Acronis Backup for Linux Server 11.5 Instruction Manual

Acronis Backup for Linux Server

Version 11.5 Update 3

User Guide

“Acronis” and “Acronis Secure Zone” are registered trademarks of Acronis International GmbH.

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Third party code may be provided with the Software and/or Service. The license terms for such third-parties are detailed in the license.txt file located in the root installation directory. You can always find the latest up-to-date list of the third party code and the associated license terms used with the Software and/or Service at http://kb.acronis.com/content/7696

Acronis patented technologies

Technologies, used in this product, are covered and protected by one or more U.S. Patent Numbers: 7,047,380; 7,275,139; 7,281,104; 7,318,135; 7,353,355; 7,366,859; 7,475,282; 7,603,533; 7,636,824; 7,650,473; 7,721,138; 7,779,221; 7,831,789; 7,886,120; 7,895,403; 7,934,064; 7,937,612; 7,949,635; 7,953,948; 7,979,690; 8,005,797; 8,051,044; 8,069,320; 8,073,815; 8,074,035; 8,145,607; 8,180,984; 8,225,133; 8,261,035; 8,296,264; 8,312,259; 8,347,137; and patent pending applications.

Table of contents

1 Introducing Acronis Backup ....................................................................................................8

1.1 What's new in Update 3 ............................................................................................................ 8

1.2 What's new in Update 2 ............................................................................................................ 8

1.3 What's new in Update 1 ............................................................................................................ 8

1.4 What's new in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 ....................................................................... 8

1.5 Acronis Backup components ..................................................................................................... 9

1.5.1 Agent for Linux ................................................................................................................................................ 9

1.5.2 Management Console ................................................................................................................................... 10

1.5.3 Bootable Media Builder ................................................................................................................................ 10

1.6 About using the product in the trial mode ..............................................................................10

1.7 Supported file systems ............................................................................................................11

1.8 Technical Support ....................................................................................................................11

2 Getting started .................................................................................................................... 12

2.1 Using the management console ..............................................................................................13

2.1.1 "Navigation" pane ......................................................................................................................................... 14

2.1.2 Main area, views and action pages .............................................................................................................. 15

2.1.3 Console options ............................................................................................................................................. 18

3 Understanding Acronis Backup ............................................................................................. 21

3.1 Owners .....................................................................................................................................21

3.2 Credentials used in backup plans and tasks ............................................................................21

3.3 User privileges on a managed machine ...................................................................................23

3.4 Full, incremental and differential backups ..............................................................................23

3.5 What does a disk or volume backup store?.............................................................................24

3.6 Backup and recovery of logical volumes and MD devices (Linux) ...........................................25

3.6.1 Backing up logical volumes ........................................................................................................................... 25

3.6.2 Backing up MD devices ................................................................................................................................. 26

3.6.3 Backing up hardware RAID arrays (Linux) ................................................................................................... 26

3.6.4 Assembling MD devices for recovery (Linux) .............................................................................................. 27

3.6.5 Recovering MD devices and logical volumes .............................................................................................. 27

3.7 Support for Advanced Format (4K-sector) hard disks .............................................................31

3.8 Support for UEFI-based machines ...........................................................................................32

3.9 Support for SNMP ....................................................................................................................32

4 Backup ................................................................................................................................ 34

4.1 Back up now .............................................................................................................................34

4.2 Creating a backup plan ............................................................................................................34

4.2.1 Selecting data to back up .............................................................................................................................. 36

4.2.2 Access credentials for source ....................................................................................................................... 37

4.2.3 Source files exclusion .................................................................................................................................... 37

4.2.4 Backup location selection ............................................................................................................................. 39

4.2.5 Access credentials for archive location ........................................................................................................ 41

4.2.6 Backup schemes ............................................................................................................................................ 42

4.2.7 Archive validation .......................................................................................................................................... 51

4.2.8 Backup plan's credentials ............................................................................................................................. 51

4.2.9 Label (Preserving machine properties in a backup) .................................................................................... 52

4.2.10 Sequence of operations in a backup plan ................................................................................................... 53

4.2.11 Why is the program asking for the password? ........................................................................................... 54

4.3 Simplified naming of backup files ............................................................................................54

4.3.1 The [DATE] variable ....................................................................................................................................... 55

4.3.2 Backup splitting and simplified file naming ................................................................................................. 56

4.3.3 Usage examples ............................................................................................................................................. 56

4.4 Scheduling ................................................................................................................................59

4.4.1 Daily schedule ................................................................................................................................................ 60

4.4.2 Weekly schedule ........................................................................................................................................... 62

4.4.3 Monthly schedule .......................................................................................................................................... 64

4.4.4 Conditions ...................................................................................................................................................... 66

4.5 Replication and retention of backups ......................................................................................68

4.5.1 Supported locations ...................................................................................................................................... 69

4.5.2 Setting up replication of backups ................................................................................................................. 70

4.5.3 Setting up retention of backups ................................................................................................................... 70

4.5.4 Retention rules for the Custom scheme ...................................................................................................... 71

4.5.5 Replication/cleanup inactivity time ............................................................................................................. 73

4.5.6 Usage examples ............................................................................................................................................. 73

4.6 How to disable backup cataloging ...........................................................................................75

4.7 Default backup options ............................................................................................................75

4.7.1 Additional settings......................................................................................................................................... 77

4.7.2 Archive protection ......................................................................................................................................... 78

4.7.3 Backup cataloging ......................................................................................................................................... 79

4.7.4 Backup performance ..................................................................................................................................... 79

4.7.5 Backup splitting ............................................................................................................................................. 81

4.7.6 Compression level ......................................................................................................................................... 82

4.7.7 Disaster recovery plan (DRP) ........................................................................................................................ 82

4.7.8 E-mail notifications ........................................................................................................................................ 83

4.7.9 Error handling ................................................................................................................................................ 84

4.7.10 Event tracing .................................................................................................................................................. 85

4.7.11 Fast incremental/differential backup .......................................................................................................... 86

4.7.12 File-level backup snapshot ........................................................................................................................... 86

4.7.13 LVM snapshotting ......................................................................................................................................... 86

4.7.14 Media components ....................................................................................................................................... 88

4.7.15 Pre/Post commands ...................................................................................................................................... 88

4.7.16 Pre/Post data capture commands ............................................................................................................... 90

4.7.17 Replication/cleanup inactivity time ............................................................................................................. 92

4.7.18 Sector-by-sector backup ............................................................................................................................... 92

4.7.19 Task failure handling ..................................................................................................................................... 92

4.7.20 Task start conditions ..................................................................................................................................... 93

5 Recovery ............................................................................................................................. 95

5.1 Creating a recovery task ..........................................................................................................95

5.1.1 What to recover ............................................................................................................................................ 96

5.1.2 Access credentials for location ..................................................................................................................... 99

5.1.3 Access credentials for destination ............................................................................................................. 100

5.1.4 Where to recover ........................................................................................................................................ 100

5.1.5 When to recover ......................................................................................................................................... 106

5.1.6 Task credentials ........................................................................................................................................... 106

5.2 Acronis Universal Restore ......................................................................................................107

5.2.1 Getting Universal Restore ........................................................................................................................... 107

5.2.2 Using Universal Restore .............................................................................................................................. 107

5.3 Bootability troubleshooting ...................................................................................................108

5.3.1 How to reactivate GRUB and change its configuration ............................................................................ 110

5.4 Default recovery options .......................................................................................................111

5.4.1 Additional settings....................................................................................................................................... 112

5.4.2 E-mail notifications ...................................................................................................................................... 113

5.4.3 Error handling .............................................................................................................................................. 114

5.4.4 Event tracing ................................................................................................................................................ 115

5.4.5 File-level security ......................................................................................................................................... 116

5.4.6 Pre/Post commands .................................................................................................................................... 116

5.4.7 Recovery priority ......................................................................................................................................... 117

6 Conversion to a virtual machine ......................................................................................... 118

6.1 Conversion methods ..............................................................................................................118

6.2 Conversion to an automatically created virtual machine ......................................................119

6.2.1 Considerations before conversion ............................................................................................................. 119

6.2.2 Setting up regular conversion to a virtual machine .................................................................................. 120

6.2.3 Recovery to the ''New virtual machine'' destination ................................................................................ 123

6.3 Recovery to a manually created virtual machine ..................................................................126

6.3.1 Considerations before conversion ............................................................................................................. 126

6.3.2 Steps to perform ......................................................................................................................................... 127

7 Storing the backed up data ................................................................................................ 128

7.1 Vaults .....................................................................................................................................128

7.1.1 Working with vaults .................................................................................................................................... 129

7.1.2 Personal vaults ............................................................................................................................................ 129

7.2 Acronis Secure Zone ..............................................................................................................132

7.2.1 Creating Acronis Secure Zone .................................................................................................................... 132

7.2.2 Managing Acronis Secure Zone .................................................................................................................. 134

7.3 Removable devices ................................................................................................................135

8 Operations with archives and backups ............................................................................... 137

8.1 Validating archives and backups ............................................................................................137

8.1.1 Archive selection ......................................................................................................................................... 138

8.1.2 Backup selection .......................................................................................................................................... 138

8.1.3 Vault selection ............................................................................................................................................. 138

8.1.4 Access credentials for source ..................................................................................................................... 139

8.1.5 When to validate ......................................................................................................................................... 139

8.1.6 Task credentials ........................................................................................................................................... 140

8.2 Exporting archives and backups ............................................................................................140

8.2.1 Archive selection ......................................................................................................................................... 143

8.2.2 Backup selection .......................................................................................................................................... 143

8.2.3 Access credentials for source ..................................................................................................................... 143

8.2.4 Destination selection .................................................................................................................................. 143

8.2.5 Access credentials for destination ............................................................................................................. 145

8.3 Mounting an image ................................................................................................................145

8.3.1 Archive selection ......................................................................................................................................... 146

8.3.2 Backup selection .......................................................................................................................................... 146

8.3.3 Access credentials ....................................................................................................................................... 147

8.3.4 Volume selection ......................................................................................................................................... 147

8.3.5 Managing mounted images........................................................................................................................ 147

8.4 Operations available in vaults................................................................................................148

8.4.1 Operations with archives ............................................................................................................................ 148

8.4.2 Operations with backups ............................................................................................................................ 149

8.4.3 Converting a backup to full ......................................................................................................................... 150

8.4.4 Deleting archives and backups ................................................................................................................... 151

9 Bootable media ................................................................................................................. 152

9.1 Linux-based bootable media .................................................................................................152

9.1.1 Kernel parameters....................................................................................................................................... 153

9.1.2 Network settings ......................................................................................................................................... 155

9.1.3 Network port ............................................................................................................................................... 156

9.2 Connecting to a machine booted from media .......................................................................156

9.3 Working under bootable media ............................................................................................157

9.3.1 Setting up a display mode .......................................................................................................................... 157

9.3.2 Configuring iSCSI and NDAS devices .......................................................................................................... 158

9.4 List of commands and utilities available in Linux-based bootable media .............................158

9.5 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager .......................................................................................159

10 Administering a managed machine ..................................................................................... 161

10.1 Backup plans and tasks ..........................................................................................................161

10.1.1 Actions on backup plans and tasks ............................................................................................................ 161

10.1.2 States and statuses of backup plans and tasks ......................................................................................... 163

10.1.3 Export and import of backup plans ............................................................................................................ 165

10.1.4 Deploying backup plans as files .................................................................................................................. 168

10.1.5 Backup plan details ..................................................................................................................................... 170

10.1.6 Task/activity details ..................................................................................................................................... 171

10.2 Log ..........................................................................................................................................171

10.2.1 Actions on log entries.................................................................................................................................. 171

10.2.2 Log entry details .......................................................................................................................................... 172

10.3 Alerts ......................................................................................................................................173

10.4 Changing a license .................................................................................................................174

10.5 Collecting system information ...............................................................................................174

10.6 Adjusting machine options ....................................................................................................175

10.6.1 Alerts ............................................................................................................................................................ 175

10.6.2 E-mail settings ............................................................................................................................................. 175

10.6.3 Event tracing ................................................................................................................................................ 177

10.6.4 Log cleanup rules ......................................................................................................................................... 178

10.6.5 Cloud backup proxy ..................................................................................................................................... 178

11 Cloud backup ..................................................................................................................... 180

11.1 Introduction to Acronis Cloud Backup ...................................................................................180

11.1.1 What is Acronis Cloud Backup? .................................................................................................................. 180

11.1.2 What data can I back up and recover? ...................................................................................................... 180

11.1.3 How long will my backups be kept in the cloud storage? ........................................................................ 180

11.1.4 How do I secure my data? .......................................................................................................................... 181

11.1.5 Supported operating systems and virtualization products ...................................................................... 181

11.1.6 Backup and recovery FAQ .......................................................................................................................... 182

11.1.7 Initial Seeding FAQ ...................................................................................................................................... 184

11.1.8 Large Scale Recovery FAQ .......................................................................................................................... 189

11.1.9 Subscription lifecycle FAQ .......................................................................................................................... 190

11.2 Where do I start? ...................................................................................................................193

11.3 Choosing a subscription .........................................................................................................193

11.4 Activating cloud backup subscriptions ..................................................................................194

11.4.1 Activating subscriptions in Acronis Backup ............................................................................................... 194

11.4.2 Reassigning an activated subscription ....................................................................................................... 194

11.5 Configuring proxy settings .....................................................................................................195

11.6 Retrieving files from the cloud storage by using a web browser ..........................................196

11.7 Limitations of the cloud storage ............................................................................................196

11.8 Terminology reference ..........................................................................................................197

12 Glossary ............................................................................................................................ 200

1 Introducing Acronis Backup

1.1 What's new in Update 3

Rebranding

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 is renamed to Acronis Backup.

Licensing

The Universal Restore feature is included in all Acronis Backup licenses. The Universal Restore add-on license is deprecated.

Cloud backup

Cloud backup (p. 180) is now available for machines running Linux.

OS support

 Support for Linux kernel up to version 3.12.  Support for Fedora 19, Fedora 20, and Debian 7.

1.2 What's new in Update 2

 Support for Ubuntu 13.10.

1.3 What's new in Update 1

Improvements added in build 37975

 Installation of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 in the trial mode without a license key.  Upgrade from a stand-alone product to the advanced platform without reinstalling the software.  Support for Linux kernel up to version 3.9.  Support for Ubuntu 12.10, 13.04, and Fedora 18.

Other

 Support for Oracle Linux 5.x, 6.x – both Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel and Red Hat Compatible

Kernel.

 Completely disable backup cataloging (p. 75).  Save a Disaster Recovery Plan (p. 82) to a local or network folder, in addition to sending it via

e-mail.

1.4 What's new in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5

The following is a summary of the product's new features and enhancements.

Operating systems and platforms

 Support for Linux kernel up to 3.6  Support for the following Linux distributions:

 Ubuntu 11.04, 11.10, 12.04

 Fedora 15, 16, 17  Debian 6  CentOS 6

 Support for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) (p. 32)

Back up a UEFI-based machine and recover it to the same or a different UEFI-based machine.

Bootable media

 New Linux kernel version (3.4.5) in Linux-based bootable media. The new kernel makes for better

hardware support.

Usability

 Support for 800x600 screen resolution.

1.5 Acronis Backup components

This section contains a list of Acronis Backup components with a brief description of their functionality.

Components for a managed machine (agents)

These are applications that perform data backup, recovery and other operations on the machines managed with Acronis Backup. Agents require a license to perform operations on each managed machine.

Console

The console provides Graphical User Interface to the agents. Usage of the console is not licensed. The console is installed together with the agent and cannot be disconnected from it.

Bootable Media Builder

With Bootable Media Builder, you can create bootable media in order to use the agents and other rescue utilities in a rescue environment. Bootable Media Builder is installed together with the agent.

1.5.1 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.

Conversion to a virtual machine

Agent for Linux performs the conversion by recovering a disk backup to a new virtual machine of any of the following types: VMware Workstation, Microsoft Virtual PC, Citrix XenServer Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) or Red Hat Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM). Files of the fully configured and operational machine will be placed in the directory you select. You can start the machine using the respective virtualization software or prepare the machine files for further usage.

Recovery to dissimilar hardware

You can use the restore to dissimilar hardware functionality on the machine where the agent is installed and create bootable media with this functionality. Acronis Universal Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for the operating system start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset.

1.5.2 Management Console

Acronis Backup Management Console is an administrative tool for local access to Acronis Backup agent. Remote connection to the agent is not possible.

1.5.3 Bootable Media Builder

Acronis Bootable Media Builder is a dedicated tool for creating bootable media (p. 202). The media builder that installs on Linux creates bootable media based on Linux kernel.

1.6 About using the product in the trial mode

Before buying an Acronis Backup license, you may want to try the software. This can be done without a license key.

To install the product in the trial mode, run the setup program locally or use the remote installation functionality. Unattended installation and other ways of installation are not supported.

Limitations of the trial mode

When installed in the trial mode, Acronis Backup has the following limitation:

 The Universal Restore functionality is disabled.

Additional limitations for bootable media:

 The disk management functionality is not available. You can try the user interface, but there is no

option to commit the changes.

 The recovery functionality is available, but the backup functionality is not. To try the backup

functionality, install the software in the operating system.

Upgrading to the full mode

After the trial period expires, the product GUI displays a notification requesting you to specify or obtain a license key.

To specify a license key, click Help > Change License (p. 174). Specifying the key by running the setup program is not possible.

If you have activated a trial or purchased a subscription for the cloud backup service (p. 180), cloud backup will be available until the subscription period expires, regardless of whether you specify a license key.

1.7 Supported file systems

Acronis Backup can back up and recover the following file systems with the following limitations:

 FAT16/32  NTFS  ReFS - volume recovery without the volume resize capability. Supported in Windows Server

2012/2012 R2 only.

 Ext2/Ext3/Ext4  ReiserFS3 - particular files cannot be recovered from disk backups located on Acronis Backup

Storage Node

 ReiserFS4 - volume recovery without the volume resize capability; particular files cannot be

recovered from disk backups located on Acronis Backup Storage Node

 XFS - volume recovery without the volume resize capability; particular files cannot be recovered

from disk backups located on Acronis Backup Storage Node

 JFS - particular files cannot be recovered from disk backups located on Acronis Backup Storage

Node

 Linux SWAP

Acronis Backup can back up and recover corrupted or non-supported file systems using the sector-by-sector approach.

1.8 Technical Support

Maintenance and Support Program

If you need assistance with your Acronis product, please go to http://www.acronis.com/support/

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 (http://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

1. Select Tools > Create bootable media in the menu.

2. Click Next in the welcome screen. Keep clicking Next until the list of components appears.

3. Proceed as described in "Linux-based bootable media" (p. 152).

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 a license key for Acronis Backup for Linux Server.  You have the setup program. You can download it from the Acronis website.  Make sure that the RPM Package Manager (RPM) and the following Linux packages are installed:

gcc, make, and kernel-devel. The names of these packages may vary depending on the Linux distribution.

To install Acronis Backup

Run the AcronisBackupL.i686 or the AcronisBackupL.x86_64 installation file and follow the on-screen instructions.

Step 2. Running

/usr/sbin/acronis_console

For understanding of the GUI elements see "Using the management console" (p. 13).

Step 3. Bootable media

To be able to recover an operating system that fails to start, or deploy it on bare metal, create bootable media.

Step 4. Backup

Back up now (p. 34)

Click Back up now to do a one-time backup in a few simple steps. The backup process will start immediately after you perform the required steps.

To save your machine to a file:

Under Where to back up, click Location, and select the location where the backup will be saved. Click OK to confirm your selection. Click OK at the bottom of the window to start the backup.

Tip. Using the bootable media, you can do off-line ("cold") backups in the same way as in the operating system.

Create backup plan (p. 34)

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. 95)

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. After the recovery is completed, the recovered operating system goes online automatically.

If the machine fails to boot or if you need to recover a system to bare metal, boot the machine using the bootable media and configure the recovery operation in the same way as the recovery task.

Step 6. Management

The Navigation pane (at the left part of the console) enables you to navigate across the product views that are used for different administering purposes.

 Use the Backup plans and tasks view to manage backup plans and tasks: run, edit, stop and

delete plans and tasks, view their states and progress.

 Use the Alerts view to rapidly identify and solve the problems.  Use the Log view to browse the operations log.  The location where you store backup archives is called a vault (p. 212). Navigate to the

Vaults (p. 128) view to obtain information about your vaults. Navigate further to the specific vault to view backups and their contents. You can also select the data to recover and perform manual operations with backups (mounting, validating, deleting).

2.1 Using the management console

As soon as the console starts, the respective items appear across the console's workspace (in the menu, in the main area with the Welcome screen, or in the Navigation pane) enabling you to perform machine-specific operations.

Acronis Backup Management Console - Welcome screen

Name

Description

Navigation pane

Contains the Navigation tree. Lets you navigate to the different views. For details, see Navigation pane (p. 14).

Main area

Here you configure and monitor backup, recovery and other operations. The main area displays views and action pages (p. 15) depending on the items selected in the menu or Navigation tree.

Menu bar

Appears across the top of the program window. Lets you perform most of operations available in Acronis Backup. The menu items change dynamically depending on the item selected in the Navigation tree and the main area.

Key elements of the console workspace

2.1.1 "Navigation" pane

The navigation pane includes the Navigation tree.

Navigation tree

The Navigation tree enables you to navigate across the program views. You can choose between the Full list or the Short list of views. The Short list contains the most frequently used views from the Full list.

The Short list displays

 [Machine name]. This is the root of the tree also called a Welcome screen. It displays the

name of the machine the console is currently connected to. Use this view for quick access to the main operations, available on the managed machine.

 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.

The Full list additionally displays

 Disk management. Use this view to perform operations on the machine's hard disk

drives.

 Log. Use this view to examine information on operations performed by the program on

the managed machine.

 Mounted images. This node is displayed if at least one volume is mounted. Use this view

to manage mounted images.

Operations with pane

How to expand/minimize panes

By default, the Navigation pane appears expanded. You might need to minimize the pane in order to free some additional workspace. To do this, click the chevron ( ). The pane will be minimized and the chevron changes its direction ( ). Click the chevron once again to expand the pane.

How to change the panes' borders

1. Point to the pane's border.

2. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow, drag the pointer to move the border.

2.1.2 Main area, views and action pages

The main area is a basic place where you work with the console. Here you create, edit and manage backup plans, recovery tasks and perform other operations. The main area displays different views and action pages according the items you select in the menu, or Navigation tree.

2.1.2.1 Views

Do the following

Sort items by any column

Click a column's header to sort items in ascending order.

Click it once again to sort items in descending order.

A view appears on the main area when clicking any item in the Navigation tree in the Navigation pane (p. 14).

"Log" view

Common way of working with views

Generally, every view contains a table of items, a table toolbar with buttons, and the Information panel.

 Use filtering and sorting (p. 16) capabilities to search the table for the item in question.  In the table, select the desired item.  In the information panel (collapsed by default), view the item's details. To expand the panel, click

the arrow mark ( ).

 Perform actions on the selected item. There are several ways of performing the same action on

selected items:

 By clicking the buttons on the table toolbar.  By selecting the items in the Actions menu.  By right-clicking the item and selecting the operation in the context menu.

Sorting, filtering and configuring table items

The following is a guideline to sort, filter and configure table items in any view.

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 predefined parameters

Click the appropriate buttons above the table.

For example, in the Log view, you can filter the log entries by event type (Error, Warning, Information) or by the period when the event occurred (For last 24 hours, For last week, For last three months, or For custom period).

Show or hide table columns

By default, any table has a fixed number of columns that are shown, others are hidden. If required, you can hide the shown columns and show the hidden ones.

To show or hide columns

1. Right-click any column header to open the context menu.

2. Click the items you want to be displayed/hidden.

2.1.2.2 Action pages

An action page appears in the main area when clicking any action item in the Actions menu. It contains steps you need to perform in order to create and launch any task or a backup plan.

Action page - Create backup plan

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 remembers the changes you made on the action pages. For example, if you started to create a backup plan, and then for any reason switched to another view without accomplishing the plan creation, you can click the Back navigation button on the menu. Or, if you have passed several steps forward, click the Down arrow and select the page where you started the plan creation from the list. Thus, you can perform the remaining steps and accomplish the backup plan creation.

Navigation buttons

2.1.3 Console options

The console options define the way information is represented in the Graphical User Interface of Acronis Backup.

To access the console options, select Options > Console options from the top menu.

2.1.3.1 Alert display options

The option specifies which alerts to show and which to hide in the Alerts view.

The preset is: All alerts.

To show (hide) alerts, select (clear) the check boxes next to the respective alert types.

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.

If the option is disabled, the credentials are stored only until the console is closed.

To clear the credentials cache for the current user account, click the Clear credentials cache button.

2.1.3.3 Fonts

The option defines the fonts to be used in the Graphical User Interface of Acronis Backup. The Menu font setting affects the drop-down and context menus. The Application font setting affects all other

GUI elements.

The preset is: System Default font for both the menus and the application interface items.

To make a selection, choose the font from the respective combo-box and set the font's properties. You can preview the font's appearance by clicking Browse to the right.

2.1.3.4 Pop-up messages

The “Activities Need Interaction” dialog

This option defines whether to display a pop-up window when one or more activities require user interaction. This window enables you to specify your decision, such as to confirm reboot or to retry after freeing-up the disk space, on all the activities in the same place. Until at least one activity requires interaction, you can open this window at any time from the managed machine's welcome screen. Alternatively, you can review the task execution states in the Backup plans and tasks view and specify your decision on each task in the information panel.

The preset is: Enabled.

To make a selection, select or clear the The “Activities Need Interaction” dialog check box.

The “Feedback Confirmation” dialog

This option defines whether to display a pop-up window with the information about your system after an error occurs. You can send this information to Acronis technical support.

The preset is: Enabled.

To make a selection, select or clear the The “Feedback Confirmation” dialog check box.

Notify if bootable media is not created

This option defines whether to display a pop-up window when the management console is launched on a machine and no bootable media has been created on that machine.

The preset is: Enabled.

To make a selection, select or clear the Notify if bootable media is not created check box.

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.

Request description when ejecting a tape

This option defines whether to display a prompt for you to describe a tape when you eject it from a tape device by using Acronis Backup. For example, you may describe the physical location where the tape will be kept (recommended). If a tape is ejected automatically according to the Eject tapes after successful backups option, no such prompt is displayed.

The preset is: Enabled.

To make a selection, select or clear the Request description when ejecting a tape check box.

About the task execution results

The option defines whether to display the pop-up messages about task run results: successful completion, failure or success with warnings. When the displaying of pop-up messages is disabled, you can review the task execution states and results in the Backup plans and tasks view.

The preset is: Enabled for all results.

To make a setting for each result (successful completion, failure or success with warnings) individually, select or clear the respective check box.

3 Understanding Acronis Backup

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.

Tasks that do not belong to a backup plan, such as the recovery task, are owned by the user who has created or last modified the task.

Managing a plan (task) owned by another user

Having Administrator privileges on the machine, a user can modify tasks and local backup plans owned by any user registered in the operating system.

When a user opens a plan or task for editing, which is owned by another user, all passwords set in the task are cleared. This prevents the "modify settings, leave passwords" trick. The program displays a warning each time you are trying to edit a plan (task) last modified by another user. On seeing the warning, you have two options:

 Click Cancel and create your own plan or task. The original task will remain intact.  Continue editing. You will have to enter all credentials required for the plan or task execution.

Archive owner

An archive owner is the user who saved the archive to the destination. To be more precise, this is the user whose account was specified when creating the backup plan in the Where to back up step. By default, the plan's credentials are used.

3.2 Credentials used in backup plans and tasks

This section explains the concept of access credentials, backup plan's credentials and task credentials.

Access credentials

When browsing backup locations, setting up backups, or creating recovery tasks, you may need to provide credentials for accessing various resources, such as the data you are going to back up or the location where the backups are (or will be) stored.

If the Credentials cache (p. 18) option is enabled (it is enabled by default), the credentials which you provide during a console session are saved for use during the later sessions. Thus, there is no need to enter the credentials next time. The credentials are cached independently for each user who uses the console on the machine.

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 are only asked for credentials in specific cases. For example:

 You are scheduling backups as a regular user and did not enter credentials when connecting the

console to the machine. This may be the case when the console is installed on the same machine that you are backing up.

 You are backing up a Microsoft Exchange cluster to a storage node.

Specifying the credentials explicitly

You have the option to explicitly specify a user account under which the backup plan will run. To do this, on the backup plan creation page:

1. In the Plan parameters section, click Show plan's credentials, comments, label.

2. Click Plan's credentials.

3. Enter the credentials under which the plan will run. When entering the name of an Active

Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain).

In Linux

You do not need to specify backup plan's credentials. In Linux, backup plans always run under the root user account.

Task credentials

Like a backup plan, any task runs on behalf of a user.

In Windows

When creating a task, you have the option to explicitly specify an account under which the task will run. Your choice depends on whether the task is intended for manual start or for executing on schedule.

 Manual start

Every time you manually start the task, the task will run under the credentials with which you are currently logged on. Any person that has administrative privileges on the machine can also start the task. The task will run under this person's credentials.

The task will always run under the same credentials, regardless of the user who actually starts the task, if you specify the task credentials explicitly.

 Scheduled or postponed start

The task credentials are mandatory. You cannot complete the task creation until you specify the task credentials. Task credentials are specified on the task creation page in a similar manner as the plan’s credentials are specified.

In Linux

You do not need to specify task credentials. In Linux, tasks always run under the root user account.

3.3 User privileges on a managed machine

When managing a machine running Linux, the user has or obtains the root privileges, and so can:

 Back up and recover any data or the entire machine, having full control over all Acronis Backup

agent operations and log files on the machine.

 Manage local backup plans and tasks owned by any user registered in the operating system.

To avoid routine logging on to the system as root, the root user can log on with the ordinary user credentials and then switch user as required.

3.4 Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis Backup provides the capability to use popular backup schemes, such as Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi, as well as to create custom backup schemes. All backup schemes are based on full, incremental and differential backup methods. The term "scheme" in fact denotes the algorithm of applying these methods plus the algorithm of the archive cleanup.

Comparing backup methods with each other does not make much sense because the methods work as a team in a backup scheme. Each method should play its specific role according to its advantages. A competent backup scheme will benefit from the advantages of all backup methods and lessen the

influence of all the methods’ shortcomings. For example, weekly differential backup facilitates

archive cleanup because it can be easily deleted along with the weekly set of daily incremental backups depending on it.

Backing up with the full, incremental or differential backup method results in a backup (p. 201) of the corresponding type.

Full backup

A full backup stores all data selected for backup. A full backup underlies any archive and forms the base for incremental and differential backups. An archive can contain multiple full backups or consist of only full backups. A full backup is self-sufficient - you do not need access to any other backup to recover data from a full backup.

It is widely accepted that a full backup is the slowest to do but the fastest to restore. With Acronis technologies, recovery from an incremental backup may be not slower than recovery from a full one.

A full backup is most useful when:

 you need to roll back the system to its initial state  this initial state does not change often, so there is no need for regular backup.

Example: An Internet cafe, school or university lab where the administrator often undoes changes made by the students or guests but rarely updates the reference backup (in fact, after installing software updates only). The backup time is not crucial in this case and the recovery time will be minimal when recovering the systems from the full backup. The administrator can have several copies of the full backup for additional reliability.

Incremental backup

An incremental backup stores changes to the data against the latest backup. You need access to other backups from the same archive to recover data from an incremental backup.

An incremental backup is most useful when:

 you need the possibility to roll back to any one of multiple saved states

Parameter

Full backup

Differential backup

Incremental backup

Storage space

Maximal

Medium

Minimal

Creation time

Maximal

Medium

Minimal

Recovery time

Minimal

Medium

Maximal

 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.

Example: Backing up a database transaction log.

Differential backup

A differential backup stores changes to the data against the latest full backup. You need access to the corresponding full backup to recover the data from a differential backup. A differential backup is most useful when:

 you are interested in saving only the most recent data state  the data changes tend to be small as compared to the total data size.

The typical conclusion is: "differential backups take longer to do and are faster to restore, while incremental ones are quicker to do and take longer to restore." In fact, there is no physical difference between an incremental backup appended to a full backup and a differential backup appended to the same full backup at the same point of time. The above mentioned difference implies creating a differential backup after (or instead of) creating multiple incremental backups.

An incremental or differential backup created after disk defragmentation might be considerably larger than usual because defragmentation changes file locations on the disk and the backup reflects these changes. It is recommended that you re-create a full backup after disk defragmentation.

The following table summarizes the advantages and shortcomings of each backup type as they appear based on common knowledge. In real life, these parameters depend on numerous factors such as the amount, speed and pattern of data changes; the nature of the data, the physical specifications of the devices, the backup/recovery options you set, to name a few. Practice is the best guide to selecting the optimal backup scheme.

3.5 What does a disk or volume backup store?

A disk or volume backup stores a disk or a volume file system as a whole and includes all of the information necessary for the operating system to boot. It is possible to recover disks or volumes as a whole from such backups as well as individual folders or files.

Windows

A volume backup stores all files and folders of the selected volume independent of their attributes (including hidden and system files), the boot record, the file allocation table (FAT) if it exists, the root and the zero track of the hard disk with the master boot record (MBR).

A disk backup stores all volumes of the selected disk (including hidden volumes such as the vendor's maintenance partitions) and the zero track with the master boot record.

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. The path to it is determined in the registry value VSS Default

Provider which can be found in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToBa ckup. This means that in operating systems starting with Windows Vista, Windows Restore

Points are not backed up.

Linux

A volume backup stores all files and directories of the selected volume independent of their attributes, a boot record, and the file system super block.

A disk backup stores all disk volumes as well as the zero track with the master boot record.

With the sector-by-sector (raw mode) option enabled, a disk backup stores all the disk sectors. The sector-by-sector backup can be used for backing up disks with unrecognized or unsupported file systems and other proprietary data formats.

3.6 Backup and recovery of logical volumes and MD

devices (Linux)

This section explains how you would back up and recover volumes managed by Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM), called logical volumes; and multiple-disk (MD) devices, called Linux Software RAID.

To learn more about LVM please visit http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/ or http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.1/Deployment_Guide/ch-lvm.html.

3.6.1 Backing up logical volumes

Acronis Backup Agent for Linux can access, back up, and recover logical volumes when running in Linux starting with 2.6.x kernel or under Linux-based bootable media.

Backup

In Acronis Backup GUI, logical volumes appear under Dynamic volumes at the end of the list of volumes available for backup. If you select logical volumes for backup, the logical volume structure will be saved to the backup along with the volume contents. This structure can be automatically recreated when you recover these volumes under a Linux-based bootable media.

To back up all available disks, specify all logical volumes plus basic volumes not belonging to them. This is the default choice when you open the Create backup plan page.

Basic volumes included in logical volumes are shown in the list with None in the File system column. If you select such volumes, the program will back them up sector-by-sector. Normally this is not required.

Recovery

When recovering logical volumes, you have two options:

 Recovering volume contents only. The type or other properties of the target volume will not

change.

This option is available both in the operating system and under bootable media.

This option is useful in the following cases:

 When some data on the volume was lost, but no hard disks were replaced.  When recovering a logical volume over a basic disk or volume. You can resize the resulting

volume in this case.

A system, recovered from a logical volume backup to a basic disk, cannot boot because its kernel tries to mount the root file system at the logical volume. To boot the system, change the loader configuration and /etc/fstab so that LVM is not used and reactivate your boot loader (p. 110).

 When recovering a basic or logical volume to an existing logical volume.

If the boot partition (/boot) was located on a basic volume, we recommend recovering it to a basic volume, even if your boot loader supports booting from logical volumes.

 Recovering both the structure of logical volumes and their contents.

Such is the case when recovering on bare metal or on a machine with different volume structure. The structure of logical volumes can be automatically created at the time of recovery (p. 28).

This option is available only under bootable media.

For detailed instructions on how to recover logical volumes, see Recovering MD devices and logical volumes (p. 27).

3.6.2 Backing up MD devices

MD devices, known as Linux Software RAID, combine several volumes and make solid block devices (/dev/md0, /dev/md1, ..., /dev/md31). The information about MD devices is stored in /etc/raidtab or in dedicated areas of those volumes.

You can back up active (mounted) MD devices in the same way as logical volumes. The MD devices appear at the end of the list of volumes available for backup. If you select MD devices for backup, the structure of the MD devices will be backed up along with their contents.

Backing up volumes included in MD devices does not make sense when an MD device is mounted, as it won’t be possible to recover them.

When recovering MD devices under bootable media, the structure of MD devices can be recreated automatically. For detailed information about recovering MD devices under bootable media, see Recovering MD devices and logical volumes (p. 27).

For information about assembling MD devices when performing recovery in Linux, see Assembling MD devices for recovery (Linux) (p. 27).

3.6.3 Backing up hardware RAID arrays (Linux)

Hardware RAID arrays under Linux combine several physical drives to create a single partitionable disk. The special file related to a hardware RAID array is usually located in /dev/ataraid. You can back up hardware RAID arrays in the same way as ordinary hard disks.

Physical drives that are part of hardware RAID arrays may be listed alongside other disks as if they had a bad partition table or no partition table at all. Backing up such disks does not make sense as it won’t be possible to recover them.

3.6.4 Assembling MD devices for recovery (Linux)

In Linux, when performing recovery from a disk backup to an existing MD device (also called Linux Software RAID), make sure that this device is assembled at the time of recovery.

If the device is not assembled, assemble it by using the mdadm utility. Here are two examples:

Example 1. The following command assembles the device /dev/md0 combined from the volumes /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1:

mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 -ayes /dev/sdb1 /sdc1

Example 2. The following command assembles the device /dev/md0 combined from the disks /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc:

mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 -ayes /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

If the recovery requires the machine to be rebooted (usually, when the volumes to recover include the boot partition), follow these guidelines:

 If all parts of the MD device are volumes (a typical case, such as in the first example), make sure

that each volume type—called partition type or system ID—is Linux raid automount; the hexadecimal code of this partition type is 0xFD. This will guarantee that the device will be automatically assembled following the reboot. To view or change the partition type, use a disk partitioning utility such as fdisk.

 Otherwise (such as in the second example), perform the recovery from bootable media. No

reboot will be required in that case. In bootable media, you may need to create the MD device manually or automatically, as described in Recovering MD devices and logical volumes (p. 27).

3.6.5 Recovering MD devices and logical volumes

Recovering MD devices and/or volumes created by Logical Volume Manager (logical volumes) assumes that the corresponding volume structure will be recreated.

In Linux-based bootable media, you can choose to recreate the volume structure automatically (p.

28).

This functionality is intended primarily for bare-metal recovery of an entire machine. The software backs up and recreates the entire logical volume structure, even if not all MD devices or logical volumes are being backed up or recovered. Therefore, you need at least as many disks as the original volume structure used.

Do not try to recreate the volume structure automatically in any of the following cases:

 The machine has data that must be preserved. The software will destroy all data on the disks

that it chooses to recreate the volume structure on.

 The machine has fewer physical disks than the original volume structure used. The software will

fail to recreate the volume structure even if the capacity of the physical disks is enough to fit all the data being recovered.

 The backup does not contain the volume structure information. This information might be

absent in backups created by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, because saving it was optional.

In these cases, create the volume structure manually (p. 28) prior to recovery. You can do this by using the mdadm and lvm utilities, either in Linux-based bootable media or in Linux.

3.6.5.1 Creating the volume structure automatically

Use the following procedure to automatically recreate the logical volume structure on a machine.

Caution As a result of the following procedure, the current volume structure on the machine will be replaced with the one stored in the backup. This will destroy the data that is currently stored on some or all of the machine's hard disks.

If disk configuration has changed. An MD device or a logical volume resides on one or more disks. If you replaced any of these disks between backup and recovery (or if you are recovering the volumes to a different machine), ensure that the new disk configuration includes at least the same number of disks as the original volume structure did. The capacity of the disks must be enough to fit all the data being recovered.

To create the volume structure automatically

1. Boot the machine from a Linux-based bootable media.

2. Click Acronis Bootable Agent. Then, click Run management console.

3. In the management console, click Recover.

Under the archive contents, Acronis Backup will display a message saying that it detected information about the volume structure.

4. Click Details in the area with that message.

5. Review the volume structure, and then click Apply RAID/LVM to create it.

3.6.5.2 Creating the volume structure manually

The following is a general procedure for recovering MD devices and logical volumes by using a Linux-based bootable media, and an example of such recovery. You can use a similar procedure in Linux.

To create the volume structure manually

1. Boot the machine from a Linux-based bootable media.

2. Click Acronis Backup. Then, click Run management console.

3. On the toolbar, click Actions, and then click Start shell. Alternatively, you can press

CTRL+ALT+F2.

4. If necessary, examine the structure of volumes which are stored in the archive, by using the

acrocmd utility. Also, you can use this utility to mount one or more of these volumes as if they were regular volumes (see "Mounting backup volumes" later in this topic).

5. Create the volume structure according to that in the archive, by using the mdadm utility (for MD

devices), the lvm utility (for logical volumes), or both.

Note: Logical Volume Manager utilities such as pvcreate and vgcreate, which are normally available in Linux, are not included in the bootable media environment, so you need to use the lvm utility with a corresponding command. For example: lvm pvcreate, lvm vgcreate, and lvm lvcreate.

6. If you previously mounted the backup by using the acrocmd utility, use this utility again to

unmount the backup (see "Mounting backup volumes" later in this topic).

7. Return to the management console by pressing ALT+F1.

(Do not reboot the machine at this point. Otherwise, you will have to create the volume structure again.)

8. Click Recover, then specify the path to the archive and any other required parameters, and then

click OK.

Note: This procedure will not work if you connect to Acronis Backup Bootable Agent remotely, because the command shell is not available in this case.

Example

Suppose that you previously performed a disk-level backup of a machine with the following disk configuration:

 The machine has two 1-gigabyte and two 2-gigabyte SCSI hard disks, mounted on /dev/sda,

/dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, and /dev/sdd, respectively.

 The first and second pairs of hard disks are configured as two MD devices; both are in the RAID-1

configuration, and are mounted on /dev/md0 and /dev/md1, respectively.

 A logical volume is based on the two MD devices and is mounted on

/dev/my_volgroup/my_logvol.

The following picture illustrates this configuration.

Do the following to recover data from this archive.

Step 1: Creating the volume structure

1. Boot the machine from a Linux-based bootable media.

2. In the management console, press CTRL+ALT+F2.

3. Run the following commands to create the MD devices:

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sd[ab] mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sd[cd]

4. Run the following commands to create the logical volume group:

Caution: The pvcreate command destroys all data on the /dev/md0 and /dev/md1 devices.

lvm pvcreate /dev/md0 /dev/md1 lvm vgcreate my_volgroup /dev/md0 /dev/md1 lvm vgdisplay

The output of the lvm vgdisplay command will contain lines similar to the following:

--- Volume group --VG Name my_volgroup ... VG Access read/write VG Status resizable ... VG Size 1.99 GB ... VG UUID 0qoQ4l-Vk7W-yDG3-uF1l-Q2AL-C0z0-vMeACu

5. Run the following command to create the logical volume; in the -L parameter, specify the size

given by VG Size:

lvm lvcreate -L1.99G --name my_logvol my_volgroup

6. Activate the volume group by running the following command:

lvm vgchange -a y my_volgroup

7. Press ALT+F1 to return to the management console.

Step 2: Starting the recovery

1. In the management console, click Recover.

2. In Archive, click Change and then specify the name of the archive.

3. In Backup, click Change and then select the backup from which you want to recover data.

4. In Data type, select Volumes.

5. In Items to recover, select the check box next to my_volgroup-my_logvol.

6. Under Where to recover, click Change, and then select the logical volume that you created in

Step 1. Click the chevron buttons to expand the list of disks.

7. Click OK to start the recovery.

For a complete list of commands and utilities that you can use in the bootable media environment, see List of commands and utilities available in Linux-based bootable media (p. 158). For detailed descriptions of the acrocmd utility, see the Acronis Backup command-line reference.

Mounting backup volumes

You may want to mount a volume stored in a disk backup, for example, to view some files in it before starting the recovery.

To mount a backup volume

1. Use the acrocmd list content command to list the disks and volumes that are stored in the

backup. For example, the following command lists the content of the latest backup of the linux_machine archive:

acrocmd list content --loc=\\server\backups --credentials=user,MyPassWd

--arc=linux_machine

The output will contain lines similar to the following:

+ 183 hidden pages

Acronis Backup for Linux Server 11.5 Instruction Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

1 Introducing Acronis Backup

1.1 What's new in Update 3

1.2 What's new in Update 2

1.3 What's new in Update 1

1.4 What's new in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5

1.5 Acronis Backup components

1.5.1 Agent for Linux

1.5.2 Management Console

1.5.3 Bootable Media Builder

1.6 About using the product in the trial mode

1.7 Supported file systems

1.8 Technical Support

2 Getting started

2.1 Using the management console

2.1.1 "Navigation" pane

2.1.2 Main area, views and action pages

2.1.2.1 Views

Sorting, filtering and configuring table items

2.1.2.2 Action pages

2.1.3 Console options

2.1.3.1 Alert display options

2.1.3.2 Credentials cache

2.1.3.3 Fonts

2.1.3.4 Pop-up messages

3 Understanding Acronis Backup

3.1 Owners

3.2 Credentials used in backup plans and tasks

3.3 User privileges on a managed machine

3.4 Full, incremental and differential backups

3.5 What does a disk or volume backup store?

3.6.1 Backing up logical volumes

3.6.2 Backing up MD devices

3.6.3 Backing up hardware RAID arrays (Linux)

3.6.4 Assembling MD devices for recovery (Linux)

3.6.5 Recovering MD devices and logical volumes

3.6.5.1 Creating the volume structure automatically

3.6.5.2 Creating the volume structure manually