Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.
Copyright Statement Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2012. All rights reserved. “Acronis” and “Acronis Secure Zone” are registered trademarks of Acronis International GmbH. "Acronis Compute with Confidence", “Acronis Startup Recovery Manager”, “Acronis Active Restore” and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis International GmbH. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. VMware and VMware Ready are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc.
Table of contents 1 Introducing Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 ........................................................................... 8 1.1 What's new in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 .......................................................................8 1.2 Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 components .......................................................................... 8 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 2 1.3 About the trial product version ..............................................................
.4 Scheduling................................................................................................................................57 4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3 4.4.4 4.4.5 4.5 Replication and retention of backups......................................................................................69 4.5.1 4.5.2 4.5.3 4.5.4 4.5.5 4.5.6 4.6 Additional settings ......................................................................................................................................
.5 Bootability troubleshooting .................................................................................................. 121 5.5.1 5.5.2 5.6 Reverting a Windows system to its factory settings............................................................. 125 5.7 Default recovery options ...................................................................................................... 125 5.7.1 5.7.2 5.7.3 5.7.4 5.7.5 5.7.6 5.7.7 5.7.8 6 6.1 Conversion methods ..........................
8.3.4 8.3.5 8.4 Operations available in vaults............................................................................................... 164 8.4.1 8.4.2 8.4.3 8.4.4 9 Volume selection ..................................................................................................................................... 163 Managing mounted images .................................................................................................................... 164 Operations with archives ..........
11.2 Log......................................................................................................................................... 207 11.2.1 11.2.2 Actions on log entries .............................................................................................................................. 207 Log entry details ...................................................................................................................................... 208 11.3 Alerts .......................
1 Introducing Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 1.1 What's new in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 The following is a summary of the product's new features and enhancements. Support for various types of storage Acronis Online Backup Storage Replicating or moving backups to Acronis Online Backup Storage (p. 75). The Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi backup schemes are now available when backing up to Acronis Online Backup Storage. Bootable media New Linux kernel version (3.4.
Disk backup Disk-level data protection is based on backing up either a disk or a volume file system as a whole, along with all the information necessary for the operating system to boot; or all the disk sectors using the sector-by-sector approach (raw mode). A backup that contains a copy of a disk or a volume in a packaged form is called a disk (volume) backup or a disk (volume) image. It is possible to recover disks or volumes as a whole from such backup, as well as individual folders or files.
1.3 About the trial product version Before buying an Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 license, you may want to try the software. The trial key required at installation can be obtained on the Acronis Web site. Limitations of the trial version The Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 trial version has the following limitation: The Universal Restore functionality is disabled. Additional limitations for bootable media: The disk management functionality is not available.
Product Updates You can download the latest updates for all your registered Acronis software products from our website at any time after logging into your Account (https://www.acronis.eu/my) and registering the product. See Registering Acronis Products at the Website (http://kb.acronis.com/content/4834) and Acronis Website User Guide (http://kb.acronis.com/content/8128). 11 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2012.
2 Getting started Step 1. Installation These brief installation instructions enable you to start using the product quickly. For the complete description of installation methods and procedures, please refer to the Installation documentation. Before installation, make sure that: Your hardware meets the system requirements. You have license keys for the edition of your choice. You have the setup program. You can download it from the Acronis Web site. To install Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.
Create a backup plan if you need a long-term backup strategy including backup schemes, schedules and conditions, timely deleting of backups, or moving them to different locations. Step 5. Recovery Recover (p. 99) To recover data, you need to select the backed up data and the destination the data will be recovered to. As a result, a recovery task will be created. Recovery of a disk or volume over a volume locked by the operating system requires a reboot.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Management Console - Welcome screen Key elements of the console workspace Name Description Navigation pane Contains the Navigation tree. Lets you navigate to the different views. For details, see Navigation pane (p. 14). Main area Here you configure and monitor backup, recovery and other operations. The main area displays views and action pages (p. 15) depending on the items selected in the menu or Navigation tree. Menu bar Appears across the top of the program window.
Backup plans and tasks. Use this view to manage backup plans and tasks on the managed machine: run, edit, stop and delete plans and tasks, view their progress. Vaults. Use this view to manage personal vaults and archives stored in there, add new vaults, rename and delete the existing ones, validate vaults, explore backup content, perform operations on archives and backups, etc. Alerts. Use this view to examine warning messages for the managed machine.
2.1.2.1 Views A view appears on the main area when clicking any item in the Navigation tree in the Navigation pane (p. 14). "Log" 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 (p. 16) capabilities to search the table for the item in question. Perform actions on the selected item.
Filter items by predefined column value In a field below the corresponding column's header, select the required value from the drop-down list. Filter items by entered value In a field below the corresponding column's header, type a value. As a result you will see the list of values, fully or just partly coincide with the entered value. Filter items by a predefined parameters Depending on the view, you can filter a table items by some predefined parameters.
Using controls and specifying settings Use active controls to specify a backup plan or recovery task settings and parameters. By default, such fields as credentials, options, comments, and some others are hidden. Most settings are configured by clicking the respective Show… links. Others are selected from the drop-down list, or typed manually in the page's fields. Action page - Controls Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 remembers the changes you made on the action pages.
2.1.3.2 Credentials cache The option specifies whether to store the credentials entered while using the management console. The preset is: Enabled. If the option is enabled, the credentials for various locations that you enter during a console session are saved for use during later sessions. In Windows, the credentials are stored in the Windows Credential Manager. In Linux, the credentials are stored in a special encrypted file.
Notify when the management console is connected to a component of a different version This option defines whether to display a pop-up window when a console is connected to an agent and their versions differ. The preset is: Enabled. To make a selection, select or clear the Notify when the management console is connected to a component of a different version check box.
3 Understanding Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 This section attempts to give its readers a clear understanding of the product so that they can use the product in various circumstances without step-by-step instructions. 3.1 Owners This section explains the concept of a backup plan (task) owner and an archive owner. Plan (task) owner A local backup plan owner is the user who created or last modified the plan. Tasks, belonging to a backup plan, are owned by the backup plan owner.
Backup plan's credentials Any backup plan running on a machine runs on behalf of a user. In Windows By default, the plan runs under the agent service account, if created by a user having administrative privileges on the machine. If created by a regular user, such as a member of the Users group, the plan runs under this user's account. When creating a backup plan, you will only be asked for credentials in specific cases.
3.3 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. Regular users A regular user, such as a member of the Users group, has the following management rights: Perform file-level backup and recovery of the files that the user has permissions to access—but without using a file-level backup snapshot (p. 87). Create backup plans and tasks and manage them.
Service name Purpose Acronis Backing up and Managed recovering data Machine Service on the machine (Main service) Account used by the service Acronis Agent User (new account) or user-specified account Privileges added to the account User rights Log on as a service Adjust memory quotas for a process Replace a process level token Group membership Backup Operators (for any account) Administrators (for new account only) Permissions on registry keys BackupAndRecovery Encryption Global MMS Modify firmware
Dependencies on other services Acronis Managed Machine Service depends on the following standard Windows services: Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Protected Storage, and Windows Management Instrumentation. This service also depends on Acronis Scheduler2 Service. To view the list of dependencies for a service, do the following: 1. In the Services snap-in, double-click the name of the service. 2. On the Dependencies tab, examine the This service depends… field. 3.
you need the possibility to roll back to any one of multiple saved states the data changes tend to be small as compared to the total data size. It is widely accepted that incremental backups are less reliable than full ones because if one backup in the "chain" is corrupted, the next ones can no longer be used. However, storing multiple full backups is not an option when you need multiple prior versions of your data, because reliability of an oversized archive is even more questionable.
The following items are not included in a disk or volume backup (as well as in a file-level backup): The swap file (pagefile.sys) and the file that keeps the RAM content when the machine goes into hibernation (hiberfil.sys). After recovery, the files will be re-created in the appropriate place with the zero size. Windows shadow storage.
Over any type of existing volume. To unallocated space of a disk group. To unallocated space of a basic disk. To a disk which has not been initialized. Recovery over an existing volume When a dynamic volume is recovered over an existing volume, either basic or dynamic, the target volume’s data is overwritten with the backup content. The type of target volume (basic, simple/spanned, striped, mirrored, RAID 0+1, RAID-5) will not change.
Preparing disk groups and volumes Before recovering dynamic volumes to bare metal you should create a disk group on the target hardware. You also might need to create or increase unallocated space on an existing disk group. This can be done by deleting volumes or converting basic disks to dynamic. You might want to change the target volume type (basic, simple/spanned, striped, mirrored, RAID 0+1, RAID 5).
Common installation rule The strong recommendation is to install the encryption software before installing Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5. The way of using Acronis Secure Zone Acronis Secure Zone must not be encrypted with disk-level encryption. This is the only way to use Acronis Secure Zone: 1. Install encryption software; then, install Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5. 2. Create Acronis Secure Zone. 3. Exclude Acronis Secure Zone when encrypting the disk or its volumes.
Syntax: OctetString The value contains the text description of the event (it looks identical to messages published by Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 in its log). Example of varbind values: 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.1.0:Information 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.0:I0064000B Supported operations Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 supports only TRAP operations. It is not possible to manage Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 using GET- and SET- requests.
4 Backup 4.1 Back up now Use the Back up now feature to configure and run a one-time backup in a few simple steps. The backup process will start immediately after you perform the required steps and click OK. For a long-time backup strategy that includes schedules and conditions, timely deleting of backups or moving them to different locations, consider creating a backup plan. Configuring immediate backup is similar to creating a backup plan (p.
plan. The default archive name is Archive(N) where N is the sequence number of the archive in the location you have selected. Select the mode the removable device will be used in (p. 151) If the specified location is an RDX drive or USB flash drive, select the device mode: Removable media or Fixed drive. Backup file naming, access credentials, archive comments To access these settings, click Show backup file naming, access credentials, archive comments. File naming (p.
Plan parameters Plan name [Optional] Enter a unique name for the backup plan. A conscious name lets you identify the plan among others. Backup options [Optional] Configure parameters of the backup operation, such as pre/post backup commands, maximum network bandwidth allocated for the backup stream or the backup archive compression level. If you do nothing in this section, the default values (p. 76) will be used.
Available if Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent for Windows or Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent for Linux is installed. Select this option to back up specific files and folders. A file-level backup is not sufficient for recovery of the operating system. Choose file backup if you plan to keep safe only certain data (the current project, for example). This will reduce the archive size, thus saving storage space.
Note: Exclusions override selection of data items to back up. For example, if you select to back up file MyFile.tmp and to exclude all .tmp files, file MyFile.tmp will not be backed up. To specify which files and folders to exclude, set up any of the following parameters. Exclude all hidden files and folders Select this check box to skip files and folders that have the Hidden attribute (for file systems that are supported by Windows) or that start with a period (.
Exclusion examples Criterion Example Description Windows and Linux By name By mask (*) By mask (?) F.log Excludes all files named "F.log" F Excludes all folders named "F" *.log Excludes all files with the .log extension F* Excludes all files and folders with names starting with "F" (such as folders F, F1 and files F.log, F1.log) F???.log Excludes all .log files with names consisting of four symbols and starting with "F" Windows By file path C:\Finance\F.log Excludes the file named "F.
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. This is not an issue if the other plan is discontinued.
Destination Details RDX, USB To back up data to an RDX drive or USB flash drive, expand the group, then select the required drive. For information about using these drives, see the "Removable devices" (p. 151) section. Tape device To back up data to a locally attached tape device, expand the group, then click the required device. Tape devices are available only if you have upgraded from Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.
2. Click OK. Warning: According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer. 4.2.6 Backup schemes Choose one of the available backup schemes: Simple – to schedule when and how often to backup data and specify retention rules. Tower of Hanoi – to use the Tower of Hanoi backup scheme.
Backup type To access this setting, click Show backup type, 2nd location, validation, convert to virtual machine. Select the backup type. Full - selected by default for all backup locations (except for Acronis Online Backup Storage). Incremental. At the first time a full backup will be created. The next backups will be incremental. Selected as the one and only backup type for Acronis Online Backup Storage.
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. The default values for each backup type are as follows.
available through next Sunday, January 8; the first weekly backup, the one of Saturday, January 7, will be stored on the system until February 7. Monthly backups will never be deleted. Limited storage If you do not want to arrange a vast amount of space to store a huge archive, you may set up a GFS scheme so as to make your backups more short-lived, at the same time ensuring that your information can be recovered in case of an accidental data loss.
Monthly: 5 years Here, daily incremental backups will be created on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with weekly and monthly backups performed on Fridays. Note that, in order to choose Friday in the Weekly/monthly field, you need to first select it in the Back up on field. Such an archive would allow you to compare your financial documents as of the first and the last day of work, and have a five-year history of all documents, etc.
Clean up archive Specifies how to get rid of old backups: either to apply retention rules (p. 72) regularly or clean up the archive during a backup when the destination location runs out of space. By default, the retention rules are not specified, which means older backups will not be deleted automatically. Using retention rules Specify the retention rules and when to apply them. This setting is recommended for backup destinations such as shared folders.
Here, all parameters except Schedule in Full backup are left empty. All backups in the archive are kept indefinitely (no archive cleanup is performed). Full and incremental backup plus cleanup With the following scheme, the archive will consist of weekly full backups and daily incremental backups. We further require that a full backup begin only after all users have logged off.
By default, a backup is not deleted as long as it has dependent backups that must be kept. For example, if a full backup has become subject to deletion, but there are incremental or differential backups that depend on it, the deletion is postponed until all the dependent backups can be deleted as well. For more information, see Retention rules (p. 72). 4.2.6.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 4 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 3 1 Backups of different levels have different types: Last-level (in this case, level 4) backups are full; Backups of intermediate levels (2, 3) are differential; First-level (1) backups are incremental. A cleanup mechanism ensures that only the most recent backups of each level are kept. Here is how the archive looks on day 8, a day before creating a new full backup.
On day 14, the interval is five days. It increases on subsequent days before decreasing again, and so on. 1 4 2 1 3 2 4 1 5 3 6 1 7 2 8 1 9 4 10 1 11 2 12 1 13 3 14 1 The roll-back period shows how many days we are guaranteed to have even in the worst case. For a four-level scheme, it is four days. 4.2.6.5 Manual start With the Manual start scheme, you do not have to specify the backup schedule. You can run the backup plan from the Plans and Tasks view manually at any time afterwards.
2. What to validate – select either to validate the entire archive or the latest backup in the archive. Validation of a file backup imitates recovery of all files from the backup to a dummy destination. Validation of a volume backup calculates a checksum for every data block saved in the backup. Validation of the archive will validate all the archive’s backups and may take a long time and a lot of system resources. 3.
To add a text label to a backup: 1. On the Create backup plan (p. 32) page, click Show plan's credentials, comments, label. 2. In Label, enter the text label or select it from the drop-down menu. Parameters specification Parameter Value Description acronisTag.label A user-defined label. The label can be set by a user when creating a backup plan. acronisTag.hostname Host name (FQDN) acronisTag.os.type Operating system acronisTag.os.servicepack 0, 1, 2...
acronisTag.hostname = “superserver.corp.local” acronisTag.os.type = “windows7Server64Guest” acronisTag.os.servicepack = “1” acronisTag.os.sid = “S-1-5-21-874133492-782267321-3928949834” 4.2.10 Why is the program asking for the password? A scheduled or postponed task has to run regardless of users being logged on. In case you have not explicitly specified the credentials, under which the task(s) will run, the program proposes using your account.
Setting up regular conversion of backups to a virtual machine Converting an incremental or differential backup into a full one Restrictions on archive names The archive name cannot end with a number. The FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS file systems do not allow the following characters in the file name: backslash (\), slash (/), colon (:), asterisk (*), question mark (?), quotation mark ("), less than sign (<), greater than sign (>), and pipe (|). 4.3.
For example, suppose that the first backup of the archive MyData has been split in two parts. Then, the file names for this backup are MyData1.tib and MyData2.tib. The second backup (supposing that it is not split) will be named MyData3.tib. 4.3.3 Usage examples This section provides examples of how you can use simplified file naming. 4.3.3.1 Example 1. Daily backup replacing the old one Consider the following scenario: You want to perform a daily full backup of your machine.
In this scenario, create a backup plan with a daily schedule. When creating the backup plan, specify ServerFiles[Date] as the archive name, select the Name backup files using the archive name… check box, specify Differential as the backup type, and schedule the backups to run every hour from midnight. Result: The 24 backups of January 1, 2012, will be stored as ServerFiles[2012-01-01].tib, ServerFiles[2012-01-01]2.tib, and so on up to ServerFiles[2012-01-01]24.tib.
Specify MyMachine as the archive name. Select the Name backup files using the archive name... check box. Specify D:\ as the archive location, where D is the letter either of the drives has in the operating system when attached to the machine. Select Full as the backup type. Schedule the backups to run every week on Monday.
4.4 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 scheduling is available when creating a backup plan (p. 32) with any of the following backup schemes: Simple, Custom or Tower of Hanoi. The schedule also can be set for validation tasks (p. 153). The scheduler uses local time of the machine the backup plan exists on.
The specified period of time has passed since the last successful backup completed The scheduler behavior, in case the event occurs but the condition (or any of multiple conditions) is not met is defined by the Task start conditions (p. 96) 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.
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. "Three-hour time interval lasting for three months" schedule Run the task every three hours. The task starts on a certain date (say, September 15, 2009), and ends after three months.
From: 09/20/2009. To: not set. Second daily schedule 1. Every: 3 day(s). 2. Every: 2 hour(s). From: 03:00:00 PM Until: 07:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: 09/20/2009. To: not set. 4.4.2 Weekly schedule Weekly schedule is effective in Windows and Linux operating systems. To specify a weekly schedule In the Schedule area, select the appropriate parameter as follows: Every: <...> week(s) on: <...> Specify a certain number of weeks and the days of the week you want the task to be run.
To: 11/13/2009. The task will be performed for the last time on this date, but the task itself will still be available in the Tasks view after this date. (If this date were not a Friday, the task would be last performed on the last Friday preceding this date.) This schedule is widely used when creating a custom backup scheme. The "One day in the week"-like schedule is added to the full backups, while the incremental backups are scheduled to be performed on workdays.
3. Effective: From: not set. To: not set. Second schedule 1. Every 1 week(s) on: Tue, Wed, Thu. 2. Every 3 hours From 09:00:00 AM until 09:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: not set. To: not set. Third schedule 1. Every: 1 week(s) on: Sat, Sun. 2. Once at: 09:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: not set. To: not set. 4.4.3 Monthly schedule Monthly schedule is effective in Windows and Linux operating systems. To specify a monthly schedule In the Schedule area, select the appropriate parameter as follows: Months: <..
Examples "Last day of every month" schedule Run the task once at 10 PM on the last day of every month. The schedule's parameters are set up as follows. 1. 2. 3. 4. Months: . Days: Last. The task will run on the last day of every month despite its actual date. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. Effective: From: empty. To: empty. This schedule is widely used when creating a custom backup scheme.
1. 2. 3. 4. Months: December, January, February. On: Once at: 10:00:00 PM. Effective: From: 11/01/2009. To: not set. Second schedule 1. Months: March, April, May, September, October, November. 2. On: . 3. Every: 12 hours From: 12:00:00 AM Until: 12:00:00 PM. 4. Effective: From: 11/01/2009. To: not set. Third schedule 1. 2. 3. 4. Months: June, July, August. Days: 1, 15. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. Effective: From: 11/01/2009. To: not set. 4.4.
Specifies the event number, which typically identifies the particular kind of events among events from the same source. For example, an Error event with Event source disk and Event ID 7 occurs when Windows discovers a bad block on a disk, whereas an Error event with Event source disk and Event ID 15 occurs when a disk is not ready for access yet. Examples "Bad block" emergency backup One or more bad blocks that have suddenly appeared on a hard disk usually indicate that the hard disk drive will soon fail.
Note: To be able to open the security log (Security), you must be a member of the Administrators group. To view properties of an event, including the event source and event number 1. In Event Viewer, click the name of a log that you want to view—for example, Application. Note: To be able to open the security log (Security), you must be a member of the Administrators group. 2. In the list of events in the right pane, double-click the name of an event whose properties you want to view. 3.
4.4.5.1 User is idle Applies to: Windows "User is idle" means that a screen saver is running on the managed machine or the machine is locked. Example: Run the backup task on the managed machine every day at 9PM, preferably when the user is idle. If the user is still active by 11PM, run the task anyway. Event: Daily, every 1 day(s); Once at: 09:00:00 PM. Condition: User is idle. Task start conditions: Wait until the conditions are met, Run the task anyway after 2 hour(s).
Example A company uses different locations on the same network-attached storage for backing up users data and servers. The workday starts at 8AM and ends at 5 PM. Users' data should be backed up as soon as the users log off, but not earlier than 4:30 PM and not later than 10 PM. Every day at 11 PM the company's servers are backed up. So, all the users' data should be preferably backed up before this time, in order to free network bandwidth.
Task start conditions: Wait until the conditions are met, Run the task anyway after 3 hour(s). As a result, (1) If all users are logged off at 8PM, the backup task will start at 8PM. (2) If the last user logs off between 8PM and 11PM, the backup task will start immediately after the user has logged off. (3) If any of the users is still logged on at 11PM, the backup task starts anyway. 4.4.5.
The following picture illustrates this example. Usage scenarios Reliable disaster recovery (p. 74) Store your backups both on-site (for immediate recovery) and off-site (to secure the backups from local storage failure or a natural disaster). Keeping only the latest recovery points (p. 75) Delete older backups from a fast storage according to retention rules, in order to not overuse expensive storage space. Using Acronis cloud to protect data from a natural disaster (p.
A network folder An FTP or SFTP server Acronis Secure Zone You can copy or move a backup to any of these locations: A local folder on a fixed drive A network folder An FTP or SFTP server Acronis Online Backup Storage A removable device (p. 151) used in the Fixed drive mode. (You select the removable device mode when creating a backup plan.) Backups that were copied or moved to the next location do not depend on the backups remaining in the original location and vice versa.
To set up deleting the backups: In Retention rules, select Delete backups older than…, and then specify the retention period. To set up moving the backups: In Retention rules, select Move backups older than…, specify the retention period. Under Where to replicate/move backups, specify the location. The retention rules are applied after creating a backup. For the second and next locations, creating a backup means copying or moving a backup there from the previous location.
To set up retention rules for backups: 1. Specify one of the following (options (a) and (b) are mutually exclusive): a. Backups older than... and/or Archive size greater than.... A backup will be stored until the specified condition (or both of the conditions) are met. Example: Backups older than 5 days Archive size greater than 100 GB With these settings, a backup will be stored until it is older than five days and the size of the archive containing it exceeds 100 GB. b.
The software will consolidate the backup that is subject to deletion or movement, with the next dependent backup. For example, the retention rules require to delete a full backup but to retain the next incremental one. The backups will be combined into a single full backup which will be dated with the incremental backup date. When an incremental or differential backup from the middle of the chain is deleted, the resulting backup type will be incremental.
In this scenario, create a backup plan with the Manual start scheme. When creating the backup plan, specify Acronis Secure Zone in the Path field, select Full in the Backup type field, select the Replicate just created backup to another location check box, and then specify the network folder in the 2nd location field. Result: You can recover the machine’s volumes or files from a readily available local backup, which is stored in a dedicated area of the hard disk.
In Backup options, go to Replication/cleanup inactivity time (p. 74), and specify the working hours (for example, Monday through Friday from 8:00 until 17:00). Result: After the backup plan starts, the data is backed up to the local folder. If the backup finishes outside the working hours, replication starts immediately. Otherwise, replication is postponed until the end of the working hours.
The type of the data being backed up (disk, file) The backup destination (networked location or local disk) The backup scheme (manual start or using the scheduler) 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 - + - - Preserve files’ security settings in archives - + - - In archives, store encrypted files in decrypted state - + - - Media components (p. 88) Dest: removable media - Dest: removable media + - - - - + + - - E-mail (p. 90) + + - - Win Pop-up (p. 91) + + - - Pre/Post backup commands (p. 91) + + PE only PE only Pre/Post data capture commands (p.
The preset is: Disabled. When the option is enabled, backing up to removable media may be not possible if the user is away, because the program will wait for someone to press OK in the prompt box. Hence, you should disable the prompt when scheduling a backup to removable media. Then, if the removable media is available (for example, a DVD is inserted), the task can run unattended. Reset archive bit The option is effective only for file-level backup in Windows operating systems and in bootable media.
To protect the archive from unauthorized access 1. 2. 3. 4. Select the Set password for the archive check box. In the Enter the password field, type a password. In the Confirm the password field, re-type the password.
Note for Virtual Edition users: When backing up to an unmanaged vault (except for a locally-attached storage), Agent for ESX(i) (Virtual Appliance) always performs fast cataloging. You can start the full cataloging of the vault manually from the management server. For more information about using data catalog, see the Data catalog (p. 102) section. 4.6.4 Backup performance Use this group of options to specify the amount of network and system resources to allocate to the backup process.
Click Writing speed stated as a percentage of the maximum speed of the destination hard disk, and then drag the slider or select a percentage in the box Click Writing speed stated in kilobytes per second, and then enter the writing speed in kilobytes per second. 4.6.4.3 Network connection speed This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.
If the destination disk runs out of free space while creating the backup, the task enters the Need interaction state. You have the ability to free additional space and retry the operation. If you do so, the resulting backup will be split into the parts created before and after the retry. When backing up to removable media (CD, DVD, Blu-Ray Discs, a stand-alone tape drive, an RDX or USB drive used in the removable device (p.
Maximum – the data will be compressed as much as possible. The backup duration will be maximal. You may want to select maximum compression when backing up to removable media to reduce the number of blank disks required. 4.6.7 Disaster recovery plan (DRP) This option is effective for Windows and Linux but is not applicable to bootable media.
With the silent mode enabled, the program will automatically handle situations requiring user interaction (except for handling bad sectors, which is defined as a separate option). If an operation cannot continue without user interaction, it will fail. Details of the operation, including errors, if any, can be found in the operation log. Re-attempt, if an error occurs The preset is: Enabled. Number of attempts: 30. Interval between attempts: 30 seconds.
Send SNMP notifications individually for backup operation events – to send the events of the backup operations to the specified SNMP managers. Types of events to send – choose the types of events to be sent: All events, Errors and warnings, or Errors only. Server name/IP – type the name or IP address of the host running the SNMP management application, the messages will be sent to.
file was last modified. Disabling this feature will make the program compare the entire file contents to those stored in the archive. 4.6.11 File-level backup snapshot This option is effective only for file-level backup in Windows and Linux operating systems. This option defines whether to back up files one by one or by taking an instant data snapshot. Note: Files that are stored on network shares are always backed up one by one. The preset is: Create snapshot if it is possible.
When the option is enabled, files and folders are saved in the archive with the original permissions to read, write or execute the files for each user or user group. If you recover a secured file/folder on a machine without the user account specified in the permissions, you may not be able to read or modify this file. To completely eliminate this kind of problem, disable preserving file security settings in archives.
During recovery of a parent folder, the mount point content will or will not be recovered, depending on whether the Mount points option for recovery (p. 129) is enabled or disabled. If you select the mount point directly, or select any folder within the mounted volume, the selected folders will be considered as ordinary folders. They will be backed up regardless of the state of the Mount points option and recovered regardless of the state of the Mount points option for recovery (p. 129).
4.6.16.1 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 when user interaction is required. The preset is: Disabled. To configure e-mail notification 1. Select the Send e-mail notifications check box to activate notifications. 2.
4.6.16.2 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.
Execute after the backup 2. Do any of the following: Click Edit to specify a new command or a batch file Select the existing command or the batch file from the drop-down list 3. Click OK. 4.6.17.1 Pre-backup command To specify a command/batch file to be executed before the backup process starts 1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".) 2.
When the check box is not selected, the command execution result does not affect the task execution failure or success. You can track the command execution result by exploring the log or the errors and warnings displayed in the Log view. 5. Click Test Command to check if the command is correct. 4.6.18 Pre/Post data capture commands This option is effective for both Windows and Linux operating systems.
5. Click Test command to check if the command is correct. Check box Selection Fail the backup task if the command execution fails* Selected Cleared Selected Cleared Do not perform the data capture until the command execution is complete Selected Selected Cleared Cleared Result Preset Perform the data capture after the Perform the data command is capture only after the executed despite command is execution failure successfully executed. or success. Fail the task if the command execution fails.
fails. * A command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero. 4.6.19 Replication/cleanup inactivity time This option is effective only if you set up replication or retention rules (p. 69) for the backups. This option defines a time period when starting replication or applying retention rules is not allowed. The operations will be performed when the inactivity time ends, if the machine is powered on at that moment.
The program will try to execute the failed task again if you select the Restart a failed task check box and specify the number of attempts and the time interval between the attempts. The program stops trying as soon as an attempt completes successfully OR the specified number of attempts is performed, depending on which comes first. If the task fails because of a mistake in the backup plan, you can edit the plan while the task is in the Idle state.
Time diagram: Wait until conditions are met Skip the task execution Delaying a backup might be unacceptable, for example, when you need to back up data strictly at the specified time. Then it makes sense to skip the backup rather than wait for the conditions, especially if the events occur relatively often. 4.6.23 Volume Shadow Copy Service This option is effective only for Windows operating systems.
Software - Acronis VSS Provider VSS will use Acronis VSS Provider for taking snapshots. Software - System provider (selected by default) VSS will use the system provider (Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider) for taking snapshots. We recommend choosing the system provider when backing up application servers (Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, or Active Directory).
5 Recovery When it comes to data recovery, first consider the most functional method: connect the console to the managed machine running the operating system and create the recovery task. If the machine's operating system fails to start or you need to recover data to bare metal, boot the machine from the bootable media (p. 240) or using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and configure recovery.
Disks (p. 105) Volumes (p. 107) Files (p. 111) Acronis Active Restore [Optional] The Acronis Active Restore check box is available when recovering Windows starting from Windows 2000. Acronis Active Restore brings a system online immediately after the recovery is started. The operating system boots from the backup image and the machine becomes operational and ready to provide necessary services.
5.1.1 What to recover 1. Specifying the archive location In the Data path field, specify the archive location path or click Browse and select the required location as described in "Selecting archive location" (p. 102). 2. Selecting data The backed up data can be selected using the Data view tab, or the Archive view tab. The Data view tab displays all the backed up data by versions (the date and time of backup creation) within the selected archive location.
5.1.1.1 Selecting archive location Location Details Online backup storage If the archive is stored in Acronis Online Backup Storage, click Log in and specify the credentials to log in to the online storage. Then, expand the Online backup storage group and select the account. Exporting and mounting are not supported for backups stored in Acronis Online Backup Storage. Personal If the archive is stored in a personal vault, expand the Personal group and click the required vault.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 may upload data catalog files from a vault to a local cache folder. By default, this folder is located on the disk where the operating system is installed. For information about changing the default cache folder, refer to the "Changing the default cache folder for catalog files" section. Selecting the backed up data for recovery 1. To access the Data view tab, navigate to Vaults view, and click the required vault. 2.
The data is not supported by the catalog The following data cannot be displayed in the catalog or data view: Data from the encrypted and password-protected archives. Data backed up to removable media, such as CD, DVD, BD, Iomega REV, RDX or USB devices. Data backed up to Acronis Online Backup Storage. Data backed up using Acronis True Image Echo or earlier product versions. Data backed up using the simplified backup naming.
Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK. 5.1.4 Where to recover Specify the destination the selected data will be recovered to. 5.1.4.1 Selecting target disks Available disk or volume destinations depend on the agents operating on the machine. Recover to: Physical machine Available when the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux is installed. The selected disks will be recovered to the physical disks of the machine the console is connected to.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 attempts to map the selected disks to the target disks as described in the "How the automatic mapping works" (p. 107) section. If you are unsatisfied with the mapping result, you can re-map disks manually. To do this, you have to unmap the disks in a reverse order; that is, the last mapped disk should be unmapped first. Then, map the disks manually as described below. Disk #: Disk # (MODEL) (p. 106) Select the destination disk for each of the source disks. NT signature (p.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 schedules tasks using the signature of the source hard disk. If you recover the same disk signature, you don't need to re-create or edit the tasks created previously. Some installed applications use disk signature for licensing and other purposes. This enables you to keep all the Windows Restore Points on the recovered disk. To recover VSS snapshots used by Windows Vista's "Previous Versions" feature.
The selected volumes will be recovered to the physical disks of the machine the console is connected to. On selecting this, you proceed to the regular volume mapping procedure described below. New virtual machine If Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux is installed.
Recover [Volume] [Letter] to: Disk # /Volume Sequentially map each of the source volumes to a volume or an unallocated space on the destination disk. Size: (p. 109) [Optional] Change the recovered volume size, location and other properties. MBR destination To specify a destination disk: 1. Select the disk to recover the MBR to. 2. Click OK. Volume destination To specify a target volume or unallocated space 1. Select a volume or unallocated space where you want the selected volume to be recovered to.
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. If you are going to recover a system volume to a basic MBR disk, select the Active check box. Active volume is used for loading an operating system. Choosing active for a volume without an installed operating system could prevent the machine from booting.
Use the following options only if you absolutely need to. CHS (63 sectors) - select this option if the recovered volume will be used under Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (or earlier) on disks having 512 bytes per physical sector. VMware VMFS (64 KB) - select this option when recovering the volume as a VMware Virtual Machine File System partition.
Do not overwrite existing file - this will give the file on the hard disk priority over the file in the backup. If you allow files to be overwritten, you still have an option to prevent overwriting of specific files by excluding them from the recovery operation. Recovery exclusions (p. 112) Specify files and folders you do not wish to be recovered. Recovery exclusions Set up exclusions for the specific files and folders you do not wish to recover.
To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: Run under the current user The task will run under the credentials with which the user who starts the tasks is logged on. If the task has to run on schedule, you will be asked for the current user's password on completing the task creation. Use the following credentials The task will always run under the credentials you specify, whether started manually or executed on schedule. Specify: User name.
5.2.2 Using Universal Restore During recovery Universal Restore is available when configuring a disk or volume recovery, if a Windows or Linux operating system is present in your selection of disks or volumes. If there are more than one operating systems in your selection, you can apply Universal Restore to all Windows systems, all Linux systems or to both Windows and Linux systems.
What if you do not have drivers Windows 7 includes more drivers than the older Windows operating systems. There is a great chance that Universal Restore finds all necessary drivers in the Windows 7 driver folder. So, you may not necessarily have to specify the external path to the drivers. Nevertheless, performing Universal Restore is critical so the system uses the correct drivers.
Once Windows boots, it will initialize the standard procedure for installing new hardware. The network adapter driver will be installed silently if the driver has the Microsoft Windows signature. Otherwise, Windows will ask for confirmation on whether to install the unsigned driver. After that, you will be able to configure the network connection and specify drivers for the video adapter, USB and other devices. 5.2.2.
Tape device Optical discs (CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs) When transferring a system between UEFI and BIOS is not supported, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 initializes the target disk with the same partitioning scheme as the original disk. No adjustment of the operating system is performed. If the target machine supports both UEFI and BIOS, you need to enable the boot mode corresponding to the original machine. Otherwise, the system will not boot. 5.3.
Original system Target hardware BIOS BIOS UEFI UEFI Disk: MBR Disk: GPT Disk: MBR Disk: GPT The target machine must support BIOS. BIOS OS: convertible Additional steps Solution Recover the operating system to an MBR disk or to an uninitialized disk. BIOS OS: nonconvertible UEFI OS: convertible UEFI OS: nonconvertible 5.3.2 The convertible OS will be automatically converted to support BIOS booting. 1. Before recovery, turn off the UEFI mode in BIOS 2.
The following table summarizes all cases of recovering disks of a BIOS-based system to UEFI-based and vice versa. Green background means that the system will be bootable. No user action is required. Yellow background means that you need to perform additional steps to make the system bootable. These steps are not possible on some machines. Original system Target hardware BIOS UEFI BIOS The target disk will be initialized as GPT.
and then performing the recovery. The disk is initialized as GPT. The 2-TB limitation for GPT disks does not exist. 5.4 Acronis Active Restore Active Restore is the Acronis proprietary technology that brings a system or a database online immediately after its recovery is started. Customers familiar with Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent for Exchange can note that this agent uses Active Restore to make an Exchange information store available during its recovery.
Some machines are being used as storage facilities, where the operating system claims a small space segment and all other disk space is committed to storage, such as movies, sounds or other multimedia files. Some of these storage volumes can be extremely large as compared to the system and so practically all the recovery time will be dedicated to recovering the files, which might be used much later on, if in any near future at all.
Recovery 11.5 automatically updates Windows loaders after recovery. Other loaders might also be fixed, but there are cases when you have to re-activate the loaders. Specifically when you recover Linux volumes, it is sometimes necessary to apply fixes or make booting changes so that Linux can boot and load correctly. Below is a summary of typical situations that require additional user actions. Why a recovered operating system may be unbootable The machine BIOS is configured to boot from another HDD.
Solution: Modification of the boot.ini or the boot\bcd files fixes this for Windows loaders. Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 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. If the number of the Linux root partition has changed, it is also recommended that you change /etc/fstab so that the SWAP volume can be accessed correctly.
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. You can specify the root partition by label (such as root=LABEL=/), identifier (in the form root=UUID=some_uuid), or device name (such as root=/dev/sda2). The path to the initrd service on that device. 7. Edit the file /mnt/system/etc/fstab to correct the names of any devices that have changed as a result of the recovery. 8.
5.6 Reverting a Windows system to its factory settings If your Windows operating system was deployed by using Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 for System Builders, you can revert the system to its factory settings. Reverting the system to the factory settings can be started from the management console or at boot time. The second method is useful if the operating system became unbootable for some reason.
The following table summarizes the availability of the recovery options.
5.7.1 Additional settings Specify the additional settings for the recovery operation by selecting or clearing the following check boxes. Set current date and time for recovered files This option is effective only when recovering files. The preset is Enabled. This option defines whether to recover the files’ date and time from the archive or assign the files the current date and time. Validate backups before recovery The preset is Disabled.
With the silent mode enabled, the program will automatically handle situations requiring user interaction where possible. If an operation cannot continue without user interaction, it will fail. Details of the operation, including errors, if any, can be found in the operation log. Re-attempt, if an error occurs The preset is: Enabled. Number of attempts: 30. Interval between attempts: 30 seconds. When a recoverable error occurs, the program re-attempts to perform the unsuccessful operation.
Do not send SNMP notifications – to disable sending the log events of the recovery operations to SNMP managers. 5.7.3.2 Windows event log This option is effective only in Windows operating systems. This option is not available when operating under the bootable media. This option defines whether the agent(s) operating on the managed machine have to log events of the recovery operations in the Application Event Log of Windows (to see this log, run eventvwr.
This option is effective only when you select for backup a folder that is higher in the folder hierarchy than the mount point. If you select for recovery folders within the mount point or the mount point itself, the selected items will be recovered regardless of the Mount points option value. Please be aware that if the volume is not mounted at the moment of recovery, the data will be recovered directly to the folder that has been the mount point at the time of backing up. 5.7.
c. Some Internet service providers require authentication on the incoming mail server before being allowed to send something. If this is your case, select the Log on to incoming mail server check box to enable a POP server and to set up its settings: Incoming mail server (POP) – enter the name of the POP server. Port – set the port of the POP server. By default, the port is set to 110. User name and Password of the incoming mail server. d. Click OK. 9.
The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".) A post-recovery command will not be executed if the recovery proceeds with reboot. To specify pre/post commands 1. Enable pre/post commands execution by checking the following options: Execute before the recovery Click Edit to specify a new command or a batch file Execute after the recovery 2.
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. Select the Fail the task if the command execution fails check box if successful execution of the command is critical for you. The command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero. If the command execution fails, the task run result will be set to Failed.
If you want the backup and the conversion to be executed on a schedule. This helps you maintain a standby virtual server ready to power on in case your physical server fails. If you do not need to adjust the resulting virtual machine settings. How to perform. When creating a backup plan (p. 32), enable conversion of a backup to a virtual machine (p. 136). b) Recover the backed up disks or volumes to the "New virtual machine" destination When to use.
Parallels Workstation Kernel-based Virtual Machine Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RAW format) Agent for ESX(i) VMware ESX(i) Agent for Hyper-V Microsoft Hyper-V 6.2.1 Considerations before conversion Converting a UEFI-based machine Virtual machines that use Unified Extensible Hardware Interface (UEFI) are currently supported in VMware ESXi 5 only. If the target virtualization platform is ESXi 5, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 creates a UEFI-based machine.
6.2.2 Setting up regular conversion to a virtual machine When creating a backup plan (p. 32), you can set up regular conversion of a disk or volume backup to a virtual machine. By setting up regular conversion, you obtain a copy of your server or workstation on a virtual machine which can be readily powered on in case the original machine fails. Restrictions Conversion of a backup from the following locations is not available: CD, DVD, Blu-Ray Discs, tape devices and Acronis Online Backup Storage.
If the management server is integrated with vCenter Server, the resultant virtual machines will appear in the Acronis Backups folder on the vCenter. You can specify a subfolder for the machines resulting from execution of the plan. 6.2.2.2 Setting up a conversion schedule A disk backup (p. 243) created while executing a backup plan can be converted to a virtual machine immediately, on schedule, or combining both methods.
What storage will be used for the virtual machines? Network usage As opposed to ordinary backups (TIB files), virtual machine files are transferred uncompressed through the network. Therefore, using a SAN or a storage local to the machine that performs conversion is the best choice from the network usage standpoint. A local disk is not an option though, if the conversion is performed by the same machine that is backed up. Using a NAS also makes good sense.
Intermediate snapshots To be able to update the virtual machine, the software stores a few intermediate snapshots of it. They are named Backup… and Replica… and should be kept. Unneeded snapshots are deleted automatically. The latest Replica… snapshot corresponds to the result of the latest conversion. You can go to this snapshot if you want to return the machine to that state; for example, if you worked with the machine and now want to discard the changes made to it.
4. In Recover to, select New virtual machine. 5. Click Browse. In the VM/VS Selection (p. 140) window, select the resulting virtual machine type or the virtualization server where to create the machine. 6. [Optional] In Storage, you can view or select the storage where the virtual machine will be created. 7. [Optional] In Virtual machine settings (p. 141), you can change the name of the virtual machine, the disk provisioning mode, the allocated memory, and other settings.
[Only if the console is connected to the management server] You can select the machine that will perform recovery. This can be any registered machine where Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux is installed. 3. Click OK to return to the Recover data page. 6.2.3.3 Virtual machine settings The following virtual machine settings can be configured. Disks Initial setting: the number and size of the source machine's disks. The number of disks is generally equal to that of the source machine.
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.
2. Create a bootable media (p. 170) with the Universal Restore functionality by using Acronis Bootable Media Builder. 3. Create a virtual machine by using your virtualization product’s native tools. 4. Boot the virtual machine from the media. 5. [When recovering Windows] If you need dynamic volumes, create a volume group by using the disk management functionality (p. 190). 6. Select Actions > Recover. When configuring a recovery: Enable Universal Restore for Linux or Universal Restore for Windows.
7 Storing the backed up data 7.1 Vaults A vault is a location for storing backup archives. For ease of use and administration, a vault is associated with the archives' metadata. Referring to this metadata makes for fast and convenient operations with archives and backups stored in the vault. A vault can be organized on a local or networked drive or detachable media. There are no settings for limiting a vault size or number of backups in a vault.
7.1.1 Working with vaults This section briefly describes the main GUI elements of the selected vault, and suggests ways to work with them. Examining information on a vault Information about the selected vault is located at the top pane of the selected vault. Using the stacked bar, you can estimate the vault's load. The vault's load is the proportion of the vault's free space and occupied space (not available if the vault is located on a tape library).
A personal vault can be organized on a network share, FTP server, detachable media or removable, Acronis Online Backup Storage, tape device, or on a hard drive local to the machine. Acronis Secure Zone is considered as a personal vault available to all users that can log on the system. Personal vaults are created automatically when backing up any of the above locations. Personal vaults can be used by local backup plans or local tasks.
Validate a vault Click Validate. You will be taken to the Validation (p. 153) page, where this vault is already preselected as a source. The vault validation checks all the archives stored in the vault. Delete a vault Click Delete. The deleting operation actually removes only a shortcut to the folder from the Vaults view. The folder itself remains untouched. You have the option to keep or delete archives contained in the folder. Refresh vault table information Click Refresh.
1. Make sure that none of the backup plans uses vault A while merging, or disable the given plans. See Actions on backup plans and tasks (p. 196). 2. Move the content of vault A folder to vault B manually by means of a third-party file manager. 3. Edit the backup plans that use vault A: redirect their destination to vault B. 4. In the vaults tree, select vault B to check whether the archives are displayed. If not, click Refresh. 5. Delete vault A. 7.
After you configure the required settings, click OK. In the Result confirmation (p. 150) window, review the expected layout and click OK to start creating the zone. 7.2.1.1 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.
7.2.1.4 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.
If there is not enough unallocated space, the program will take free space from the selected volumes, proportionally reducing the volumes' size. Resizing of locked partitions requires a reboot. Reducing a system volume to the minimum size might prevent the machine's operating system from booting. 4. Click OK. 7.2.2.2 Decreasing Acronis Secure Zone To decrease Acronis Secure Zone 1. On the Manage Acronis Secure Zone page, click Decrease. 2.
Vaults created on removable devices do not have the Data view (p. 102) tab. Usage modes of removable devices When creating a backup plan (p. 32), you can choose whether to use your removable device as a fixed drive or as removable media. The Fixed drive mode presumes that the removable device will always be attached to the machine. The Removable media mode is selected by default.
8 Operations with archives and backups 8.1 Validating archives and backups Validation is an operation that checks the possibility of data recovery from a backup. Validation of a file backup imitates recovery of all files from the backup to a dummy destination. Validation of a disk or volume backup calculates a checksum for every data block saved in the backup. Both procedures are resource-intensive. Validation of an archive will validate all the archive's backups.
Vault (p. 154) - select a vault (or other location), to validate archives from. Credentials (p. 155) [Optional] Provide credentials for accessing the source if the task account does not have enough privileges to access it. When to validate Start validation (p. 155) Specify when and how often to perform validation. Task parameters Task name [Optional] Enter a unique name for the validation task. A conscious name lets you quickly identify the task among the others. Task's credentials (p.
To select a local folder (CD/DVD drive, or locally attached tape device), expand the Local folders group and click the required folder. To select a network share, expand the Network folders group, select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them. To select a folder stored on NFS share, expand the NFS drives group and click the folder.
Choose one of the following: Now - to start the validation task right after its creation, that is, after clicking OK on the Validation page. Later - to start the one-time validation task, at the date and time you specify. Specify the appropriate parameters as follows: Date and time - the date and time when to start the task. The task will be started manually (do not schedule the task) - select this check box, if you wish to start the task manually later. On schedule - to schedule the task.
Your choice of backups belonging to the same archive - the resulting archive will contain only the specified backups. Consolidation is performed as required, so the resulting archive may contain full, incremental and differential backups. Usage scenarios Export enables you to separate a specific backup from a chain of incremental backups for fast recovery, writing onto removable or detachable media or other purposes. Example.
When the console is connected to a management server, two export methods are available: Export from a managed vault. The export is performed by the storage node that manages the vault. The destination can be a network share or a local folder of the storage node. Export from an unmanaged centralized vault. The export is performed by the agent installed on the managed machine you specify. The destination can be any location accessible to the agent, including a managed vault. Tip.
Select the Archive (p. 159) or the Backups (p. 159). Show access credentials (p. 159) [Optional] Provide credentials for accessing the source if the task account does not have enough privileges to access it. Where to export Browse (p. 160) Specify the path to the location where the new archive will be created. Be sure to provide a distinct name and comment for the new archive.
To specify credentials 1. Select one of the following: Use the current user credentials The software will access the location using the credentials of the current user. Use the following credentials The program will access the location using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the task account does not have access permissions to the location. You might need to provide special credentials for a network share or a storage node vault. Specify: User name.
To export data to a locally attached tape device, expand the Tape drives group, then click the required device. In stand-alone editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5, tape devices are available only if you have upgraded from Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. For information about using tapes, see the "Tape devices" section. 2.
8.3 Mounting an image Mounting volumes from a disk backup (image) lets you access the volumes as though they were physical disks. Multiple volumes contained in the same backup can be mounted within a single mount operation. The mount operation is available when the console is connected to a managed machine running either Windows or Linux.
If the archive is stored in a local folder on the machine, expand the Local folders group and click the required folder. Mounting is not available if the archive is stored on optical media such as CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Discs (BD). If the archive is stored on a network share, expand the Network folders group, select the required networked machine, and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them. 2.
1. Select the check box for each volume you need to mount. 2. Click on the selected volume to set its mounting parameters. 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. Read/write - with this mode, the program assumes that the backup content will be modified, and creates an incremental backup to capture the changes. Assign letter (in Windows) - Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.
8.4.1 Operations with archives To perform any operation with an archive 1. In the Navigation pane, select the vault that contains archives. 2. On the Archive view tab of the vault, select the archive. If the archive is protected with a password, you will be asked to provide it. 3. Perform operations by clicking the corresponding buttons on the toolbar. These operations can also be accessed from the '[Archive name]' actions item of the main menu.
a separate window In the Backup Content window, examine the backup content. Recover Click Recover. The Recover data (p. 99) page will be opened with the pre-selected backup as a source. Convert a disk/volume backup to a virtual machine Right-click the disk backup, then select Convert to VM. Validate a backup Click The Recover data (p. 99) page will be opened with the pre-selected backup as a source.
You have the following backup chain in your archive: F1 I2 I3 I4 D5 I6 I7 I8 F9 I10 I11 D12 F13 Here F means full backup, I -incremental, D - differential. You convert to full the I4 backup. The I4, D5, I6, I7, I8 backups will be updated, while I10 I11 D12 will remain unchanged, because they depend on F9. Tips on usage Conversion does not create a copy of a backup. To obtain a self-sufficient copy of the backup on a flash drive or removable media, use the export (p. 156) operation.
9 Bootable media Bootable media Bootable media is physical media (CD, DVD, USB drive or other media supported by a machine BIOS as a boot device) that boots on any PC-compatible machine and enables you to run Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent either in a Linux-based environment or Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE), without the help of an operating system.
PE-based bootable media does not support UEFI. 9.1 How to create bootable media To enable creating physical media, the machine must have a CD/DVD recording drive or allow a flash drive to be attached. To enable PXE or WDS/RIS configuration, the machine must have a network connection. Bootable Media Builder can also create an ISO image of a bootable disk to burn it later on a blank disk. Bootable Media Builder does not require a license if installed together with an agent.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94bb6e34-d890-4932-81a55b50c657de08&DisplayLang=en Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 (PE 3.0): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-9F76-4177-A81139C26D3B3B34&displaylang=en Automated Installation Kit (AIK) Supplement for Windows 7 SP1 (PE 3.1): http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5188 You can find system requirements for installation by following the above links.
create CD, DVD or other bootable media such as removable USB flash drives if the hardware BIOS allows for boot from such media build an ISO image of a bootable disc to burn it later on a blank disc upload the selected components to Acronis PXE Server upload the selected components to a WDS/RIS. 8. [Optional] Windows system drivers to be used by Acronis Universal Restore (p. 173).
nousb Disables loading of the USB (Universal Serial Bus) subsystem. nousb2 Disables USB 2.0 support. USB 1.1 devices still work with this parameter. This parameter allows you to use some USB drives in the USB 1.1 mode if they do not work in the USB 2.0 mode. nodma Disables direct memory access (DMA) for all IDE hard disk drives. Prevents the kernel from freezing on some hardware. nofw Disables the FireWire (IEEE1394) interface support. nopcmcia Disables detection of PCMCIA hardware.
Once the bootable agent starts on a machine, the configuration is applied to the machine’s network interface card (NIC.) If the settings have not been pre-configured, the agent uses DHCP auto configuration. You also have the ability to configure the network settings manually when the bootable agent is running on the machine. Pre-configuring multiple network connections You can pre-configure TCP/IP settings for up to ten network interface cards.
You will be able to configure the Universal Restore: to search the media for the drivers that best fit the target hardware to get the mass-storage drivers that you explicitly specify from the media. This is necessary when the target hardware has a specific mass storage controller (such as a SCSI, RAID, or Fiber Channel adapter) for the hard disk. For more information please refer to Universal Restore. The drivers will be placed in the visible Drivers folder on the bootable media.
Adding Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 2.x or 3.x ISO To add Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 2.x or 3.x ISO: 1. When adding the plug-in to the existing Win PE ISO, unpack all files of your Win PE ISO to a separate folder on the hard disk. 2. Start the Bootable Media Builder either from the management console, by selecting Tools > Create Bootable Media or, as a separate component. 3. If Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux is not installed on the machine, specify the license key or the license server with licenses.
9.2 Connecting to a machine booted from media Once a machine boots from bootable media, the machine terminal displays a startup window with the IP address(es) obtained from DHCP or set according to the pre-configured values. Remote connection To connect to the machine remotely, select Connect -> Manage a remote machine in the console menu and specify one of the machine's IP addresses. Provide the user name and password if these have been configured when creating the bootable media.
1. In the boot menu, press F11. 2. Add to the command prompt the following command: vga=ask, and then proceed with booting. 3. From the list of supported video modes, choose the appropriate one by typing its number (for example, 318), and then press ENTER.
Acronis command-line utilities acrocmd acronis asamba lash Linux commands and utilities busybox ifconfig rm cat init rmmod cdrecord insmod route chmod iscsiadm scp chown kill scsi_id chroot kpartx sed cp ln sg_map26 dd ls sh df lspci sleep dmesg lvm ssh dmraid mdadm sshd e2fsck mkdir strace e2label mke2fs swapoff echo mknod swapon egrep mkswap sysinfo fdisk more tar fsck mount tune2fs fxload mtx udev gawk mv udevinfo gpm pccardctl udevstar
hotplug 9.5 reboot Acronis Startup Recovery Manager Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is a modification of the bootable agent (p. 239), 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. Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is especially useful for mobile users.
10 Disk management Acronis Disk Director Lite is a tool for preparing a machine disk/volume configuration for recovering the volume images saved by the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 software. Sometimes after the volume has been backed up and its image placed into a safe storage, the machine disk configuration might change due to a HDD replacement or hardware loss.
1. Back up the disk on which volumes will be created or managed. Having your most important data backed up to another hard disk, network share or removable media will allow you to work on disk volumes being reassured that your data is safe. 2. Test your disk to make sure it is fully functional and does not contain bad sectors or file system errors. 3. Do not perform any disk/volume operations while running other software that has low-level disk access.
The top part of the view contains a disks and volumes table enabling data sorting and columns customization and toolbar. The table presents the numbers of the disks, as well as assigned letter, label, type, capacity, free space size, used space size, file system, and status for each volume. The toolbar comprises of icons to launch the Undo, Redo and Commit actions intended for pending operations (p. 195).
Acronis Disk Director Lite will detect that the disk is unusable by the system and needs to be initialized. The Disk management view will show the newly detected hardware as a gray block with a grayed icon, thus indicating that the disk is unusable by the system. If you need to initialize a disk: 1. Select a disk to initialize. 2. Right-click on the selected volume, and then click Initialize in the context menu.
If there is some data on the disk that was chosen as the target, the user will receive a warning: “The selected target disk is not empty. The data on its volumes will be overwritten.”, meaning that all the data currently located on the chosen target disk will be lost irrevocably. 10.6.2.2 Cloning method and advanced options The Clone basic disk operation usually means that the information from the source disk is transferred to the target “As is”.
If you need to copy the NT signature: 1. Select the Copy NT signature check box. You receive the warning: “If there is an operating system on the hard disk, uninstall either the source or the target hard disk drive from your machine prior to starting the machine again. Otherwise, the OS will start from the first of the two, and the OS on the second disk will become unbootable.” The Turn off the machine after the cloning operation check box is selected and disabled automatically. 2.
1. MBR disk conversion: dynamic to basic (p. 187) using the Convert to basic operation. 2. Basic disk conversion: MBR to GPT using the Convert to GPT operation. 3. GPT disk conversion: basic to dynamic (p. 186) using the Convert to dynamic operation. 10.6.4 Disk conversion: GPT to MBR If you plan to install an OS that does not support GPT disks, conversion of the GPT disk to MBR is possible the name of the operation will be listed as Convert to MBR. If you need to convert a GPT disk to MBR: 1.
System disk conversion Acronis Disk Director Lite does not require an operating system reboot after basic to dynamic conversion of the disk, if: 1. There is a single Windows 2008/Vista operating system installed on the disk. 2. The machine runs this operating system.
safe conversion of a dynamic disk to basic when it contains volumes with data for simple and mirrored volumes in multiboot systems, bootability of a system that was offline during the operation 10.6.7 Changing disk status Changing disk status is effective for Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 operating systems and applies to the current disk layout (p. 181).
Store collections of similar files separately — for example, an MP3 collection or video files on a separate volume; Store backups (images) of other volumes/disks on a special volume; Install a new operating system (or swap file) on a new volume; Add new hardware to a machine. In Acronis Disk Director Lite the tool for creating volumes is the Create volume Wizard. 10.7.1.1 Types of dynamic volumes Simple Volume A volume created from free space on a single physical disk.
data itself. If a physical disk fails, the portion of the RAID-5 volume that was on that failed disk can be re-created from the remaining data and the parity. A RAID-5 volume provides reliability and is able to overcome the physical disk size limitations with a higher than mirrored disk-tovolume size ratio. 10.7.1.
To create a Striped volume: Select two or more destination disks to create the volume on. To create a RAID-5 volume: Select three destination disks to create the volume on. After you choose the disks, the wizard will calculate the maximum size of the resulting volume, depending on the size of the unallocated space on the disks you chose and the requirements of the volume type you have previously decided upon.
In setting the cluster size you can choose between any number in the preset amount for each file system. Note, the program suggests the cluster size best suited to the volume with the chosen file system. If you are creating a basic volume, which can be made into a system volume, this page will be different, giving you the opportunity to select the volume Type — Primary (Active Primary) or Logical. Typically Primary is selected to install an operating system to a volume.
10.7.3 Set active volume If you have several primary volumes, you must specify one to be the boot volume. For this, you can set a volume to become active. A disk can have only one active volume, so if you set a volume as active, the volume, which was active before, will be automatically unset. If you need to set a volume active: 1. Select a primary volume on a basic MBR disk to set as active. 2. Right-click on the selected volume, and then click Mark as active in the context menu.
10.7.5 Change volume label The volume label is an optional attribute. It is a name assigned to a volume for easier recognition. For example, one volume could be called SYSTEM — a volume with an operating system, or PROGRAM — an application volume, DATA — a data volume, etc., but it does not imply that only the type of data stated with the label could be stored on such a volume. In Windows, volume labels are shown in the Explorer disk and folder tree: LABEL1(C:), LABEL2(D:), LABEL3(E:), etc.
If you set a 64K cluster size for FAT16/FAT32 or an 8KB-64KB cluster size for NTFS, Windows can mount the volume, but some programs (e.g. Setup programs) might calculate its disk space incorrectly. 10.8 Pending operations All operations, which were prepared by the user in manual mode or with the aid of a wizard, are considered pending until the user issues the specific command for the changes to be made permanent.
11 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. 11.1 Backup plans and tasks The Backup plans and tasks view keeps you informed of data protection on a given machine. It lets you monitor and manage backup plans and tasks. To find out what a backup plan is currently doing on the machine, check the backup plan execution state (p. 198).
To Do View details of a plan/task Click Details. In the respective Plan Details (p. 205) or Task Details (p. 206) window, review the plan or task details. View plan's/task's log Click Log. You will be taken to the Log (p. 207) view containing the list of the log entries grouped by the plan/task-related activities. Run a plan/task Backup plan 1. Click Run. 2. In the drop-down list, select the plan's task you need run.
To Do Edit a plan/task Click Edit. Backup plan editing is performed in the same way as creation (p. 32), 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.
1 Need interaction At least one task needs user interaction. Otherwise, see 2. 2 Running At least one task is running. Identify the tasks that need interaction (the program will display what action is needed) -> Stop the tasks or enable the tasks to run (change media; provide additional space on the vault; ignore the read error; create the missing Acronis Secure Zone). No action is required. Otherwise, see 3. 3 Waiting At least one task is waiting. Otherwise, see 4. Waiting for condition.
11.1.2.3 Task states A task can be in one of the following states: Idle; Waiting; Running; Need interaction. The initial task state is Idle. Once the task is started manually or the event specified by the schedule occurs, the task enters either the Running state or the Waiting state. Running A task changes to the Running state when the event specified by the schedule occurs AND all the conditions set in the backup plan are met AND no other task that locks the necessary resources is running.
11.1.3 Export and import of backup plans The export operation creates a file with complete configuration of the backup plan. You can import the file to reuse the exported backup plan on another machine. You can edit plans in the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 graphical user interface when importing them or after. Backup plans are exported to .xml files, so you can edit the export files of backup plans (p. 201) with text editors. Passwords are encrypted in the export files.
How to modify credentials In the export file, the tags include the user name and the tags include the user password. To modify credentials, change the and tags in the corresponding sections: plan's credentials - the section access credentials for the backed up data - the section access credentials for the backup destination - the section.
How to change items to back up Replacing a directly specified item with another directly specified item Inside the section: 1. Delete the tag. 2. Edit the value of the tag , which contains information about data to back up; for example, replace "C:" with "D:". Replacing a directly specified item with a selection template Inside the section: 1.
disks disks [BOOT] [SYSTEM] 11.1.4 Deploying backup plans as files Assume that you need to apply one and the same backup plan to multiple machines. A good decision is to export the backup plan from one machine and deploy it to all the other machines.
The default path to the dedicated folder is %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\import (in Windows Vista and later versions of Windows) or %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\import (in versions of Windows earlier than Windows Vista). The path is stored in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\MMS\Configuration\Import\FolderPath. The absence of the key means that the agent does not monitor the dedicated folder. To change the path, edit the key.
Last start time - how much time has passed since the last plan or task start. Last finish time - how much time has passed since the last plan or task end. Deployment state - the deployment states of the backup plan (only for centralized backup plans). Last result - the result of the last plan or task run. Type - backup plan or task type. Owner - the name of the user who created or last modified the plan Next start time - when the plan or task will start the next time.
When a task or activity requires user interaction, a message and action buttons appear above the tabs. The message contains a brief description of the problem. The buttons allow you to retry or stop the task or the activity. 11.2 Log The local event log stores the history of operations performed by Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 on the machine. To view a plain list of log entries, select Events in the Display drop-down list; to view log entries grouped by activities, select Activities.
Save all the log entries to a file 1. Make sure, that the filters are not set. 2. Click Save all to file. 3. In the opened window, specify a path and a name for the file. All log entries will be saved to the specified file. Save all the filtered log entries to a file 1. Set filters to get a list of the log entries that satisfy the filtering criteria. 2. Click Save all to file. 3. In the opened window, specify a path and a name for the file.
Active and inactive alerts An alert can be either in an active, or inactive state. The active state indicates that the issue that caused the alert still exists. An active alert becomes inactive when the problem that caused the alert is resolved either manually or on its own. Note: There is one alert type that is always active: "Backup not created". This is because even if the cause of this alert was resolved and the following backups successfully created, the fact that the backup was not created remains.
trial > backing up to the online storage** After trying the product, you decided to back up to Acronis Online Backup Storage only *Switching between advanced and stand-alone editions is not possible. **Prior to backing up to the online storage, you need to activate a subscription for the online backup service on the machine(s) you want to back up. For more information refer to the "Online backup" (p. 217) section. You can also enable Acronis Universal Restore by using an additional license.
If you select Wait for task completion, all of the running Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 tasks will be completed. 11.6.2 Acronis Customer Experience Program This option is effective only for Windows operating systems. This option defines whether the machine will participate in the Acronis Customer Experience Program (CEP).
The alert is displayed in the Alerts view of the Navigation pane. 11.6.4 E-mail settings The option enables you to configure e-mail settings to send notifications about alerts which occurred on the managed machine. The notification schedule and the types of alerts to send are configured in Machine options > E-mail settings > Alert notifications (p. 212). The preset is: Disabled. Note: Alerts warn only about problems.
When using this option, make sure that the e-mail settings are properly configured in Machine options > E-mail settings (p. 212). The preset is: Disabled. To configure alert notifications 1. Select when to send alert notifications: As soon as an alert appears – to send a notification every time a new alert occurs. Click Select the types of alerts... to specify the types of alerts to send notifications about.
To set up sending SNMP messages 1. Select the Send messages to SNMP server check box. 2. Specify the appropriate options as follows: Types of events to send – choose the types of events: All events, Errors and warnings, or Errors only. Server name/IP – type the name or IP address of the host running the SNMP management application, the messages will be sent to.
You can override the settings set here, exclusively for the events that occur during backup or during recovery, in the Default backup and recovery options. In this case, the settings set here will be effective for operations other than backup and recovery, such as archive validation or cleanup. You can further override the settings set in the default backup and recovery options, when creating a backup plan or a recovery task. The settings you obtain in this case will be plan-specific or taskspecific.
If you do not know the proxy server settings, contact your network administrator or Internet service provider for assistance. Alternatively, you can try to take these settings from your Web browser’s configuration. This is how to find them in three popular browsers. Microsoft Internet Explorer. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. On the Connections tab, click LAN settings. Mozilla Firefox. On the Tools menu, click Options and then click Advanced.
12 Online backup This section provides details about using the Acronis Backup & Recovery Online service. This service enables you to do online backups to Acronis Online Backup Storage. Acronis Backup & Recovery Online might be unavailable in your region. To find more information, click here: http://www.acronis.eu/my/backup-recovery-online/ To configure backup to the online storage or recovery from the storage, follow the regular steps described in the corresponding sections: Creating a backup plan (p.
12.1.3 How long will my backups be kept in the online storage? Your backups remain in the online storage until you delete them or until the subscription expires. Recovering data from the online storage is possible for 30 days following the subscription expiration date. For effective use of the storage space, you have the option to set up the "Delete backups older than" retention rule. Example You might want to use the following backup strategy for a file server.
Recovering disks or files by using Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 GUI or command line interface. This method enables you to use a wide range of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 functionality. Retrieving files (p. 233) from file-level backups by using a Web browser. To do this, you only need a machine with Internet access. 12.1.5.3 Is the online storage available under Acronis bootable media? Recovery from Acronis Online Backup Storage is available but backup to the storage is not. 12.1.5.
To continue backing up the machine to the same subscription, reassign (p. 231) the subscription to the machine. If you do this, the next machine's backup can be incremental. If you assign a new subscription to the machine, the software will have to do a new full backup. 12.1.6 Initial Seeding FAQ This section explains what Initial Seeding is, why you would want to use it and provides some usage details. 12.1.6.
12.1.6.7 How to buy an Initial Seeding license? You can buy an Initial Seeding license from an Acronis partner or in Acronis online store. Follow the link http://www.acronis.eu/my/backup-recovery-online/#buy to locate a partner or to buy online. Having purchased a license from an Acronis partner, you receive a confirmation e-mail with a registration code. Click Enter new registration code on the same web page and register the license. The license becomes available on the Initial Seeding / Recovery tab.
Hard drive types Acronis accepts hard disk drives of the following interface types: IDE, ATA, SATA, USB connected drives. SCSI drives are not accepted. Packaging If possible, use the original packaging. Otherwise, packaging materials can be obtained at any shipping outlet or stationary store. You should also include all necessary cables or adapters to the drive. Acronis will not be able to process your initial seeding request if there are no cables included.
Step 4 Choose the transport company that you will use for shipping. On that company's web site, prepare and print two prepaid shipping labels: 1. Shipping label for sending your hard drive. This label is placed on the top of the box. You should send your package to one of the Acronis data centers. The data center address can be obtained on the Initial seeding / Recovery tab of your account management page by clicking Datacenter address.
Step 5 Securely seal the box with a sturdy tape. Then, stick the shipping label for sending your hard drive to the top of the box, so the label does not wrap around the edge of the package. 12.1.6.10 How do I track an Initial Seeding order status? On the Acronis Web site, the Initial Seeding / Recovery tab shows you the status of all your orders. In addition, you will receive e-mail notifications about the most important events. Available – The license is available for using on any machine.
The order has been completed. The media has been returned (or: Returning the media was not requested) – Your media has been shipped back (the carrier and the tracking number are specified). If a prepaid shipping label was not provided with the media, the media will be discarded. [Occasional] The order is on hold – Your order was placed on hold due to technical difficulties processing the order. Acronis is working on resolving these issues.
12.1.7.6 Can I obtain backups taken from a number of machines on a single hard drive? No. A separate hard drive is required for each machine. 12.1.7.7 How to buy a Large Scale Recovery license? You can buy a Large Scale Recovery license from an Acronis partner or in Acronis online store. Follow the link http://www.acronis.eu/my/backup-recovery-online/#buy to locate a partner or to buy online. Having purchased a license from an Acronis partner, you receive a confirmation e-mail with a registration code.
12.1.8 Subscription lifecycle FAQ This section explains a subscription lifecycle and subscription operations that you can perform on your account management Web page. 12.1.8.1 How to access my account management Web page? To access this Web page from the Acronis Web site: 1. Select User Login. 2. Log in to your account (create one if you are not registered yet). 3. Navigate to Online backup > for Business. To access this Web page from Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5: 1.
An expired subscription can be renewed within five days after expiration. In such cases, the new subscription will be activated immediately. Renewing a single subscription To renew a subscription 1. Go to the account management Web page. 2. Make sure that you have an available subscription of the same type with the same or larger storage quota.
Qo – old subscription storage quota Qn – new subscription storage quota. Example. You have a 250 GB subscription and you decide to increase its storage quota 2 months before the subscription expiration. The new subscription storage quota is 500 GB. So, the new subscription remaining period will be Pn = 2 months * (250 GB / 500 GB) = 1 month To increase a storage quota 1. Go to the account management Web page. 2.
Windows 2000 SP4 – all editions except for the Datacenter and Professional editions. Windows Server 2003/2003 R2 – the Standard, Enterprise editions (x86, x64). Windows Small Business Server 2003/2003 R2. Windows Server 2008 – the Standard, Enterprise editions (x86, x64). Windows Small Business Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 R2 – the Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Foundation editions. Windows MultiPoint Server 2010. Windows Small Business Server 2011.
As soon as a subscription is activated, its subscription period starts. To avoid losing subscription time, activate the subscription only when you are ready to back up the machine. If a machine already has a subscription, the new subscription will replace the old one. You can reassign the old subscription to a different machine—see “Reassigning an activated subscription” (p. 231). Before activating the first subscription for your account, check the country selected in your profile.
Depending on your settings, this backup will be either full or incremental. But its size is not likely to be less than a full backup size. Therefore, it is not practical to reassign a subscription to a machine whose first backup was done as an initial seeding. You will need to either redo the initial seeding (which requires a new license) or to transfer the sizeable backup over the Internet. All earlier created backups remain intact. You can delete them manually if necessary.
12.6 Retrieving files from the online storage by using a Web browser By using a Web browser, you can browse Acronis Online Backup Storage, view contents of file-level archives, and download the selected files and folders. The following browsers support these operations: Internet Explorer 7 or later Mozilla Firefox 3.5 or later Google Chrome 10 or later Safari 5.0.5 or later To retrieve files from the online storage: 1. Go to the account management Web page (p.
Operations The following operations are not possible.
Assign a subscription to a machine Reserve a subscription for a particular machine. Subscription period does not start counting down until the subscription is activated. Assigned subscription A subscription that has been assigned to a machine. Available subscription A subscription that is not assigned to any machine. Extra service A service that you can use in addition to online backup subscriptions. Increase storage quota Replace a subscription with another one that has a greater storage quota.
Renew a subscription Assign a subscription that has the same storage quota as the current, activated subscription. This subscription will become activated as soon as the current subscription expires. Storage quota The amount of storage space that a machine can use according to the subscription. Subscription Permission for a machine to use a specific amount of space in the online storage for a specific period of time. Subscription period The period during which the subscription remains activated.
13 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. 243) and the machine becomes operational and ready to provide necessary services. The data required to serve incoming requests is recovered with the highest priority; everything else is recovered in the background.
Limitation: requires re-activation of loaders other than Windows loaders and GRUB. Acronis Universal Restore The Acronis proprietary technology that helps boot up Windows or Linux on dissimilar hardware or a virtual machine. Universal Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for the operating system start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset. Universal Restore is not available: when the image being recovered is located in Acronis Secure Zone (p.
Backup operation An operation that creates a copy of the data that exists on a machine's (p. 247) hard disk for the purpose of recovering or reverting the data to a specified date and time. Backup options Configuration parameters of a backup operation (p. 238), 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. 239).
Bootable agent A bootable rescue utility that includes most of the functionality of the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent (p. 238). Bootable agent is based on Linux kernel. A machine (p. 247) can be booted into a bootable agent using either bootable media (p. 240) or Acronis PXE Server. Operations can be configured and controlled either locally through the GUI or remotely using the console (p. 241). Bootable media A physical media (CD, DVD, USB flash drive or other media supported by a machine (p.
Centralized management Management of the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 infrastructure through a central management unit known as Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Management Server (p. 247). The centralized management operations include: creating centralized backup plans (p. 240) for the registered machines (p. 248) and groups of machines creating and managing static (p. 248) and dynamic groups (p. 244) of machines (p. 247) managing the tasks (p.
Having connected the console to the management server, the administrator sets up centralized backup plans (p. 240) and accesses other management server functionality, that is, performs centralized management (p. 240). Using the direct console-agent connection, the administrator performs direct management (p. 242). Consolidation Combining two or more subsequent backups (p. 238) belonging to the same archive (p. 238) into a single backup.
Direct management An operation that is performed on a managed machine (p. 247) using the direct console (p. 241)agent (p. 238) connection (as opposed to centralized management (p. 240) when the operations are configured on the management server (p. 247) and propagated by the server to the managed machines). The direct management operations include: creating and managing local backup plans (p. 246) viewing and managing the log of the agent's operations creating and managing local tasks (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 Listed in txt/csv file. A machine remains in a dynamic group as long as the machine meets the group's criteria. However, the administrator can specify exclusions and not include certain machines in the dynamic group even if they meet the criteria. Dynamic volume Any volume located on dynamic disks (p. 244), or more precisely, on a disk group (p. 243). Dynamic volumes can span multiple disks.
G GFS (Grandfather-Father-Son) A popular backup scheme (p. 239) aimed to maintain the optimal balance between a backup archive (p. 238) size and the number of recovery points (p. 248) available from the archive. GFS enables recovering with daily resolution for the last several days, weekly resolution for the last several weeks and monthly resolution for any time in the past. For more information please refer to GFS backup scheme. I Image The same as Disk backup (p. 243). Incremental backup A backup (p.
A volume, information about which is stored in the extended partition table. (In contrast to a primary volume, information about which is stored in the Master Boot Record.) A volume created using Logical Volume Manager (LVM) for Linux kernel. LVM gives an administrator the flexibility to redistribute large storage space on demand, add new and take out old physical disks without interrupting user service. Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent (p.
P Personal vault A local or networked vault (p. 250) created using direct management (p. 242). Once a personal vault is created, a shortcut to it appears on the managed machine in the Vaults list. Multiple machines can use the same physical location; for example, a network share; as a personal vault. Plan See Backup plan (p. 239). R Recovery point Date and time to which the backed up data can be reverted. Registered machine A machine (p. 247) managed by a management server (p. 247).
S Static group A group of machines which a management server (p. 247) administrator populates by manually adding machines to the group. A machine remains in a static group until the administrator removes it from the group or from the management server. Storage node (Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Storage Node) A server aimed to optimize usage of various resources required for protection of enterprise data. This goal is achieved by organizing managed vaults (p. 247).
Validation of a file backup imitates recovery of all files from the backup to a dummy destination. Validation of a disk backup calculates a checksum for every data block saved in the backup. Both procedures are resource-intensive. While the successful validation means a high probability of successful recovery, it does not check all factors that influence the recovery process.
