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”, “Acronis Instant Restore” and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis International GmbH. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. VMware and VMware Ready are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc.
Table of contents 1 Introducing Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 ........................................................................ 10 1.1 What's new in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 .....................................................................10 1.2 Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 components ........................................................................10 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 2 1.3 About the trial product version ...................................................................
4.4 Scheduling................................................................................................................................59 4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3 4.4.4 4.4.5 4.5 Replication and retention of backups......................................................................................71 4.5.1 4.5.2 4.5.3 4.5.4 4.5.5 4.5.6 4.6 Additional settings.........................................................................................................................................
5.5 Bootability troubleshooting ...................................................................................................123 5.5.1 5.5.2 5.6 Reverting a Windows system to its factory settings..............................................................127 5.7 Default recovery options .......................................................................................................127 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................................................................................................166 8.4.1 8.4.2 8.4.3 8.4.4 9 Volume selection ......................................................................................................................................... 165 Managing mounted images........................................................................................................................ 166 Operations with archives ...
11.2.2 11.2.3 Accessing SQL Server databases from a disk backup ............................................................................... 209 Attaching SQL Server databases ................................................................................................................ 210 11.3 Recovering Exchange Server data..........................................................................................210 11.3.1 11.3.2 11.3.3 Recovering Exchange Server database files from a disk backup .
13.3 Choosing a subscription .........................................................................................................254 13.4 Activating online backup subscriptions .................................................................................255 13.4.1 13.4.2 Activating subscriptions .............................................................................................................................. 256 Reassigning an activated subscription ....................................
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. 77). 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.com/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).
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. 101) 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. 16). Main area Here you configure and monitor backup, recovery and other operations. The main area displays views and action pages (p. 17) 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. 16). "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. 18) 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. 89). 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 Permissions on registry keys Backup BackupAndRecovery Operators Encryption (for any account) Global Administrators (for new account MMS only) Modify firmwar
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. 153) 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. 78) 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. 153) 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. 75) 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. 75). 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.
not corrupted and can be successfully recovered, think of starting the validation right after backup creation. 2. What to validate – select either to validate the entire archive or the latest backup in the archive. Validation of 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.
Let's assume you migrate your office or datacenter to a virtual environment. By using third-party software that can access configuration parameters through VMware API, you can automatically apply security policies to each machine even before powering it on. To add a text label to a backup: 1. On the Create backup plan (p. 34) page, click Show plan's credentials, comments, label. 2. In Label, enter the text label or select it from the drop-down menu.
Other Operating System (64 bit) otherGuest64 Example acronisTag.label = “DEPT:BUCH; COMP:SUPERSERVER; OWNER:EJONSON” 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.
Setting up full, incremental and differential backups within a single backup plan. You need to create separate backup plans for each type of backup Backup to a tape, Acronis Secure Zone or Acronis Online Backup Storage Setting up replication of backups Setting up retention rules 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.
4.3.2 Backup splitting and simplified file naming When a backup is split according to backup splitting (p. 84) settings, the same indexing is used to also name parts of the backup. The file name for the next backup will have the next available index. 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.
You want to perform hourly backups of your server's critical files every day. You want to keep older backups in the archive. You want the first backup of each day to be full and to run at midnight; and the subsequent backups of the day to be differential and to run at 01:00, 02:00, and so on. In this scenario, create a backup plan with a daily schedule.
You want to swap the drives each Monday so that one drive contains backups of the current week (Monday through Sunday), and the other drive those of the previous week. In this scenario, you need to create two backup plans as follows: a) When creating the first backup plan: Specify MyMachine as the archive name. Select the Name backup files using the archive name... check box.
The 10 differential backups of January 31, 2012, will be stored as ServerFiles[2012-01-31]2.tib, ServerFiles[2012-01-31]3.tib, and so on up to ServerFiles[2012-01-31]11.tib. The following day, February 1, the backups will start with the full backup ServerFiles[2012-02-01].tib. The differential backups will start with ServerFiles[2012-02-01]2.tib. See also “The *Date+ variable” (p. 55). 4.
User is idle (a screen saver is running or the machine is locked) Location's host is available The task run time is within the specified time interval All users are logged off 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. 98) backup option.
Examples "Simple" daily schedule Run the task every day at 6PM. The schedule's parameters are thus set up as follows. 1. Every: 1 day(s). 2. Once at: 06:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: not set. The task will be started on the current day, if it has been created before 6PM. If you have created the task after 6 PM, the task will be started for the first time on the next day at 6 PM. To: not set. The task will be performed for an indefinite number of days.
task's recurrences is 4 hours, and between the third, fourth and fifth is 2 hours. In this case, the optimal way is to add two schedules to the task. First daily schedule 1. Every: 3 day(s). 2. Every: 4 hours. From: 08:00:00 AM Until: 12:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: 09/20/2009. To: not set. Second daily schedule 1. Every: 3 day(s). 2. Every: 2 hour(s). From: 03:00:00 PM Until: 07:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: 09/20/2009. To: not set. 4.4.
Run the task every Friday at 10PM, starting from a certain date (say 05/14/2009) and ending after six months. The schedule's parameters are thus set up as follows. 1. Every: 1 week(s) on: Fri. 2. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: 05/13/2009. The task will be started on the nearest Friday at 10 PM. To: 11/13/2009. The task will be performed for the last time on this date, but the task itself will still be available in the Tasks view after this date.
Sunday: once at 9 PM Combining the identical times, the following three schedules can be added to the task: First schedule 1. Every: 1 week(s) on: Mon, Fri. 2. Every: 9 hours From: 12:00:00 PM Until: 09:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: not set. To: not set. Second schedule 1. Every 1 week(s) on: Tue, Wed, Thu. 2. Every 3 hours From 09:00:00 AM until 09:00:00 PM. 3. 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.
From: <...> Set up a date when this schedule will be enabled (an effective date). If this check box is cleared, the task will be started on the nearest day and time you have specified above. To: <...> Set up a date when this schedule will be disabled. If this check box is cleared, the task will be run for an indefinite number of months. All the settings you made are displayed in the Result field at the bottom of the window.
Suppose that the task goes into effect on 11/01/2009. During northern winter, the task runs once at 10PM on every workday. During northern spring and autumn, the task runs every 12 hours on all workdays. During northern summer, the task runs every first and fifteenth of every month at 10 PM. Thus, the following three schedules are added to the task. First schedule 1. 2. 3. 4. Months: December, January, February. On: Once at: 10:00:00 PM. Effective: From: 11/01/2009.
Event source Specifies the event source, which typically indicates the program or the system component that caused the event—for example: disk Event type Specifies the event type: Error, Warning, Information, Audit success, or Audit failure. Event ID Specifies the event number, which typically identifies the particular kind of events among events from the same source.
Tip: To set up a similar backup plan for machines running Microsoft Windows XP, replace the text in Event source with Windows Update Agent and leave the remaining fields the same. How to view events in Event viewer To open a log in Event Viewer 1. On the Desktop or in the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and then click Manage. 2. In the Computer Management console, expand System Tools, and then expand Event Viewer. 3.
Set the schedule, conditions and the Task start conditions backup option as follows: Schedule: When free space changed; Value: Run task if free space has changed by at least: 1 GB. Condition: User logged off; Value: Run the task on schedule only if all users are logged off. Condition: Time since last backup; Value: Time since the last backup: 12 hour(s). Task start conditions: Wait until the conditions are met.
(2) If 9:00 PM comes but the host is unavailable at the moment, the backup task will start on the next workday if the location's host is available. (3) If the location's host will never be available on workdays at 9:00 PM, the task never starts. 4.4.5.3 Fits time interval Applies to: Windows, Linux Restricts a backup task's start time to a specified interval. Example A company uses different locations on the same network-attached storage for backing up users data and servers.
4.4.5.4 User logged off Applies to: Windows Enables to put a backup task run on hold until all users log off from Windows on the managed machine. Example Run the backup task at 8 PM on the first and third Friday of every month, preferably when all users are logged off. If one of the users is still logged on at 11 PM, run the task anyway. Event: Monthly, Months: ; On: , ; Once at 08:00:00 PM. Condition: User logged off.
Replicate (copy) each backup to a second location immediately after creation. Retain the backups according to the retention rules you specify, and then either move them to a second location or delete them. Similarly, you can copy or move backups from a second location to a third location and so on. Up to five consecutive locations are supported (including the primary one).
Initial seeding (p. 51) No No No Notes: Setting up both copying and moving backups from the same location is not possible. With simplified naming of backup files (p. 54), neither replication nor use of retention rules is available. 4.5.
If allowed by the backup scheme, you can also specify when to automatically delete the backups from each of the locations. 4.5.3 Setting up retention of backups You can set retention rules for backups when creating a backup plan (p. 34). The available retention rules depend on the chosen backup scheme. Applying retention rules can be restricted by the Replication/cleanup inactivity time (p. 76) option. Simple scheme Each backup is retained until its age exceeds a limit you specify.
You can choose to apply the retention rules before creating a backup, after creating a backup, on a schedule, or combine these options. For the second and next locations, creating a backup means copying or moving a backup there from the previous location. 4.5.4 Retention rules for the Custom scheme In the Retention Rules window, you can select how long to store backups in the location and whether to move or delete them afterward.
The outdated backup (marked with the icon) will be kept until all backups that depend on it also become outdated. Then, all the chain will be deleted at once during the regular cleanup. If you chose moving outdated backups to the next location, the backup will be copied there without delay. Only its deletion from the current location is postponed. This mode helps to avoid the potentially time-consuming consolidation but requires extra space for storing backups whose deletion is postponed.
4.5.6 Usage examples This section provides examples of how you can replicate backups and set up retention rules for them. 4.5.6.1 Example 1. Replicating backups to a network folder Consider the following scenario: You want to perform a full backup of your machine manually. You want to store the backups in Acronis Secure Zone (p. 150) on the machine. You want to store a copy of the backups in a network folder. In this scenario, create a backup plan with the Manual start scheme.
Consider the following scenario: You want to occasionally back up your machine to a local folder. You want to keep a copy of the resulting archive off-site in Acronis Online Backup Storage. No matter when you start the backup, you want the replication to take place outside working hours, when demand on the Internet connection is lower. In this scenario, create a backup plan with the desired backup scheme. When creating the backup plan, specify a local folder in the Path field.
You can also customize a default option itself by changing its value against the pre-defined one. The new value will be used by default in all backup plans you will create later on this machine. To view and change the default backup options, connect the console to the managed machine and then select Options > Default backup and recovery options > Default backup options from the top menu.
Agent for Windows Bootable media (Linux-based or PE-based) Disk backup File backup Disk backup File backup Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode) + + + + Re-attempt if an error occurs + + + + Ignore bad sectors + + + + Windows events log (p. 88) + + - - SNMP (p. 87) + + - - Fast incremental/differential backup (p. 89) + - + - File-level backup snapshot (p.
Agent for Windows Bootable media (Linux-based or PE-based) Volume Shadow Copy Service (p. 99) 4.6.1 Disk backup File backup Disk backup File backup + + - - Additional settings Specify the additional settings for the backup operation by selecting or clearing the following check boxes. Ask for the first media while backing up to removable media This option is effective only when backing up to removable media.
For example, if the machine boots from a hard disk drive by default and you select this check box, the machine will be restarted and the operating system will start as soon as the bootable agent has finished creating the backup. 4.6.2 Archive protection This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media. This option is effective for both disk-level and file-level backup.
If you select Full cataloging, the backup contents are cataloged to the highest possible level of detail. This means that the following data will be displayed in the catalog: For a disk-level backup - disks, volumes, files, and folders. For an Exchange mailbox-level backup - mailboxes, folders, and e-mails. For a file-level backup - files and folders.
Normal – to run the backup process with normal speed, allocating resources on a par with other processes High – to maximize the backup process speed by taking resources from other processes. 4.6.4.2 HDD writing speed This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.
This option is not effective when the backup destination is a managed vault or Acronis Online Backup Storage. The option defines how a backup can be split. The preset is: Automatic The following settings are available. Automatic With this setting, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 will act as follows. When backing up to a hard disk or a network share: A single backup file will be created if the destination disk's file system allows the estimated file size.
The option defines the level of compression applied to the data being backed up. The preset is: Normal. The optimal data compression level depends on the type of data being backed up. For example, even maximum compression will not significantly reduce the archive size if the archive contains essentially compressed files, such as .jpg, .pdf or .mp3. However, formats such as .doc or .xls will be compressed well.
2. Enter the e-mail address in the E-mail Address field. You can enter several e-mail addresses in a semicolon-delimited format. 3. [Optional] Change the default value of the Subject field, if necessary. 4. Enter the parameters of access to the SMTP server. For more detailed information, see E-mail notifications (p. 132). 5. [Optional] Click Send test e-mail message to check if the settings are correct. 4.6.
This option is not available when operating under the bootable media. The option defines whether the agent(s) operating on the managed machine have to send the log events of the backup operations to the specified Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) managers. You can choose the types of events to be sent. For detailed information about using SNMP with Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5, please see "Support for SNMP (p. 32)". The preset is: Use the setting set in the Machine options.
Errors only Do not log - to disable logging events of the backup operations in the Application Event Log. 4.6.10 Fast incremental/differential backup The option is effective in Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media. This option is effective for incremental and differential disk-level backup. This option defines whether a file change is detected using the file size and time stamp or by comparing the file contents to those stored in the archive. The preset is: Enabled.
Simply ignore this option if you do not use the encryption. Enable the option if encrypted files are included in the backup and you want them to be accessed by any user after recovery. Otherwise, only the user who encrypted the files/folders will be able to read them. Decryption may also be useful if you are going to recover encrypted files on a different machine. File encryption is available in Windows using the NTFS file system with the Encrypting File System (EFS).
you are planning to use Acronis One-Click Restore, include all the volumes in the backup. Any volumes missing from the backup will be lost. 4.6.14 Mount points This option is effective only in Windows for a file-level backup of a data source that includes mounted volumes or cluster shared volumes. This option is effective only when you select for backup a folder that is higher in the folder hierarchy than the mount point. (A mount point is a folder on which an additional volume is logically attached.
When this option is set to Enable, snapshots of all volumes being backed up will be created simultaneously. Use this option to create a time-consistent backup of data spanned across multiple volumes, for instance for an Oracle database. When this option is set to Disable, the volumes' snapshots will be taken one after the other. As a result, if the data spans across several volumes, the resulting backup may be not consistent. 4.6.16 Notifications Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.
b. Use encryption – you can opt for encrypted connection to the mail server. SSL and TLS encryption types are available for selection. 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.
Pre-backup command Backup Post-backup command Examples of how you can use the pre/post commands: Delete some temporary files from the disk before starting backup Configure a third-party antivirus product to be started each time before the backup starts Copy an archive to another location after the backup ends. The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause"). To specify pre/post commands 1.
4.6.17.2 Post-backup command To specify a command/executable file to be executed after the backup is completed 1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. 2. 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.
4.6.18.1 Pre-data capture command To specify a command/batch file to be executed before data capture 1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".) 2. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will be executed. 3. In the Arguments field specify the command’s execution arguments, if required. 4.
Result Preset Continue the backup after the Continue the backup command is only after the executed despite command is command successfully execution failure executed. Delete the or success. TIB file and temporary files and fail the task if the command execution fails. N/A Continue the backup concurrently with the command execution and irrespective of the command execution result. * A command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero. 4.6.
This option determines the program behavior when any of the backup plan's tasks fails. The preset is not to restart a failed task. The program will try to execute the failed task again if you select the Restart a failed task check box and specify the number of attempts and the time interval between the attempts. The program stops trying as soon as an attempt completes successfully OR the specified number of attempts is performed, depending on which comes first.
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. 265) or using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and configure recovery.
Disks (p. 107) Volumes (p. 109) Files (p. 113) 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. 104). 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. 109) 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. 108) 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. 111) [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. 114) 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 BIOS The target machine must support 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. 34), enable conversion of a backup to a virtual machine (p. 138). 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. 34), 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. 268) 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. 142) 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. 143), 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. 172) 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. 192). 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. 155) page, where this vault is already pre-selected 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. 221). 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. 152) 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. 104) tab. Usage modes of removable devices When creating a backup plan (p. 34), 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. 156) - select a vault (or other location), to validate archives from. Credentials (p. 157) [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. 157) 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. 161) or the Backups (p. 161). Show access credentials (p. 161) [Optional] Provide credentials for accessing the source if the task account does not have enough privileges to access it. Where to export Browse (p. 162) 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. 101) 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. 101) 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. 158) 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-d890-4932-81a5-5b50c 657de08&DisplayLang=en Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 (PE 3.0): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-9F76-4177-A811-39C26 D3B3B34&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. 175).
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. 264), 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. 197).
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. 189) 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. 188) 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. 183).
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-to-volume 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 Protecting applications with disk-level backup This section describes how to use a disk-level backup to protect applications running on Windows servers. This information is valid for both physical and virtual machines, no matter if the virtual machines are backed up at a hypervisor level or from inside a guest OS.
If the application databases are located on a number of machines, back up all of the machines on the same schedule. For example, include all of the SQL servers belonging to a SharePoint farm in a centralized backup plan running on a fixed schedule. Use Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) should be used to ensure consistency of the database files in the backup.
1. Truncating the logs manually or by using a script. 2. For Microsoft SQL Server, temporary switching to Simple Recovery Model. 3. For Microsoft Exchange Server, using the dedicated Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server. For more information about the available solutions, see "Truncating transaction logs" (p. 203). Application-specific recommendations See "Best practices when backing up application servers" (p. 206). 11.1.
Determining locations of database files by using SQL Server Management Studio Default locations SQL Server database files are in their default locations unless you have customized the paths manually. To find out the default locations of database files: 1. Run Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the necessary instance. 2. Right-click the instance name and select Properties. 3. Open the Database Settings page and view the paths specified in the Database default locations section.
Exchange 2003 1. Start Exchange System Manager. 2. Click Administrative Groups. Note: If Administrative Groups does not appear, it may not be turned on. To turn on Administrative Groups, right-click Exchange Organization, and then click Properties. Click to select the Display Administrative Groups check box. 3. To find out transaction log location, do the following: a. Right-click the storage group, and then click Properties. b. On the General tab you will see transaction log location. 4.
4. Selecta database. In the opened page you will see the database server and database name. Write them down or copy to a text file. 5. Repeat step 4 for other databases of the web application. 6. Repeat steps 3-5 for other web applications. 7. Use Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio to identify the database files. For detailed instructions, refer to "SQL Server database files" (p. 200). To find the configuration or service database files in SharePoint 2007 1. Open Central Administration site. 2.
d. In the Recovery Model list box, select the Simple model list. 2. The transaction log files will automatically be truncated. 3. Switch the database back to the Full or Bulk-logged recovery model in the same manner as in step 1. Automating log truncation and shrinking You can automate the above truncation procedure by using a script and (optionally) add log file shrinking. If you add the script to the Post-backup command (p. 95), the logs will be truncated and shrunk immediately after a backup.
3. In the Post-backup command, specify the path to the batch file. 11.1.2.2 Transaction log truncation for Exchange Server Before committing a transaction to a database file, Exchange logs it to a transaction log file. To track which of the logged transactions have been committed to the database, Exchange uses checkpoint files. Once the transactions are committed to the database and tracked by the checkpoint files, the log files are no longer needed by the database.
a. Execute the eseutil /mk command, where the is a path to the checkpoint file of the required database or the storage group. b. Look at the Checkpoint field in the output. For example, you should see something like this: CheckPoint: (0x60B, 7DF, 1C9) The first number 0x60B is the hexadecimal log generation number of the current log file. This means that all the log files with lesser numbers have been committed to the database. 2.
a. Dismount the databases. b. Run Eseutil /K and review the verification results. c. If the databases are consistent, mount them again and run the backup. Otherwise, repair the damaged databases. Refer to the "Transaction log truncation for Exchange Server" (p. 205) section for more information about mounting and dismounting databases. After a backup. The advantage of this method is that you do not have to dismount the databases that are in constant use.
The tombstone lifetime was changed administratively. The reason for this additional backup is that a successful recovery of Active Directory from the previous backups might not be possible. 11.1.3.3 SharePoint data backup A Microsoft SharePoint farm consists of front-end Web servers and Microsoft SQL servers. A front-end Web server is a host where SharePoint services are running. Some front-end Web servers may be identical to each other (for example, the front-end Web servers that run a Web server).
5. On the recovery page under What to recover section: a. In Data paths, select Custom. b. In Browse, specify a folder where the files will be recovered to. Note: We recommend that you recover the SQL server database files to a folder local to the SQL Server, since all of the SQL Server versions earlier than SQL Server 2012 do not support databases located on network shares. c. Leave the rest of the settings "as is" and click OK to proceed with recovery. 6.
11.2.3 Attaching SQL Server databases This section describes how to attach a database in SQL Server by using SQL Server Management Studio. Only one database can be attached at a time. Attaching a database requires any of the following permissions: CREATE DATABASE, CREATE ANY DATABASE, or ALTER ANY DATABASE. Normally, these permissions are granted to the sysadmin role of the instance. To attach a database 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Run Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
To recover Exchange Server databases 1. 2. 3. 4. Connect the console to the machine on which you are going to perform the operation. Navigate to the vault containing the disk backup with the Exchange data files. Click the Data view tab. In the Show list, click Folders/files. Select the required Exchange database files and click Recover. By default, the data will be reverted to the state of the latest backup. If you need to select another point in time to revert the data to, use the Versions list. 5.
Exchange 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694(v=exchg.80) Exchange 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332351 Exchange 2003: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124427(v=exchg.65) 2. Recover the database files to the RDB/RSG folder structure. For information about recovering database files, see "Recovering Exchange Server database files from a disk backup" (p. 210). 3. Mount the recovery database.
Recovery vs. re-creation Recreation does not require having a backup. Recovery is normally faster than re-creation. However, recovery is not possible in the following cases: All available backups are older than the tombstone lifetime. Tombstones are used during replication to ensure that an object deleted on one domain controller becomes deleted on other domain controllers. Thus, proper replication is not possible after the tombstones have been deleted.
3. Restart the domain controller. Make sure that the Active Directory service has started successfully. 11.4.3 Restoring the Active Directory database If the Active Directory database files are corrupted but the domain controller is able start in normal mode, you can restore the database in one of the following ways. Re-promoting the domain controller This way of restoring the database is available only if the domain has other domain controllers. It does not require having a backup.
7. Restart the domain controller in normal mode. Make sure that the Active Directory service has started successfully. 8. Change the account for the Acronis service back to the original one, similarly to step 4. 11.4.4 Restoring accidentally deleted information If the domain has other domain controllers, you can use the Ntdsutil tool to perform an authoritative restore of certain entries only. For example, you can restore an unintentionally deleted user account or computer account.
USN rollback After you perform a nonauthoritative restore of a domain controller or of its database, the current USN of that domain controller is replaced by the old (lower) USN from the backup. But the other domain controllers are not aware of this change. They still keep the latest known (higher) USN of that domain controller. As a result, the following issues occur: The recovered domain controller reuses older USNs for new objects; it starts with the old USN from the backup.
11.5 Recovering SharePoint data Different SharePoint servers and databases are recovered in different way. To recover separate disks or volumes of a front-end Web server, you can either create a recovery task (p. 101) in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 graphical user interface or boot the server from the bootable media (p. 170) and configure recovery. In the same way, you can recover an SQL server. Content databases are recovered as files. For details, see "Recovering a content database" (p. 217).
2. Recover the database files as described in "Recovering SQL Server database files from a disk backup" (p. 208), including the database attachment step. 3. Attach the recovered database to the SharePoint farm. To do this, run the following command on a front-end Web server: In SharePoint 2010: Mount-SPContentDatabase -DatabaseServer -WebApplication In SharePoint 2007: stsadm.
Office Document Conversions Launcher Service Office Document Conversions Load Balancer Service Office SharePoint Server Search Windows SharePoint Services Administration Windows SharePoint Services Search Windows SharePoint Services Timer Windows SharePoint Services Tracing Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer b. On all servers in the farm, run the following command: iisreset /stop 2.
2. Attach the content database to a non-original SharePoint farm. To do this: a. Make sure that you are performing this procedure under a farm administrator account that is a member of the db_owner role of the database. If not, add the account to this role by using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. b. Run the following command on a front-end Web server: In SharePoint 2010: Mount-SPContentDatabase -DatabaseServer -WebApplication In SharePoint 2007: stsadm.
12 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. 12.1 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. 223).
To Do View details of a plan/task Click Details. In the respective Plan Details (p. 230) or Task Details (p. 231) window, review the plan or task details. View plan's/task's log Click Log. You will be taken to the Log (p. 232) 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. 34), 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.
12.1.2.3 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.
12.1.3 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. 226) 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] 12.1.4 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. 12.2 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. 242) 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. 12.6.2 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. 12.6.4 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. 237). 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. 237). 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 task-specific.
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.
13 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.com/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.
13.1.3 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. 258) from file-level backups by using a Web browser. To do this, you only need a machine with Internet access. 13.1.5.3 Is the online storage available under Acronis bootable media? Recovery from Acronis Online Backup Storage is available but backup to the storage is not. 13.1.5.
To continue backing up the machine to the same subscription, reassign (p. 256) 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. 13.1.6 Initial Seeding FAQ This section explains what Initial Seeding is, why you would want to use it and provides some usage details. 13.1.6.
13.1.6.7 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.com/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. 13.1.6.10 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.
13.1.7.6 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. 13.1.7.7 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.com/my/backup-recovery-online/#buy to locate a partner or to buy online.
13.1.8 Subscription lifecycle FAQ This section explains a subscription lifecycle and subscription operations that you can perform on your account management Web page. 13.1.8.1 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. 256). 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.
13.6 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.
14 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. 268) 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. 272) 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. 263), 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. 264).
Bootable agent A bootable rescue utility that includes most of the functionality of the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 Agent (p. 263). Bootable agent is based on Linux kernel. A machine (p. 272) can be booted into a bootable agent using either bootable media (p. 265) or Acronis PXE Server. Operations can be configured and controlled either locally through the GUI or remotely using the console (p. 266). 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. 272). The centralized management operations include: creating centralized backup plans (p. 265) for the registered machines (p. 273) and groups of machines creating and managing static (p. 273) and dynamic groups (p. 269) of machines (p. 272) managing the tasks (p.
Having connected the console to the management server, the administrator sets up centralized backup plans (p. 265) and accesses other management server functionality, that is, performs centralized management (p. 265). Using the direct console-agent connection, the administrator performs direct management (p. 267). Consolidation Combining two or more subsequent backups (p. 263) belonging to the same archive (p. 263) into a single backup.
Direct management An operation that is performed on a managed machine (p. 272) using the direct console (p. 266)-agent (p. 263) connection (as opposed to centralized management (p. 265) when the operations are configured on the management server (p. 272) and propagated by the server to the managed machines). The direct management operations include: creating and managing local backup plans (p. 271) 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. 269), or more precisely, on a disk group (p. 268). Dynamic volumes can span multiple disks.
G GFS (Grandfather-Father-Son) A popular backup scheme (p. 264) aimed to maintain the optimal balance between a backup archive (p. 263) size and the number of recovery points (p. 273) 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. 268). 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. 275) created using direct management (p. 267). 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. 264). R Recovery point Date and time to which the backed up data can be reverted. Registered machine A machine (p. 272) managed by a management server (p. 272).
S Static group A group of machines which a management server (p. 272) 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. 272).
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.
