backup task for manual start and run the task immediately after its creation. • Back up later – to create a backup task for manual start OR schedule one-time task execution in the future. • • Simple – to schedule when and how often to backup data and specify retention rules. Grandfather-Father-Son – to use the Grandfather-Father-Son backup scheme.
6.2.9.3. Simple scheme With the simple backup scheme you just schedule when and how often to back up data and set the retention rule. At the first time a full backup will be created. The next backups will be incremental. To set up the simple backup scheme, specify the appropriate settings as follows. Backup Set up the backup schedule - when and how often to back up the data. To learn more about setting up the schedule, see the Scheduling (p. 162) section. Retention rule 6.2.9.4.
Parameters You can set up the following parameters of a Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) scheme. Start backup at: Specifies when to start a backup. The default value is 12:00 PM. Back up on: Specifies the days on which to perform a backup. The default value is Workdays. Weekly/Monthly: Specifies which of the days selected in the Back up on field you want to reserve for weekly and monthly backups. A monthly backup will be performed every fourth such day. The default value is Friday.
• • Weekly/monthly: Saturday (for example) Keep backups: o Daily: 1 week o Weekly: 1 month o 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. For instance, a daily backup of Sunday, January 1, will be available through next Sunday, January 8; the first weekly backup, the one of Saturday, January 7, will be stored on the system until February 7. Monthly backups will never be deleted.
Moreover, assume that you want to retain access to all backups, including the daily ones, for at least six months. The following GFS scheme suits such purposes: • • • • Start backup at: 11:30 PM Back up on: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday Weekly/monthly: Friday Keep backups: o Daily: 6 months o Weekly: 6 months o Monthly: 5 years Here, daily incremental backups will be created on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with weekly and monthly backups performed on Fridays.
Parameters You can set up the following parameters of a Tower of Hanoi scheme. Schedule Set up a daily (p. 163), weekly (p. 165), or monthly (p. 167) 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.
Roll-back period The number of days we can go back in the archive is different on different days. The minimum number of days we are guaranteed to have is called the roll-back period. The following table shows full backup and roll-back periods for schemes of various levels.
6.2.9.6. Custom backup scheme At a glance • Custom schedule and conditions for backups of each type • Custom schedule and retention rules Parameters Parameter Meaning Full backup Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform a full backup. For example, the full backup can be set up to run every Sunday at 1:00 AM as soon as all users are logged off. Incremental Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform an incremental backup.
might end up with no backups if the program is not able to create the new backup for some reason. Apply the rules Specifies when to apply the retention rules (p. 39). (only if the retention rules are set) For example, the cleanup procedure can be set up to run after each backup, and also on schedule. This option is available only if you have set at least one retention rule in Retention rules. Cleanup schedule Specifies a schedule for archive cleanup.
Full backup: Schedule: Monthly, every Last Sunday of the month, at 9:00 PM Incremental: Schedule: Weekly, every workday, at 7:00 PM Differential: Schedule: Weekly, every Saturday, at 8:00 PM Further, we want to add conditions that have to be satisfied for a backup task to start. This is set up in the Conditions fields for each backup type.
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. If you have also specified the retention rules in your backup scheme, the scheme will result in four tasks: three backup tasks and one cleanup task. 6.2.10. 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.
6.2.11.2. Selecting a host that will perform conversion Specify the machine that will perform the conversion. The machine has to have Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows, Agent for ESX/ESXi or Agent for Hyper-V installed. Take into account the following considerations. Which agent is installed on the host? The resulting virtual machine type and location depend on the agent that resides on the selected host.
Since the space is not pre-allocated, the physical disk on which the virtual machine will run is expected to have sufficient free space for the virtual disks to increase in size. 6.3. Recovering data When it comes to data recovery, first consider the most functional method: connect the console to the managed machine running the operating system and create the recovery task.
What to recover Archive (p. 217) Select the archive to recover data from. Data type (p. 217) Applies to: disk recovery Choose the type of data you need to recover from the selected disk backup. Content (p. 218) Select the backup and content to be recovered. Access credentials (p. 219) [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.
[Optional] Acronis Universal Restore Applies to: Windows OS and system volume recovery Universal Restore (p. 227) Use the Acronis Universal Restore when you need to recover and boot up Windows on dissimilar hardware. Automatic drivers search Specify where the program should search for HAL, mass storage and network adapter drivers. Acronis Universal Restore will install drivers that better fit the target hardware.
2. Click OK. To learn more about using credentials in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, see the Owners and credentials (p. 31) section. To learn more about operations available depending on the user privileges, see the User privileges on a managed machine (p. 31) section. 6.3.2. Archive selection Selecting the archive 1. Enter the full path to the location in the Path field, or select the desired folder in the folders tree.
• • Disks - to recover disks • Files - to recover specific files and folders Volumes - to recover volumes 6.3.4. Content selection The representation of this window depends on the type of data stored in the archive. 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.
6.3.5. Access credentials for location Specify the credentials required for access to the location where the backup archive is stored. To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: o Use the task credentials The program will access the location using the credentials of the task account specified in the General section. o Use the following credentials The program will access the location using the credentials you specify.
The new virtual machine will be configured automatically, the source machine configuration being copied where possible. The configuration is displayed in the Virtual Machine Settings (p. 224) section. Check the settings and make changes if necessary. Then you proceed to the regular disk mapping procedure described below. Existing virtual machine Available when the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Hyper-V or Agent for ESX/ESXi is installed.
The program will generate a new NT signature for the target hard disk drive. • Recover from backup The program will replace the NT signature of the target hard disk with one from the disk backup. Recovering the disk signature may be desirable due to the following reasons: o Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 creates scheduled tasks using the signature of the source hard disk.
Recover [Disk #] MBR to: [If the Master Boot Record is selected for recovery] Disk # (p. 222) Choose the disk to recover the Master Boot Record to. NT signature: (p. 220) Select the way the disk's signature contained in the MBR will be handled. The disk signature is used by Windows and the Linux kernel version 2.6 and later. Recover [Volume] [Letter] to: Disk # /Volume (p. 222) Sequentially map each of the source volumes to a volume or an unallocated space on the destination disk. Size (p.
Properties Type A basic MBR disk can contain up to four primary volumes or up to three primary volumes and multiple logical drives. By default, the program selects the original volume's type. You can change this setting, if required. • Primary. Information about primary volumes is contained in the MBR partition table. Most operating systems can boot only from the primary volume of the first hard disk, but the number of primary volumes is limited.
To select the virtualization server the new virtual machine will be created on 1. Choose the Place on the virtualization server that I select option. 2. In the left part of the window, select the virtualization server. Use the right part of the window to review details on the selected server. 3. Click OK to return to the Data recovery page. To select the type of virtual machine 1. Choose the Save as files of the VM type that I select to the folder that I specify option. 2.
This is the number of processors of the new virtual machine. In most cases it is set to one. The result of assignment of more than one processor to the machine is not guaranteed. The number of virtual processors may be limited by the host CPU configuration, the virtualization product and the guest operating system. Multiple virtual processors are generally available on multi-processor hosts. A multicore host CPU or hyperthreading may enable multiple virtual processors on a single-processor host. 6.3.6.5.
Exclusion examples Criterion Example Description By name File1.log Excludes all files named File1.log. By path C:\Finance\test.log Excludes the file named test.log located in the folder C:\Finance Mask (*) *.log Excludes all files with the .log extension. Mask (?) my???.log Excludes all .log files with names consisting of five symbols and starting with “my”. The above settings are not effective for the files or folders that were explicitly selected for recovery.
• Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK. 6.3.8. When to recover Select when to start the recovery task: • • Recover now - the recovery task will be started immediately after you click the final OK. Recover later - the recovery task will be started at the date and time you specify. If you do not need to schedule the task and wish to start it manually afterwards, select the Task will be started manually (do no schedule the task) check box. 6.3.9.
- If the drivers are on a vendor's disc or other removable media, turn on the Search removable media. - If the drivers are located in a networked folder or on the bootable media, specify the path to the folder in the Search folder field. During recovery, Universal Restore will perform the recursive search in all the sub-folders of the specified folder, find the most suitable HAL and HDD controller drivers of all those available, and install them into the recovered system.
XenServer virtual appliance can be imported to a XenServer using Citrix XenCenter. The VMware Workstation machine can be converted to the open virtualization format (OVF) using the VMware OVF tool. With Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Hyper-V or Agent for ESX/ESXi, you can recover a disk (volume) backup to a new virtual machine on the respective virtualization server. To convert a disk backup to a virtual machine: 1.
6.3.11. Bootability troubleshooting If a system was bootable at the time of backup, you expect that it will boot after recovery. However, the information the operating system stores and uses for booting up may become outdated during recovery, especially if you change volume sizes, locations or destination drives. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 automatically updates Windows loaders after recovery. Other loaders might also be fixed, but there are cases when you have to re-activate the loaders.
• The system loader points to the wrong volume This may happen when system or boot volumes are not recovered to their original location. Solution: Modification of the boot.ini or the boot\bcd files fixes this for Windows loaders. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 does this automatically and so you are not likely to experience the problem. For the GRUB and LILO loaders, you will need to correct the GRUB configuration files.
The lines starting with title, root, kernel, and initrd respectively determine: o The title of the menu item. o The device on which the Linux kernel is located—typically, this is the boot partition or the root partition, such as root (hd0,0) in this example. o The path to the kernel on that device and the root partition—in this example, the path is /vmlinuz-2.6.24.4 and the root partition is /dev/sda2.
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Windows Vista/2008 A part of the loader resides in the partition boot sector, the rest is in the files bootmgr, boot\bcd. At starting Windows, boot\bcd is mounted to the registry key HKLM \BCD00000000. 6.3.12.
6.3.13. 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).
Validation of an archive or of the latest backup in the archive can be scheduled as part of the backup plan. For more information see the Creating a backup plan (p. 194) section. You can access the Validation page from the Vaults (p. 123) 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.
o Use the following credentials The task will always run under the credentials you specify, whether started manually or executed on schedule. 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. To learn more about using credentials in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, see the Owners and credentials (p. 31) section.
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. Click OK. 6.4.3. Backup selection To specify a backup to validate 1. In the upper pane, select a backup by its creation date/time. The bottom part of the window displays the selected backup content, assisting you to find the right backup. 2. Click OK. 6.4.4.
o 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.
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. To do so, click Use anonymous access instead of entering credentials.
6.5.4. Volume selection Select the volumes to mount and configure the mounting parameters for each of the selected volumes as follows: 1. Select the check box for each volume you need to mount. 2. Click on the selected volume to set its mounting parameters. o Access mode - choose the mode you want the volume to be mounted in: • Read only - enables exploring and opening files within the backup without committing any changes.
The export operation can be applied to: • • a single archive - an exact archive copy will be created a single backup - an archive consisting of a single full backup will be created. The export of an incremental or a differential backup is performed using consolidation of the preceding backups up to the nearest full backup • your choice of backups belonging to the same archive - the resulting archive will contain only the specified backups.
Source and destination locations When the console is connected to a managed machine, you can export an archive or part of an archive to and from any location accessible to the agent residing on the machine. These include personal vaults, locally attached tape devices, removable media and, in the advanced product versions, managed and unmanaged centralized vaults. When the console is connected to a management server, two export methods are available: • export from a managed vault.
What to export Export Select an object to export: Archive (p. 217) - in that case, you need to specify the archive only. Backups (p. 245) - specify the archive first, and then select the desired backup(s) in this archive Access credentials (p. 246) [Optional] Provide credentials for accessing the source if the task account does not have enough privileges to access it. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box. Where to export Archive (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. o If the archive is stored in a centralized vault, expand the Centralized group and click the vault. o If the archive is stored in a personal vault, expand the Personal group and click the vault. o If the archive is stored in a local folder on the machine, expand the Local folders group and click the required folder.
2. Click OK. 6.7.4. Access credentials for source Specify credentials required for access to the location where the source archive (or the backup) is stored. To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: o Use the task credentials The program will access the location using the credentials of the task account specified in the General section. o Use the following credentials The program will access the location using the credentials you specify.
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. To do so, click Use anonymous access instead of entering credentials.
To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: o Use the task credentials The program will access the location using the credentials of the task account specified in the General section. o 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.
After you configure the required settings, click OK. In the Result confirmation (p. 250) 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. A machine can have only one Acronis Secure Zone. Acronis Secure Zone is created using unallocated space, if available, or at the expense of the volumes' free space.
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.
6.8.2.1. Increasing Acronis Secure Zone To increase Acronis Secure Zone 1. On the Manage Acronis Secure Zone page, click Increase. 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: o dragging the slider and selecting any size between the current and maximum values.
6.9. Acronis Startup Recovery Manager Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is a modification of the bootable agent (p. 373), residing on the system disk in Windows, or on the /boot partition in Linux and configured to start at boot time on pressing F11. It eliminates the need for a separate media or network connection to start the bootable rescue utility.
• back up offline any data that cannot be backed up online because of restricted access, being permanently locked by the running applications or for any other reason. A machine can be booted into the above environments either with physical media, or using the network boot from Acronis PXE Server, Windows Deployment Services (WDS) or Remote Installation Services (RIS). These servers with uploaded bootable components can be thought of as a kind of bootable media too.
• A media with Windows-style volume handling displays the volumes as, for example, C: and D:. It provides access to dynamic (LDM) volumes. The wizard will guide you through the necessary operations. Please refer to Linux-based bootable media (p. 255) for details. PE-based bootable media Acronis Plug-in for WinPE can be added to WinPE distributions based on any of the following kernels: • • Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (PE 1.5) • • Windows Vista (PE 2.
6.10.1.1. Linux-based bootable media When using the media builder, you have to specify: 1. [optional] The parameters of the Linux kernel. Separate multiple parameters with spaces. For example, to be able to select a display mode for the bootable agent each time the media starts, type: vga=ask For a list of parameters, see Kernel parameters (p. 255). 2. The Acronis bootable components to be placed on the media.
Parameters When specifying multiple parameters, separate them with spaces. acpi=off Disables Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). You may want to use this parameter when experiencing problems with a particular hardware configuration. noapic Disables Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC). You may want to use this parameter when experiencing problems with a particular hardware configuration.
nomouse Disables mouse support. module_name=off Disables the module whose name is given by module_name. For example, to disable the use of the SATA module, specify: sata_sis=off pci=bios Forces the use of PCI BIOS instead of accessing the hardware device directly. You may want to use this parameter if the machine has a non-standard PCI host bridge. pci=nobios Disables the use of PCI BIOS; only direct hardware access methods will be allowed.
Once the bootable agent starts on the server, it retrieves the list of available NICs. This list is sorted by the slots the NICs occupy: the closest to the processor on top. The bootable agent assigns each known NIC the appropriate settings, identifying the NICs by their MAC addresses. After the NICs with known MAC addresses are configured, the remaining NICs are assigned the settings that you have made for non-existent NICs, starting from the upper non-assigned NIC.
1. The Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore add-on is installed on the machine where the bootable media is created AND 2. You are creating a removable media or its ISO or detachable media, such as a flash drive. Drivers cannot be uploaded on a PXE server or WDS/RIS. The drivers can be added to the list only in groups, by adding the INF files or folders containing such files.
• • Creating the PE 2 ISO with the plug-in from scratch. Adding the Acronis Plug-in to a WIM file for any future purpose (manual ISO building, adding other tools to the image and so on). To be able to perform any of the above operations, install Bootable Media Builder on a machine where Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) is installed. If you do not have such machine, prepare as described in How to create bootable media (p. 253). Bootable Media Builder supports only x86 WinPE 2.x.
c:\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.iso For more information on customizing Windows PE, see the Windows Preinstallation Environment User’s Guide (Winpe.chm). 6.10.1.4. Building Bart PE with Acronis Plug-in from Windows distribution 1. Get the Bart PE builder. 2. Install Bootable Media Builder from the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 setup file. 3. Change the current folder to the folder where the Acronis Plug-in for WinPE is installed—by default: .
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console is always present on the bootable media. Anyone who has physical access to the machine terminal can run the console and connect. Just click Run management console in the bootable agent startup window. 6.10.3. Working under bootable media Operations on a machine booted with bootable media are very similar to backup and recovery under the operating system. The difference is as follows: 1.
6.10.3.2. Configuring iSCSI and NDAS devices This section describes how to configure Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) devices and Network Direct Attached Storage (NDAS) devices when working under bootable media. These devices are connected to the machine through a network interface and appear as if they were locally-attached devices. On the network, an iSCSI device is identified by its IP address, and an NDAS device is identified by its device ID.
• trueimagecmd • trueimagemnt Linux commands and utilities busybox ifconfig readcd cat init reboot cdrecord insmod rm chmod iscsiadm rmmod chown kill route chroot kpartx scp cp ln scsi_id dd ls sed df lspci sg_map26 dmesg lvm sh dmraid mc sleep e2fsck mdadm ssh e2label mkdir sshd echo mke2fs strace egrep mknod swapoff fdisk mkswap swapon fsck more sysinfo fxload mount tar gawk mtx tune2fs gpm mv udev grep parted udevinfo growisofs pccardctl
hotplug raidautorun zcat 6.10.5. Recovering MD devices and logical volumes To recover Linux Software RAID devices, known as MD devices, and/or devices created by Logical Volume Manager (LVM), known as logical volumes, you need to create the corresponding volume structure before starting the recovery.
5. Return to the management console by pressing CTRL+ALT+F1, or by running the command: /bin/product 6. Click Recover, then specify the path to the archive and any other required parameters, and then click OK. If Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 could not create the volume structure (or if it is not present in the archive), create the structure manually. 6.10.5.2.
• A logical volume is based /dev/my_volgroup/my_logvol. on the two MD devices and is mounted on The following picture illustrates this configuration. Do the following to recover data from this archive. Step 1: Creating the volume structure 1. Boot the machine from a Linux-based bootable media. 2. In the management console, press CTRL+ALT+F2. 3.
lvm vgchange -a y my_volgroup 7. Press CTRL+ALT+F1 to return to the management console. Step 2: Starting the recovery 1. In the management console, click Recover. 2. In Archive, click Change and then specify the name of the archive. 3. In Backup, click Change and then select the backup from which you want to recover data. 4. In Data type, select Volumes. 5. In Items to recover, select the check box next to my_volgroup-my_logvol. 6.
trueimagemnt --unmount /mnt 6.10.6. Acronis PXE Server Acronis PXE Server allows for booting machines to Acronis bootable components through the network. Network booting: • eliminates the need to have a technician onsite to install the bootable media into the system that must be booted • during group operations, reduces the time required for booting multiple machines as compared to using physical bootable media.
On a machine that has an operating system on the hard disk, the BIOS must be configured so that the network interface card is either the first boot device, or at least prior to the Hard Drive device. The example below shows one of reasonable BIOS configurations. If you don’t insert bootable media, the machine will boot from the network. In some BIOS versions, you have to save changes to BIOS after enabling the network interface card so that the card appears in the list of boot devices.
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. In such case with the help of Acronis Disk Director Lite, the user has the possibility to recreate the necessary disk configuration so that the volume image can be recovered exactly “as it was” or with any alteration of the disk or volume structure the user might consider necessary.
6.11.3. Choosing the operating system for disk management On a machine with two or more operating systems, representation of disks and volumes depends on which operating system is currently running. A volume may have a different letter in different Windows operating systems. For example, volume E: might appear as D: or L: when you boot another Windows operating system installed on the same machine.
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. 6.11.5. Disk operations Acronis Disk Director Lite includes the following operations that can be performed on disks: • • • • • • Disk Initialization (p. 273) - initializes the new hardware added to the system Basic disk cloning (p.
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. Acronis Disk Director Lite allows the operation to be carried out to basic MBR disks only.
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. (To finish the added operation you will have to commit (p. 285) it.
4. Click Commit on the toolbar and then click Proceed in the Pending Operations window. 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.
system, the operating system will stop loading after such conversion or some volumes on the selected GPT disk will not be accessible with MBR (e.g. volumes located more than 2 TB from the beginning of the disk) you will be warned here about such damage. 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.
If you need to convert a dynamic disk to basic: 1. Select the dynamic disk to convert to basic. 2. Right-click on the selected volume, and then click Convert to basic in the context menu. You will receive a final warning about the dynamic disk being converted to basic. 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.
• Offline The offline status means that a disk is accessible in the read-only mode. To bring the selected offline disk back to online, select Change disk status to online from the Operations menu. If the disk has the offline status and the disk's name is Missing, this means that the disk cannot be located or identified by the operating system. It may be corrupted, disconnected, or powered off.
Spanned Volume A volume created from free disk space virtually linked together by the LDM from several physical disks. Up to 32 disks can be included into one volume, thus overcoming the hardware size limitations, but if at least one disk fails, all data will be lost, and no part of a spanned volume may be removed without destroying the entire volume. So, a spanned volume provides no additional reliability, nor a better I/O rate.
If you want to create a volume: Run the Create volume wizard by selecting Create volume on the Wizards bar, or right-click any unallocated space and select Create volume in the appearing context menu. Select the type of volume being created At the first step you have to specify the type of volume you want to create.
If need be, you will be prompted to add the necessary number of disks to your selection, according to the chosen type of the future volume. If you click the Back button, you will be returned to the previous page: Select the type of volume being created (p. 281). If you click the Next button, you will proceed to the next page: Set the volume size (p. 282). Set the volume size On the third wizard page, you will be able to define the size of the future volume, according to the previously made selections.
A Basic disk can contain up to four primary volumes. If they already exist, the disk will have to be converted into dynamic, otherwise or Active and Primary options will be disabled and you will only be able to select the Logical volume type. The warning message will advise you that an OS installed on this volume will not be bootable.
If there is no other active volume in the system, the pending operation of setting active volume will be added. Please note, that due to setting the new active volume, the former active volume letter might be changed and some of the installed programs might stop running. 3. If another active volume is present in the system, you will receive the warning that the previous active volume will have to be set passive first.
If you need to change a volume label: 1. Right-click on the selected volume, and then click Change label. 2. Enter a new label in the Change label window text field. 3. By clicking OK in the Change label window, you'll add the pending operation of changing the volume label . If when setting a new volume label you use characters that are unsupported by the currently installed operating system, you will get the appropriate warning and the OK button will be disabled.
This approach enables you to control all planned operations, double-check the intended changes, and, if necessary, cancel operations before they are executed. To prevent you from performing any unintentional change on your disk, the program will first display the list of all pending operations. The Disk management view contains the toolbar with icons to launch the Undo, Redo and Commit actions intended for pending operations. These actions might also be launched from the Disk management menu of the console.
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. 7.1.1.
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. 125) view where you can examine the vault size, free space, content and take the necessary steps to increase the free space.
Activities The stacked column chart lets you explore the daily history of the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agents' activities. The history is based on the log entries, collected from the registered machines and from the management server. The chart shows the number of log entries of each type (error, warning, information) for a particular day. Statistics for the selected date are displayed to the right of the chart. All the statistics fields are interactive, i.e.
• Use the Information pane's tabs to view detailed information about the selected policy and perform additional operations, such as revoke the policy, view details of the machine (group) the policy is applied to, etc. The panel is collapsed by default. To expand the panel, click the chevron. The content of the pane is also duplicated in the Policy details (p. 293) window. • Use the filtering and sorting (p. 293) capabilities of the policy table for easy browsing and examination. 7.1.2.1.
o o Select the policy and click View tasks. Check the tasks that have Failed as their last result: select a task and then click View log. Select a log entry and then click View details. This approach comes in handy if the policy state is Deployed, that is, the policies' tasks already exist on the managed machines. Select the policy and click View log. Check the "error" log entries to find out the reason of the failure: select a log entry and then click View details.
To Do Create a backup policy Click Create backup policy. The procedure of creating a backup policy is described in-depth in the Creating a backup policy (p. 348) section. Apply policy to machines or groups Click Edit a policy Click Apply to. In the Machines selection (p. 292) window, specify the machines (groups) the selected backup policy will be applied to. If the machine is currently offline, the policy will be deployed when the machine comes online again. Edit.
The Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server will deploy the policy to the selected machines and machines belonging to the selected groups. Filtering and sorting backup policies The following is a guideline for you to filter and sort backup policies. 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.
Settings The tab displays information about the backup scheme used by the policy and backup options that were modified against the default settings. Applied to The tab displays a list of machines and groups the selected policy is applied to. Actions To Do View details of the machine (group). Click In the Machine details (p. 301)/Group details (p. 310) window, examine all information on the selected machine (or the selected group). View tasks of the machine (group).
The main goal of grouping is protection of multiple machines with one policy. Once a machine appears in a group, the policy applied to the group is applied to the machine and the new tasks are created by the policy on the machine. Once a machine is removed from a group, the policy applied to the group will be revoked from the machine and the tasks created by the policy will be removed. Built-in group - a group that always exists on a management server. The group cannot be deleted or renamed.
7.1.3.1. Actions on machines Registering machines on the management server Once the machine is added or imported to the All physical machines group, it becomes registered on the management server. Registered machines are available for deploying backup policies and for performing other centralized management operations. Registration provides a trusted relationship between the agent, residing on the machine, and the management server.
Add a machine to another static group Click Add to another group. In the Add to group (p. 300) window, specify the group to copy the selected machine to. The backup policies applied to the groups the machine is a member of will be applied to the machine. For machines in custom groups Add machines to a static group Click Move a machine to another static group Click Add machines to group. In the Add machines to group (p. 301) window, select the machines that you need to add. Move to another group.
View log entries of a machine Click Update all information related to the machine Click Refresh a list of machines Click View log. The Log (p. 322) view will display a list of the machine's log entries. Synchronize. The management server will query the machine and update the database with the most recent information. Along with synchronizing, the refresh operation will be performed automatically in order to update the list of the machines. Refresh.
Machine management, then opt for Centralized management and then enter the management server's name or IP address and the management server administrator's credentials. Importing machines from Active Directory To import machines from Active Directory 1. In the Navigation tree, select 2. Click Physical machines, or All physical machines. Import machines from Active Directory on the toolbar. 3. In the Search for field, type the machine's (or the organizational unit) name, then click Search.
another machine. This means all policies, both inherited and directly applied, will be revoked from the machine and its static group membership will be lost. 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). To avoid a discrepancy, you can initially import the machines from a text file.
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.
o o o o Offline - the machine is unavailable for the management server: it is turned off, or its network cable is unplugged. 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 Stand-alone management parameter is selected in the Options > Machine options > Machine management (p. 87).
Filtering and sorting Filtering and sorting of the backup policies is performed in the same way as for the Backup policies view. See the Filtering and sorting backup policies (p. 293) section for details. 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.
Stop a plan/task Backup plan Click Stop. Stopping the running backup plan stops all its tasks. Thus, all the task operations will be aborted. 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. To complete the operation you will have to run the task again.
• Task belongs to a backup plan Only tasks that do not belong to a backup plan, such as a recovery task, can be modified by direct editing. When you need to modify a task belonging to a local backup plan, edit the backup plan. A task belonging to a centralized backup plan can be modified by editing the centralized policy that spawned the plan. 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.
Operations To Do View details of a group Click View details. You will be taken to the Group details window, where you can examine all information related to this group. View tasks related to a group View log related to a group Remove machine from a group. Click View tasks. You will be taken to the Tasks view with pre-filtered tasks related to the selected backup group. Click View log. This opens Log view with pre-filtered log entries of the selected group. Click Remove.
Filter machines by name. Type a machine's name in the field below the corresponding column's header. As a result you will see the list of machines, whose names fully or just partly coincide with the entered value. Filter machines by status, last connect, last backup, availability. In a field below the corresponding column's header, select the required value from the list. Configuring the machines table By default, the table has five columns that are displayed, others are hidden.
Move one custom group to another Click Delete a custom group Click Move to. In the Move to group (p. 310) window, specify a group that will be a new parent of the selected group. Delete. Deletion of a parent group will delete its child groups as well. Backup policies applied to the parent group and inherited by its child groups will be revoked from all members of the deleted groups. The the policies that are directly applied to the members will remain. Refresh a list of groups Click Refresh.
a) All the entries of the same criteria are combined by logical addition (OR). For example, the following set of criteria Operating system: Windows Server 2008 Operating system: Windows Server 2003 will add to the same group all the machines whose operating system is Windows 2000 OR Windows 2003.
If you later modify the file, the contents of the group will change accordingly. The file is checked every 15 minutes. If you later delete the file or if it becomes unavailable, the contents of the group will correspond to the list that was last stored in the file. Text file requirements The file should contain machine names or IP addresses, one machine per line. Example: Machine_name_1 Machine_name_2 192.168.1.14 192.168.1.
This information is also duplicated in the Information panel.
The policy that is directly applied to the group is displayed as follows: Group name The following example illustrates how the policy that is applied on the group through inheritance is displayed. Group1 > Group2 > Group3 Group1 in the root contains Group2 to which the policy is applied directly. Group2, in turn, contains child Group3 that inherits the policy from the parent. The group to which the policy was applied directly is boldfaced and marked with an icon. All items are interactive, i.e.
Adding ESX/ESXi virtual machines 1. VMware Tools have to be installed in the guest systems. 2. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for ESX/ESXi is delivered as a virtual appliance. Do either of the following: o Deploy the agent (p. 314) to the ESX/ESXi server or o Install and configure the agent manually as described in "Installing ESX/ESXi virtual appliance" o Add (p.
Grouping of virtual machines The Virtual machines section of the navigation tree contains one built-in group called All virtual machines. You cannot modify this group manually, delete or move it. You can apply policies that back up disks or volumes to this group. You can create both static and dynamic groups of virtual machines. Any virtual machine that is currently available can be added to a static group. You cannot create groups that contain both physical and virtual machines.
Network interface: This is the host's internal network the virtual appliance will be included in. If there are multiple networks on the host, the program selects the one that is more suitable for the agent operation and specifies this network as default. Only those networks that have a connection to the host's Service Console (or Management Network, in terms of the VMware Infrastructure) are available for selection. This is critical to the operation of the agent.
3. Select the Enable VMware vCenter integration check box 4. Specify the vCenter Server's IP address or name and provide access credentials for the server 5. Click OK As a result, a group that has the same name as the vCenter Server appears on the management server under Virtual machines. For more information, please refer to "VMware vCenter integration (p. 86)." To remove integration with a VMware vCenter Server: 1.
• Information panel Contains the detailed information about the selected storage node and lets you manage the chevron. The compacting task. The panel is collapsed by default. To expand the panel, click the content of the pane is also duplicated in the Storage node details (p. 319) window. Way of working with storage nodes (typical workflow) 1. Install the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node. 2. Create a user account for each user whom you want to allow to access the storage node.
the selected storage node The Create managed vault page (p. 128) will be opened with the pre-selected storage node. Perform the remaining steps to create the vault. Change the compacting task schedule After deleting backups from deduplicating vaults, either manually or during cleanup, unreferenced data may appear in the deduplicating vaults and their databases. The compacting procedure deletes such data in order to free up more storage space. Only one compacting task is available per storage node.
7.1.5.2. Storage node details The Storage node details window accumulates in four tabs all information on the selected Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node. This information is also duplicated on the Information pane.
To learn more about task states and statuses, see the Task states (p. 182) and Task statuses (p. 183) sections. Way of working with tasks • Use the filtering and sorting (p. 321) capabilities to display the desired tasks in the table. • Select a task to take an action on it. 7.1.6.1. Actions on tasks The following is a guideline for you to perform operations with tasks.
Edit a task Click Edit. Why can't I edit the task? • Task belongs to a backup plan Only tasks that do not belong to a backup plan, such as a recovery task, can be modified by direct editing. When you need to modify a task belonging to a local backup plan, edit the backup plan. A task belonging to a centralized backup plan can be modified by editing the centralized policy that spawned the plan. Only the management server administrator can do this.
Filter tasks by type, execution state, status, type, origin, last result, schedule. In a field below the corresponding header, select the required value from the list. Configuring tasks table By default, the table has eight 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.
• Select the log entry (or log entries) to take action on it (them). See the Actions on log entries (p. 323) section for details. • Use the Information panel to review the detailed information on the selected log entry. The chevron. The content of the panel panel is collapsed by default. To expand the panel, click the is also duplicated in the Log entry details (p. 325) window.
Save all the filtered log entries to a file 2 Click 3 In the opened window, specify a path and a name for the file. 1 Set filters to get a list of the log entries that satisfy the filtering criteria. 2 Click 3 In the opened window, specify a path and a name for the file. As a result, the log entries of that list will be saved. Delete all the log entries Click Set up the logging level Click 7.1.7.2. Save All to File. Save All to File. Clear Log.
7.1.7.3. Centralized log entry details Displays detailed information on the log entry you have selected and lets you copy the details to the clipboard. To copy the details, click the Copy to clipboard button.
7.1.8. Reporting Reporting provides the management server administrator with detailed and well-structured information concerning the enterprise data protection operations. Reports can be used as an instrument for profound analysis of the whole backup infrastructure within a corporate network. The management server generates reports using statistics and logs which are collected from registered machines and are stored in the dedicated databases. Reports are generated based on report templates.
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. Select either physical machines or virtual machines. • • Status: The machine statuses—OK, Warning, and/or Error. Last connection (physical machines only): The period within which the last connection between the machines and the management server occurred.
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. 7.1.8.3. Report about the backup plans In this view, you can generate a report about backup plans existing on registered machines. This report consists of one or more tables. Filters Under Filters, choose which backup plans to include in the report.
• 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. • • • • Type: The task types—for example, disk backup tasks. • • Machines: The list of machines on which the tasks exist.
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.
• 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. The default setting means all backup policies that ever existed during the report period. • • Machines: The list of machines on which the tasks exist.
7.2. Configuring Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components There are three ways to configure various parameters of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components in Windows: • • By using Acronis Administrative Template • By modifying the Windows registry By using the graphical user interface (GUI) In Linux, instead of using the administrative template and modifying the registry, parameters are configured by editing the corresponding configuration files.
Once the template is loaded, you can open it and edit the desired settings. After loading the template or editing its settings, you should restart the configured component(s) or some of their services. For detailed information about Windows GPO Editor please see: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374163.aspx For detailed information about Group Policies please see: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374177.aspx 7.2.1.2.
Possible values: Any integer number between 1 and 2147483647 Default value: 50 The backup queue is a list of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components that are awaiting connection to the storage node or are currently connected to it (see the previous parameter). When the number of components in the backup queue is equal to the value in Backup Queue Limit, and another component tries to establish a connection, the storage node does not put the component in the queue.
Note: The parameters Vault Free Space Warning Limit and Vault Free Space Warning Percentage are independent of each other: a warning will be recorded every time that either of the thresholds is reached. Vault Free Space Error Limit Description: Specifies the amount of free space in a managed vault, in megabytes, below which an error is recorded in the storage node's log and any backup to the vault becomes prohibited.
Trace State Description: Specifies whether to collect the log entries about the components' events from the registered machines. Possible values: True or False Default value: True Trace Level Description: Specifies the minimum level of severity of collected entries. Only entries of levels greater than or equal to the value in Trace Level will be collected.
Default value: 4 (only errors and critical errors will be recorded—if Trace State is set to True) SNMP Specifies the types of the management server's events to send notifications about by means of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). This parameter contains the following settings: Trace State Description: Specifies whether to send the SNMP notifications.
Otherwise, it connects to a number of registered machines depending on the allotted number of simultaneous connections. After synchronization for a machine is complete, the management server may disconnect from that machine and use the free connection for synchronization with another machine, and so on. (Note: Connections to machines with high synchronization priority—see Period-High Priority later in this topic—are likely to be always kept.
Default value: False By default, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server connects to registered machines to perform synchronization—in particular, to retrieve data such as backup logs. This approach is known as a polling mechanism. If Real Time Monitoring is set to True, the management server instead sends requests to machines to provide new data whenever it will appear, and then enters a listening mode. This approach is called real-time monitoring.
Backup Specifies the location and initial size of the snapshot storage—a temporary file that is used when backing up data by taking a snapshot. This file is deleted as soon as the backup is complete. With the default settings, the snapshot storage is created in a Windows' temporary files folder and occupies 50 percent of the space available on the volume containing that folder. This size may then grow if more space is needed for the snapshot.
7.2.1.4. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows The following are the parameters of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent that can be set by using Acronis Administrative Template. Licensing Specifies how often the agent checks its license on the license server, and how long it can work without a license server. License Check Interval (in days) Description: Specifies how often, in days, to check for license availability on Acronis License Server.
License Server Address Description: Specifies the network name or IP address of Acronis License Server. Possible values: Any string 0 to 32765 characters long Default value: Empty string Log Cleanup Rules Specifies how to clean up the agent log. This parameter has the following settings: Max Size Description: Specifies the maximum size of the agent log folder, in kilobytes.
Possible values: True or False Default value: False 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.
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. Description: Specifies the initial size of the snapshot storage as a percentage of the disk space that is available at the time of starting the backup.
Not Configured 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.
Enabled Encryption is enabled. In Encryption, select one of the following: Enabled Data transfer will be encrypted if encryption is enabled on the client application, otherwise it will be unencrypted. 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.
5 Critical Event that resulted in the termination of a process such as the agent's process Event tracing parameters are specified as the following settings in the administrative template: 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.
node will lose access to those vaults until you re-attach them, and re-attaching a vault—especially a deduplicating one—may take a considerable amount of time. DatabasePath Description: Specifies the folder where Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node stores its non-tape vaults database. This database contains a list of vaults that are managed by the storage node, other than tape vaults (see the next parameter). Its typical size does not exceed a few kilobytes.
What to back up Items to back up (p. 351) Specify which data items to back up on each machine the policy will be deployed to. On each of the machines, the agent will find the data items using the rules you specify. For example, if the selection rule is [All volumes], the entire machine will be backed up. Access credentials (p. 356) [Optional] Provide credentials for the source data if the backup policy account does not have access permissions to the data.
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 this section of the Create Backup Policy page.
7.3.1. Policy credentials Provide the credentials under which the centralized tasks will run on the machines. To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: o Use Acronis service credentials The tasks will run under the Acronis service account, whether started manually or executed on schedule. o Use the following credentials The tasks will run under the credentials you specify, whether started manually or executed on schedule. Specify: • User name.
To include In the Volumes column: Comments Windows and Linux volumes All volumes Type or select: [All Volumes] Refers to all volumes on machines running Windows, and all mounted volumes on machines running Linux. Windows volumes Volume C: Type C:\ or select it from the list System volume Type or select: [System Volume] The system volume contains the hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com.
What does a disk or volume backup store? For supported file systems, a disk or volume backup stores only those sectors that contain data. This reduces the resulting backup size and speeds up the backup and recovery operations. 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.
Standard names for Linux partitions Names such as /dev/hda1 reflect the standard way of naming IDE hard disk partitions in Linux. The prefix hd signifies the disk type (IDE); a means that this is the first IDE hard disk on the system, and 1 denotes the first partition on the disk.
Environment variables Some environment variables point to Windows folders. Using such variables instead of full folder and file paths ensures that proper Windows folders are backed up regardless of where Windows is located on a particular machine.
7.3.3. Access credentials for source Specify credentials required for access to the data you are going to back up. To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: o Use the policy credentials The program will access the source data using the credentials of the backup policy account specified in the General section. o Use the following credentials The program will access the source data using the credentials you specify.
Exclusion examples Criterion Example Description By name File1.log Excludes all files named File1.log. By path C:\Finance\test.log Excludes the file named test.log located in the folder C:\Finance Mask (*) *.log Excludes all files with the .log extension. Mask (?) my???.log Excludes all .log files with names consisting of five symbols and starting with “my”. 7.3.5. Archive Specify where to store the archives and define names for the new backup archives. 1.
1.
• Grandfather-Father-Son – to use the Grandfather-Father-Son backup scheme. The scheme does not allow data to be backed up more than once a day. You set the days of week when the daily backup will be performed and select from these days the day of weekly/monthly backup. Then you set the retention periods for the daily (referred to as "sons"), weekly (referred to as "fathers") and monthly (referred to as "grandfathers") backups. The expired backups will be deleted automatically.
7.3.7.4. Grandfather-Father-Son scheme At a glance • • • Daily incremental, weekly differential, and monthly full backups Custom day for weekly and monthly backups 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.
Weekly/Monthly: Specifies which of the days selected in the Back up on field you want to reserve for weekly and monthly backups. A monthly backup will be performed every fourth such day. The default value is Friday. 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.
o 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. For instance, a daily backup of Sunday, January 1, will be available through next Sunday, January 8; the first weekly backup, the one of Saturday, January 7, will be stored on the system until February 7. Monthly backups will never be deleted.
• • Back up on: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday • Keep backups: o Daily: 6 months o Weekly: 6 months o Monthly: 5 years Weekly/monthly: Friday 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.
every 3 days, starting from January 15. During the specified days the task will be repeated every 2 hours from 10 AM to 10 PM). Thus, complex schedules specify the sessions on which the scheme should run. In the discussion below, "days" can be replaced with "scheduled sessions". Number of levels Select from 2 to 16 backup levels. See the example stated below for details. Roll-back period The guaranteed number of sessions that one can go back in the archive at any time.
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).
Parameters Parameter Meaning Full backup Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform a full backup. For example, the full backup can be set up to run every Sunday at 1:00 AM as soon as all users are logged off. 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.
Apply the rules Specifies when to apply the retention rules (p. 39). (only if the retention rules are set) For example, the cleanup procedure can be set up to run after each backup, and also on schedule. This option is available only if you have set at least one retention rule in Retention rules. Cleanup schedule Specifies a schedule for archive cleanup. (only if On schedule is selected) For example, the cleanup can be scheduled to start on the last day of each month.
Incremental: Schedule: Weekly, every workday, at 7:00 PM Differential: Schedule: Weekly, every Saturday, at 8:00 PM Further, we want to add conditions that have to be satisfied for a backup task to start. This is set up in the Conditions fields for each backup type.
If you have also specified the retention rules in your backup scheme, the scheme will result in four tasks: three backup tasks and one cleanup task. 7.3.8. 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.
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. 376) 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.
Agent (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent) An application that performs data backup and recovery and enables other management operations on the machine (p. 379), such as task management and operations with hard disks. The type of data that can be backed up depends on the agent type. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 includes the agents for backing up disks and files and the agents for backing up virtual machines residing on virtualization servers. Agent-side cleanup Cleanup (p. 375) performed by an agent (p.
Backup options Configuration parameters of a backup operation (p. 371), 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. 372). 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 where to store the backup archive (p. 371) (the backup archive name and location) the backup scheme (p.
3. The management server deploys the policy to the machines. 4. On each machine, the agent (p. 371) 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. 372) using other rules specified by the policy. Such backup plan is called a centralized plan (p. 374). 6.
A management server has two built-in groups that contain all machines of each type: All physical machines (p. 380), All virtual machines (p. 383). 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 deleting the machine from the management server. Virtual machines are deleted as a result of their host server deletion. A backup policy (p.
On a machine that is not registered on the management server, a user having the privilege to back up to the centralized vault can do so by specifying the full path to the vault. If the vault is managed, the user's archives will be managed by the storage node as well as other archives stored in the vault. Cleanup Deleting backups (p. 371) from a backup archive (p. 371) in order to get rid of outdated backups or prevent the archive from exceeding the desired size.
Differential backup A differential backup stores changes to the data against the latest full backup (p. 378). You need access to the corresponding full backup to recover the data from a differential backup. Direct management Any management operation that is performed on a managed machine (p. 379) using the direct console (p. 375)-agent (p. 371) connection (as opposed to centralized management (p. 374) when the operations are configured on the management server (p.
and the foreign disks so that they form a single entity. A foreign group is imported as is (will have the original name) if no disk group exists on the machine. For more information about disk groups please refer to the following Microsoft knowledge base article: 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.
• IP address range. A machine remains in a dynamic group as long as the machine meets the group's criteria. The machine is removed from the group automatically as soon as • • the machine's properties change so that the machine does not meet the criteria anymore OR 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.
F Full backup A self-sufficient backup (p. 371) 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. 373) aimed to maintain the optimal balance between a backup archive (p. 371) size and the number of recovery points (p. 381) available from the archive.
Managed vault A centralized vault (p. 374) managed by a storage node (p. 381). Archives (p. 371) 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. 382) and storage node-side validation (p. 382) for each archive stored in the managed vault.
Plan See Backup plan (p. 372). Policy See Backup policy (p. 372). R Recovery point Date and time to which the backed up data can be reverted to. Registered machine A machine (p. 379) managed by a management server (p. 380). A machine can be registered on only one management server at a time. A machine becomes registered as a result of the registration (p. 381) procedure. Registration A procedure that adds a managed machine (p. 379) to a management server (p. 380).
• prevent access to the backup archives, even in case the storage medium is stolen or accessed by a malefactor, by using encrypted vaults (p. 378). Storage node-side cleanup Cleanup (p. 375) performed by a storage node (p. 381) according to the backup plans (p. 372) that produce the archives (p. 371) stored in a managed vault (p. 379). Being an alternative to the agentside cleanup (p. 371), 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. 370) (using F11) or • when using Acronis Active Restore (p.
Virtual machine On Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server, a machine (p. 379) is considered virtual if it can be backed up from the virtualization host without installing an agent (p. 371) 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.
Actions on a tape library vault • 135 Index Actions on backup plans and tasks • 181, 184 A Actions on backup policies • 289, 291 A policy on a machine or a group • 57 Actions on centralized vaults • 54, 124, 125, 126 About Windows loaders • 232 Access credentials • 239, 240 Access credentials for archive location • 194, 201 Access credentials for destination • 215, 226, 244, 247 Access credentials for location • 215, 219, 349, 358 Actions on groups • 295, 307 Actions on log entries • 191, 323 Action
At Windows Event Log event • 171 Backup splitting • 91, 105 Attaching a managed vault • 127, 131 Basic concepts • 8, 25, 51, 194 B Basic disk cloning • 273, 274 Basic precautions • 271 Back up later scheme • 202, 359 Back up now scheme • 202, 359 Backing up dynamic volumes (Windows) • 41, 214 Backing up to tape library • 136 Backup • 25, 29, 371, 375, 376, 378, 379, 383 Backup archive (Archive) • 19, 25, 371, 372, 374, 375, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383 Backup operation • 371, 372 Backup options • 372,
Components for centralized management • 19 D Compression level • 91, 100 Daily schedule • 163, 207, 318, 363 Conditions • 108, 173 Dashboard • 178, 180, 287 Configuring Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components • 332 Data type • 215, 217 Configuring communication settings • 74, 75, 78 Deduplicating vault • 375 Configuring iSCSI and NDAS devices • 263 Connecting to a machine booted from media • 261 Console (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console) • 25, 370, 373, 375, 376 Decreasing Acronis
Drivers for Universal Restore • 255, 258 Dual destination • 46, 92, 108 Full, incremental and differential backups • 25, 29, 202, 359 Dynamic disk • 41, 370, 376, 377, 378 G Dynamic group • 374, 377 Getting started • 8 Dynamic volume • 41, 373, 378 Getting started with a tape library • 134 E GFS (Grandfather-Father-Son) • 373, 379, 382 Editing custom groups • 307, 310 E-mail • 92, 102, 115, 117 Encrypted archive • 378 Encrypted vault • 316, 378, 382 Error handling • 92, 107, 114, 120 GFS backup s
Introducing Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10 • 7 Inventory • 134, 137, 154 Items to back up • 194, 197, 349, 351 K Kernel parameters • 255 Management Server • 8, 19 Management server (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server) • 10, 20, 51, 82, 372, 373, 374, 375, 376, 377, 380, 381 Management server administrator rights • 72 Management server options • 83 L Managing a tape library • 127, 137 Labeling • 137, 138 Managing Acronis Secure Zone • 250 License Server • 21 Managing mounted images • 241
Organizational unit criterion • 85, 308, 309 Privileges for centralized management • 69 Overview • 64, 113, 124, 128, 132, 316 Privileges for local connection • 70 Overwriting • 226 Privileges for remote connection in Windows • 70 Owners and credentials • 31, 155, 217, 236, 244, 325 P Proprietary Acronis technologies • 46 Protecting the servers • 54 Protecting the virtual machines • 56 Parameters set through administrative template • 332 Protecting the workstations • 55 Parameters set through GUI
Run backup plan • 185, 188, 303 Running Acronis Disk Director Lite • 271 S Scheduling • 108, 162, 203, 212, 238, 359, 369 Secure communication • 74 Select destination disks • 281, 282 Select the type of volume being created • 281, 282 Selecting a host that will perform conversion • 195, 196, 213, 350 Storage node (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node) • 19, 52, 374, 375, 378, 380, 381, 382 Storage node details • 317, 318, 319 Storage nodes • 316 Storage node-side cleanup • 20, 124, 316, 380, 381, 382
ToH Example 2 • 149, 150 Vault path • 128, 130 ToH Example 3 • 149, 151 Vaults • 41, 123, 235, 250, 317 Tower of Hanoi • 373, 382 Views • 14 Tower of Hanoi backup scheme • 37, 132, 141, 382 Virtual machine • 374, 384 Tower of Hanoi scheme • 206, 363 Virtual machine settings • 220, 221, 224, 229 Types of connection to a managed machine • 69 Virtual machine type / virtualization server selection • 219, 221, 223 Types of dynamic volumes • 279 Virtual machines • 312 U Virtual machines on a manage
