Acronis BACKUP RECOVERY 10 User Manual

Acronis® Backup & Recovery ™ 10 Workstation

User's Guide

“Acronis” and “Acronis Secure Zone” are registered trademarks of Acronis, Inc.

"Acronis Compute with Confidence", “Acronis Startup Recovery Manager”, “Acronis Active Restore” and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis, Inc.

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VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc.

Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

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Table of Contents

1. Introducing Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10 ......................................................... 6

1.1. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 overview ............................................................................ 6

1.2. Getting started .................................................................................................................... 6

1.2.1. Using the management console ................................................................................................................. 7

1.3. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components .................................................................... 13

1.3.1. Agent for Windows .................................................................................................................................... 13

1.3.2. Bootable components and media builder ............................................................................................... 14

1.3.3. Management Console ............................................................................................................................... 15

1.4. Supported operating systems ........................................................................................... 15

1.5. Supported file systems ...................................................................................................... 15

1.6. Hardware requirements .................................................................................................... 16

1.7. Technical support .............................................................................................................. 16

2. Understanding Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 ....................................................... 17

2.1. Basic concepts ................................................................................................................... 17

2.2. Full, incremental and differential backups ....................................................................... 21

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

2.4. Owners and credentials .................................................................................................... 23

2.5. GFS backup scheme .......................................................................................................... 25

2.6. Tower of Hanoi backup scheme ........................................................................................ 29

2.7. Retention rules .................................................................................................................. 31

2.8. Backing up dynamic volumes (Windows).......................................................................... 33

2.9. Tape support ..................................................................................................................... 36

2.9.1. Tape compatibility table ............................................................................................................................ 36

2.9.2. Using a single tape drive ............................................................................................................................ 37

2.10. Proprietary Acronis technologies ...................................................................................... 38

2.10.1. Acronis Secure Zone .................................................................................................................................. 38

2.10.2. Acronis Startup Recovery Manager .......................................................................................................... 39

2.10.3. Universal Restore (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore) ................................................. 40

2.10.4. Acronis Active Restore ............................................................................................................................... 41

3. Options ................................................................................................................ 44

3.1. Console options ................................................................................................................. 44

3.1.1. Startup page ............................................................................................................................................... 44

3.1.2. Pop-up messages ....................................................................................................................................... 44

3.1.3. Time-based alerts ...................................................................................................................................... 45

3.1.4. Number of tasks ......................................................................................................................................... 45

3.1.5. Fonts ........................................................................................................................................................... 46

3.2. Machine options ............................................................................................................... 46

3.2.1. Event tracing .............................................................................................................................................. 46

3.2.2. Log cleanup rules ....................................................................................................................................... 48

3.3. Default backup and recovery options ............................................................................... 49

3.3.1. Default backup options ............................................................................................................................. 49

3.3.2. Default recovery options ........................................................................................................................... 70

4. Vaults .................................................................................................................. 80

4.1. Personal vaults .................................................................................................................. 81

4.1.1. Working with the "Personal vault" view .................................................................................................. 81

4.1.2. Actions on personal vaults ........................................................................................................................ 82

4.2. Common operations ......................................................................................................... 84

4.2.1. Operations with archives stored in a vault .............................................................................................. 84

4.2.2. Operations with backups .......................................................................................................................... 85

4.2.3. Deleting archives and backups ................................................................................................................. 86

4.2.4. Filtering and sorting archives .................................................................................................................... 86

5. Scheduling ............................................................................................................ 87

5.1. Daily schedule ................................................................................................................... 88

5.2. Weekly schedule ............................................................................................................... 90

5.3. Monthly schedule .............................................................................................................. 92

5.4. At Windows Event Log event ............................................................................................ 95

5.5. Conditions ......................................................................................................................... 97

5.5.1. User is idle .................................................................................................................................................. 97

5.5.2. Location's host is available ........................................................................................................................ 98

5.5.3. Fits time interval ........................................................................................................................................ 98

5.5.4. User logged off ........................................................................................................................................... 99

5.5.5. Time since last backup ............................................................................................................................. 100

6. Direct management ............................................................................................ 101

6.1. Administering a managed machine ................................................................................ 101

6.1.1. Dashboard ................................................................................................................................................ 101

6.1.2. Backup plans and tasks ............................................................................................................................ 103

6.1.3. Log ............................................................................................................................................................. 114

6.2. Creating a backup plan .................................................................................................... 116

6.2.1. Why is the program asking for the password? ...................................................................................... 119

6.2.2. Backup plan's credentials ........................................................................................................................ 119

6.2.3. Source type ............................................................................................................................................... 120

6.2.4. Items to back up....................................................................................................................................... 120

6.2.5. Access credentials for source .................................................................................................................. 121

6.2.6. Exclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 122

6.2.7. Archive ...................................................................................................................................................... 123

6.2.8. Access credentials for archive location .................................................................................................. 124

6.2.9. Backup schemes ....................................................................................................................................... 125

6.2.10. Archive validation .................................................................................................................................... 135

6.2.11. Setting up regular conversion to a virtual machine .............................................................................. 135

6.3. Recovering data............................................................................................................... 137

6.3.1. Task credentials........................................................................................................................................ 139

6.3.2. Archive selection ...................................................................................................................................... 140

6.3.3. Data type .................................................................................................................................................. 140

6.3.4. Content selection ..................................................................................................................................... 141

6.3.5. Access credentials for location ............................................................................................................... 141

6.3.6. Destination selection ............................................................................................................................... 142

6.3.7. Access credentials for destination .......................................................................................................... 149

6.3.8. When to recover ...................................................................................................................................... 150

6.3.9. Universal Restore ..................................................................................................................................... 150

6.3.10. How to convert a disk backup to a virtual machine .............................................................................. 151

6.3.11. Bootability troubleshooting .................................................................................................................... 153

6.4. Validating vaults, archives and backups.......................................................................... 156

6.4.1. Task credentials........................................................................................................................................ 157

6.4.2. Archive selection ...................................................................................................................................... 157

6.4.3. Backup selection ...................................................................................................................................... 158

6.4.4. Location selection .................................................................................................................................... 158

6.4.5. Access credentials for source .................................................................................................................. 159

6.4.6. When to validate...................................................................................................................................... 159

6.5. Mounting an image ......................................................................................................... 160

6.5.1. Archive selection ...................................................................................................................................... 161

6.5.2. Backup selection ...................................................................................................................................... 162

6.5.3. Access credentials .................................................................................................................................... 162

6.5.4. Volume selection ..................................................................................................................................... 162

6.6. Managing mounted images ............................................................................................ 163

6.7. Exporting archives and backups ...................................................................................... 163

6.7.1. Task credentials........................................................................................................................................ 166

6.7.2. Archive selection ...................................................................................................................................... 166

6.7.3. Backup selection ...................................................................................................................................... 167

6.7.4. Access credentials for source .................................................................................................................. 167

6.7.5. Location selection .................................................................................................................................... 168

6.7.6. Access credentials for destination .......................................................................................................... 169

6.8. Acronis Secure Zone ........................................................................................................ 169

6.8.1. Creating Acronis Secure Zone ................................................................................................................. 170

6.8.2. Managing Acronis Secure Zone .............................................................................................................. 172

6.9. Acronis Startup Recovery Manager ................................................................................ 173

6.10. Bootable media ............................................................................................................... 174

6.10.1. How to create bootable media ............................................................................................................... 175

6.10.2. Connecting to a machine booted from media ...................................................................................... 183

6.10.3. Working under bootable media ............................................................................................................. 183

6.10.4. List of commands and utilities available in Linux-based bootable media ........................................... 185

6.10.5. Recovering MD devices and logical volumes ......................................................................................... 186

6.11. Disk management ........................................................................................................... 190

6.11.1. Basic precautions ..................................................................................................................................... 190

6.11.2. Running Acronis Disk Director Lite ......................................................................................................... 191

6.11.3. Choosing the operating system for disk management ......................................................................... 191

6.11.4. "Disk management" view ........................................................................................................................ 191

6.11.5. Disk operations ........................................................................................................................................ 192

6.11.6. Volume operations .................................................................................................................................. 198

6.11.7. Pending operations .................................................................................................................................. 205

6.12. Collecting system information ........................................................................................ 205

Glossary ................................................................................................................................... 206

Index ........................................................................................................................................ 221

1. Introducing Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10

1.1. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 overview

Based on Acronis’ patented disk imaging and bare metal restore technologies, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 succeeds Acronis True Image Echo as the next generation disaster recovery solution.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Workstation inherits the benefits of the Acronis True Image Echo product family:

• Backup of an entire disk or volume, including the operating system, all applications, and data

• Bare metal recovery to any hardware

• File and folder backup and recovery.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Workstation offers new benefits that help organizations meet challenging Recovery Time Objectives while reducing both capital expense and software maintenance costs.

• Leveraging existing IT infrastructure

Backward compatibility and an easy upgrade from Acronis True Image Echo

• Highly automated data protection

All-round planning of data protection (backup, retention and validation of backups) within a backup policy

Built-in Tower of Hanoi and Grandfather-Father-Son backup schemes with customizable parameters

A variety of events and conditions can be chosen to trigger a backup

• Easy work with virtual environments

Conversion of a backup to a fully configured VMware, Microsoft, Parallels, or Citrix virtual machine

• Redesigned GUI

Dashboard for quick operational decision making

Overview of all configured and running operations with color-coding for successful and failed operations

• Enterprise level of security

Controlling user rights to perform operations and access backups

Running services with minimal user rights.

1.2. Getting started

Direct management

1. Install Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console and Acronis Backup & Recovery 10

Agent.

2. Start the console.

Windows

Start the console by selecting it from the start menu.

3. Connect the console to the machine where the agent is installed.

Where to go from here

For what to do next see "Basic concepts (p. 17)".

For understanding of the GUI elements see the next section.

1.2.1. Using the management console

As soon as the console connects to a managed machine (p. 215) or to a management server (p. 216), the respective items appear across the console's workspace (in the menu, in the main area with the Welcome screen, the Navigation pane, the Actions and tools pane) enabling you to perform agentspecific or server-specific operations.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console - Welcome screen

Key elements of the console workspace

Name Description

Navigation pane Contains the Navigation tree and the Shortcuts bar and lets you navigate to

Actions and tools pane Contains bars with a set of actions that can be performed and tools (see the

the different views (see the Navigation pane (p. 8) section.)

Actions and Tools pane (p. 9) section).

Main area The main place of working, where you create, edit and manage backup

Menu bar Appears across the top of the program window and lets you perform all the

plans, policies, tasks and perform other operations. Displays the different views and action pages (p. 11) depending on items selected in the menu, Navigation tree, or on the Actions and Tools pane.

operations, available on both panes. Menu items change dynamically.

1024x768 or higher display resolution is required for comfortable work with the management console.

1.2.1.1. "Navigation" pane

The navigation pane includes the Navigation tree and the Shortcuts bar.

Navigation tree

The Navigation tree enables you to navigate across the program views. Views depend on whether the console is connected to a managed machine or to the management server.

Views for a managed machine

When the console is connected to a managed machine, the following views are available in the navigation tree.

• [Machine name]. Root of the tree also called a Welcome view. 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.

o Dashboard. Use this view to estimate at a glance whether the data is successfully

protected on the managed machine.

o 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 states and statuses, monitor plans.

o 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, mount backups as virtual drives, etc.

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

the managed machine.

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

Shortcuts bar

The Shortcuts bar appears under the navigation tree. It offers you an easy and convenient way of connection to the machines in demand by adding them as shortcuts.

To add a shortcut to a machine

1. Connect the console to a managed machine.

2. In the navigation tree, right-click the machine's name (a root element of the navigation tree), and

then select Create shortcut.

If the console and agent are installed on the same machine, the shortcut to this machine will be added to the shortcuts bar automatically as Local machine [Machine name].

1.2.1.2. "Actions and tools" pane

The Actions and tools pane enables you to easily and efficiently work with Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. The pane's bars provide quick access to program's operations and tools. All items of the

Actions and tools bar are duplicated in the program menu.

Bars

'[Item's name]' actions

Contains a set of actions that can be performed on the items selected in any of the navigation views. Clicking the action opens the respective action page (p. 12). Items of different navigation views have their own set of actions. The bar's name changes in accordance with the item you select. For example, if you select the backup plan named System backup in the Backup plans and tasks view, the actions bar will be named as 'System backup' actions and will have the set of actions typical to backup plans.

All actions can also be accessed in the respective menu items. A menu item appears on the menu bar when you select an item in any of the navigation views.

Examples of "'Item name' actions" bars

Actions

Contains a list of common operations that can be performed on a managed machine or on a management server. Always the same for all views. Clicking the operation opens the respective action page (see the Action pages (p. 12) section.)

All the actions can also be accessed in the Actions menu.

"Actions" bar on a managed machine and on a management server

Tools

Contains a list of the Acronis tools. Always the same across all the program views.

All the tools can also be accessed in the Tools menu.

"Tools" bar

Help

Contains a list of help topics. Different views and action pages of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provided with lists of specific help topics.

1.2.1.3. Operations with panes

How to expand/minimize panes

By default, the Navigation pane appears expanded and the Actions and Tools - minimized. You might need to minimize the pane in order to free some additional workspace. To do this, click the chevron

(

- for the Navigation pane; - for the Actions and tools pane). 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.

The management console "remembers" the way the panes' borders are set. When you run the management console next time, all the panes' borders will have the same position that was set previously.

1.2.1.4. 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, policies, tasks and perform other operations. The main area displays different views and action pages according the items you select in the menu, Navigation tree, or on the Actions and Tools pane.

Views

A view appears on the main area when clicking any item in the Navigation tree in the Navigation pane (p. 8).

"Tasks" view

Common way of working with views

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

• Use filtering and sorting capabilities to search the table for the item in question

• In the table, select the desired item

• In the Information panel (collapsed by default), view the item's details

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

selected items:

o By clicking the buttons on the table toolbar; o By clicking in the items in the [Item's name] Actions bar (on the Actions and Tools pane); o By selecting the items in the Actions menu; o By right-clicking the item and selecting the operation in the context menu.

Action pages

An action page appears in the main area when clicking any action item in the Actions menu, or in the Actions bar on the Actions and tools pane. It contains steps you need to perform in order to create

and launch any task, or a backup plan, or backup policy.

Action page - Create backup plan

Using controls and specifying settings

The action pages offer two ways of representation: basic and advanced. The basic representation hides such fields as credentials, comments, etc. When the advanced representation is enabled, all the available fields are displayed. You can switch between the views by selecting the Advanced view check box at the top of the action page.

Most settings are configured by clicking the respective Change… links to the right. Others are selected from the drop-down list, or typed manually in the page's fields.

Action page - Controls

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 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

1.3. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components

This section contains a list of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components with a brief description of their functionality.

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 builders, 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.

Console

The console provides Graphical User Interface and remote connection to the agents and other Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components.

1.3.1. 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.

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.

1.3.1.1. 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.

1.3.2. 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 (p. 209). The media builder can create bootable media based on either Windows Preinstallation Environment, or Linux kernel.

1.3.3. Management Console

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console is an administrative tool for local access to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent.

1.4. Supported operating systems

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 Agent for Windows

• Windows 2000 Professional SP4/XP Home Editions/XP Professional SP2+

• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

• Windows Vista - all editions

• Windows 7 - all editions

Remote connection to the agent is not possible.

1.5. Supported file systems

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 can back up and recover the following file systems with the following limitations:

• FAT16/32

• NTFS

• Ext2/Ext3

• ReiserFS3 - particular files cannot be recovered from disk backups located on Acronis Backup &

Recovery 10 Storage Node

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

recovered from disk backups located on Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node

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

from disk backups located on Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node

• JFS - particular files cannot be recovered from disk backups located on Acronis Backup &

Recovery 10 Storage Node

• Linux SWAP

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 can back up and recover corrupted or non-supported file systems using the sector-by-sector approach.

1.6. Hardware requirements

This section lists the minimum and recommended hardware requirements to install and run Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components.

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

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

1.7. Technical support

As part of a purchased annual Support charge you are entitled to Technical Support as follows: to the extent that electronic services are available, you may electronically access at no additional charge, Support services for the Software, which Acronis shall endeavor to make available twenty four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days per week. Such electronic services may include, but are not limited to: user forums; software-specific information; hints and tips; bug fix retrieval via the internet; software maintenance and demonstration code retrieval via a WAN-accessible FTP server; and access to a problem resolution database via Acronis customer support system.

Support shall consist of supplying telephone or other electronic support to you in order to help you locate and, on its own, correct problems with the Software and supplying patches, updates and other changes that Acronis, at its sole discretion, makes or adds to the Software and which Acronis makes generally available, without additional charge, to other licensees of the Software that are enrolled in Support.

Upon mutual agreement by both parties, Acronis shall:

(i) supply code corrections to you to correct Software malfunctions in order to bring such Software into substantial conformity with the published operating specifications for the most current version of the Software unless your unauthorized modifications prohibit or hamper such corrections or cause the malfunction;

or (ii) supply code corrections to correct insubstantial problems at the next general release of the Software.

More information about contacting Acronis Technical Support is available at the following link: http://www.Acronis.com/enterprise/support/

2. Understanding Acronis Backup & Recovery 10

This section attempts to give its readers a clear understanding of the product so that they can use the product in various circumstances without step-by-step instructions.

2.1. Basic conce p ts

Please familiarize yourself with the basic notions used in the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 graphical user interface and documentation. Advanced users are welcome to use this section as a step-by-step quick start guide. The details can be found in the context help.

Backup under operating system

1. To protect data on a machine, install Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent (p. 207) on the

machine which becomes a managed machine (p. 215) from this point on.

2. To be able to manage the machine using Graphical User Interface, install Acronis Backup &

Recovery 10 Management Console (p. 211) on the same machine or any machine from which you prefer to operate. If you have the standalone product edition, skip this step since in your case the console installs with the agent.

3. Run the console. To be able to recover the machine's operating system if the system fails to start,

create bootable media (p. 209).

4. Connect the console to the managed machine.

5. Create a backup plan (p. 208).

To do so, you have to specify, at the very least, the data to be protected and the location where the backup archive (p. 207) will be stored. This will create a minimal backup plan consisting of one task (p. 218) that will create a full backup (p. 207) of your data every time the task is manually started. A complex backup plan might consist of multiple tasks which run on schedule; create full, incremental or differential backups (p. 21); perform archive maintenance operations such as backup validation (p. 219) or deleting outdated backups (archive cleanup (p. 211)). You can customize backup operations using various backup options, such as pre/post backup commands, network bandwidth throttling, error handling or notification options.

6. Use the Backup plans and tasks page to view information about your backup plans and tasks and

monitor their execution. Use the Log page to browse the operations log.

7. The location where you store backup archives is called a vault (p. 219). Navigate to the Vaults

page to view information about your vaults. Navigate further to the specific vault to view archives and backups and perform manual operations with them (mounting, validating, deleting, viewing contents). You can also select a backup to recover data from it.

The following diagram illustrates the notions discussed above. For more definitions please refer to the Glossary.

Backup using bootable media

You can boot the machine using the bootable media, configure the backup operation in the same way as a simple backup plan and execute the operation. This will help you extract files and logical volumes from a system that failed to boot, take an image of the offline system or back up sector-by-sector an unsupported file system.

Recovery under operating system

When it comes to data recovery, you create a recovery task on the managed machine. You specify the vault, then select the archive and then select the backup referring to the date and time of the backup creation, or more precisely, to the time when the creation has started. In most cases, the data will be reverted to that moment.

Examples of exceptions to this rule: Recovering a database from a backup that contains the transaction log (a single backup provides multiple recovery points and so you can make additional selections). Recovering multiple files from a file backup taken without snapshot (each file will be reverted to the moment when it was actually copied to the backup).

You also specify the destination where to recover the data. You can customize the recovery operation using recovery options, such as pre/post recovery commands, error handling or notification options.

The following diagram illustrates data recovery under the operating system (online). No backup can proceed on the machine while the recovery operation is taking place. If required, you can connect the console to another machine and configure a recovery operation on that machine. This ability (remote parallel recovery) first appeared in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10; the previous Acronis products do not provide it.

Recovery using bootable media

Recovery over a volume locked by the operating system, such as the volume where the operating system resides, requires a reboot to the bootable environment which is a part of the agent. After the recovery is completed, the recovered operating system goes online automatically.

If the machine fails to boot or you need to recover data to bare metal, you boot the machine using the bootable media and configure the recovery operation in the same way as the recovery task. The following diagram illustrates the recovery using the bootable media.

2.2. Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides the capability to use popular backup schemes, such as Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi, as well as to create custom backup schemes. 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. 207) 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

• 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.

Parameter Full backup Differential backup Incremental backup

Storage space

Creation time

Recovery time

Maximal Medium Minimal

Minimal Medium Maximal

2.3. User privileges on a managed machine

When managing a machine running Windows, the scope of a user's management rights depends on the user's privileges on the machine.

Regular users

A regular user, such as a member of the Users group, has the following management rights:

• Perform file-level backup and recovery of the files that the user has permissions to access—but

without using a file-level backup snapshot.

• Create backup plans and tasks and manage them.

• View—but not manage—backup plans and tasks created by other users.

• View the local event log.

Administrative users

A user who has administrative privileges on the machine, such as a member of the Administrators or Backup Operators group, additionally has the following management rights:

• Back up and recover the entire machine or any data on the machine, with or without using a disk

snapshot.

Members of the Administrators group also can:

• View and manage backup plans and tasks owned by any user on the machine.

2.4. Owners and credentials

This section explains the concept of owner and the meaning of a backup plan's (or task's) credentials.

Plan (task) owner

A local backup plan owner is the user who created or last modified the plan.

A centralized backup plan owner is the management server administrator who created or last modified the centralized policy that spawned the plan.

Tasks, belonging to a backup plan, either local or centralized, 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.

Plan's credentials and task credentials

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

Manual start

You can skip the Plan's (Task) credentials step. Every time you 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. To do so, on the plan (task) creation page:

1. Select the Advanced view check box.

2. Select General -> Plan's (Task) credentials -> Change.

3. Enter the credentials under which the plan (task) will run.

Scheduled or postponed start

The plan (task) credentials are mandatory. If you skip the credentials step, you will be asked for credentials after finishing the plan (task) creation.

Why does the program compel me to specify credentials?

A scheduled or postponed task has to run anyway, regardless if any user is logged on or not (for example, the system is at the Windows "Welcome" screen) or a user other than the task owner is logged on. It is sufficient that the machine be on (that is, not in standby or hibernate) at the scheduled task start time. That's why the Acronis scheduler needs the explicitly specified credentials to be able to start the task.

2.5. GFS backup scheme

This section covers implementation of the Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) backup scheme in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.

With this backup scheme you are not allowed to back up more often than once a day. The scheme enables you to mark out the daily, weekly and monthly cycles in your daily backup schedule and set the retention periods for the daily, monthly and weekly backups. The daily backups are referred to as “sons”; weekly backups are referred to as “fathers”; the longest lived monthly backups are called “grandfathers”.

GFS as a tape rotation scheme

GFS was initially created and is often referred to as a tape rotation scheme. Tape rotation schemes, as such, do not provide automation. They just determine:

• how many tapes you need to enable recovery with the desired resolution (time interval between

recovery points) and roll-back period

• which tapes you should overwrite with the forthcoming backup.

Tape rotation schemes enable you to get by with the minimal number of cartridges and not to be buried in used tapes. A lot of Internet sources describe varieties of the GFS tape rotation scheme. You are free to use any of the varieties when backing up to a locally attached tape device.

GFS by Acronis

With Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, you can easily set up a backup plan that will regularly back up data and clean up the resulting archive according to the GFS scheme.

Create the backup plan as usual. For the backup destination, choose any storage device where automatic cleanup can be performed, such as an HDD-based storage device or robotic tape library. (Since the space freed on the tape after cleanup cannot be reused until all the tape becomes free, take into account additional considerations when using GFS on a tape library.)

The following is an explanation of the settings that are specific for the GFS backup scheme.

GFS-related settings of the backup plan

Start backup at:

Back up on:

This step creates the total backup schedule, that is, defines all the days you need to back up on.

Assume you select backing up at 8:00 PM on workdays. Here is the total schedule you have defined.

“B” stands for “backup”.

The total schedule.

Schedule: Workdays at 8:00 PM

Weekly/Monthly

This step forms the daily, weekly and monthly cycles in the schedule.

Select a day of the week from the days selected in the previous step. Each 1st, 2nd and 3rd backup created on this day of the week will be considered as a weekly backup. Each 4th backup created on this day of the week will be considered as a monthly backup. Backups created on the other days will be considered as daily backups.

Assume you select Friday for Weekly/Monthly backup. Here is the total schedule marked out according to the selection.

“D” stands for the backup that is considered Daily. “W” stands for the backup that is considered Weekly. “M” stands for the backup that is considered Monthly.

The schedule marked out according to the GFS scheme.

Schedule: Workdays at 8:00 PM

Weekly/Monthly: Friday

Acronis uses incremental and differential backups that help save storage space and optimize the cleanup so that consolidation is not needed. In terms of backup methods, weekly backup is differential (Dif), monthly backup is full (F) and daily backup is incremental (I). The first backup is always full.

The Weekly/Monthly parameter splits the total schedule into daily, weekly and monthly schedules.

Assume you select Friday for Weekly/Monthly backup. Here is the real schedule of the backup tasks that will be created.

Backup tasks created according to the GFS scheme by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.

Schedule: Workdays at 8:00 PM

Weekly/Monthly: Friday

Keep backups: Daily

This step defines the retention rule for daily backups. The cleanup task will run after each daily backup and delete all daily backups that are older than you specify.

Keep backups: Weekly

This step defines the retention rule for weekly backups. The cleanup task will run after each weekly backup and delete all weekly backups that are older than you specify. The weekly backups' retention period cannot be less than the daily backups' retention period. It is usually set several times longer.

Keep backups: Monthly

This step defines the retention rule for monthly backups. The cleanup task will run after each monthly backup and delete all monthly backups that are older than you specify. The monthly backups’ retention period cannot be less than the weekly backups’ retention period. It is usually set several times longer. You have the option to keep the monthly backups infinitely.

The resulting archive: ideal

Assume you select to keep daily backups for 7 days, weekly backups for 2 weeks and monthly backups for 6 months. Here is how your archive would appear after the backup plan is launched if all the backups were full and so could be deleted as soon as the scheme requires.

The left column shows days of the week. For each day of the week, the content of the archive after the regular backup and the subsequent cleanup is shown.

“D” stands for the backup that is considered Daily. “W” stands for the backup that is considered Weekly. “M” stands for the backup that is considered Monthly.

An ideal archive created according to the GFS scheme.

Schedule: Workdays at 8:00 PM

Weekly/Monthly: Friday

Keep daily backups: 7 days

Keep weekly backups: 2 weeks

Keep monthly backups: 6 months

Starting from the third week, weekly backups will be regularly deleted. After 6 months, monthly backups will start to be deleted. The diagram for weekly and monthly backups will look similar to the week-based timescale.

The resulting archive: real

In reality, the archive content will somewhat differ from the ideal scheme.

When using the incremental and differential backup methods, you cannot delete a backup as soon as the scheme requires if later backups are based on this backup. Regular consolidation is unacceptable because it takes too much system resources. The program has to wait until the scheme requires the deletion of all the dependent backups and then deletes the entire chain.

Here is how the first month of your backup plan will appear in real life. “F” stands for full backup. “Dif” stands for differential backup. “I” stands for incremental backup.

The backups that outlive their nominal lifetime because of dependencies are marked pink. The initial full backup will be deleted as soon as all differential and incremental backups based on this backup are deleted.

An archive created according to the GFS scheme by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.

Schedule: Workdays at 8:00 PM

Weekly/Monthly: Friday

Keep daily backups: 7 days

Keep weekly backups: 2 weeks

Keep monthly backups: 6 months

2.6. Tower of Hanoi backup scheme

The need to have frequent backups always conflicts with the cost of keeping such backups for a long time. The Tower of Hanoi (ToH) backup scheme is a useful compromise.

Tower of Hanoi overview

The Tower of Hanoi scheme is based on a mathematical puzzle of the same name. In the puzzle a series of rings are stacked in size order, the largest on the bottom, on one of three pegs. The goal is to move the ring series to the third peg. You are only allowed to move one ring at a time, and are prohibited from placing a larger ring above a smaller ring. The solution is to shift the first ring every other move (moves 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11...), the second ring at intervals of four moves (moves 2, 6, 10...), the third ring at intervals of eight moves (moves 4, 12...), and so on.

For example, if there are five rings labeled A, B, C, D, and E in the puzzle, the solution gives the following order of moves:

The Tower of Hanoi backup scheme is based on the same patterns. It operates with Sessions instead of Moves and with Backup levels instead of Rings. Commonly an N-level scheme pattern contains (Nth power of two) sessions.

So, the five-level Tower of Hanoi backup scheme cycles the pattern that consists of 16 sessions (moves from 1 to 16 in the above figure).

The table shows the pattern for the five-level backup scheme. The pattern consists of 16 sessions.

The Tower of Hanoi backup scheme implies keeping only one backup per level. All the outdated backups have to be deleted. So the scheme allows for efficient data storage: more backups accumulate toward the present time. Having four backups, you can recover data as of today, yesterday, half a week ago, or a week ago. For the five-level scheme you can also recover data backed up two weeks ago. So every additional backup level doubles the maximal roll-back period for your data.

Tower of Hanoi by Acronis

The Tower of Hanoi backup scheme is generally too complex to mentally calculate the next media to be used. But Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides you with automation of the scheme usage. You can set up the backup scheme while creating a backup plan.

Acronis implementation for the scheme has the following features:

• up to 16 backup levels

• incremental backups on first level (A) - to gain time and storage savings for the most frequent

backup operations; but data recovery from such backups takes longer because it generally requires access to three backups

• full backups on the last level (E for five-level pattern) - the rarest backups in the scheme, take

more time and occupy more space in storage

• differential backups on all intermediate levels (B, C and D for five-level pattern)

• the pattern starts with a full backup since the very first backup cannot be incremental

• the scheme forces every backup level to keep only the most recent backup, other backups from

the level have to be deleted; however backup deletion is postponed in cases where the backup is a base for another incremental or differential one

• an old backup on a level is kept until a new backup has been successfully created on the level.

The table shows the pattern for the five-level backup scheme. The pattern consists of 16 sessions.

As a result of using incremental and differential backups the situation may arise when an old backup deletion must be postponed as it still is a base for other backups. The table below indicates the case when deletion of full backup (E) created at session 1 is postponed at session 17 until session 25 because the differential backup (D) created at session 9 is still actual. In the table all cells with deleted backups are grayed out:

Differential backup (D) created at session 9 will be deleted at session 25 after creation of a new differential backup is completed. This way, a backup archive created in accordance with the Tower of Hanoi scheme by Acronis sometimes includes up to two additional backups over the classical implementation of the scheme.

For information about using Tower of Hanoi for tape libraries, see Using the Tower of Hanoi tape rotation scheme.

2.7. Retention rules

The backups produced by a backup plan make an archive. The two retention rules described in this section enable you to limit the archive size and set the lifetime (retention period) of the backups.

1. Delete backups older than

This is a time interval counted back from the moment when the retention rules are applied. Every time a retention rule is applied, the program calculates the date and time in the past corresponding to this interval and deletes all backups created before that moment. None of the backups created after this moment will be deleted.

2. Keep the archive size within

This is the maximum size of the archive. Every time a retention rule is applied, the program compares the actual archive size with the value you set and deletes the oldest backups to keep the archive size within this value. The diagram below shows the archive content before and after the deletion.

There is a certain risk that all but one backup will be deleted if the maximum archive size is set improperly (too small) or a regular backup turns out to be too large. To protect the recent backups from deletion, select the Never delete backups younger than check box and specify the maximum age of backups that must be retained. The diagram below illustrates the resulting rule.

Combination of rules 1 and 2

You can limit both the backups’ lifetime and the archive size. The diagram below illustrates the resulting rule.

Example

Delete backups older than = 3 Months

Keep the archive size within = 200GB

Never delete backups younger than = 10 Days

• Every time the retention rules are applied, the program will delete all backups created more than

3 months (or more exactly, 90 days) ago.

• If after the deletion the archive size is more than 200GB, and the oldest backup is older than 10

days, the program will delete that backup.

• Then, if necessary, the next old backup will be deleted, until the archive size decreases to the

preset limit or the oldest backup age reaches 10 days.

Deleting backups with dependencies

Both retention rules presume deleting some backups while retaining the others. What if the archive contains incremental and differential backups that depend on each other and on the full backups they are based on? You cannot, say, delete an outdated full backup and keep its incremental “children”.

When deletion of a backup affects other backups, one of the following rules is applied:

• Retain the backup until all dependent backups become subject to deletion

The outdated backup will be kept until all backups that depend on it also become outdated. Then all the chain will be deleted at once during the regular cleanup. This mode helps to avoid the potentially time-consuming consolidation but requires extra space for storing backups whose deletion is postponed. The archive size and/or the backup age can exceed the values you specify.

• Consolidate the backup

The program will consolidate the backup that is subject to deletion with the next dependent backup. For example, the retention rules require to delete a full backup but retain the next incremental one. The backups will be combined into a single full backup which will be dated the incremental backup date. When an incremental or differential backup from the middle of the chain is deleted, the resulting backup type will be incremental.

This mode ensures that after each cleanup the archive size and the backups’ age are within the bounds you specify. The consolidation, however, may take a lot of time and system resources. And you still need some extra space in the vault for temporary files created during consolidation.

What you need to know about consolidation

Please be aware that consolidation is just a method of deletion but not an alternative to deletion. The resulting backup will not contain data that was present in the deleted backup and was absent from the retained incremental or differential backup.

Backups resulting from consolidation always have maximum compression. This means that all backups in an archive may acquire the maximum compression as a result of repeated cleanup with consolidation.

Best practices

Maintain the balance between the storage device capacity, the restrictive parameters you set and the cleanup frequency. The retention rules logic assumes that the storage device capacity is much more than the average backup size and the maximum archive size does not come close to the physical storage capacity, but leaves a reasonable reserve. Due to this, exceeding the archive size that may occur between the cleanup task runs will not be critical for the business process. The rarer the cleanup runs, the more space you need to store backups that outlive their lifetime.

The Vaults (p. 80) page provides you with information about free space available in each vault. Check this page from time to time. If the free space (which in fact is the storage device free space) approaches zero, you might need to toughen the restrictions for some or all archives residing in this vault.

2.8. Backing up dynamic volumes (Windows)

This section explains in brief how to back up and recover dynamic volumes (p. 214) using Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. Basic disks that use the GUID Partition Table (GPT) are also discussed.

Dynamic volume is a volume located on dynamic disks (p. 213), or more exactly, on a disk group (p.

212). Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 supports the following dynamic volume types/RAID levels:

• simple/spanned

• striped (RAID 0)

• mirrored (RAID 1)

• a mirror of stripes (RAID 0+1)

• RAID 5.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 can back up and recover dynamic volumes and, with minor limitations, basic GPT volumes.

Backing up dynamic volumes

Dynamic and basic GPT volumes are backed up in the same way as basic MBR volumes. When creating a backup plan through the GUI, all types of volumes are available for selection as Items to

back up. When using the command line, specify the dynamic and GPT volumes with the DYN prefix.

Command line examples

trueimagecmd /create /partition:DYN1,DYN2 /asz

This will back up DYN1 and DYN2 volumes to the Acronis Secure Zone.

trueimagecmd /create /harddisk:DYN /asz

This will back up all dynamic volumes in the system to the Acronis Secure Zone.

The boot code on basic GPT volumes is not backed up or recovered.

Recovering dynamic volumes

A dynamic volume can be recovered

• over any type of existing volume

• to unallocated space of a disk group

• to unallocated space of a basic disk.

Recovery over an existing volume

When a dynamic volume is recovered over an existing volume, either basic or dynamic, the target volume’s data is overwritten with the backup content. The type of target volume (basic, simple/spanned, striped, mirrored, RAID 0+1, RAID 5) will not change. The target volume size has to be enough to accommodate the backup content.

Recovery to disk group unallocated space

When a dynamic volume is recovered to disk group unallocated space, both the type and the content of the resulting volume are recovered. The unallocated space size has to be enough to accommodate the backup content. The way unallocated space is distributed among the disks is also important.

Example

Striped volumes consume equal portions of space on each disk.

Assume you are going to recover a 30GB striped volume to a disk group consisting of two disks. Each disk has volumes and a certain amount of unallocated space. The total size of unallocated space is 40GB. The recovery will always result in a striped volume if the unallocated space is distributed evenly among the disks (20GB and 20GB).

If one of the disks has 10GB and the other has 30GB of unallocated space, then the recovery result depends on the size of the data being recovered.

o If the data size is less than 20GB, then one disk can hold, say, 10GB; the other will hold the

remaining 10GB. This way, a striped volume will be created on both disks and 20GB on the second disk will remain unallocated.

o If the data size is more than 20GB, the data cannot be distributed evenly between the two

disks, but can fit into a single simple volume. A simple volume accommodating all the data will be created on the second disk. The first disk will remain untouched.

Recovered to: Dynamic volume Basic MBR volume Basic GPT volume

Backed up (source):

Dynamic volume

Unallocated space (disk group)

Basic MBR volume

Basic GPT volume

Unallocated space (basic MBR disk)

Unallocated space (basic GPT disk)

Dynamic volume

Type as of the

target

Dynamic volume

Type as of the

source

Basic MBR volume Basic MBR volume Basic MBR volume

Basic GPT volume Basic GPT volume Basic GPT volume

Basic MBR volume Basic MBR volume Basic MBR volume

Basic GPT volume Basic GPT volume Basic GPT volume

Dynamic volume

Type as of the

target

Dynamic volume

Simple

Dynamic volume

Type as of the

target

N/A

Moving and resizing volumes during recovery

You can resize the resulting basic volume, both MBR and GPT, during recovery, or change the volume's location on the disk. A resulting dynamic volume cannot be moved or resized.

Preparing disk groups and volumes

Before recovering dynamic volumes to bare metal you should create a disk group on the target hardware.

You also might need to create or increase unallocated space on an existing disk group. This can be done by deleting volumes or converting basic disks to dynamic.

You might want to change the target volume type (basic, simple/spanned, striped, mirrored, RAID 0+1, RAID 5). This can be done by deleting the target volume and creating a new volume on the resulting unallocated space.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 includes a handy disk management utility which enables you to perform the above operations both under the operating system and on bare metal. To find out more about Acronis Disk Director Lite, see the Disk management (p. 190) section.

2.9. Tape support

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 supports tape libraries, autoloaders, SCSI and USB tape drives as storage devices. A tape device can be locally attached to a managed machine (in this case, the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent writes and reads the tapes) or accessed through the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node. Storage nodes ensure fully automatic operation of tape libraries and autoloaders.

Backup archives created using different ways of access to tape have different formats. A tape written by a storage node cannot be read by an agent.

Linux-based and PE-based bootable media allow for backup and recovery using both local access and access through the storage node. Backups created using the bootable media can be recovered with the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent running in the operating system.

2.9.1. Tape compatibility table

The following table summarizes the readability of tapes written by Acronis True Image Echo and Acronis True Image 9.1 product families in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. The table also illustrates the compatibility of tapes written by various components of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.

Tape written

on a locally

attached tape

device (tape

drive or tape

library) by...

Bootable Media ATIE 9.1 + + + +

ATIE 9.5 + + + +

ATIE 9.7 + + + +

ABR10 + + + +

Agent for Windows

Agent for Linux ATIE 9.1 + + + +

ATIE 9.1 + + + +

ATIE 9.5 - - - +

ATIE 9.7 - - - +

ABR10 + + + +

...is readable on a tape device attached to a

machine with...

ABR10

Bootable

Media

ABR10 Agent for Windows

ABR10

Agent for

Linux

ABR10

Storage

Node

ATIE 9.5 + + + +

ATIE 9.7 + + + +

ABR10 + + + +

Tape written

on a tape

device

through...

Backup Server ATIE 9.1 + + + +

ATIE 9.5 - - - +

ATIE 9.7 - - - +

Storage Node ABR10 - - - +

2.9.2. Using a single tape drive

A tape drive that is locally attached to a managed machine can be used by local backup plans as a storage device. The functionality of a locally attached autoloader or tape library is limited to the ordinary tape drive. This means that the program can only work with the currently mounted tape and you have to mount tapes manually.

Backup to a locally attached tape device

When creating a backup plan, you are able to select the locally attached tape device as the backup destination. An archive name is not needed when backing up to a tape.

An archive can span multiple tapes but can contain only one full backup and an unlimited number of incremental backups. Every time you create a full backup, you start with a new tape and create a new archive. As soon as the tape is full, a dialog window with a request to insert a new tape will appear.

The content of a non-empty tape will be overwritten on prompt. You have an option to disable prompts, see Additional settings (p. 68).

Workaround

In case you want to keep more than one archive on the tape, for example, back up volume C and volume D separately, choose incremental backup mode instead of a full backup when you create an initial backup of the second volume. In other situations, incremental backup is used for appending changes to the previously created archive.

You might experience short pauses that are required to rewind the tape. Low-quality or old tape, as well as dirt on the magnetic head, might lead to pauses that can last up to several minutes.

Limitations

1. Multiple full backups within one archive are not supported.

2. Individual files cannot be recovered from a disk backup.

3. Backups cannot be deleted from a tape either manually or automatically during cleanup.

Retention rules and backup schemes that use automatic cleanup (GFS, Tower of Hanoi) are disabled in the GUI when backing up to a locally attached tape.

4. Personal vaults cannot be created on tape devices.

5. Because the presence of an operating system cannot be detected in a backup located on a tape,

Acronis Universal Restore (p. 219) is proposed at every disk or volume recovery, even when recovering a Linux or non-system Windows volume.

6. Acronis Active Restore (p. 206) is not available when recovering from a tape.

Recovery from a locally attached tape device

Before creating a recovery task, insert or mount the tape containing the backup you need to recover. When creating a recovery task, select the tape device from the list of available locations and then select the backup. After recovery is started, you will be prompted for other tapes if the tapes are needed for recovery.

2.10. Proprietary Acronis technologies

This section describes the proprietary technologies inherited by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 from Acronis True Image Echo and Acronis True Image 9.1 product families.

2.10.1. Acronis Secure Zone

Acronis Secure Zone is a secure partition that enables keeping backup archives on a managed machine disk space and therefore recovery of a disk to the same disk where the backup resides.

Certain Windows applications, such as Acronis disk management tools, can access the zone.

Should the disk experience a physical failure, the zone and the archives located there will be lost. That's why Acronis Secure Zone should not be the only location where a backup is stored. In enterprise environments, Acronis Secure Zone can be thought of as an intermediate location used for backup when an ordinary location is temporarily unavailable or connected through a slow or busy channel.

Advantages

Acronis Secure Zone:

• Enables recovery of a disk to the same disk where the disk's backup resides.

• Offers a cost-effective and handy method for protecting data from software malfunction, virus

attack, operator error.

• Being an internal archive storage, eliminates the need for a separate media or network

connection to back up or recover the data. This is especially useful for mobile users.

• Can serve as a primary destination when using dual destination (p. 66) backup.

Limitation

The zone cannot be organized on a dynamic disk or a disk using the GPT partitioning style.

Managing the Acronis Secure Zone

Acronis Secure Zone is considered as a personal vault (p. 219). Once created on a managed machine, the zone is always present in the list of Personal vaults. Centralized backup plans (p. 210) can use Acronis Secure Zone as well as local plans (p. 215).

If you have used Acronis Secure Zone before, please note a radical change in the zone functionality. The zone does not perform automatic cleanup, that is, deleting old archives, anymore. Use backup schemes with automatic cleanup to back up to the zone, or delete outdated backups manually using the archive management functionality.

With the new Acronis Secure Zone behavior, you obtain the ability to:

• list archives located in the zone and backups contained in each archive

• examine a backup's content

• mount a disk backup to copy files from the backup to a physical disk

• safely delete archives and backups from the archives.

For more information about operations available in Acronis Secure Zone, see the Personal vaults (p.

81) section.

Upgrade from Acronis True Image Echo

When upgrading from Acronis True Image Echo to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, Acronis Secure Zone will keep the archives created with Echo. The zone will appear in the list of personal vaults and the old archives will be available for recovery.

2.10.2. Acronis Startup Reco very Manager

A modification of the bootable agent (p. 209) can be placed on a system disk and configured to start at boot time when F11 is pressed. This eliminates the need for rescue media or network connection to start the bootable rescue utility. This feature has the trade name "Acronis Startup Recovery Manager".

Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is especially useful for mobile users. If a failure occurs, the user reboots the machine, hits F11 on prompt "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager…" and performs data recovery in the same way as with ordinary bootable media. The user can also back up using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, while on the move.

On machines with the GRUB boot loader installed, the user selects the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager from the boot menu instead of pressing F11.

Activation and deactivation of the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

The operation that enables using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is called "activation". To activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, select Actions > Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager from the program menu.

You can activate or deactivate the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager at any time from the Tools menu. The deactivation will disable the boot time prompt "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager…" (or removes the corresponding entry from GRUB's boot menu). This means you will need bootable media in case the system fails to boot.

Limitation

Acronis Startup Recovery Manager requires re-activation of third-party loaders after activation.

Upgrade from Acronis True Image Echo

After upgrade from Acronis True Image Echo to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, Acronis Startup Recovery Manager appears as deactivated regardless of its status before the upgrade. You can activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager again at any time.

2.10.3. Universal Restore (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore)

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore is the Acronis proprietary technology that helps recover and boot up Windows on dissimilar hardware or a virtual machine. The Universal Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for the operating system start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore purpose

A system can be easily recovered from a disk backup (image) onto the same system or to identical hardware. However, if you change a motherboard or use another processor version—a likely possibility in case of hardware failure—the recovered system could be unbootable. An attempt to transfer the system to a new, much more powerful computer will usually produce the same unbootable result because the new hardware is incompatible with the most critical drivers included in the image.

Using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) does not solve this problem, because Sysprep permits installing drivers only for Plug and Play devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.). As for system Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers, they must be identical on the source and the target computers (see Microsoft Knowledge Base, articles 302577 and

216915).

The Universal Restore technology provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent system recovery by replacing the crucial Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers.

Universal Restore is applicable for:

1. Instant recovery of a failed system on different hardware.

2. Hardware-independent cloning and deployment of operating systems.

3. Physical-to-physical, physical-to-virtual and virtual-to-physical machine migration.

The Universal Restore principles

1. Automatic HAL and mass storage driver selection.

Universal Restore searches for drivers in the network folders you specify, on removable media and in the default driver storage folders of the system being recovered. Universal Restore analyzes the compatibility level of all found drivers and installs HAL and mass storage drivers that better fit the target hardware. Drivers for network adapters are also searched and passed to the operating system which installs them automatically when first started.

The Windows default driver storage folder is determined in the registry value DevicePath, which can be found in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion. This storage folder is usually WINDOWS/inf.

2. Manual selection of the mass storage device driver.

If the target hardware has a specific mass storage controller (such as a SCSI, RAID, or Fibre Channel adapter) for the hard disk, you can install the appropriate driver manually, bypassing the automatic driver search-and-install procedure.

3. Installing drivers for Plug and Play devices.

Universal Restore relies on the built-in Plug and Play discovery and configuration process to handle hardware differences in devices that are not critical for the system start, such as video, audio and USB. Windows takes control over this process during the logon phase, and if some of the new hardware is not detected, you will have a chance to install drivers for it later manually.

Universal Restore and Microsoft Sysprep

Universal Restore is not a system preparation tool. You can apply it to any Windows image created by Acronis products, including images of systems prepared with Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep). The following is an example of using both tools on the same system.

Universal Restore does not strip the security identifier (SID) and user profile settings in order to run the system immediately after recovery without re-joining the domain or re-mapping network user profiles. If you are going to change the above settings on a recovered system, you can prepare the system with Sysprep, image it and recover, if need be, using the Universal Restore.

Limitations

Universal Restore is not available:

• when a computer is booted with Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (using F11) or

• the backup image is located in the Acronis Secure Zone or

• when using Acronis Active Restore,

because these features are primarily meant for instant data recovery on the same machine.

Universal Restore is not available when recovering Linux.

Getting Universal Restore

Universal Restore comes free with Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server SBS Edition and Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server Virtual Edition.

Universal Restore for the other product editions is purchased separately, has its own license, and is installed as a separate feature from the setup file. You need to re-create bootable media to make the newly installed add-on operational in the bootable environment.

2.10.4. Acronis Active Restore

Active Restore is the Acronis proprietary technology that brings a system online immediately after the system recovery is started.

Customers familiar with Acronis Recovery for Microsoft Exchange can note that this product uses Active Restore to achieve immediate availability of an Exchange information store after starting the recovery. While based on the same technology, recovery of the Information Store proceeds in quite a different way than the operating system recovery described in this section.

Supported operating systems

Acronis Active Restore is available when recovering Windows starting from Windows 2000.

Limitation

The only supported archive location is a local drive, or more precisely, any device available through the machine’s BIOS. This may be Acronis Secure Zone, a USB hard drive, a flash drive or any internal hard drive.

How it works

When configuring a recovery operation, you select disks or volumes to recover from a backup. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 scans the selected disks or volumes in the backup. If this scan finds a supported operating system, the Acronis Active Restore option becomes available.

If you do not enable the option, the system recovery will proceed in the usual way and the machine will become operational after the recovery is completed.

If you enable the option, the sequence of actions will be set as follows.

Once the system recovery is started, the operating system boots from the backup. The machine becomes operational and ready to provide necessary services. The data required to serve incoming requests is recovered with the highest priority; everything else is recovered in the background.

Because serving requests is performed simultaneously with recovery, the system operation can slow down even if recovery priority in the recovery options is set to Low. This way, the system downtime is reduced to a minimum at the cost of a temporary performance downgrade.

Usage scenarios

1. The system uptime is one of the efficiency criteria.

Examples: Client-oriented online services, Web-retailers, polling stations.

2. The system/storage space ratio is heavily biased toward storage.

Some machines are being used as storage facilities, where the operating system claims a small space segment and all other disk space is committed to storage, such as movies, sounds or other multimedia files. Some of these storage volumes can be extremely large as compared to the system and so practically all the recovery time will be dedicated to recovering the files, which might be used much later on, if in any near future at all.

If you opt for Acronis Active Restore, the system will be operational in a short time. Users will be able to open the necessary files from the storage and use them while the rest of the files, which are not immediately necessary, are being recovered in the background.

Examples: movie collection storage, music collection storage, multimedia storage.

How to use

1. Back up the system disk or volume to a location accessible through the system’s BIOS. This may

be Acronis Secure Zone, a USB hard drive, a flash drive or any internal hard drive.

If your operating system and its loader reside on different volumes, always include both volumes in the backup. The volumes must also be recovered together; otherwise there is a high risk that the operating system will not start.

2. Create bootable media.

3. If a system failure occurs, boot the machine using the bootable media. Start the console and

connect to the bootable agent.

4. Configure the system recovery: select the system disk or volume and select the Use Acronis

Active Restore check box.

Acronis Active Restore will choose for the boot-up and subsequent recovery the first operating system found during the backup scan. Do not try to recover more than one operating system using Active Restore if you want the result to be predictable. When recovering a multi-boot system, choose only one system volume and boot volume at a time.

5. Once the system recovery is started, the operating system boots from the backup. The Acronis

Active Restore icon appears in the system tray. The machine becomes operational and ready to provide necessary services. The immediate user sees the drive tree and icons and can open files or launch applications even though they were not yet recovered.

The Acronis Active Restore drivers intercept system queries and set the immediate priority for recovery of the files that are necessary to serve the incoming requests. While this on-the-fly recovery proceeds, the continuing recovery process is transferred to the background.

If you try to log off, shut down or hibernate the machine using the Start Menu commands, the end of the current session will be automatically postponed until the recovery is completed. Should you decide to switch off the machine with the Power button though, all the changes made to the system since the last boot up would be lost, the system will not be recovered, not even partially, and the only possible solution in this case will be to start the recovery process anew, from a bootable media.

6. The background recovery continues until all the selected volumes are recovered, the log entry is

made and the Acronis Active Restore icon disappears from the system tray.

3. Options

This section covers Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 options that can be configured using Graphical User Interface. The content of this section is applicable to both stand-alone and advanced editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.

3.1. Console options

The console options define the way information is represented in the Graphical User Interface of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.

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

3.1.1. Startup page

This option defines whether to show the Welcome screen or the Dashboard upon connection of the console to a managed machine or to the management server.

The preset is: the Welcome screen.

To make a selection, select or clear the check box for Show the Dashboard view upon connection of the console to a machine.

This option can also be set on the Welcome screen. If you select the check box for At startup, show the Dashboard instead of the current view on the Welcome screen, the setting mentioned above will be updated accordingly.

3.1.2. Pop-up messages

About tasks that need interaction

This option is effective when the console is connected to a managed machine or to the management server.

The option defines whether to display the pop-up window when one or more tasks 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 tasks in the same place. Until at least one task requires interaction, you can open this window at any time from the managed machine's Dashboard. Alternatively, you can review the task execution states in the Tasks view and specify you decision on each task in the Information pane.

The preset is: Enabled.

To make a selection, select or clear the Pop up the "Tasks Need Interaction" window check box.

About the task execution results

This option is effective only when the console is connected to a managed machine.

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

The preset is: Enabled for all results.

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

3.1.3. Time-base d alerts

Last backup

This option is effective when the console is connected to a managed machine (p. 215) or to the management server (p. 216).

The option defines whether to alert if no backup was performed on a given machine for a period of time. You can configure the time period that is considered critical for your business.

The preset is: alert if the last successful backup on a machine was completed more than 5 days ago.

The alert is displayed in the Alerts section of the Dashboard. When the console is connected to the management server, this setting will also control the color scheme of the Last backup column's value for each machine.

Last connection

This option is effective when the console is connected to the management server or to a registered machine (p. 217).

The option defines whether to alert if no connection was established between a registered machine and the management server for a period of time so indicating that the machine might not be centrally managed (for instance in the case of network connection failure to that machine). You can configure the length of time that is considered critical.

The preset is: alert if the machine's last connection to the management server was more than 5 days ago.

The alert is displayed in the Alerts section of the Dashboard. When the console is connected to the management server, this setting will also control the color scheme of the Last connect column's value for each machine.

3.1.4. Number of tasks

This option is effective only when the console is connected to the management server.

The option defines how many tasks will be displayed at a time in the Tasks view. You can also use filters available in the Tasks view to limit the number of displayed tasks.

The preset is: 400. The adjustment range is: 20 to 500.

To make a selection, choose the desired value from the Number of tasks drop-down menu.

3.1.5. Fonts

This option is effective when the console is connected to a managed machine or to the management server.

The option defines the fonts to be used in the Graphical User Interface of Acronis Backup & Recovery

10. The Menu setting affects the drop-down and context menus. The Application setting affects the

other GUI elements.

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

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 the button to the right.

3.2. Machine options

The machine options define the general behavior of all Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agents operating on the managed machine, and so the options are considered machine-specific.

To access the machine options, connect the console to the managed machine and then select Options > Machine options from the top menu.

3.2.1. Event tracing

It is possible to duplicate log events generated by the agent(s), operating on the managed machine, in the Application Event Log of Windows; or send the events to the specified SNMP managers. If you do not modify the event tracing options anywhere except for here, your settings will be effective for each local backup plan and each task created on the machine.

You can override the settings set here, exclusively for the events occurred during backup or during recovery (see Default backup and recovery options (p. 49).) In this case, the settings set here will be effective for operations other than backup and recovery, such as archive validation or cleanup.

You can further override the settings set in the default backup and recovery options, when creating a backup plan or a recovery task. The settings you obtain in this case will be plan-specific or taskspecific.

3.2.1.1. Windows event log

This option is effective only in Windows operating systems.

This option is not available when operating under the bootable media.

This option defines whether the agent(s) operating on the managed machine have to log events in the Application Event Log of Windows (to see this log, run eventvwr.exe or select Control Panel > Administrative tools > Event Viewer). You can filter the events to be logged.

You can override the settings set here, exclusively for the events that occur during backup or during recovery, in the Default backup and recovery options (p. 49). In this case, the settings set here will be effective for operations other than backup and recovery, such as archive validation or cleanup.

The preset is: Disabled.

To enable this option, select the Log events check box.

Use the Types of events to log check box to filter the events to be logged in the Application Event Log of Windows:

o All events - all events (information, warnings and errors) o Errors and warnings o Errors only.

To disable this option, clear the Log events check box.

3.2.1.2. SNMP notifications

This option is effective for both Windows and Linux operating systems.

This option is not available when operating under the bootable media.

The option defines whether the agent(s) operating on the managed machine have to send the log events to the specified Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) managers. You can choose the types of events to be sent.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides the following Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) objects to SNMP management applications:

1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.1.0 - string identifying the type of event (Information, Warning, Error)

1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.0 - string containing the text description of the event (it looks identical to

messages published by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 in its log).

The preset is: Disabled.

To set up sending SNMP messages

1. Select the Send messages to SNMP server check box.

2. Specify the appropriate options as follows:

o Types of events to send – choose the types of events: All events, Errors and warnings, or

Errors only.

o Server name/IP – type the name or IP address of the host running the SNMP management

application, the messages will be sent to.

o Community – type the name of the SNMP community to which both the host running SNMP

management application and the sending machine belong. The typical community is "public".

To disable sending SNMP messages, clear the Send messages to SNMP server check box.

The messages are sent over UDP.

The next section contains additional information about Setting up SNMP services on the receiving machine (p. 48).

3.2.1.3. Setting up SNMP services on the receiving machine

Windows

To install the SNMP service on a machine running Windows:

1. Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components.

2. Select Management and Monitoring Tools.

3. Click Details.

4. Select the Simple Network Management Protocol check box.

5. Click OK.

You might be asked for lmmib2.dll that can be found on the installation disc of your operating system.

Linux

To receive SNMP messages on a machine running Linux, the net-snmp (for RHEL and SUSE) or the snmpd (for Debian) package has to be installed.

SNMP can be configured using the snmpconf command. The default configuration files are located in the /etc/snmp directory:

• /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf - configuration file for the Net-SNMP SNMP agent

• /etc/snmp/snmptrapd.conf - configuration file for the Net-SNMP trap daemon.

3.2.2. Log cleanup rules

This option specifies how to clean up the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent log.

This option defines the maximum size of the agent log folder (in Windows XP/2003 Server, %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\LogEvents).

The preset is: Maximum log size: 1 GB. On cleanup, keep 95% of the maximum log size.

When the option is enabled, the program compares the actual log size with the maximum size after every 100 log entries. Once the maximum log size is exceeded, the program deletes the oldest log entries. You can select the amount of log entries to retain. The default 95% setting will keep most of the log. With the minimum 1% setting, the log will be nearly cleared.

This parameter can also be set by using Acronis Administrative Template.

3.3. Default backup and recovery options

3.3.1. Default backup options

Each Acronis agent has its own default backup options. Once an agent is installed, the default options have pre-defined values, which are referred to as presets in the documentation. When creating a backup plan, you can either use a default option, or override the default option with the custom value that will be specific for this plan only.

You can also customize a default option itself by changing its value against the pre-defined one. The new value will be used by default in all backup plans you will create later on this machine.

To view and change the default backup options, connect the console to the managed machine and then select Options > Default backup and recovery options > Default backup options from the top menu.

Availability of the backup options

The set of available backup options depends on:

• The environment the agent operates in (Windows, bootable media)

• The type of the data being backed up (disk, file)

• The backup destination (networked location or local disk)

• The backup scheme (Back up now or using the scheduler)

The following table summarizes the availability of the backup options.

Archive protection (p. 51) (password + encryption)

Source files exclusion (p. 51)

Pre/Post backup commands (p. 52)

Pre/Post data capture commands (p. 54)

Multi-volume snapshot (p.

57)

Agent for Windows Bootable media

(Linux-based or PE-based)

Disk backup File backup Disk backup File backup

+ + + +

+ + PE only PE only

+ + - -

File-level backup snapshot (p. 56)

Use VSS (p. 57)

Compression level (p. 58)

Backup performance:

- + - -

+ + - -

+ + + +

Backup priority (p. 58)

+ + - -

HDD writing speed (p. 59)

Network connection speed (p. 59)

Fast incremental/differential backup (p. 63)

Backup splitting (p. 63)

File-level security (p. 64):

Preserve files’ security settings in archives

In archives, store encrypted files in decrypted state

Media components (p. 64)

Error handling (p. 65):

Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode)

Dest: HDD Dest: HDD Dest: HDD Dest: HDD

Dest:

network

+ - + -

+ + + +

- + - -

Dest:

removable

media

+ + + +

Dest:

network

Dest:

removable

media

Dest:

network

- -

Dest:

network

Re-attempt if an error occurs

Ignore bad sectors

Dual destination (p. 66)

Task start conditions (p. 66)

Task failure handling (p. 67)

Additional settings (p. 68):

Overwrite data on a tape without prompting user for confirmation

Dismount media after backup is finished

Ask for first media while creating backup archives on removable media

+ + + +

Dest: local Dest: local - -

+ + - -

Dest: Tape Dest: Tape Dest: Tape Dest: Tape

Dest:

removable

media

Dest:

removable

media

Dest:

removable

media

Dest:

removable

media

Dest:

removable

media

Dest:

removable

media

Dest:

removable

media

Dest:

removable

media

Validate backup after creation

Reset archive bit

- - + +

- + - +

Reboot after the backup

Notifications:

- - + +

E-mail (p. 60)

Win Pop-up (p. 61)

Event tracing:

Windows events log (p. 61)

SNMP (p. 62)

+ + - -

3.3.1.1. Archive protection

This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.

This option is effective for both disk-level and file-level backup.

The preset is: Disabled.

To protect the archive from unauthorized access

1. Select the Set password for the archive check box.

2. In the Enter the password field, type a password.

3. In the Confirm the password field, re-type the password.

4. Select one of the following:

o Do not encrypt – the archive will be protected with the password only o AES 128 – the archive will be encrypted using the Advanced Standard Encryption (AES)

algorithm with a 128-bit key

o AES 192 – the archive will be encrypted using the AES algorithm with a 192-bit key o AES 256 – the archive will be encrypted using the AES algorithm with a 256-bit key.

5. Click OK.

The AES cryptographic algorithm operates in the Cipher-block chaining (CBC) mode and uses a randomly generated key with a user-defined size of 128, 192 or 256 bits. The larger the key size, the longer it will take for the program to encrypt the archive and the more secure your data will be.

The encryption key is then encrypted with AES-256 using a SHA-256 hash of the password as a key. The password itself is not stored anywhere on the disk or in the backup file; the password hash is used for verification purposes. With this two-level security, the backup data is protected from any unauthorized access, but recovering a lost password is not possible.

3.3.1.2. Source files exclusion

This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.

This option is effective for disk-level backup of NTFS and FAT file systems only. This option is effective for file-level backup of all supported file systems.

The option defines which files and folders to skip during the backup process and thus exclude from the list of backed-up items.

The preset is: Exclude files matching the following criteria: *.tmp, *.~, *.bak.

To specify which files and folders to exclude:

Set up any of the following parameters:

• Exclude all hidden files and folders

Select this check box to skip files and folders with the Hidden attribute. If a folder is Hidden, all of its contents — including files that are not Hidden — will be excluded.

• Exclude all system files and folders

Select this check box to skip files and folders with the System attribute. If a folder is System, all of its contents — including files that are not System — will be excluded.

You can view file or folder attributes in the file/folder properties or by using the attrib command. For more information, refer to the Help and Support Center in Windows.

• Exclude files matching the following criteria

Select this check box to skip files whose names match any of the criteria — called file masks — in the list; use the Add, Edit, Remove and Remove All buttons to create the list of file masks.

You can use one or more wildcard characters * and ? in a file mask:

The asterisk (*) substitutes for zero or more characters in a file name; for example, the file mask Doc*.txt yields files such as Doc.txt and Document.txt

The question mark (?) substitutes for exactly one character in a file name; for example, the file mask Doc?.txt yields files such as Doc1.txt and Docs.txt — but not the files Doc.txt or Doc11.txt

Exclusion examples

Criterion Example Description

By name File1.log Excludes all files named File1.log.

By path C:\Finance\test.log Excludes the file named test.log located in the folder

C:\Finance

Mask (*) *.log Excludes all files with the .log extension.

Mask (?) my???.log Excludes all .log files with names consisting of five symbols

and starting with “my”.

The above settings are not effective for the files or folders that were explicitly selected for backup. For example, assume that you selected the folder MyFolder and the file MyFile.tmp outside that folder, and selected to skip all .tmp files. In this case, all .tmp files in the folder MyFolder will be skipped during the backup process, but the file MyFile.tmp will not be skipped.

3.3.1.3. Pre/Post commands

This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and PE-based bootable media.

The option enables you to define the commands to be automatically executed before and after the backup procedure.

The following scheme illustrates when pre/post commands are executed.

Pre-backup

command

Backup Post-backup

command

Examples of how you can use the pre/post commands:

• delete some temporary files from the disk before starting backup

• configure a third-party antivirus product to be started each time before the backup starts

• copy an archive to another location after the backup ends.

The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause").

To specify pre/post commands

1. Enable pre/post commands execution by checking the following options:

o Execute before the backup o Execute after the backup

2. Do any of the following:

o Click Edit to specify a new command or a batch file o Select the existing command or the batch file from the drop-down list

3. Click OK.

Pre-backup command

To specify a command/batch file to be executed before the backup process starts

1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not support

interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".)

2. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will be

executed.

3. In the Arguments field specify the command’s execution arguments, if required.

4. Depending on the result you want to obtain, select the appropriate options as described in the

table below.

5. Click Test command to check if the command is correct.

Check box Selection

Fail the task if the command execution fails

Do not back up until the command execution is complete

Selected Cleared

Selected Selected

Result

Selected Cleared

Cleared Cleared

Preset

Perform the backup only after the command is

Perform the backup after the command is executed despite

N/A Perform the

backup concurrently with the command

successfully executed. Fail the task if the command execution fails.

execution failure or success.

execution and irrespective of the command execution result.

Post-backup command

To specify a command/executable file to be executed after the backup is completed

1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file.

2. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will be

executed.

3. In the Arguments field, specify the command execution arguments, if required.

4. If successful execution of the command is critical for your backup strategy, select the Fail the task

if the command execution fails check box. In case the command execution fails, the program will remove the resulting TIB file and temporary files if possible, and the task will fail.

When the check box is not selected, the command execution result does not affect the task execution failure or success. You can track the command execution result by exploring the log or the errors and warnings displayed on the Dashboard.

5. Click Test Command to check if the command is correct.

3.3.1.4. Pre/Post data capture commands

This option is effective for both Windows and Linux operating systems.

The option enables you to define the commands to be automatically executed before and after data capture (that is, taking the data snapshot) performed by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 at the beginning of the backup procedure.

The following scheme illustrates when the pre/post data capture commands are executed.

Pre-backup

command

If the Volume Shadow Copy Service (p. 57) option is enabled, the commands' execution and the Microsoft VSS actions will be sequenced as follows:

"Before data capture” commands -> VSS Suspend -> Data capture -> VSS Resume -> "After data capture" commands.

Using the pre/post data capture commands, you can suspend and resume a database or application that is not compatible with VSS. As opposed to the Pre/Post commands (p. 52), the pre/post data capture commands will be executed before and after the data capture process, which takes seconds, while the entire backup procedure may take much longer, depending on the amount of data to be backed up. Therefore, the database or application idle time will be minimal.

<------------------------------ Backup ---------------------------->

Pre-data

capture

command

Data

capture

Post-data

capture

command

Post-backup

command

To specify pre/post data capture commands

1. Enable pre/post data capture commands execution by checking the following options:

o Execute before the data capture o Execute after the data capture

2. Do any of the following:

o Click Edit to specify a new command or a batch file o Select the existing command or the batch file from the drop-down list

3. Click OK.

Pre-data capture command

To specify a command/batch file to be executed before data capture

1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not support

interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".)

2. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will be

executed.

3. In the Arguments field specify the command’s execution arguments, if required.

4. Depending on the result you want to obtain, select the appropriate options as described in the

table below.

5. Click Test command to check if the command is correct.

Check box Selection

Fail the backup task if the command execution fails

Do not perform the data capture until the command execution is complete

Preset

Selected Cleared

Selected Selected

Result

Perform the data capture only after the command is successfully executed. Fail the task if the command execution fails.

Perform the data capture after the command is executed despite execution failure or success.

Post-data capture command

To specify a command/batch file to be executed after data capture

Selected Cleared

Cleared Cleared

N/A Perform the data

capture concurrently with the command and irrespective of the command execution result.

1. In the Command field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not support

interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".)

2. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will be

executed.

3. In the Arguments field specify the command’s execution arguments, if required.

4. Depending on the result you want to obtain, select the appropriate options as described in the

table below.

5. Click Test command to check if the command is correct.

Check box Selection

Fail the task if the command execution fails

Do not back up until the command execution is complete

Preset

Selected Cleared

Selected Selected

Result

Continue the

Continue the backup only after the command is successfully executed. Delete the TIB file and temporary files and fail the task if the command execution fails.

backup after the command is executed despite command execution failure or success.

Selected Cleared

Cleared Cleared

N/A Continue the

backup concurrently with the command execution and irrespective of the command execution result.

3.3.1.5. File-level backup snapshot

This option is effective only for file-level backup in Windows and Linux operating systems.

This option defines whether to back up files one by one or by taking an instant data snapshot.

Note: Files that are stored on network shares are always backed up one by one.

The preset is: Create snapshot if it is possible.

Select one of the following:

• Always create a snapshot

The snapshot enables backing up of all files including files opened for exclusive access. The files will be backed up at the same point in time. Choose this setting only if these factors are critical, that is, backing up files without a snapshot does not make sense. To use a snapshot, the backup plan has to run under the account with the Administrator or Backup Operator privileges. If a snapshot cannot be taken, the backup will fail.

• Create a snapshot if it is possible

Back up files directly if taking a snapshot is not possible.

• Do not create a snapshot

Always back up files directly. Administrator or Backup Operator privileges are not required. Trying to back up files that are opened for exclusive access will result in a read error. Files in the backup may be not time-consistent.

3.3.1.6. Multi-volume snapshot

This option is effective only for Windows operating systems.

This option applies to disk-level backup. This option also applies to file-level backup when the filelevel backup is performed by taking a snapshot. (The File-level backup snapshot (p. 56) option determines whether a snapshot will be taken during file-level backup).

The option determines whether to take snapshots of multiple volumes at the same time or one by one.

The preset is: Enable.

When this option is set to Enable, snapshots of all volumes being backed up will be created simultaneously. Use this option to create a time-consistent backup of data spanned across multiple volumes, for instance for an Oracle database.

When this option is set to Disable, the volumes' snapshots will be taken one after the other. As a result, if the data spans across several volumes, the resulting backup may be not consistent.

3.3.1.7. Volume Shadow Copy Service

This option is effective only for Windows operating systems.

The option defines whether a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) provider—either Acronis VSS or Microsoft VSS—has to notify VSS-aware applications that the backup is about to start. This ensures the consistent state of all data used by the applications, in particular, completion of all database transactions, at the moment of taking the data snapshot by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. Data consistency, in turn, ensures that the application will be recovered in the correct state and become operational immediately after recovery.

The preset is: Create snapshots using VSS

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 will select the VSS provider automatically based on the operating system running on the machine and whether the machine is a member of an Active Directory domain.

Create snapshots without using VSS

Choose this option if your database is incompatible with VSS. The data snapshot will be taken by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. Backup process is fastest, but data consistency of the applications whose transactions are not completed at the time of taking a snapshot cannot be guaranteed. You may use Pre/Post data capture commands (p. 54) to indicate which commands should be performed before and after taking the snapshot, to ensure that the data is being backed up in a consistent state. For instance, specify pre-data capture commands that will suspend the database and flush all caches to ensure that all transactions are completed; and specify post-data capture commands that will resume the database operations after the snapshot is taken.

Volume shadow copy writers

Before backing up the data of VSS-aware applications, make sure that the volume shadow copy writers for those applications are turned on, by examining the list of writers that are present in the operating system. To view this list, run the following command:

vssadmin list writers

Note: In Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003, the writer for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is turned off by default. For instructions on how to turn it on, see the corresponding Microsoft Help and Support article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838183/en.

3.3.1.8. Compression level

This option is effective for Windows and Linux operating systems and bootable media.

The option defines the level of compression applied to the data being backed up.

The preset is: Normal.

The optimal data compression level depends on the type of data being backed up. For example, even maximum compression will not significantly reduce the archive size if the archive contains essentially compressed files, such as .jpg, .pdf or .mp3. However, formats such as .doc or .xls will be compressed well.

To specify the compression level

Select one of the following:

• None – the data will be copied as is, without any compression. The resulting backup size will be

maximal.

• Normal – recommended in most cases.

• High – the resulting backup size will typically be less than for the Normal level.

• Maximum – the data will be compressed as much as possible. The backup duration will be

maximal. You may want to select maximum compression when backing up to removable media to reduce the number of blank disks required.

3.3.1.9. Backup performance

Use this group of options to specify the amount of network and system resources to allocate to the backup process.

Backup performance options might have a more or less noticeable effect on the speed of the backup process. This depends on the overall system configuration and the physical characteristics of devices the backup is being performed from or to.

Backup priority

This option is effective for both Windows and Linux operating systems.

The priority of a process running in a system determines the amount of CPU and system resources allocated to that process. Decreasing the backup priority will free more resources for other applications. Increasing the backup priority might speed up the backup process by requesting the operating system to allocate more resources like the CPU to the backup application. However, the resulting effect will depend on the overall CPU usage and other factors like disk in/out speed or network traffic.

The preset is: Low.

Acronis BACKUP RECOVERY 10 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

1. Introducing Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10

1.2.1. Using the management console

1.2.1.1. "Navigation" pane

1.2.1.2. "Actions and tools" pane

1.2.1.3. Operations with panes

1.2.1.4. Main area, views and action pages

Views

Action pages

1.3.1. Agent for Windows

1.3.1.1. Universal Restore

1.3.2. Bootable components and media builder

1.3.3. Management Console

2. Understanding Acronis Backup & Recovery 10

2.9.1. Tape compatibility table

2.9.2. Using a single tape drive

2.10. Proprietary Acronis technologies

2.10.1. Acronis Secure Zone

2.10.2. Acronis Startup Reco very Manager

2.10.3. Universal Restore (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore)

2.10.4. Acronis Active Restore

3. Options

3.1.1. Startup page

3.1.2. Pop-up messages

3.1.3. Time-base d alerts

3.1.4. Number of tasks

3.1.5. Fonts

3.2.1. Event tracing

3.2.1.1. Windows event log

3.2.1.2. SNMP notifications

3.2.1.3. Setting up SNMP services on the receiving machine

3.2.2. Log cleanup rules

3.3.1. Default backup options

3.3.1.1. Archive protection

3.3.1.2. Source files exclusion

3.3.1.3. Pre/Post commands

Pre-backup command

Post-backup command

3.3.1.4. Pre/Post data capture commands

Pre-data capture command

Post-data capture command

3.3.1.5. File-level backup snapshot

3.3.1.6. Multi-volume snapshot

3.3.1.7. Volume Shadow Copy Service

3.3.1.8. Compression level

3.3.1.9. Backup performance

Backup priority