Acronis Backup Recovery S User Guide

Applies to the following editions:



Advanced Server



Virtual Edition



Advanced Server SBS Edition



Advanced Workstation



Server for Linux



Server for Windows



Workstation

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11

Update 0

User 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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Table of contents

1 Introducing Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 ................................................................................ 8

1.1 What's new in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 ....................................................................... 8

1.2 Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 components .......................................................................... 9

1.2.1 Agent for Windows ................................................................................................................................... 9

1.2.2 Management Console ............................................................................................................................ 10

1.2.3 Bootable Media Builder .......................................................................................................................... 10

1.3 Supported file systems ........................................................................................................ 10

1.4 Technical Support ............................................................................................................... 11

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

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

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

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

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

3 Understanding Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 ......................................................................... 21

3.1 Owners and credentials ...................................................................................................... 21

3.2 User privileges on a managed machine ............................................................................... 22

3.3 Full, incremental and differential backups ........................................................................... 22

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

3.5 Backup and recovery of dynamic volumes (Windows) ......................................................... 25

3.6 Compatibility with encryption software .............................................................................. 26

3.7 Support for SNMP ............................................................................................................... 28

4 Backup ...................................................................................................................................... 29

4.1 Back up now ....................................................................................................................... 29

4.2 Creating a backup plan........................................................................................................ 29

4.2.1 Selecting data to back up ........................................................................................................................ 31

4.2.2 Access credentials for source ................................................................................................................. 32

4.2.3 Source files exclusion .............................................................................................................................. 32

4.2.4 Access credentials for archive location ................................................................................................... 34

4.2.5 Backup schemes ..................................................................................................................................... 34

4.2.6 Backup location selection ....................................................................................................................... 44

4.2.7 Archive validation ................................................................................................................................... 46

4.2.8 Backup plan's credentials ....................................................................................................................... 46

4.2.9 Label (Preserving machine properties in a backup) ................................................................................ 47

4.2.10 Why is the program asking for the password? ....................................................................................... 48

4.3 Simplified naming of backup files ........................................................................................ 48

4.3.1 Usage examples ...................................................................................................................................... 49

4.3.2 The [DATE] variable ................................................................................................................................ 52

4.3.3 Backup splitting and simplified file naming ............................................................................................ 52

4.4 Scheduling .......................................................................................................................... 53

4.4.1 Daily schedule ......................................................................................................................................... 54

4.4.2 Weekly schedule ..................................................................................................................................... 56

4.4.3 Monthly schedule ................................................................................................................................... 58

4.4.4 At Windows Event Log event .................................................................................................................. 60

4.4.5 Upon an Acronis Drive Monitor alert ..................................................................................................... 62

4.4.6 Conditions ............................................................................................................................................... 63

4.5 Replication and retention of backups .................................................................................. 66

4.5.1 Supported locations ................................................................................................................................ 67

4.5.2 Setting up replication of backups ........................................................................................................... 68

4.5.3 Setting up retention of backups ............................................................................................................. 68

4.5.4 Retention rules for the Custom scheme ................................................................................................. 69

4.5.5 Replication/cleanup inactivity time ........................................................................................................ 70

4.5.6 Usage examples ...................................................................................................................................... 71

4.6 Setting up regular conversion to a virtual machine .............................................................. 72

4.6.1 Setting up a conversion schedule ........................................................................................................... 73

4.6.2 Selecting a machine that will perform conversion ................................................................................. 73

4.6.3 How regular conversion to VM works .................................................................................................... 74

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.7.8 Error handling ......................................................................................................................................... 83

4.7.9 Event tracing ........................................................................................................................................... 84

4.7.10 Fast incremental/differential backup ..................................................................................................... 85

4.7.11 File-level backup snapshot...................................................................................................................... 85

4.7.12 File-level security .................................................................................................................................... 86

4.7.13 Media components................................................................................................................................. 86

4.7.14 Mount points .......................................................................................................................................... 87

4.7.15 Multi-volume snapshot .......................................................................................................................... 88

4.7.16 Notifications............................................................................................................................................ 88

4.7.17 Pre/Post commands ............................................................................................................................... 90

4.7.18 Pre/Post data capture commands .......................................................................................................... 91

4.7.19 Replication/cleanup inactivity time ........................................................................................................ 93

4.7.20 Sector-by-sector backup ......................................................................................................................... 93

4.7.21 Task failure handling ............................................................................................................................... 94

4.7.22 Task start conditions ............................................................................................................................... 94

4.7.23 Volume Shadow Copy Service ................................................................................................................ 95

5 Recovery ................................................................................................................................... 97

5.1 Creating a recovery task ...................................................................................................... 97

5.1.1 What to recover ...................................................................................................................................... 99

5.1.2 Access credentials for location ............................................................................................................. 102

5.1.3 Access credentials for destination ........................................................................................................ 103

5.1.4 Where to recover.................................................................................................................................. 103

5.1.5 When to recover ................................................................................................................................... 110

5.1.6 Task credentials .................................................................................................................................... 111

5.2 Acronis Universal Restore ................................................................................................. 111

5.2.1 Getting Universal Restore ..................................................................................................................... 111

5.2.2 Using Universal Restore ........................................................................................................................ 112

5.3 Recovering BIOS-based systems to UEFI-based and vice versa........................................... 114

5.3.1 Recovering volumes.............................................................................................................................. 114

5.3.2 Recovering disks ................................................................................................................................... 116

5.4 Acronis Active Restore ...................................................................................................... 118

5.5 How to convert a disk backup to a virtual machine ........................................................... 120

5.5.1 Virtual machine type / virtualization server selection .......................................................................... 122

5.5.2 Virtual machine settings ....................................................................................................................... 122

5.6 Bootability troubleshooting .............................................................................................. 123

5.6.1 How to reactivate GRUB and change its configuration ........................................................................ 124

5.6.2 About Windows loaders ....................................................................................................................... 126

5.7 Default recovery options ................................................................................................... 126

5.7.1 Additional settings ................................................................................................................................ 128

5.7.2 Error handling ....................................................................................................................................... 129

5.7.3 Event tracing ......................................................................................................................................... 129

5.7.4 File-level security .................................................................................................................................. 130

5.7.5 Mount points ........................................................................................................................................ 130

5.7.6 Notifications.......................................................................................................................................... 131

5.7.7 Pre/Post commands ............................................................................................................................. 132

5.7.8 Recovery priority .................................................................................................................................. 134

6 Storing the backed up data..................................................................................................... 135

6.1 Vaults ............................................................................................................................... 135

6.1.1 Working with vaults .............................................................................................................................. 136

6.1.2 Personal vaults ...................................................................................................................................... 136

6.2 Acronis Secure Zone ......................................................................................................... 139

6.2.1 Creating Acronis Secure Zone ............................................................................................................... 139

6.2.2 Managing Acronis Secure Zone ............................................................................................................ 141

7 Operations with archives and backups ................................................................................... 143

7.1 Validating archives and backups........................................................................................ 143

7.1.1 Archive selection................................................................................................................................... 144

7.1.2 Backup selection ................................................................................................................................... 144

7.1.3 Vault selection ...................................................................................................................................... 144

7.1.4 Access credentials for source ............................................................................................................... 145

7.1.5 When to validate .................................................................................................................................. 145

7.1.6 Task credentials .................................................................................................................................... 146

7.2 Exporting archives and backups ........................................................................................ 146

7.2.1 Archive selection................................................................................................................................... 149

7.2.2 Backup selection ................................................................................................................................... 149

7.2.3 Access credentials for source ............................................................................................................... 149

7.2.4 Destination selection ............................................................................................................................ 150

7.2.5 Access credentials for destination ........................................................................................................ 151

7.3 Mounting an image ........................................................................................................... 151

7.3.1 Archive selection................................................................................................................................... 152

7.3.2 Backup selection ................................................................................................................................... 153

7.3.3 Access credentials ................................................................................................................................. 154

7.3.4 Volume selection .................................................................................................................................. 154

7.3.5 Managing mounted images .................................................................................................................. 154

7.4 Operations available in vaults ........................................................................................... 155

7.4.1 Operations with archives ...................................................................................................................... 155

7.4.2 Operations with backups ...................................................................................................................... 156

7.4.3 Converting a backup to full ................................................................................................................... 157

7.4.4 Deleting archives and backups ............................................................................................................. 157

8 Bootable media ...................................................................................................................... 159

8.1 How to create bootable media .......................................................................................... 160

8.1.1 Linux-based bootable media ................................................................................................................ 161

8.1.2 Adding the Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 1.x .............................................................................................. 165

8.1.3 Adding the Acronis Plug-in to WinPE 2.x or 3.0 .................................................................................... 166

8.1.4 Building Bart PE with Acronis Plug-in from Windows distribution ....................................................... 167

8.2 Connecting to a machine booted from media ................................................................... 167

8.3 Working under bootable media ........................................................................................ 168

8.3.1 Setting up a display mode..................................................................................................................... 168

8.3.2 Configuring iSCSI and NDAS devices ..................................................................................................... 169

8.4 List of commands and utilities available in Linux-based bootable media ............................ 169

8.5 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager ................................................................................... 171

9 Disk management................................................................................................................... 172

9.1 Supported file systems ...................................................................................................... 172

9.2 Basic precautions .............................................................................................................. 172

9.3 Running Acronis Disk Director Lite .................................................................................... 173

9.4 Choosing the operating system for disk management ....................................................... 173

9.5 "Disk management" view .................................................................................................. 173

9.6 Disk operations ................................................................................................................. 174

9.6.1 Disk initialization ................................................................................................................................... 174

9.6.2 Basic disk cloning .................................................................................................................................. 175

9.6.3 Disk conversion: MBR to GPT ............................................................................................................... 177

9.6.4 Disk conversion: GPT to MBR ............................................................................................................... 178

9.6.5 Disk conversion: basic to dynamic ........................................................................................................ 178

9.6.6 Disk conversion: dynamic to basic ........................................................................................................ 179

9.6.7 Changing disk status ............................................................................................................................. 180

9.7 Volume operations ........................................................................................................... 180

9.7.1 Creating a volume ................................................................................................................................. 180

9.7.2 Delete volume ...................................................................................................................................... 184

9.7.3 Set active volume.................................................................................................................................. 185

9.7.4 Change volume letter ........................................................................................................................... 185

9.7.5 Change volume label ............................................................................................................................ 186

9.7.6 Format volume ..................................................................................................................................... 186

9.8 Pending operations ........................................................................................................... 187

10 Administering a managed machine ........................................................................................ 188

10.1 Backup plans and tasks ..................................................................................................... 188

10.1.1 Actions on backup plans and tasks ....................................................................................................... 188

10.1.2 States and statuses of backup plans and tasks ..................................................................................... 190

10.1.3 Export and import of backup plans ...................................................................................................... 193

10.1.4 Deploying backup plans as files ............................................................................................................ 196

10.1.5 Backup plan details ............................................................................................................................... 197

10.1.6 Task/activity details .............................................................................................................................. 198

10.2 Log.................................................................................................................................... 199

10.2.1 Actions on log entries ........................................................................................................................... 199

10.2.2 Log entry details ................................................................................................................................... 200

10.3 Alerts ................................................................................................................................ 200

10.4 Collecting system information........................................................................................... 201

10.5 Adjusting machine options ................................................................................................ 201

10.5.1 Customer Experience Program ............................................................................................................. 202

10.5.2 Alerts ..................................................................................................................................................... 202

10.5.3 E-mail notifications ............................................................................................................................... 203

10.5.4 Event tracing ......................................................................................................................................... 204

10.5.5 Log cleanup rules .................................................................................................................................. 206

10.5.6 Online backup proxy ............................................................................................................................. 206

11 Online backup ........................................................................................................................ 208

11.1 Introduction to Acronis Backup & Recovery Online ........................................................... 208

11.1.1 What is Acronis Backup & Recovery Online?........................................................................................ 208

11.1.2 What data can I back up and recover? ................................................................................................. 208

11.1.3 How long will my backups be kept in the online storage? ................................................................... 209

11.1.4 How to secure my data? ....................................................................................................................... 209

11.1.5 Backup and recovery FAQ..................................................................................................................... 209

11.1.6 Initial Seeding FAQ ................................................................................................................................ 210

11.1.7 Large Scale Recovery FAQ..................................................................................................................... 215

11.1.8 Subscription lifecycle FAQ .................................................................................................................... 217

11.2 Where do I start? .............................................................................................................. 220

11.3 Choosing a subscription .................................................................................................... 220

11.4 Activating online backup subscriptions ............................................................................. 221

11.4.1 Activating subscriptions ........................................................................................................................ 221

11.4.2 Activating subscriptions ........................................................................................................................ 222

11.4.3 Reassigning an activated subscription .................................................................................................. 222

11.5 Configuring proxy settings ................................................................................................ 223

11.6 Limitations of the online storage ....................................................................................... 224

11.7 Terminology reference ...................................................................................................... 224

12 Glossary .................................................................................................................................. 227

1 Introducing Acronis Backup & Recovery 11

1.1 What's new in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 builds on the success that Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 has established by bringing enterprise-class capabilities to the small business market at an affordable price in an easy-to-use package.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 continues the trend of expanding the backup and recovery capabilities in physical, virtual and cloud environments. The following is a summary of the product's new features and enhancements.

 Simplified installation

The new installer makes the installation procedure simple and clear.

 Improved usability

The redesigned product's UI lets you perform any operation easier, faster and more intuitively.

 Advanced replication and retention of backups (p. 66)

Store a backup in multiple locations (possibly off-site) for redundancy. Move or copy backups to a cheaper or off-site storage automatically. Set a replication time window if you do not want copying or moving to occur during business hours.

 Data view for vaults (p. 99)

Select data from a vault by browsing either the archives and backups (in the Archive view) or the backed up data (in the Data view).

 Alert notifications (p. 200)

A new alert system has been introduced for both local and centralized management. Select the alerts you want to observe. Set up e-mail notifications about various types of alerts.

 UEFI/GPT support (p. 114)

Full support for UEFI-based systems and GPT disks. Recovery of BIOS-based systems to UEFI-based systems and vice versa.

 4-KB drives support (p. 108)

When recovering disks or volumes, the software automatically eliminates volume misalignment – a situation that occurs when volume clusters are not aligned with disk sectors.

 Partition (volume) alignment (p. 108)

Solid State Drives (SSD) require a specific partition alignment for optimal performance. The required alignment is set automatically during recovery, but you can change it manually if required.

 Automatic disk/volume mapping (p. 105)

When recovering disks or volumes, the software automatically maps the selected disk/volumes to the target disks in the optimal manner.

 Hardware snapshot provider support (p. 95)

The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) can use hardware-based providers for taking snapshots.

 Applying Acronis Universal Restore without recovery (p. 112)

Using bootable media, you can apply Acronis Universal Restore to an operating system without performing the recovery.

 Exporting and importing backup plans (p. 193)

Export a backup plan to an .xml file and import it to a different machine.

 Deploying backup plans as files (p. 196)

Export a backup plan from one machine and deploy it as an .xml file to multiple machines.

 Disaster Recovery Plan (p. 82)

The software can generate a disaster recovery plan and send it via e-mail right after a backup creation. The plan contains step-by-step instructions on how to recover.

 Converting a backup to full (p. 157)

Convert an incremental or differential backup to a full one.

 New command line

Provides backup and recovery automation. Includes remote management.

 Automatic check for updates

The management console automatically checks for updates upon each start and provides notification once the newer version is available.

1.2 Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 components

This section contains a list of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 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 11. 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.

Console

The console provides Graphical User Interface to the agents. Usage of the console is not licensed. In stand-alone editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11, the console is installed together with the agent and cannot be disconnected from it.

Bootable Media Builder

With Bootable Media Builder, you can create bootable media in order to use the agents and other rescue utilities in a rescue environment. In stand-alone editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11, Bootable Media Builder is installed together with the agent. All add-ons to the agent, if installed, will be available in a rescue environment.

1.2.1 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, Citrix XenServer Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) or Red Hat Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM). Files of the fully configured and operational machine will be placed in the 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.

1.2.1.1 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 the operating system start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset.

1.2.2 Management Console

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Management Console is an administrative tool for local access to Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 agent. Remote connection to the agent is not possible.

1.2.3 Bootable Media Builder

Acronis Bootable Media Builder is a dedicated tool for creating bootable media (p. 229). The media builder that installs on Windows can create bootable media based on either Windows Preinstallation Environment, or Linux kernel.

The Universal Restore (p. 10) add-on enables you to create bootable media with the restore to dissimilar hardware functionality. Universal Restore handles differences in devices that are critical for Windows start-up, such as storage controllers, motherboard or chipset.

1.3 Supported file systems

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 can back up and recover the following file systems with the following limitations:

 FAT16/32  NTFS  Ext2/Ext3/Ext4  ReiserFS3 - particular files cannot be recovered from disk backups located on Acronis Backup &

Recovery 11 Storage Node

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

recovered from disk backups located on Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Storage Node

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

from disk backups located on Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Storage Node

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

Recovery 11 Storage Node

 Linux SWAP

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 can back up and recover corrupted or non-supported file systems using the sector-by-sector approach.

1.4 Technical Support

Maintenance and Support Program

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

Product Updates

You can download the latest updates for all your registered Acronis software products from our website at any time after logging into your Account (https://www.acronis.com/my) and registering the product. See Registering Acronis Products at the Website (http://kb.acronis.com/content/4834) and Acronis Website User Guide (http://kb.acronis.com/content/8128).

2 Getting started

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

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

3. Proceed as described in "Linux-based bootable media" (p. 161).

Step 1. Installation

These brief installation instructions enable you to start using the product quickly. For the complete description of installation methods and procedures, please refer to the Installation documentation.

Before installation, make sure that:

 Your hardware meets the system requirements.  You have license keys for the edition of your choice.  You have the setup program. You can download it from the Acronis Web site.

To install Acronis Backup & Recovery 11

Run the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 setup program and follow the on-screen instructions.

Step 2. Running

Run Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 by selecting Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 from the Start menu.

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

Step 3. Bootable media

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

Step 4. Backup

Back up now (p. 29)

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

To save your machine to a file: Under Where to back up, click Location, and select the location where the backup will be

saved. Click OK to confirm your selection. Click OK at the bottom of the window to start the backup.

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

Create backup plan (p. 29)

Create a backup plan if you need a long-term backup strategy including backup schemes, schedules and conditions, timely deleting of backups, or moving them to different locations.

Step 5. Recovery

Recover (p. 97)

To recover data, you need to select the backed up data and the destination the data will be recovered to. As a result, a recovery task will be created.

Recovery of a disk or volume over a volume locked by the operating system requires a reboot. After the recovery is completed, the recovered operating system goes online automatically.

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

Step 6. Management

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

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

delete plans and tasks, view their states and progress.

 Use the Alerts view to rapidly identify and solve the problems.  Use the Log view to browse the operations log.  The location where you store backup archives is called a vault (p. 240). Navigate to the

Vaults (p. 135) view to obtain information about your vaults. Navigate further to the specific vault to view backups and their contents. You can also select the data to recover and perform manual operations with backups (mounting, validating, deleting).

2.1 Using the management console

As soon as the console connects to a managed machine (p. 237) or to a management server (p. 237), the respective items appear across the console's workspace (in the menu, in the main area with the Welcome screen, or in the Navigation pane) enabling you to perform agent-specific or server-specific operations.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Management Console - Welcome screen

Name

Description

Navigation pane

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

Main area

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

Menu bar

Appears across the top of the program window. Lets you perform most of operations available in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11. The menu items change dynamically depending on the item selected in the Navigation tree and the main area.

Key elements of the console workspace

2.1.1 "Navigation" pane

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

Navigation tree

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

The Short list displays

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

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

 Backup plans and tasks. Use this view to manage backup plans and tasks on the

managed machine: run, edit, stop and delete plans and tasks, view their progress.

 Vaults. Use this view to manage personal vaults and archives stored in there, add new

vaults, rename and delete the existing ones, validate vaults, explore backup content, perform operations on archives and backups, etc. If the machine is registered on the management server, you can browse the centralized vaults and perform operations on the archives for which you have the appropriate permissions.

 Alerts. Use this view to examine warning messages for the managed machine.

The Full list additionally displays

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

drives.

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

the managed machine.

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

to manage mounted images.

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].

Operations with pane

How to expand/minimize panes

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

How to change the panes' borders

1. Point to the pane's border.

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

2.1.2 Main area, views and action pages

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

2.1.2.1 Views

Do the following

Sort items by any column

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

Click it once again to sort items in descending order.

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

"Log" view

Common way of working with views

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

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

the arrow mark ( ).

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

selected items:

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

Sorting, filtering and configuring table items

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

Filter items by predefined column value

In a field below the corresponding column's header, select the required value from the drop-down list.

Filter items by entered value

In a field below the corresponding column's header, type a value.

As a result you will see the list of values, fully or just partly coincide with the entered value.

Filter items by a predefined parameters

Depending on the view, you can filter a table items by some predefined parameters. To do this, click the respective buttons or links at the top of the table.

For example:

 In the Log view, you can filter the event entries by clicking buttons

associated with the result: Succeeded, Succeeded with warnings, or Failed.

 The Log view has the activity start time as the default parameter, and

three predefined settings for filtering activities by this parameter (All available, For last 3 months, or For custom period) are placed at the top

of the Log view.

Show or hide table columns

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

To show or hide columns

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

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

2.1.2.2 Action pages

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

Action page - Create backup plan

Using controls and specifying settings

Use active controls to specify a backup plan or recovery task settings and parameters. By default, such fields as credentials, options, comments, and some others are hidden. Most settings are configured by clicking the respective Show… links. Others are selected from the drop-down list, or typed manually in the page's fields.

Action page - Controls

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 remembers the changes you made on the action pages. For example, if you started to create a backup plan, and then for any reason switched to another view without accomplishing the plan creation, you can click the Back navigation button on the menu. Or, if you have passed several steps forward, click the Down arrow and select the page where you started the plan creation from the list. Thus, you can perform the remaining steps and accomplish the backup plan creation.

Navigation buttons

2.1.3 Console options

The console options define the way information is represented in the Graphical User Interface of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.

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

2.1.3.1 Alert display options

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

The preset is: All alerts.

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

2.1.3.2 Credentials cache

The option specifies whether to store the credentials entered while using the management console.

The preset is: Disabled.

If the option is disabled, access credentials for various locations that you enter during a console session are stored only until the console is closed.

If the option is enabled, the credentials are saved for use during later sessions. In Windows, the credentials are stored in the Windows Credential Manager. In Linux, the credentials are stored in a special encrypted file.

2.1.3.3 Fonts

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

11. The Menu font setting affects the drop-down and context menus. The Application font setting affects all other GUI elements.

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

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

2.1.3.4 Pop-up messages

These options are effective when the console is connected to a managed machine or to the management server.

The “Activities Need Interaction” dialog

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

The preset is: Enabled.

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

The “Feedback Confirmation” dialog

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

The preset is: Enabled.

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

Notify if bootable media is not created

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

The preset is: Enabled.

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

Notify when the management console is connected to a component of a different version

This option defines whether to display a pop-up window when a console is connected to an agent/management server and their versions differ.

The preset is: Enabled.

To make a selection, select or clear the Notify when the management console is connected to a

component of a different version check box.

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 the displaying of pop-up messages is disabled, you can review the task execution states and results in the Backup plans and tasks view.

The preset is: Enabled for all results.

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

2.1.3.5 Startup page

This option defines whether to show the Welcome screen or the Dashboard view on the console connection 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.

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 Understanding Acronis Backup & Recovery 11

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

3.1 Owners 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 backup 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. In the Plan parameters (or Task parameters) section, click Show plan's credentials, comments,

label (or Show task credentials).

2. Click Plan's (Task) credentials.

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.

3.2 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.

3.3 Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 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. 228) 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

Parameter

Full backup

Differential backup

Incremental backup

Storage space

Maximal

Medium

Minimal

Creation time

Maximal

Medium

Minimal

Recovery time

Minimal

Medium

Maximal

differential backup after (or instead of) creating multiple incremental backups.

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

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

3.4 What does a disk or volume backup store?

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

With the sector-by-sector (raw mode) option enabled, a disk backup stores all the disk sectors.

For supported file systems, with the sector-by-sector option turned off, a disk or volume backup stores only those sectors that contain data. This reduces the resulting backup size and speeds up the backup and recovery operations.

Windows

The swap file (pagefile.sys) and the file that keeps the RAM content when the machine goes into hibernation (hiberfil.sys) are not backed up. After recovery, the files will be re-created in the appropriate place with the zero size.

A volume backup stores all other files and folders of the selected volume independent of their attributes (including hidden and system files), the boot record, the file allocation table (FAT) if it exists, the root and the zero track of the hard disk with the master boot record (MBR). The boot code of GPT volumes is not backed up.

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

Linux

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

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

3.5 Backup and recovery of dynamic volumes

(Windows)

This section explains in brief how to back up and recover dynamic volumes (p. 234) using Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.

A dynamic volume is a volume located on dynamic disks (p. 233), or more exactly, on a disk group (p.

233). Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 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.

Backing up dynamic volumes

Dynamic volumes are backed up in the same way as basic 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 volumes with the DYN prefix.

Command line examples

acrocmd backup disk --volume=DYN1,DYN2 --loc=\\srv1\backups

--credentials=netuser1,pass1 --arc=dyn1_2_arc

This will back up volumes DYN1 and DYN2 to a network shared folder.

acrocmd backup disk --volume=DYN --loc=\\srv1\backups

--credentials=netuser1,pass1 --arc=alldyn_arc

This will back up all dynamic volumes of the local machine to a network shared folder.

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.  To a disk which has not been initialized.

Recovery over an existing volume

When a dynamic volume is recovered over an existing volume, either basic or dynamic, the target

volume’s data is overwritten with the backup content. The type of target volume (basic,

simple/spanned, striped, mirrored, RAID 0+1, RAID-5) will not change. The target volume size has to be enough to accommodate the backup content.

Recovery to disk group unallocated space

When recovering a dynamic volume to disk group unallocated space, the software preserves the volume's original type and size. If the disk group configuration does not allow for the original volume type, the volume will be recovered as a simple or spanned volume. If this volume does not fit the unallocated space, the volume will be resized by decreasing its free space.

Examples of when the disk group configuration does not allow the original type of the volume

Example 1. The group contains fewer disks than is required for the dynamic volume. Assume you

Backup (source):

Recovered to:

Dynamic volume

Basic volume

Dynamic volume

Type as of the target

Dynamic volume

Type as of the target

Unallocated space (disk group)

Dynamic volume

Type as of the source

Dynamic volume

Simple

Basic volume or unallocated space on a basic disk

Basic volume

are going to recover an 80 GB RAID-5 volume that had resided on three disks, to a disk group consisting of two disks. The total size of unallocated space is 100 GB: 40 GB on the first disk and 60 GB on the second. The RAID-5 volume will be recovered as a spanned volume across two disks.

Example 2. Unallocated space distribution does not allow recovery of certain types of dynamic volumes. Assume you are going to recover a 30 GB striped volume to a disk group consisting of two disks. The total size of unallocated space is 50 GB: 10 GB on the first disk and 40 GB on the second. The striped volume will be recovered to the second disk as simple.

Recovery to a disk that has not been initialized

In this case, the target disk will be automatically initialized to the MBR partitioning style. The dynamic volumes will be recovered as basic ones. If the volumes cannot fit into unallocated space, they will be proportionally resized (by decreasing their free space).

The table below demonstrates the resulting volume types depending on the backed up source and the recovery target.

Moving and resizing volumes during recovery

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

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 11 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. 172) section.

3.6 Compatibility with encryption software

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 fully retains its functionality when interacting with file-level encryption software.

Disk-level encryption software encrypts data on the fly. This is why data contained in the backup is not encrypted. Disk-level encryption software often modifies system areas: boot records, or partition tables, or file system tables. These factors affect disk-level backup and recovery, the ability of the recovered system to boot and access to Acronis Secure Zone.

Under some conditions, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 is compatible with the following disk-level encryption software:

 Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption  McAfee Endpoint Encryption  PGP Whole Disk Encryption.

To ensure reliable disk-level recovery, follow the common rules and software-specific recommendations.

Common installation rule

The strong recommendation is to install the encryption software before installing Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.

The way of using Acronis Secure Zone

Acronis Secure Zone must not be encrypted with disk-level encryption. This is the only way to use Acronis Secure Zone:

1. Install encryption software; then, install Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.

2. Create Acronis Secure Zone.

3. Exclude Acronis Secure Zone when encrypting the disk or its volumes.

Common backup rule

You can do a disk-level backup in the operating system. Do not try to back up using bootable media or Acronis Startup Recovery Manager.

Software-specific recovery procedures

Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption

To recover a system that was encrypted by BitLocker:

1. Boot from the bootable media.

2. Recover the system. The recovered data will be unencrypted.

3. Reboot the recovered system.

4. Turn on BitLocker. If you only need to recover one partition of a multi-partitioned disk, do so under the operating

system. Recovery under bootable media may make the recovered partition undetectable for Windows.

McAfee Endpoint Encryption and PGP Whole Disk Encryption

You can recover an encrypted system partition by using bootable media only.

If the recovered system fails to boot, rebuild Master Boot Record as described in the following Acronis knowledge base article: “Restoring Windows Boot Loader Manually” and reboot.

3.7 Support for SNMP

SNMP objects

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 provides the following Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) objects to SNMP management applications:

 Type of event

Object identifier (OID): 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.1.0 Syntax: OctetString The value may be "Information", "Warning", 'Error" and "Unknown". "Unknown" is sent only in

the test message.

 Text description of the event

Object identifier (OID): 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.0 Syntax: OctetString The value contains the text description of the event (it looks identical to messages published by

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 in its log).

Example of varbind values:

1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.1.0:Information

1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.0:I0064000B

Supported operations

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 supports only TRAP operations. It is not possible to manage Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 using GET- and SET- requests. This means that you need to use an SNMP Trap receiver to receive TRAP-messages.

About the management information base (MIB)

The MIB file acronis-abr.mib is located in the Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 installation directory. By default: %ProgramFiles%\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery in Windows and /usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery in Linux.

This file can be read by a MIB browser or a simple text editor such as Notepad or vi.

About the test message

When configuring SNMP notifications, you can send a test message to check if your settings are correct.

The parameters of the test message are as follows:

 Type of event

OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.1.0 Value: "Unknown"

 Text description of the event

OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.0 Value: "?00000000"

4 Backup

4.1 Back up now

Use the Back up now feature to configure and run a one-time backup in a few simple steps. The backup process will start immediately after you perform the required steps and click OK.

For a long-time backup strategy that includes schedules and conditions, timely deleting of backups or moving them to different locations, consider creating a backup plan.

Configuring immediate backup is similar to creating a backup plan (p. 29) except for the following:

 There are no options to schedule backups and to set up retention rules.  Simplified naming of backup files (p. 48) is used, if the backup destination supports it. Otherwise,

the standard backup naming is used. The following locations do not support simplified file naming: managed vaults, tape, Acronis

Secure Zone or Acronis Online Backup Storage.

 Conversion of a disk-level backup to a virtual machine is not available as a part of the backup

operation. You can convert the resulting backup afterwards.

4.2 Creating a backup plan

Before creating your first backup plan (p. 229), please familiarize yourself with the basic concepts used in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.

To create a backup plan, perform the following steps.

What to back up

Items to back up (p. 31)

Select the type of data to back up and specify the data items. The type of data depends on

the agents installed on the machine. Access credentials, exclusions To access these settings, click Show access credentials, exclusions. Access credentials (p. 32)

Provide credentials for the source data if the plan's account does not have access

permissions to the data. Exclusions (p. 32)

Set up exclusions for the specific types of files you do not wish to back up.

Where to back up

Location (p. 44)

Specify a path to the location where the backup archive will be stored and the archive name.

The archive name has to be unique within the location. Otherwise, backups of the newly

created backup plan will be placed to the existing archive that belongs to another backup

plan. The default archive name is Archive(N) where N is the sequence number of the archive

in the location you have selected. Backup file naming, access credentials, archive comments

To access these settings, click Show backup file naming, access credentials, archive comments. File naming (p. 48)

[Optional] Select the Name backup files using the archive name, as in Acronis True Image

Echo, rather than auto-generated names check box if you want to use simplified file naming

for the archive’s backups.

Not available when backing up to a managed vault, tape, Acronis Secure Zone or Acronis

Online Backup Storage.

Access credentials (p. 34)

[Optional] Provide credentials for the location if the plan account does not have access

permissions to the location. Archive comments

[Optional] Enter comments on the archive.

How to back up

Backup scheme (p. 34)

Specify when and how often to back up your data; define for how long to keep the created

backup archives in the selected location; set up schedule for the archive cleanup procedure

(see “Replication and retention settings” below). Use well-known optimized backup schemes,

such as Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi; create a custom backup scheme, or

back up data once.

Replication and retention settings (p. 66)

Not available when choosing simplified naming of backup files (p. 48).

Define whether to copy (replicate) the backups to another location, and whether to move or

delete them according to retention rules. The available settings depend on the backup

scheme. 2nd location, validation, convert to virtual machine To access these settings, click Show 2nd location, validation, convert to virtual machine. 2nd location

[Optional] To set up replication of backups, select the Replicate just created backup to

another location check box. For more information about backup replication, see Setting up

replication of backups (p. 68). When to validate (p. 46)

[Optional] Depending on the selected backup scheme, define when and how often to

perform validation and whether to validate the entire archive or the latest backup in the

archive. Convert to virtual machine (p. 72)

[Optional] Applies to: disk or volume backup, backup of entire virtual machines or volumes of

a virtual machine.

Set up a regular conversion of a disk or volume backup to a virtual machine.

Plan parameters

Plan name

[Optional] Enter a unique name for the backup plan. A conscious name lets you identify the

plan among others. Backup options

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