Acronis BACKUP AND RECOVERY 10 Installation Guide
Acronis® Backup & Recovery ™ 10
Advanced Server
Installation Guide
Table of Contents
1. Before installation .................................................................................................. 4
1.1. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components ...................................................................... 4
1.1.1. Agent for Windows ...................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1.2. Agent for Linux ............................................................................................................................................. 5
1.1.3. Bootable components and media builder ................................................................................................. 6
1.1.4. Components for centralized management ................................................................................................ 6
1.1.5. Management Console ................................................................................................................................. 9
1.1.6. Acronis Wake-On-LAN Proxy ...................................................................................................................... 9
1.2. Supported operating systems ............................................................................................. 9
1.3. Hardware requirements .................................................................................................... 10
1.4. License policy .................................................................................................................... 12
1.5. Using Acronis License Server ............................................................................................. 13
2. Installation of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 ........................................................ 14
2.1. Local installation (Windows) ............................................................................................. 14
2.1.1. Preparation ................................................................................................................................................. 15
2.1.2. Installation procedure ............................................................................................................................... 15
2.1.3. Specifying credentials for Acronis services .............................................................................................. 16
2.1.4. Specifying Microsoft SQL servers .............................................................................................................. 16
2.1.5. Registering components on the management server ............................................................................ 17
2.1.6. Specifying users allowed to connect remotely ........................................................................................ 17
2.1.7. Update ........................................................................................................................................................ 18
2.2. Remote installation (Windows)......................................................................................... 18
2.3. Unattended installation in Windows ................................................................................ 19
2.4. Configuration script parameters .......................................................................................
21
2.5. Installing components using Group Policy ........................................................................ 23
2.5.1. Preparing the agent's deployment ........................................................................................................... 23
2.5.2. Setting up the Group Policy object ........................................................................................................... 24
2.6. Installation in Linux ........................................................................................................... 25
2.6.1. Installation procedure ............................................................................................................................... 25
2.6.2. Command-line parameters ....................................................................................................................... 27
2.6.3. Uninstalling components .......................................................................................................................... 30
3. Upgrading from trial to full product version .......................................................... 30
3.1. Changing a license ............................................................................................................. 31
3.2. Upgrading components for Windows ............................................................................... 32
3.3. Upgrading components for Linux ...................................................................................... 32
4. Upgrading to advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 ......................... 33
4.1. Before the upgrade ........................................................................................................... 33
4.2. Installing or upgrading the Acronis License Server ........................................................... 34
4.3. Installing Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console ...................................... 34
4.4. Upgrading Acronis Group Server to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server35
4.5. Upgrading Acronis Backup Server to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node ........ 36
4.6. Upgrading Acronis True Image Echo agents and local versions ........................................ 37
4.6.1. Importing a task ......................................................................................................................................... 40
Index .......................................................................................................................................... 41
1. Before installation
This section answers questions that might arise before the product installation.
1.1. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components
This section contains a list of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components with a brief description of
their functionality.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 includes three main types of components.
Components for a managed machine (agents)
These are applications that perform data backup, recovery and other operations on the machines
managed with Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. Agents require a license to perform operations on each
managed machine. Agents have multiple features, or add-ons, that enable additional functionality
and so might require additional licenses.
With bootable media builder, you can create bootable media in order to use the agents and other
rescue utilities in a rescue environment. Availability of the agent add-ons in a rescue environment
depends on whether an add-on is installed on the machine where the media builder is working.
Components for centralized management
These components, delivered with the advanced editions, provide the centralized management
capability. Usage of these components is not licensed.
Console
The console provides Graphical User Interface and remote connection to the agents and other
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components.
1.1.1. Agent for Windows
This agent enables disk-level and file-level data protection under Windows.
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.
File backup
File-level data protection is based on backing up files and folders residing on the machine where the
agent is installed or on a network share. Files can be recovered to their original location or to another
place. It is possible to recover all files and folders that were backed up or select which of them to
recover.
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Other operations
Conversion to a virtual machine
Rather than converting a disk backup to a virtual disk file, which requires additional operations to
bring the virtual disk into use, Agent for Windows performs the conversion by recovering a disk
backup to a new virtual machine of any of the following types: VMware Workstation, Microsoft
Virtual PC, Parallels Workstation or Citrix XenServer virtual appliance. Files of the fully configured and
operational machine will be placed in the folder you select. You can start the machine using the
respective virtualization software or prepare the machine files for further usage.
Disk management
Agent for Windows includes Acronis Disk Director Lite - a handy disk management utility. Disk
management operations, such as cloning disks; converting disks; creating, formatting and deleting
volumes; changing a disk partitioning style between MBR and GPT or changing a disk label, can be
performed either in the operating system or using bootable media.
1.1.1.1. Universal Restore
The Universal Restore add-on enables you to use the restore to dissimilar hardware functionality on
the machine where the agent is installed, and create bootable media with this functionality. Universal
Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for Windows start-up, such as storage
controllers, motherboard or chipset.
1.1.1.2. Deduplication
This add-on enables the agent to back up data to deduplicating vaults managed by Acronis Backup &
Recovery 10 Storage Node.
1.1.2. Agent for Linux
This agent enables disk-level and file-level data protection under Linux.
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 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.
File backup
File-level data protection is based on backing up files and directories residing on the machine where
the agent is installed or on a network share accessed using the smb or nfs protocol. Files can be
recovered to their original location or to another place. It is possible to recover all files and
directories that were backed up or select which of them to recover.
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1.1.2.1. Deduplication
This add-on enables the agent to back up data to deduplicating vaults managed by Acronis Backup &
Recovery 10 Storage Node.
1.1.3. Bootable components and media builder
Bootable components of the agent enable operations with reboot, such as recovery of the volume
containing the currently active operating system. Once the operations are completed, the machine
boots into the operating system again. The bootable components are based on the Linux kernel. You
can choose not to install the bootable components and perform operations that require reboot using
bootable media.
Acronis Bootable Media Builder is a dedicated tool for creating bootable media. The media builder
can create bootable media based on either Windows Preinstallation Environment, or Linux kernel.
The Universal Restore add-on enables you to use the restore to dissimilar hardware functionality on
the machine where the agent is installed, and create bootable media with this functionality. Universal
Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for Windows start-up, such as storage
controllers, motherboard or chipset.
1.1.4. Components for centralized management
This section lists the components included in the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 editions that provide
the centralized management capability. Besides these components, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10
Agents have to be installed on all machines that need data protection.
1.1.4.1. Management Server
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server is the central server that drives data protection
within the enterprise network. The management server provides the administrator with:
• a single entry point to the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 infrastructure
• an easy way to protect data on numerous machines using backup policies and grouping
• enterprise-wide monitoring functionality
• the ability to create centralized vaults for storing enterprise backup archives
• the ability to manage storage nodes.
If there are multiple management servers on the network, they operate independently, manage
different machines and use different centralized vaults for storing archives.
The management server's databases
The management server uses three Microsoft SQL databases:
• The configuration database that stores the list of registered machines and other configuration
information, including backup policies created by the administrator.
• The synchronization database used for synchronization of the management server with
registered machines and storage nodes. This is a database with rapidly changing operational data.
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• The reporting database that stores the centralized log. This database may grow large. Its size
depends on the logging level you set.
The configuration and synchronization databases should reside on the same Microsoft SQL Server
(called an operational server) preferably installed on the same machine as the management server.
The reporting database can be configured on the same or different SQL server.
When installing a management server, you can select for both operational and reporting servers what
server to use. The following options are available:
1. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express that comes with the installation package and installs on the
same machine. In this case, an SQL server instance with three databases will be created on the
machine.
2. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (any edition) previously installed on any machine.
3. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (any edition) previously installed on any machine.
VMware vCenter integration
This add-on provides the capability to view virtual machines managed by a VMware vCenter Server in
the management server GUI, view the backup status of these machines in the vCenter, and
automatically register virtual machines created by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 in the vCenter.
Integration is available in all Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 advanced editions; a license for Virtual
Edition is not required. No software installation is required on the vCenter Server.
The add-on also enables automatic deployment and configuration of Agent for ESX/ESXi to any
ESX/ESXi server, not necessarily managed by the vCenter.
1.1.4.2. Storage Node
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node is a server aimed to optimize usage of various resources
(such as the corporate storage capacity, the network bandwidth, or the managed machines' CPU
load) required for the enterprise data protection. This goal is achieved through organizing and
managing the locations that serve as dedicated storages of the enterprise backup archives (managed
vaults).
The storage nodes enable creating highly scalable and flexible, in terms of the hardware support,
storage infrastructure. Up to 20 storage nodes can be set up, each being able to manage up to 20
vaults. The administrator controls the storage nodes centrally from the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10
Management Server. Direct console connection to a storage node is not possible.
Setting up the storage infrastructure
Install the storage nodes, add them to the management server (the procedure is similar to the
managed machine registration) and create centralized vaults. When creating a centralized vault,
specify the path to the vault, the storage node that will manage the vault, and the management
operations to be performed on the vault.
A managed vault can be organized:
• on the hard drives local to the storage node
• on a network share
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• on a Storage Area Network (SAN)
• on a Network Attached Storage (NAS)
• on a tape library locally attached to the storage node.
The management operations are as follows.
Storage node-side cleanup and validation
Archives, stored in unmanaged vaults, are maintained by the agents that create the archives. This
means that each agent not only backs up data to the archive, but also executes service tasks that
apply to the archive, the retention rules and validation rules specified by the backup plan. To relieve
the managed machines of unnecessary CPU load, execution of the service tasks can be delegated to
the storage node. Since the tasks' schedule exists on the machine the agent resides on, and therefore
uses that machine’s time and events, the agent has to initiate the storage node-side cleanup and the
storage node-side validation according to the schedule. To do so, the agent must be online. Further
processing is performed by the storage node.
This functionality cannot be disabled in a managed vault. The next two operations are optional.
Deduplication
A managed vault can be configured as a deduplicating vault. This means that identical data will be
backed up to this vault only once to minimize the network usage during backup and storage space
taken by the archives. For more information, please see the "Deduplication" section in the User
Guide.
Encryption
A managed vault can be configured so that anything written to it is encrypted and anything read from
it is decrypted transparently by the storage node, using a vault-specific encryption key stored on the
node server. In case the storage medium is stolen or accessed by an unauthorized person, the
malefactor will not be able to decrypt the vault contents without access to this specific storage node.
If the archive is already encrypted by the agent, the storage node-side encryption is applied over the
encryption performed by the agent.
1.1.4.3. PXE Server
Acronis PXE Server allows for booting machines into Acronis bootable components through the
network.
The network booting:
• Eliminates the need to have a technician onsite to install the bootable media into the system that
has to be booted
• During group operations, reduces the time required for booting multiple machines as compared
to using physical bootable media.
1.1.4.4. License Server
The server enables you to manage licenses of Acronis products and install the components that
require licenses.
8 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2009
For more information about Acronis License Server please see "Using Acronis License Server (p. 13)".
1.1.5. Management Console
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console is an administrative tool for remote or local
access to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agents, and in the product editions that include the
centralized management capability, to the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server.
The console has two distributions for installation on Windows and installation on Linux. While both
distributions enable connection to any Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent and Acronis Backup &
Recovery 10 Management Server, we recommend that you use the console for Windows if you have a
choice between the two. The console that installs on Linux has limited functionality:
• remote installation of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components is not available
• the Active Directory-related features, such as browsing the AD, are not available.
1.1.6. Acronis Wake-On-L AN Pr oxy
Acronis Wake-On-LAN Proxy enables Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server to wake up
for backup machines located in another subnet. Acronis Wake-On-LAN Proxy installs on any server in
the subnet where the machines to be backed up are located.
1.2. Supported operating systems
Acronis License Server
• Windows 2000 Professional SP4/XP Professional SP2+
• Windows 2000 Server/2000 Advanced Server/Server 2003/Server 2008
• Windows SBS 2003/SBS 2008
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003/2008 x64 Editions
• Windows Vista - all editions except for Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium
• Windows 7 - all editions except for the Starter and Home editions
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console
• Windows 2000 Professional SP4/XP Home Editions/XP Professional SP2+
• Windows 2000 Server/2000 Advanced Server/Server 2003/Server 2008
• Windows SBS 2003/SBS 2008
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003/2008 x64 Editions
• Windows Vista - all editions
• Windows 7 - all editions
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server and Acronis Backup & Recovery
10 Storage Node
• Windows 2000 Professional SP4/XP Professional SP2+
• Windows 2000 Server/2000 Advanced Server/Server 2003/Server 2008*
• Windows SBS 2003/SBS 2008*
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• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003/2008* x64 Editions
• Windows Vista - all editions except for Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium
• Windows 7 - all editions except for the Starter and Home editions*
* Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node handles tape libraries and autoloaders by using
Removable Storage Management (RSM). Since Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 do
not support RSM, a storage node installed in these operating systems does not support tape
libraries and autoloaders.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows
• Windows 2000 Professional SP4/XP Professional SP2+
• Windows 2000 Server/2000 Advanced Server/Server 2003/Server 2008
• Windows SBS 2003/SBS 2008
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003/2008 x64 Editions
• Windows Vista - all editions except for Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium
• Windows 7 - all editions except for the Starter and Home editions
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux
• Linux with kernel 2.4.20 or later (including 2.6.x kernels) and glibc 2.3.2 or later
• Various Linux distributions, including:
o Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5
o CentOS 4 and 5
o Fedora 9 and 10
o Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) and 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
o Debian 4 (Lenny) and 5 (Etch)
o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
o openSUSE
o Asianux
• x64 versions of the above Linux distributions and other Linux distributions are also supported.
The agent for Linux is in fact a 32-bit executable. For authentication, the agent uses system
libraries, 32-bit versions of which are not always installed by default with 64-bit distributions.
When using the agent on a 64-bit RedHat based distribution, such as RHEL, CentOS, Fedora or
Scientific Linux, make sure that the following 32-bit packages are installed in the system:
pam.i386
libselinux.i386
libsepol.i386
These packages should be available in the repository of your Linux distribution.
1.3. Hardware requirements
This section lists the minimum and recommended hardware requirements to install and run Acronis
Backup & Recovery 10 components.
10 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2009
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console
Item Minimum requirements Recommended
Computer processor Modern processor, 800 MHz or faster
Itanium platforms are not supported
System memory 128 MB 512 MB or more
Screen resolution 800*600 pixels 1024*768 pixels or higher
Installation disk space 50 MB
Other hardware Mouse
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64)
processor
Network interface card or a virtual
network adapter
CD-RW/DVD-RW drive for bootable
media creation
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows
Item Minimum requirements Recommended
System memory 256 MB 512 MB or more
Installation disk space 100 MB
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux
Item Minimum requirements Recommended
System memory 256 MB 512 MB or more
Installation disk space 100 MB
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server
Item Minimum requirements Recommended
System memory 512 MB 1 GB or more
Installation disk space 25 MB
Space required for
Operational SQL Server
and Reporting SQL
Server
200 MB
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node
Item Minimum requirements Recommended
System memory 1 GB 4 GB
Installation disk space 40 MB
Space required for tapes
database
About 1 MB per 10 archives
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Acronis License Server
Item Minimum requirements Recommended
System memory 128 MB 256 MB or more
Installation disk space 25 MB
1.4. License policy
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 licensing is based on the number of machines managed and protected
by the product. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agents require a license to perform operations on each
managed machine. The method of license check is different for stand-alone product editions and
editions that enable centralized management.
Editions with centralized management
These are the following editions:
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server (ABR10 AS)
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server Virtual Edition (ABR10 AS VE)
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server SBS Edition (ABR10 AS SBS)
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Workstation (ABR10 AW)
These editions include Acronis License Server that has to be installed prior to agent installation.
License keys can be imported to the Acronis License Server from .txt or .eml files during the server
installation or later on. For ABR10 AS, ABR10 AS SBS, ABR10 AW, one license key enables installation
of the agent on a physical host and four virtual machines. For ABR10 AS VE, one license key enables
installation of the agent on a physical host and on an unlimited number of hosted virtual machines.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent connects to Acronis License Server every time the agent service
is started and then every 1–5 days, as specified by the agent configuration parameters. If the agent is
unable to connect to the license server or does not find the appropriate license key for 1-60 days (as
specified by the configuration parameters), it stops working until there has been a successful license
check.
By default, the agent tries to connect to the license server every day and keeps working without a
license server or license for 30 days.
Revoking licenses
If a managed machine is taken out of service permanently and replaced, or the machine's network
card is replaced (which normally results in changing the MAC address), you can revoke the
corresponding license in order to make it available again.
According to Acronis End User License Agreement:
You may reassign a Software License if you retire the licensed Hardware due to permanent Hardware
failure. If you reassign a Software License, the Hardware to which you reassign the license becomes
the new licensed Hardware for that particular Software License.
12 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2009
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