Acronis TRUE IMAGE 9.1 User Manual

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User's Guide

Acronis True Image 9.1

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................... 7

1.1 ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE SERVER FOR WINDOWS – A COMPLETE SOLUTION FOR CORPORATE USERS ............... 7

1.2 NEW IN ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE 9.1 SERVER FOR WINDOWS.......................................................................... 8

1.4 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND SUPPORTED MEDIA ......................................................................................... 9

1.4.1 Minimum system requirements............................................................................................................. 9

1.4.2 Supported operating systems................................................................................................................ 9

1.4.3 Supported file systems........................................................................................................................ 10

1.4.4 Supported storage media.................................................................................................................... 10

1.5 TECHNICAL SUPPORT .................................................................................................................................. 10

CHAPTER 2. ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE SERVER FOR WINDOWS INSTALLATION AND

STARTING.......................................................................................................................................................... 11

2.1 INSTALLING ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE SERVER FOR WINDOWS ...................................................................... 11

2.2 EXTRACTING ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE SERVER FOR WINDOWS..................................................................... 12

2.3 RUNNING ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE SERVER FOR WINDOWS .......................................................................... 12

2.4 REMOVING ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE SERVER FOR WINDOWS........................................................................ 12

CHAPTER 3. GENERAL INFORMATION AND PROPRIETARY ACRONIS TECHNOLOGIES...... 13

3.1 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FILE ARCHIVES AND DISK/PARTITION IMAGES.................................................. 13

3.2 FULL, INCREMENTAL AND DIFFERENTIAL BACKUPS .................................................................................... 13

3.3 ACRONIS SECURE ZONE.............................................................................................................................. 14

3.4 ACRONIS STARTUP RECOVERY MANAGER.................................................................................................. 15

3.4.1 How it works....................................................................................................................................... 15

3.4.2 How to use.......................................................................................................................................... 15

3.5 ACRONIS SNAP RESTORE ............................................................................................................................ 15

3.5.1 How it works....................................................................................................................................... 15

3.5.2 How to use.......................................................................................................................................... 16

3.6 ACRONIS UNIVERSAL RESTORE .................................................................................................................. 16

3.7.1 How to use.......................................................................................................................................... 17

3.7.2 Using Acronis Universal Restore in virtual environment...................................................................18

3.7.3 Hints on using Acronis Universal Restore ......................................................................................... 18

3.7.4 Benefits............................................................................................................................................... 18

3.7 USING DYNAMIC DISKS AND VOLUMES ....................................................................................................... 19

3.8 BACKING UP TO TAPE DRIVE ....................................................................................................................... 19

3.9 VIEWING DISK AND PARTITION INFORMATION............................................................................................. 20

CHAPTER 4. USING ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE SERVER FOR WINDOWS.......................................... 21

4.1 MAIN PROGRAM WINDOW ........................................................................................................................... 21

4.2 MANAGING A LOCAL COMPUTER................................................................................................................. 23

CHAPTER 5. CREATING BACKUP ARCHIVES........................................................................................ 25

5.1 BACKING UP FILES AND FOLDERS (FILE BACKUP)........................................................................................ 25

5.2 BACKING UP DISKS AND PARTITIONS (IMAGE BACKUP) ............................................................................... 29

5.3 SETTING BACKUP OPTIONS.......................................................................................................................... 31

5.3.1 Archive protection.............................................................................................................................. 32

5.3.2 Source files exclusion......................................................................................................................... 32

5.3.3 Pre/post commands............................................................................................................................ 32

5.3.4 Database support............................................................................................................................... 33

5.3.5 Compression level.............................................................................................................................. 34

5.3.6 Backup performance........................................................................................................................... 34

5.3.7 Fast incremental/differential backup.................................................................................................. 35

5.3.8 Archive splitting ................................................................................................................................. 35

5.3.9 File-level security settings ............................................................................................ ...................... 36

5.3.10 Media components............................................................................................................................ 36

5.3.11 Additional settings............................................................................................................................ 37

CHAPTER 6. RESTORING THE BACKUP DATA...................................................................................... 38

6.1 RESTORE UNDER WINDOWS OR BOOT FROM CD? ....................................................................................... 38

6.1.1 Network settings in rescue mode........................................................................................................ 38

6.2 RESTORING FILES AND FOLDERS FROM FILE ARCHIVES ............................................................................... 38

6.3 RESTORING DISKS/PARTITIONS OR FILES FROM IMAGES .............................................................................. 41

6.3.1 Starting the Restore Data Wizard....................................................................................................... 42

6.3.2 Archive selection................................................................................................................................ 42

6.3.3 Restoration type selection .................................................................................................................. 43

6.3.4 Selecting a disk/partition to restore.................................................................................................... 44

6.3.5 Selecting a target disk/partition ......................................................................................................... 44

6.3.6 Changing the restored partition type.................................................................................................. 44

6.3.7 Changing the restored partition file system........................................................................................ 45

6.3.8 Changing the restored partition size and location............................................................................. 45

6.3.9 Assigning a letter to the restored partition......................................................................................... 46

6.3.10 Restoring several partitions at once................................................................................................. 46

6.3.11 Setting restore options...................................................................................................................... 46

6.3.12 Using Acronis Universal Restore..................................................................................................... 46

6.3.13 Restoration summary and executing restoration.............................................................................. 48

6.4 SETTING RESTORE OPTIONS......................................................................................................................... 48

6.4.1 Files to restore exclusion ................................................................................................................... 49

6.4.2 Files overwriting mode....................................................................................................................... 49

6.4.3 Pre/post commands............................................................................................................................ 49

6.4.4 Restoration priority............................................................................................................................ 49

6.4.5 File-level security settings ............................................................................................ ...................... 49

6.4.6 Additional settings.............................................................................................................................. 50

CHAPTER 7. SCHEDULING TASKS............................................................................................................ 51

7.1 CREATING SCHEDULED TASKS .................................................................................................................... 51

7.1.1 Setting up daily execution................................................................................................................... 52

7.1.2 Setting up weekly execution................................................................................................................ 53

7.1.3 Setting up monthly execution.............................................................................................................. 54

7.1.4 Setting up one-time execution............................................................................................................. 54

7.2 MANAGING SCHEDULED TASKS................................................................................................................... 55

CHAPTER 8. MANAGING ACRONIS SECURE ZONE ............................................................................. 56

8.1 CREATING ACRONIS SECURE ZONE ............................................................................................................ 56

8.2 RESIZING ACRONIS SECURE ZONE .............................................................................................................. 57

8.3 DELETING ACRONIS SECURE ZONE............................................................................................................. 57

CHAPTER 9. CREATING BOOTABLE MEDIA.......................................................................................... 59

CHAPTER 10. OTHER OPERATIONS ......................................................................................................... 61

10.1 VALIDATING BACKUP ARCHIVES............................................................................................................... 61

10.2 OPERATION RESULTS NOTIFICATION ......................................................................................................... 61

10.2.1 Email notification............................................................................................................................. 62

10.2.2 WinPopup notification...................................................................................................................... 62

10.3 VIEWING LOGS.......................................................................................................................................... 63

10.4 EVENT TRACING........................................................................................................................................ 64

10.4.1 Windows event log............................................................................................................................ 64

10.4.2 SNMP notifications........................................................................................................................... 64

10.5 MANAGING SYSTEM RESTORE.................................................................................................................. 64

CHAPTER 11. MOUNTING AN IMAGE AS A VIRTUAL DRIVE............................................................ 66

11.1 MOUNTING AN IMAGE............................................................................................................................... 66

11.2 UNMOUNTING AN IMAGE .......................................................................................................................... 68

CHAPTER 12. TRANSFERRING THE SYSTEM TO A NEW DISK......................................................... 69

12.1 GENERAL INFORMATION ........................................................................................................................... 69

12.2 SECURITY.................................................................................................................................................. 69

12.3 EXECUTING TRANSFERS ............................................................................................................................ 70

12.3.1 Selecting Clone mode....................................................................................................................... 70

12.3.2 Selecting source disk........................................................................................................................ 70

12.3.3 Selecting destination disk................................................................................................................. 71

12.3.4 Partitioned destination disk.............................................................................................................. 72

12.3.5 Old and new disk partition layout.................................................................................................... 72

12.3.6 Old disk data.................................................................................................................................... 72

12.3.7 Destroying the old disk data............................................................................................................. 73

12.3.8 Selecting partition transfer method.................................................................................................. 74

12.3.9 Partitioning the old disk................................................................................................................... 75

12.3.10 Old and new disk partition layouts................................................................................................. 75

12.3.11 Cloning summary ........................................................................................................................... 76

12.4 CLONING WITH MANUAL PARTITIONING.................................................................................................... 76

12.4.1 Old and new disk partition layouts................................................................................................... 76

CHAPTER 13. ADDING A NEW HARD DISK.............................................................................................78

13.1 SELECTING A HARD DISK........................................................................................................................... 78

13.2 CREATING NEW PARTITIONS...................................................................................................................... 78

13.3 DISK ADD SUMMARY................................................................................................................................. 79

CHAPTER 14. COMMAND-LINE MODE AND SCRIPTING.................................................................... 80

14.1 WORKING IN THE COMMAND-LINE MODE.................................................................................................. 80

14.1.1 Supported commands ....................................................................................................................... 80

14.1.2 trueimagecmd.exe usage examples................................................................................................... 85

14.1.3 Command-line mode usage under DOS........................................................................................... 86

14.2 SCRIPTING................................................................................................................................................. 86

14.2.1 Script execution parameters............................................................................................................. 86

14.2.2 Script structure................................................................................................................................. 87

14.2.3 Script usage examples...................................................................................................................... 87

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Acronis True Image Server for Windows – a complete solution for corporate users

You have come to rely on your servers to run your business and retain key enterprise data. Acronis True Image Server for Windows provides comprehensive, reliable, and cost-effective system protection and recovery for corporate servers. With Acronis True Image Server for Windows you have peace of mind knowing you are protected and can recover from any situation.

Minimizes downtime

Acronis True Image Server for Windows enables you to restore systems in minutes, not hours or days. An entire system can be restored from an image that includes everything the system needs to run: the operating system, applications, databases, and configurations. No reinstallation or reconfiguration is required. Moreover, complete system restoration can be performed to an existing system or to a new system with different hardware or to virtual machines. With the new Acronis Snap Restore feature, users can access a system during restore, further decreasing downtime. File-based backups provide you with the flexibility to only backup specific critical files.

Eases Administration

Wizards guide users through backup and recovery tasks, ensuring the product can be implemented with minimal user training.

Automates Backup

With the scheduling capability in Acronis True Image Server for Windows, you simply create backup tasks, tailored by group, at certain times or at certain events, automating backups.

To ensure that backups have occurred, or user intervention is required, you can request notifications via email or pop-up. You can view Acronis events in Windows Application Events Log or Acronis own log. Log messages can be automatically sent out to SNMP clients.

The product also supports the creation of custom commands before and after backups. For example, users can automatically run anti-virus products before an image is created and verify the validity of backups after they have been created.

Ensures 24 X 7 Uptime

With the Acronis Drive Snapshot systems can be imaged while they are i n use, supp orting 24 by 7 availability. This technology enables the product to backup and image critical operating system files, the master boot record and any partition-based boot records without requiring a reboot. A CPU allocation feature allows you to limit the amount of CPU usage for the application to maximize the CPUs available for mission critical applications. Moreover, users can control hard disk drive writing speeds and control network bandwidth used during backups, allowing you minimally disrupt business operations.

A several-second database suspension is provided for correct backup of mission critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle with support VSS. If your database or operating system does not support VSS, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will execute your custom commands to realize database suspension.

Supports Cutting Edge Technology

Businesses today are moving to leverage the latest technologies, dual -core 64 bit processors and 64 bit operating systems. With Acronis True Image Server for Windows, you can protect these new machines, as well as legacy ones, running one solution.

Leverages Existing Technology Investments

The product can leverage your current storage infrastructur e by supporting a wide variety of storage media, so you can avoid costly hardware purchases to implement the solution. The product supports key storage technologies such as: Direct Attached St orage (DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Networks (SAN), Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks (RAID) devices, tapes, USB and IEEE-1394 (FireWire) compliant storage devices, CDs, DVDs, removable drives (Floppy, Zip, etc.) and shared storage. Moreover, the product ensures that you maximize the space on these resources with four levels of compression.

Disk cloning and new disk deployment

Acronis True Image Server for Windows can be used to clone an image onto multiple servers. For example, a company purchased several servers and needs similar environments on each of them. Traditionally, an IT manager should install the operating system and programs on every server. With Acronis True Image Server for Windows, the IT manager can create a disk image of the first system deployed. That image can then be duplicated onto multiple servers.

If you need to upgrade the server hard disk drive, Acronis True Image Server for Windows simplifies the task to few mouse clicks creating the exact copy of your old disk t o a new one and adjusting partitions size to fit a new hard disk.

1.2 New in Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows

• Support for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 x64

Editions

• Support for GPT hard disks (disks with GUID partition table)

• Backup to/restore from FTP servers

• Acronis Snap Restore – A user can start working in seconds while the system is still

being restored

• Acronis Universal Restore (optional) – Hardware-independent live system restore

• File-level backup and recovery, including files opened in exclusive usage mode - In

addition to an entire partition/system backup

• Differential backup – Backup only the changes made since the full backup

• Fast incremental/differential backup – Users can choose to compare files with their

archived copies by date/size (fast process) or by file contents (precise, but timeconsuming process)

• Files and folders backup/restore filtering – Saves space when creating file backups by only backing up files of the types the users want to keep. Similarly, a user can tell the program not to restore certain files from the file archive

• Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) support (for Windows 2003 Server and higher) – Easily backup VSS compatible databases (Exchange, Oracle, SQL Server) without taking databases offline and ensuring data consistency

• Pre/post backup/restore commands – Users can specify their own commands which will be executed before and after the backup or restore process. For example, one might want to remove some temporary files from the disk before starting backup or configure a third party antivirus product to be started each time before the backup starts

• User-editable default backup options – Users can configure and save backup parameters, such as backup performance (hard disk writing speed, network bandwidth during backups), validate backup archive after backup completion, file-level security settings (preserving files’ security settings in the archive, storing encrypted files in encrypted or decrypted state)

• User-editable default restore options – Users can configure and save restore parameters, such as files overwriting mode, the original or current date and time for restored files etc.

• Read-write mode of mounting images

• Bootable backup media – When backing up to removable media, users can make this

media bootable in the same manner as rescue CD, so separate recover media is not required

• Bootable disks ISOs and RIS packages – In addition to burning a bootable rescue disk, users can save its ISO image for burning later, or create a RIS package for remote boot of Acronis True Image Server for Windows

• Windows Event Log and SNMP support – Store event log messages, issued by Acronis True Image Server for Windows, to Windows Event Log or send them to SNMP clients

• Manage System Restore tool (for Windows 2003 Server and higher) – Turn on/off the Windows native System Restore tool directly from Acronis True Image Server for Windows

• Context Help

1.4 System requirements and supported media

1.4.1 Minimum system requirements

Acronis True Image Server for Windows requires the following hardware:

• Pentium processor or higher

• 256 Mb RAM

• FDD or CD-RW drive for bootable media creation

• Mouse (recommended).

1.4.2 Supported operating systems

• Windows NT 4.0 Workstation SP6/2000 Professional SP4/XP Professional SP2

• Windows NT 4.0 Server SP6/2000 Server/2000 Advanced Server/2003 Server

• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions

Acronis True Image Server for Windows also enables creating a bootable diskette or CD-R/W that can back-up and restore a disk/partition on a computer running any PC-based operating system including Linux®.

1.4.3 Supported file systems

• FAT16/32

• NTFS

• Ext2/Ext3

• ReiserFS

• Reiser4

• Linux SWAP

• XFS

• JFS

If a file system is not supported or is corrupted, Acronis True Image Server for Windows can copy data using a sector-by-sector approach.

For XFS and JFS file systems partition resizing feature is not supported.

1.4.4 Supported storage media

• Hard disk drives

• Networked storage devices such as Storage Area Networks ( S ANs) and Network Attached

Storage (NAS)

• SCSI tape drives

• IDE and SCSI RAID controllers of any level

• FTP-servers*

• CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW**

• USB 1.0 / 2.0, FireWire (IEEE-1394) and PC card storage devices

• ZIP®, Jaz® and other removable media

* - an FTP-server must allow passive mode for file transfers. Data recovery directly from FTP-server requires the archive to consist of files no more than 2 Gb in size.

** - requires third-party DVD recording software to be installed.

1.5 Technical support

Users of legally purchased copies of Acronis True Image Server for Windows are entitled to free technical support from Acronis. If you experience problems installing or using Acronis products that you can’t solve yourself by using this guide, then please contact Acronis Technical Support.

More information about contacting Acronis Technical Support is available at the following

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/support/

link:

Chapter 2. Acronis True Image Server for Windows installation and starting

2.1 Installing Acronis True Image Server for Windows

To install Acronis True Image Server for Windows:

• run the Acronis True Image Server for Windows setup file

• in the Install Menu, select the program to install: Acronis True Image Server for Windows

• follow the Install Wizard instructions on the screen.

Acronis True Image Server for Windows Install Window

Typical, Custom and Complete installation is available. Having pressed Custom, you can choose to install, besides Acronis True Image Server for Windows, Rescue Media Builder and Bart PE plug-in.

With Rescue Media Builder you can create bootable rescue disks or RIS packages (see details in purchased a boxed product that contains a bootable CD. Installing the Bootable Rescue Media Builder will allow you to create bootable media, its ISO image or a bootable RIS package at any time from the main program window or running Bootable Rescue Media Builder on its own.

Well-known Bart PE utility is used to boot Windows-like environment from CD. Applications are installed into Bart PE in the form of plug-ins. Choosing Bart PE plug-in installation (disabled by default) provides the ability to include Acronis True Image Server for Windows into Bart PE plug-in tab. The plug-in files will be placed to the installation folder along with other program files.

Chapter 9. Creating bootable media

When installed, Acronis True Image Server for Windows (local version) creates a new device in the Device Manager list (Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager

-> Acronis Devices -> Acronis TrueImage Backup Archive Explorer). Do not disable or uninstall this device, as it is necessary for connecting image archives as virtual disks (see

Chapter 11. Mounting an image as a virtual drive

). You might not need this tool if you

2.2 Extracting Acronis True Image Server for Windows

When installing Acronis True Image Server for Windows, you can save the setup (.msi) file on a local or network drive. It will help you modify or recover the existing component installation.

To save a setup file:

• run the Acronis True Image Server for Windows setup file;

• in the Install Menu, right-click on the program name and select Extract;

• select location for setup file and click Save.

2.3 Running Acronis True Image Server for Windows

You can run Acronis True Image Server for Windows in Windows by selecting Start ->

Programs -> Acronis -> Acronis True Image Server for Windows -> Acronis True

Image Server for Windows or clicking on the appropriate shortcut on the desktop.

If your operating system does not load for some reason, you can run Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. However, this must be activated prior to use; see

Recovery Manager

server bootup, when you see a corresponding message that tells you to press that key. Acronis True Image Server for Windows will be run in the standalone mode, allowing you to recover the damaged partitions.

to learn more about this procedure. To run the program, press F11 during

3.4 Acronis Startup

If your disk data is totally corrupted and you cannot boot (or if you have not activated Acronis Startup Recovery Manager), load the standalone Acronis True Image Server for Windows version from the bootable media (supplied with the retail box or created by you using Rescue Media Builder) or RIS-server. Then you will be able to restore the disk from its previously created image.

2.4 Removing Acronis True Image Server for Windows

Select Control panel -> Add or remove programs -> <Acronis True Image Server for Windows> -> Remove. Then follow instructions on the screen. You may have to

reboot your computer afterwards to complete the task.

Chapter 3. General information and proprietary Acronis technologies

3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images

A backup archive is a file or a group of files (also called in this Guide “backups”), that contains a copy of selected files/folders data or a copy of all information stored on selected disks/partitions.

When you back up files and folders, only the data, along with the folder tree, are compressed and stored.

Backing up disks and partitions is performed in a different way: Acronis True Ima ge Server for Windows stores a sector-by-sector snapshot of the disk, which includes the operating system, registry, drivers, software applications and data files, as well as system areas hidden from the user. This procedure is called “creating a disk image,” and the resulting backup archive is often called a disk/partition image.

Acronis True Image Server for Windows stores only those hard disk parts that contain data (for supported file systems). Further, it does not back up swap file information (pagefile.sys) and hiberfil.sys (a file that keeps RAM contents when the computer goes into hibernation). This reduces image size and speeds up image creation and restoration.

A partition image includes all files and folders independent of their attributes (including hidden and system files), boot record, FAT (file allocation table) and root.

A disk image includes images of all disk partitions as well as the zero track with master boot record (MBR).

By default, files in all Acronis True Image Server for Windows archives have a “.tib” extension.

It is important to note, that you can restore files and folders not only from file archives, but from disk/partition images, too. To do so, mount the image as a virtual disk (see

Mounting an image as a virtual drive

specified files or folders.

) or start the image restoration and select Restore

Chapter 11.

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis True Image Server for Windows can create full, incremental and differential backups. A full backup contains all data at the moment of backup creation. It forms a base for

further incremental or differential backup or is used as a standalone archive. A full backup has the shortest restore time as compared to incremental or differential ones.

An incremental backup file only contains data changed since the la st full or incremental backup creation. Therefore, it is smaller and takes less time to create. But as it doesn’t contain all data, all the previous incremental backups and the initial full backup are required for restoration.

Unlike incremental backup, when every backup procedure creat es the next file in a “chain, ” a differential backup creates an independent file, containing all changes against the initial full archive. Generally, a differential backup will be restored faster than an incremental one, as it does not have to process through a long chain of previous backups.

A standalone full backup may be an optimal solution if you often roll back the system to the initial state (like in a gaming club or Internet café, to undo changes, made by the guests). In this case, you need not to re-create the initial full image, so the backup time is not crucial, and the restore time will be minimal.

Alternatively, if you are interested in saving only the last data state to be able to restore it in case of system failure, consider the differential backup. It is particularly effective if your data changes tend to be little as compared to the full data volume.

The same is true for incremental backup. In addition, it is most useful when you need frequent backups and possibility to roll back to any of stored states. Having created a full backup once, if you then create an incremental backup each day of a month, you will get the same result as if you created full backups every day. However, the cost in time and disk space (or removable media usage) will be as little as one tenth as much.

It is important to note that the above arguments are nothing but examples for your information. Feel free to make up your own backup policy in accordance with your specific tasks and conditions. Acronis True Image Server for Windows is flexible enough to meet any real-life demands.

An incremental or differential backup created after a disk is defragmented might be considerably larger than usual. This is because the defragmentation program changes file locations on disk and the backups reflect these changes. Therefore, it is recommended that you re-create a full backup after disk defragmentation.

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone

The Acronis Secure Zone is a special hidden partition for storing archives on the computer system itself. For archive security purposes, ordinary applications cannot access it. In the Acronis True Image Server for Windows Wizards’ windows the zone is listed along with all partitions available for storing archives. Acronis Secure Zone is necessary for using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and Acronis Snap Restore features (see below).

Acronis Secure Zone is always available for archive creation as long as ther e is space for the backup file. If there is not enough space, older archives will be deleted to create space.

Acronis True Image Server for Windows uses the following scheme to clean up Acronis Secure Zone:

• If there is not enough free space in the zone to create a backup, the program deletes the oldest full backup with all subsequent incremental/differential backups.

• If there is only one full backup (with subsequent incremental/differential backups) left and a full backup is in progress, then the old full backup and incremental/differential backups are deleted.

• Otherwise, (only one full backup left, and an incremental/differential backup is in progress) you will get a message about space error. In that case you will have to either re-create the full backup or increase Acronis Secure Zone.

Thus, you can back up data automatically on a schedule (see

Chapter 7. Scheduling tasks

and not worry about zone overflow issues. However, if you keep long chains of incremental backups, it will be a good practice to periodically check the zone free space, indicated on the second page of the Manage Acronis Secure Zone wizard.

How to create, resize or delete Acronis Secure Zone using this wizard, see in

Managing Acronis Secure Zone

Chapter 8

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

3.4.1 How it works

The Acronis Startup Recovery Manager enables starting Acronis True Image Server for Windows without loading the operating system. With this feature, if the operating system won't load for some reason, you can run Acronis True Image Server for Windows by itself to restore damaged partitions. As opposed to booting from Acronis removable media or RIS server, you will not need a separate media or network connection to start Acronis True Image Server for Windows.

3.4.2 How to use

To be able to use Acronis Startup Recovery Manager at boot time, prepare as follows:

1. Install Acronis True Image Server for Windows.

2. Create Acronis Secure Zone on the server hard disk (see

Secure Zone

Chapter 8 Managing Acronis

3. Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. To do so, click Activate Acronis Startup

Recovery Manager and follow the Wizard’s instructions. If you try to activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager while Acronis Se cure Zone is missing

from the system, you will be prompted to create the zone,

then Acronis Startup Recovery Manager will be activated. Otherwise, Acronis Startup Recovery Manager will be activated immediately.

When Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is activated, it overwrites the master boot record (MBR) with its own boot code. If you have any third-party boot managers installed, you will have to reactivate them after activating the Startup Recovery Manager. For Linux loaders (e.g. LiLo and GRUB), you might consider installing them to a Linux root (or boot) partition boot record instead of MBR before activating Acronis Startup Recovery Manager.

If failure occurs, turn on the computer and press F11 when you see the "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" message. This will run a standalone version of Acronis True Image Server for Windows that only slightly differs from the complete version. For information on restoring damaged partitions, see

Be careful! Disk letters in standalone Acronis True Image Server for Windows might sometimes differ from the way Windows identifies drives. For example, the D: drive identified in the standalone Acronis True Image might correspond to the E: drive in Windows.

Chapter 6. Restoring the backup data

3.5 Acronis Snap Restore

With this feature you can boot the OS on the crashed computer before the system is completely restored from an image, and start the work seconds after the restoration is launched. The restoration will be continued in the background.

This feature is currently available for images, being restored from the Acronis Secure Zone (see above). Naturally, Acronis Snap Restore cannot be used if the image contains no operating system (a logical partition or disk image) or when restoring file archives.

3.5.1 How it works

When the restoration procedure is started, Acronis True Image Server for Windows:

1. Finds the sectors in the image, containing system files, and restores these sectors first. Thus, the OS is restored and can be started in a very short timeframe. Having started the

OS, the user sees the folder tree with files, though file contents still is not recovered. Nevertheless, the user can start working.

2. Writes on the hard disk its own drivers, capable to intercept the system queries to the files. When the user opens files or launches applications, the drivers receive the system queries and restore the sectors that are necessary for the current operation.

3. At the same time, ATIES proceeds with the complete sector-by-sector image restoration in the background. However, the system requested sectors have the highest priority.

Finally, the image will be fully restored even if the user performs no actions at all. But if you choose to start working as soon as possible after the system failure, you will gain at least several minutes, considering that restoration of a 10-20 Gb image (most common image size) takes about 10 minutes. The larger the image size, the more time you save.

3.5.2 How to use

To be able to use Acronis Snap Restore in case of system crash, prepare as follows:

1. Install Acronis True Image Server for Windows.

2. Create Acronis Secure Zone on the server hard disk (see

Secure Zone

3. Activate Acronis Startup Recovery manager (see

. r

3 4 A c onis Startup Recovery Manager

Chapter 8 Managing Acronis

)

and create bootable media or RIS package with Acronis True Image Server for Windows (see

Chapter 9. Creating bootable

4. Back up (image) the local computer’s system disk to Acronis Secure Zone (see

Backing up disks and partitions (image backup)

media).

5.2

). You can back up other disks/partitions as

well, but the system image is mandatory.

When performing Snap Restore, the current Acronis True Image Server for Windows version always restores the entire system disk. Therefore, if your system disk consists of several partitions, all of them must be included into the image. Otherwise partitions, missing in the image, will be lost.

If failure occurs, boot the server from t he bootable media, or RIS server, or using F11. Start the recovery procedure (see

6.3 Restoring disks partitions or files from images

), select the system disk image from Acronis Secure Zone, choose Use Snap Restore and in the next window click Proceed. In a few seconds the computer will reboot to the restored system. Log in and work – no more reboots or other actions required.

You can perform Snap Restore running Acronis True Image Server for Windows in supported Windows Server operating systems as well. However, it is mandatory to have a bootable media in case of Windows cannot boot.

3.6 Acronis Universal Restore

One of the fastest ways of cloning a Windows system is to deploy its image to a different computer.

However, the deployment will not be a success if the target hardware is incompatible with the most critical drivers included in the image. The restored system may be unbootable because startup drivers and components, used by the source system, cannot operate on a different motherboard, processor etc.

Using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep) does not solve this problem, because Sysprep allows replacing drivers only for Plug-and-Play devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.). As for system HAL and boot device driver, they must be identical

in the source and target computers (see Microsoft Knowledge Base, articles 302577 and

216915).

Acronis Universal Restore technology provides an ef ficient s olution f or hardware -ind epende nt system restoration by replacing the crucial HAL and hard disk controller drivers.

Acronis Universal Restore does not conflict with Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep). If you got accustomed to using Sysprep, you can use both tools on the same system.

Acronis Universal Restore is an optional program feature. It should be purchased separately and installed from a separate .msi setup file. Acronis Universal Restore can only be installed on a computer where at least one of the following Acronis components is installed:

Acronis True Image Server for Windows Acronis Bootable Media Builder.

3.7.1 How to use

You can perform the following procedure either locally or remotely, using Acronis True Image Management Console.

1. Boot the target computer into Acronis recovery environment from th e bootable media, or RIS server, or using F11.

2. Start the recovery procedure (see

6.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images

) and

select the image of the source computer for restoration.

3. You can specify Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and hard disk controller drivers to be used by the restored system and/or provide a path to a driver repository on the network.

Hence, Acronis Universal Restore uses three sources for drivers search: the list of userspecified (enforced) drivers, driver repository, and the Windows default driver storage folders (in the image being restored). The program will find the most suitable drivers of all available and install them into the restored system. However, the user-defined drivers will have the priority. They will be installed, with appropriate warning, even if the program finds the better driver.

The Windows default driver storage folders are determined in the registry key SOFTWARE > Microsoft -> Windows -> Current version -> DevicePath. Generally, it is WINDOWS/inf folder.

4. When the restore process runs Acronis True Image Server for Windows will:

- detect the machine type and install appropriate driver for HAL

- detect IDE and SCSI controllers and install appropriate drivers. If no appropriate drivers are found in all three above sources, the user will be prompted to browse the following locations for the drivers:

Network share drive Floppy disk CD drive

5. The machine reboots.

6. Windows takes control and initiates the usual first-start process.

The recovery procedure can proceed under Windows as well (for example, if the operating system is loaded from the C: drive, the system partition of the other computer can be restored from an image to the D: drive). In this case, the user prompt for driver search on Network-Floppy-CD will not be issued. If a compatible driver cannot be found, Windows will suggest to ignore it or cancel restoration.

3.7.2 Using Acronis Universal Restore in virtual environment

Virtual machine technologies provide a powerful tool to help accelerate the development, testing, deployment and support of PC applications. Using Acronis True Image Server for Windows with Acronis Universal Restore you can perform real-to-virtual and virtual-to-real computer migration in the same way as with real systems.

If the virtual hard drive uses SCSI controller, you should provide appropriate drivers while performing system restore to the virtual machine. For example, the widespread VMware environment requires Buslogic or LSI logic drivers. Use drivers bundled with your virtual machine software or download the latest drivers versions from the software manufacturer website.

3.7.3 Hints on using Acronis Universal Restore

1. The system recovered by Acronis Universal Restore may not start if the partition structure in the image or the target disk partitioning does not coincide with that of th e source disk. As a result, the loader, restored from the image, will point to the wrong partition and the system will not boot or will malfunction.

Such might be the case if you:

- image not the entire source disk, but only the selected partitions

Keep in mind, that the source disk may have a hidden maintenance partition created by the computer vendor. Therefore, if you check each partition for backup instead of checking the disk, this hidden partition will not be included into the image.

- restore not the entire source disk, but only the selected partitions. In some cases, especially if your system resides on other than the first partition, this can confuse th e loader and prevent the restored system from startup

- image the system residing on the RAID array and restore t he system to a RAID array with different configuration.

To avoid the problem, we recommend that you image and restore the entire system disk and use the identical RAID configuration on the source and the target computer.

2. As appears from the above, a bootable system migration from RAID to HDD and vise versa is impossible.

3. When migrating from RAID to RAID, be sure to provide an app ropriat e driver for the RAID controller, otherwise a basic HDD driver will be installed.

4. Acronis Universal Restore option is not available when restoring dynamic disks and volumes.

3.7.4 Benefits

1. Acronis Universal Restore can be used “after the fact”: it is not necessary to create an image with the option, you can restore any image to different hardware.

2. Acronis Universal Restore allows the user to exactly specify drivers during restore, enabling their maximum compatibility with the hardware.

3. Acronis Universal Restore does not strip security identifier (SID) and user profile settings . This means that you will not need to re-join your domain or re-map network user profiles after a restore.

4. Acronis Universal Restore supports a driver repository to centrally store all drivers so users don’t need to go looking for them.

3.7 Using dynamic disks and volumes

Acronis True Image Server for Windows supports Windows LDM (also called Dynamic Disks). However, as dynamic disks are organized differently than basic, physical disk drives, their backup has some peculiar features.

You can create an image of the entire dynamic disk or one or more dynamic volumes. This is because a dynamic volume is located on several dynamic disks, so a partial backup would not create a usable image.

The current version of the software is not capable of changing the volume size and file system when an image is being restored to a dynamic volume. However, this is possible when you restore a dynamic volume to a basic disk partition.

When you create a dynamic volume image, its type information (simple, mirror, and the like) is lost, so the restoration is performed independently. In each case, the program st ores and restores volume contents only.

If a basic disk image is restored to a dynamic disk, it will destroy the dynamic disk’s contents. As a result, you will end up with a basic disk.

If Acronis True Image Server for Windows runs in rescue mode (for example, booted from Bootable Rescue media), dynamic disks will be not accessible. Therefore, to be able to repair a system partition, you must keep its image on a basic, network, or removable disk.

3.8 Backing up to tape drive

Acronis True Image Server for Windows supports SCSI tape drives. It can store backups on the tape and restore data from the tape, st ore large backups to multiple tapes, and append incremental/differential changes to a tape with the existing archives.

If a SCSI tape drive is connected to the server, the list of devices available for backup storage will be extended with a name corresponding to the drive type.

Backup and restore on the tape proceed in the same way as with other devices, with the following exceptions.

1. A full backup can be stored on an empty tape only. If you use tape that already contains data, its contents will be overwritten.

2. In case you want to keep more than one archive on the tape, for example, back up two disks separately, choose

incremental

second disk. In other situations, incremental backup is used for appending changes to the previously created archive.

backup mode when creating initial

full

backup for the

3. You do not have to provide filenames for backups. 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.

3.9 Viewing disk and partition information

You can change the way of data representation in all schemes you see in various wizards. To the right are three icons: Arrange Icons by, Choose Details and i (Display the

properties of the selected item), the last duplicated in the context menu invoked by right-clicking objects.

To sort messages by a particular column, click the header (another click will switch the messages to the opposite order) or Arrange Icons by button and select the column.

To select columns to view, right-click the headers line or left-click the Choose Details button. Then flag the columns you want to display.

If you click the i (Display the properties of the selected item) button, you will see the selected partition or disk properties window.

This window contains two panels. The left panel contains the properties tree and the rig ht describes the selected property in detail. The disk information includes its physical parameters (connection type, device type, size, etc.); partition information includes both physical (sectors, location, etc.), and logical (file system, free space, assigned letter, etc.) parameters.

You can change the width of columns by dragging their borders with the mouse.

Chapter 4. Using Acronis True Image Server for Windows

Acronis True Image Server for Windows supports the command-line mode for data ba ckup and restore, as well as the GUI mode, and can be used to execute XML scripts. Here we describe the operations available in GUI mode, which provides more functionality. For console commands and scripting see

Chapter 14. Command-line mode and scripting

4.1 Main program window

The main program window contains the menu, the toolbar, the sidebar, the Active Tasks pane and the main area. The main area contains operation icons, while the side bar features Tools and Help panels.

Most of the operations are represented tw o or even three times in different window areas, providing several ways to select them for more convenience. For example, you can start the necessary operation or tool by clicking its icon in the main area or by selecting the same item from the Operations or Tools menu.

The main window contains operation icons divided into two groups. The Task group contains the following operations:

• Backup – create a backup archive

• Recovery – restore data from a previously created archive

• Clone Disk – transfer the OS, applications and data from the old disk to the new one

• Add New Disk – add a new disk for data storage leaving th e OS a nd applications on the

old one.

The Tools group contains the following items:

• Mount Image – connect a disk/partition image as a virtual drive

• Unmount Image – disconnect the connected virtual drive

• Validate Backup Archive – runs the archive integrity checking procedure

• Show Log – opens the Log Viewer window

• Manage Acronis Secure Zone – used to create, delete and resize a special hidden

partition for storing archives (Acronis Secure Zone)

• Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager – activates the boot restoration

manager (F11 key).

Program menu

The program menu line features the Operations, View, Tools and Help items. The Operations menu contains a list of the available operations, including scheduling tasks. The View menu contains items for managing the program window look:

• Toolbars – contains commands that control toolbar icons

• Common Task Bar – enables/disables the sidebar

• Status Bar – enables/disables the status bar

• Active tasks – enables/disables the Active Tasks pane at the bottom of the main area.

The Tools menu contains the following items:

• Manage Acronis Secure Zone – used to create, delete and resize a special hidden

partition for storing archives (Acronis Secure Zone)

• Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager – activates the boot restoration

manager (F11 key)

• Validate Backup Archive – runs the archive integrity checking procedure

• Manage System Restore – allows you to turn on/off Microsoft Windows System

Restore tool and set its options directly from Acronis True Image Server for Windows

• Create Bootable Rescue Media – runs the bootable media creation procedure

• Show Log – opens the Log Viewer window

• Options – opens a window for editing default backup/restore options, setting text

appearance (fonts), configuring email/Winpopup notifications etc.

The Help menu is used to invoke help and obtain information about Acronis True Image Server for Windows.

Active Tasks pane

The Active Tasks pane displays the scheduled and currently-being-executed tasks. It features its own toolbar. You can customize this toolbar view by right-clicking on it and selecting the desired options.

Status bar

At the bottom of the main window, there is a status bar divided into two parts. The left sid e briefly describes the selected operation; the right side indicates operation progress and results. If you double-click on the operation results, you will see the logs window.

Taskbar notification area icon

During most of the operations, a special indicator icon appears in the Windows taskbar notification area (the right portion of the stat us bar with the clock). If you mouse over the icon, you will see a tool tip indicating the operation’s progress. This icon doesn’t depend on the main program window being open. It is present for background execution of scheduled tasks as well.

4.2 Managing a local computer

You can perform the following operations on the local computer.

• Backup and restore data, including system disks/partitions

Click Backup or Recovery, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Creating backup archives

• Schedule backup operations

Click the very left button on a tasks pane toolbar, then follow the Wizar d’s instructions. See details in

• Set up backup/restore options, such as system/network resources usage,

Select Tools -> Options -> Default backup options or Default restoration options and make settings. See details in

options.

• Validate backup archives wherever they reside, be it local, network or

Click Validate Backup Archive, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Chapter 7. Scheduling tasks

before/after backup commands etc.

removable media

Validating backup archives

• Set up sending notifications about Acronis True Image Server for Windows

operation and tracing this operation in Windows Application Event Log

Select Tools -> Options -> Notifications or Event tracing and make settings. See details in

10.2 Operation results notification

and

Chapter 6. Restoring the backup data.

5.3 Setting backup options

and

10.4 Event tracing

and

6.4 Setting esto e

Chapter 5

r r

10.1

• Browse logs of Acronis True Image Server for Windows operation

Click the very right button on a tasks pane toolbar at the bottom of the window. See details

10.3 Viewing logs

• Manage Acronis Secure Zone

Click Manage Acronis Secure Zone, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Chapter 8. Managing Acronis Secure Zone

• Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

Click Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, then follow the Wizard’s instructi ons. See details in

• Mount partitions’ images to explore and modify their contents, or to restore

individual files

Click Mount image, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

Mounting an image as a virtual drive

• Unmount previously mounted partition images

Click Unmount image, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

Unmounting an image

• Transfer the system to a new hard disk

Chapter 11.

11.2

Chapter 12. Transferring the system to a new disk

See

• Format partitions on a new hard disk

Chapter 13. Adding a new hard disk

See

• Turn on/off Windows System Restore tool

10.5 Managing Sys em Restore

See

• Create bootable rescue media, its ISO or RIS package

Chapter 9. Creating bootable media

See

Some of the above operations can be executed in command-line as well. For more information on Acronis True Image Server for Windows command-line mode see

Working in the command-line mode

14.1

Chapter 5. Creating backup archives

To be able to restore the lost data or roll back your system to a predetermined state, you should first create a data or entire-system backup file.

If you are not concerned about restoration of your operating system along with all settings and applications, but plan to keep safe only certain data (the current project, for example), choose file/folder backup. This will reduce the archive size, thus saving disk space and possibly reducing removable media costs.

Backing up the entire system disk (creating a disk image) takes more disk space but enables you to restore the system in minutes in case of severe data damage or hardware failure. Moreover, the imaging procedure is much faster than copying files, and may significantly speed the backup process when it comes to backing up large volumes of data (see details in

3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images

5.1 Backing up files and folders (file backup)

1. Invoke the Create Backup Wizard by clicking on the backup operation icon in the main program window.

2. Click Next.

3. Select Backup files and click Next.

4. From the tree pane, select files and folders to back u p. You can select a random set of files, folders, partitions, disks and even computers.

If you select a partition, disk or computer, and archive all its files, including system and hidden files, the bare-metal restore of that disk (partition, computer) still will not be possible. You also may not be able to boot the restored operating system. Therefore, it is recommended that you select only files and folders containing user data. To back up a disk or partition, use image backup.

5. Click Next.

6. Set filters for not to back up files of specific types. For example, you may want hidden and system files and folders, as well as files with .~, .tmp and .bak extensions, not to be stored in the archive.

You can also apply custom filters, using the common Windows masking rules. For example, to exclude all files with extension .exe, add *.exe mask. My???.exe mask will reject all .exe files with names, consisting of five symbols and starting with “my”.

All of these settings will take effect for the current task. How to set the default filters, that will be called each time you create a file backup task, see in

5.3.2 Source files exclusion

7. Click Next.

8. Select the name and location of the archive file. If you are going to create a full backup, type the file name in the File Name line, or use the

file name generator (a button to the right of the line). If you select an existing archive, it will be overwritten.

If you are going to create an incremental backup (see

backup

), select the latest full or incremental backup you have.

In fact, if all incremental backup files are stored together, it doesn't matter which one you select, as the program will recognize them as a single archive. If you stored the files on several removable disks, you must provide the latest archive file; otherwise, restoration problems might occur.

3.2 Full, incremental and differential

If you are going to create a differential backup, select the full backup which will be a base, or any of existing differential archives. Either way, the program will create a new differential archive file.

The “farther” you store the archive from the original folders, the safer it will be in case of data damage. For example, saving the archive to another hard disk will protect your data if the primary disk is damaged. Data saved to a network disk, ftp-server or removable media will survive even if all your local hard disks are down. You can also use Acronis Secure Zone (see details in

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone

) for storing backups. In that case, you need not

provide the file name.

You will need DVD UDF recording software installed for burning images on DVD disks. Examples of this software are Roxio DirectCD or Ahead InCD.

An FTP server must allow passive mode for file transfers. To enable data recovery directly from FTP server split the archive to files no more than 2 Gb in size.

9. Click Next.

10. Select whether you want to create a full, incremental or differential backup. If you ha ve not backed up the selected files/folders yet, or the full archive seems too old to append incremental changes to it, choose full backup. Otherwise it is recommended that you create an incremental or differential backup (see

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backup

11. Click Next.

12. Select the backup options (that is, backup file splitting, compression level, password protection, pre/post backup commands etc.). You may Use default options or Set the options manually. If the latter is the case, the settings will be applied only to the current backup task. Alternatively, you can edit the default options from the current screen. Then your settings will be saved as default. See

5.3 Setting backup options

for more information.

13. Click Next.

14. Provide a comment for the archive. This can help prevent you from restoring the wrong files. However, you can choose not to make any notes. The backup file size and creation date are automatically appended to the description, so you do not need to enter this information.

15. Click Next.

16. At the final step, the backup task summary is displayed. Up to this point, you can click Back to make changes in the created task. Clicking Proceed will launch the task execution.

17. The task will appear on the Active tasks pane of the main window. The task progress will be shown in the special window. You can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel.

You can also close the progress window by clicking Hide. The backup creation will continue, but you will be able to start another operation or close the main program window. In the latter case, the program will continue working in the background and will automatically close once the backup archive is ready. If you prepare some more backup operations, they will be queued after the current one.

You may want to adjust the backup process priority. To do so, click on the process icon in the System Tray and select Low, Normal, or High priority from the appearing menu. How to set the default priority, see in

5.3.6 Backup performance

If you burn an archive to several removable media, be sure to number them, since you will have to insert them in order during the restoration.

18. You may want to see the log when the task is completed. To view the log, click the Show Operation Logs button on the toolbar.

5.2 Backing up disks and partitions (image backup)

1. Invoke the Create Backup Wizard by clicking on the backup operation icon in the main program window.

2. Click Next.

3. Select Backup disks and click Next.

4. Select disks or partitions to back up. You can select a random set of disks and partitions.

5. Click Next.

6. Select the name and location of the archive file. If you are going to create a full archive, type the file name in the File Name line, or use the

file name generator (a button to the right of the line). If you select an existing archive, it will be overwritten.

If you are going to create an incremental backup (see

backup

), select the latest full or incremental backup you have.

3.2 Full, incremental and differential

The “farther” you store the archive from the original partition, the safer it will be in case of data damage. For example, saving the archive to another hard disk will protect your data if your primary disk is damaged. Data saved to a network dis k, ftp-server or removable media will survive even if all your local hard disks are down. You can also use Acronis Secure Zone (see details in

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone

) for storing backups. In that case, you need not

provide the file name.

You will need DVD UDF recording software installed for burning images on DVD disks. Examples of this software are Roxio DirectCD or Ahead InCD.

An FTP server must allow passive mode for file transfers. To enable data recovery directly from FTP server split the archive to files no more than 2 Gb in size.

7. Click Next.

8. Select whether you want to create a full or incremental backup. If you have not backed u p the selected disks/partitions yet, or the full archive seems too old to append incremental

changes to it, choose full backup. Otherwise it is recommended that you create an incremental or differential backup (see

3 2 Full , increm ent a l and diff eren tial backup

9. Click Next.

10. Select the backup options (that is, backup file splitting, compression level, password protection, pre/post backup commands etc.). You may Use default options or Set the options manually. If the latter is the case, the settings will be applied only to the current backup task. Alternatively, you can edit the default options from the current screen. Then your settings will be saved as default. See

5.3 Setting backup options

for more information.

11. Click Next.

12. Provide a comment for the archive. This can help prevent you from restoring the wrong disk/partition. However, you can choose not to make any notes. The backup file size and creation date are automatically appended to the description, so you do not need to enter this information.

13. Click Next.

14. At the final step, the backup task summary is displayed. Up to this point, you can click Back to make changes in the created task. Clicking Proceed will launch the task execution.

15. The task will appear on the Active tasks pane of the main window. The task progress will be shown in the special window. You can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel.

If you burn an archive to several removable media, be sure to number them, since you will have to insert them in order during the restoration.

5.3.6 Backup performance

16. You may want to see the log when the task is completed. To view the log, click the Show Operation Logs button on the toolbar.

5.3 Setting backup options

To view or edit the default backup options, select Tools -> Options -> Default Backup Options from the main program menu.

You can edit the default (or set the temporary) backup op tions while creating a backup task as well.

5.3.1 Archive protection

The default setting – no password. An archive can be protected with a password. To protect the archive fr om being restored by

anybody except you, enter a password and its confirmation into th e text fields. A password should consist of at least eight symbols and contain both letters (in the upper and lower cases preferably) and numbers to make it more difficult to guess.

If you try to restore data from a password-protected archive, or append an incremental/differential backup to such an archive, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will ask for the password in a special window, allowing access only to authorized users.

5.3.2 Source files exclusion

The default setting – all files from the selected folders will be included into the archive.

You can set the default filters for not to back up files o f sp eci fic typ es. Fo r example, you may want hidden and system files and folders, as well as files with .~, .tmp and .bak extensions, not to be stored in the archive.

This option is effective for file/folders backup only. When creating a disk/partition image, you cannot filter out any files.

5.3.3 Pre/post commands

You can specify commands or batch files to be automatically executed before and after the

backup procedure

before starting backup or configure a third-party antivirus product to be started each time before the backup starts. Click Edit to open the Edit Command window where you can easily input the command, its arguments and working directory or browse folders to find a batch file.

. For example, you may want to remove some tmp files from the disk

Unchecking the Do not perform operations until the commands execution is complete box, checked by default, will permit the backup process to run concurrently with your commands execution.

5.3.4 Database support

Database servers, such as MS SQL Server and MS Exchange, prove to be troublesome to backup, partially due to open files and indexes and partially due to rapid data changes. Therefore many system administrators prefer to suspend the database at the backup (capturing the Snapshot) moment.

1. Volume Shadow Copy Service

Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) provides the infrastructure for backup

on running systems by keeping up coordination between user applications that update data on disk and backup applications. VSS is available in Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

If your database is compatible with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), then checking the Enable VSS support box in Database support window will ensure completion of all transactions before the backup process starts. Then the database will be ready to access immediately after recovery. The examples of VSS-aware databases are Exchange, Oracle, SQL Server.

2. Before/after data capture commands

However, VSS is not available in server operation systems older than Windows 2003 Server, and not all databases support VSS. In these cases, the transa ctions completion can

be ensured with executing batch files or scripts that pause the appropriate Windows services and automatically resume them after data capture.

An example of a batch file, suspending the Windows services for MS Exchange:

net stop msexchangesa /y /y net stop “Microsoft Exchange Routing Engine”

An example of a batch file, resuming the Windows services for MS Exchange:

net start “Microsoft Exchange System Attendant” net start “Microsoft Exchange Event” net start “Microsoft Exchange IMAP4” net start “Microsoft Exchange MTA Stacks” net start “Microsoft Exchange POP3” net start “Microsoft Exchange Routing Engine”

Create batch files in any text editor (for example, name it ‘pause_services.bat’ and ‘resume_services.bat’). Use Edit buttons to the right of Before data capture command and After data capture command fields, to open the Edit Command window where you can browse folders to find the respective batch files or scripts. A single command can be specified in the same window along with its arguments and working directory.

It is critical to note that these commands, as opposed to Backup commands above, will be executed before and after backup procedure may take quite long time. Therefore, the database idle time will be minimal.

data capture

process, which takes seconds, while the entire

Before/after data capture commands can also be used for purposes, different from suspending the database, especially if VSS support is enabled. You m ay want to suspend an application other than database, for example. The commands execu tion and the VSS actions will be sequenced as follows:

“before” commands -> VSS Suspend -> data capture -> VSS Resume -> “after” commands. Unchecking the Do not perform operations until the commands execution is

complete box, checked by default, will permit the backup process to run concurrently with your commands execution.

5.3.5 Compression level

The default setting – Normal. If you select None, the data will be copied without any compression, which may significantly

increase the backup file size. However, if you select Maximum compression, the backup will take longer to create.

The optimal data compression level depends on the type of files st ored in the archive. For example, even maximum compression will not significantly reduce the archive size if the archive contains essentially compressed files, like .jpg, .pdf or .mp3.

Generally, it is recommended that you use the default Normal compression level. You might want to select Maximum compression for removable media to reduce the number of blank disks required.

5.3.6 Backup performance

The three options below might have a more or less noticeable effect on the backup process speed. This depends on overall system configuration and physical characteristics of devices.

1. Backup process priority

The default setting – Low. The priority of any process, running in a system, determines the amount of CPU usage and

system resources allocated to that process. Decreasing the backup priority will free more resources for other CPU tasks. Increasing of backup priority may speed up the backup process due to taking resources from the other currently running processes. The effect wil l depend on total CPU usage and other factors.

2. HDD writing speed

The default setting – Maximum. Backing up in the background to an internal hard disk (for example, to Acronis Secure Zone)

may slow other programs performance because of large amounts of data transferred t o the disk. You can limit the hard disk usage by Acronis True Image Server for Windows to a desired level. To set the desired HDD writing speed for data being back ed up, dr ag t he slider or enter the writing speed in kilobytes per second.

3. Network connection speed

The default setting – Maximum.

If you frequently backup data to network drives, think of limiting the networ k usage used by Acronis True Image Server for Windows. To set the desired data transfer speed, drag the slider or enter the bandwidth limit for transferring backup data in kilobytes per second.

5.3.7 Fast incremental/differential backup

The default setting – Use fast incremental/differential backup. Incremental/differential backup captures only changes in data occurred since the last

backup. To speed up the backup process, Acronis True Image Server for Windows determines whether the file has changed by file size and the date/time when the file was last saved. Disabling this feature will make the program compare the entire file contents to that stored in the archive.

This option relates only to disk/partition (image) backup.

5.3.8 Archive splitting

Sizeable backups can be split into several files that together make the original backup. A backup file can be split for burning to removable media or saving on ftp-server (data recovery directly from ftp-server requires the archive to be split into files no more than 2 Gb in size).

The default setting – Automatic. With this setting, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will act as follows.

When backing up to the hard disk:

allows the estimated file size, the program will create a single archive file. If the storage disk has enough space, but its file system does not allow the estimated file

size, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will automatically split the backup into several files.

If the selected disk has enough space and its file system

FAT16 and FAT32 file systems have a 4 GB file size limit. At the same time, the existing hard drives capacity may reach as much as 160GB. Therefore, an archive file might easily exceed this limit, if you are going to back up the entire disk.

If you do not have enough space to store the image on your hard disk, the program will warn you and wait for your decision as to how you plan to fix the problem. You can try to free some additional space and continue or click Back and select another disk.

When backing up to a diskette, CD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW:

Acronis True Image Server for

Windows will ask you to insert a new disk when the previous one is full. Alternatively, you can select Fixed size and enter the desired file size or select it from the

drop-down list. The backup will then be split into multiple files of the specified size. That comes in handy when backing up to a hard disk with a view to burning the archive to CDR/RW or DVD

+R/RW later on.

Creating images directly on CD-R/RW or DVD than it would on a hard disk.

+R/RW might take considerably more time

5.3.9 File-level security settings

Preserve files’ security settings in archives

By default, files and folders are saved in the archive with their original Windows security settings (i.e. permissions for read, write, execute and so on for each user or user group, set in file Properties -> Security). If you restore a secured file/folder on a computer without user, specified in the permissions, you may not be able to read or modify this file.

To completely eliminate this kind of problem, you can disable preserving files’ security settings in archives. Then the restored files/folders will always inherit the permissions from the folder, where they are restored to (parent folder or disk, if restored to the root).

Alternatively, you can disable files’ security settings during restoration, even if they are available in the archive (see same.

6.4 5 File-l evel security

settings below). The result will be the

In archives, store encrypted files in decrypted state

The default setting – disabled. If you do not use encryption feature, available in Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP

operating systems, simply ignore this option. (Files/folders encryption is set in Properties - > General -> Advanced Attributes -> Encrypt contents to secure data).

Check the option if there are encrypted files in the backup and you want them to be accessed by any user after restore. Otherwise, only the user who encrypted the files/folders will be able to read them. Decryption may also be useful if you are going to restore encrypted files on another computer.

These options relate only to file/folders backup.

5.3.10 Media components

The default setting – disabled. When backing up to removable media, you can make this media bootable by writing to it

additional components. Thus, you will not need a separate rescue disk. Choose the basic components, necessary for boot and restoring data, on the General tab. The Acronis One-Click Restore is a minimal addition to your rescue media, allowing one-

click data recovery from an image archive, stored on this media. This means that at boot from the media and clicking “restore” all data will be silently restored to the original place. No options or selections like resizing partitions will be possible.

If you want more functionality during restoration, write a standalone version of Acronis True Image Server for Windows to the rescue disk. Then you will be able to configure

the restore task using Restore Data Wizard, use Acronis Snap Restore or Acronis Universal Restore etc.

Under Advanced tab you can select full, safe or both Acronis True Image Server for Windows loader version. The safe version does not have USB, PC card or SCSI drivers and is useful only in case the full version does not load. If you wan t the computer, booted from the media, to be accessible for remote control with Acronis True Image Management Console, add Acronis Bootable Agent to the media. If you have other Acronis products, such as Acronis Disk Director Suite, installed on your computer, the bootable versions of these programs’ components will be offered as Advanced as well.

In case you check Do not place additional components if there is no free space box, the program will try to write at least Acronis True Image Server for Windows to media, short of space.

5.3.11 Additional settings

1. Validate backup archive upon operation completion

The default setting – disabled. You can choose to check the backup data integrity. Verification will be performed

immediately after the archive is created.

To check data from an incremental backup, you must have all previous incremental backup files and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing, validation is impossible.

To check data from a differential backup, you must have the initial full backup as well. However, if you created several differential or both incremental and differential backups

based on the same full backup (and therefore, in the same folder), you will need ALL of these successive backups to validate the archive.

2. Overwrite data on a tape without user confirmation

The default setting – disabled. A full backup, when created on a tape drive, overwrites all data stored on the tape (see

Backing up to tape drive

for more information). In this situation, Acronis True Image Server

3.8

for Windows will warn that you are about to lose data on the tape. To disable this warning, check the middle box.

3. Ask for first media while creating backup archives on removable media The default setting – enabled. You can choose whether to display the Insert First Media prompt when backing up to

removable media. With the default setting, backing up to removable media may be impossible if the user is away, because the program will wait for pressing OK in the prompt box. Therefore, you should disable the prompt when scheduling a backup to removable media. Then, if the removable media is availa ble (for example, CD-R/RW inserted) the task can run unattended.

Chapter 6. Restoring the backup data

6.1 Restore under Windows or boot from CD?

As mentioned above (see True Image Server for Windows can be run in several ways. We recommend that you first try to restore data running Acronis True Image Server for Windows under Windows, because this method provides more functionality. Boot from the bo otable media or use the Startup Recovery Manager (see load.

The boot CD from which you loaded the program does not keep you from using other CDs with backups. Acronis True Image Server for Windows is loaded entirely into RAM, so you can remove the bootable CD to insert the archive disk.

2.3 Running Acronis True Image Server

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager)

for Windows), Acronis

only if Windows does not

6.1.1 Network settings in rescue mode

When booted from removable media, RIS server or by Startup Recovery Manager, Acronis True Image Server for Windows may not detect the netw or k. Such might be the case if there is no DHCP server in your network or your computer address was not identified automatically for some reason.

To enable connection, specify network settings manually in the window, available at Tools -

> Options -> Network adapters.

6.2 Restoring files and folders from file archives

Here we describe how to restore file/folders fro m a file backup archive. You can re store the desired files/folders from a disk/partition image as well. To do so, mount the image (see

Chapter 11. Mounting an image as a virtual drive

Restore specified files or folders (see

images

) or start the image restoration and select

6.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from

1. Invoke the Restore Data Wizard by clicking on the restore operation icon in the main program window.

2. Click Next.

3. Select the archive. If the archive is located in Acronis Secure Zone, select it to choose the archive on the next step.

If the archive is located on removable media, e.g. CD, first insert the last CD and then insert disks in reverse order when Restore Data Wizard prompts.

Data recovery directly from ftp-server requires the archive to consist of files no more than 2 Gb in size. If you suppose that some of the files may be larger, first copy the entire archive (along with the initial full backup) to a local hard disk or network share disk.

If you added a comment to the archive, it will be displayed to the right of the drives tree. If the archive was protected with a password, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will ask for it. The comment and the Next button will be unavailable until you enter the correct password.

4. Click Next.

5. If you are to restore files from an ar chive, containing incremental backups, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will suggest that you select one of successive incremental backups by date/time of its creation. Thus, you can return the files/folders to a certain moment.

To restore data from an incremental backup, you must have all previous incremental backup files and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing, restoration is impossible.

To restore data from a differential backup, you must have the initial full backup as well.

6. Click Next.

7. Select a folder on your computer where you want to restore selected folders/files (a target folder). You can restore data to their original location or choose another folder, if necessary.

8. Click Next.

9. Select files and folders to restore. You can choose to restore all data or browse the archive contents and select the desired folders or files.

10. Click Next.

11. Select the options for restoration process (that is, pre/post restoration commands, restoration process priority, file-level security settings etc.). You may Use default options or Set the options manually. If the latter is the case, the settings will be applied only to the current restore task. Alternatively, you can edit the default options from the current screen. Then your settings will be saved as default. See

6.4 Setting restore options

for more

information.

12. Click Next.

13. Set filters for not to restore files of specific types. For example, you may want hidden and system files and folders, as well as files with .~, .tmp and .bak extensions, not to be restored from the archive.

All of these settings will take effect for the current task. How to set the default filters, that will be called each time you restore data, see in

14. Click Next.

15. The next selection allows you to keep useful data changes, made since the selected backup was created. Choose what to do if the program finds in the target folder a file with the same name as in the archive.

6.4.1 Files to res ore exclusion

Overwrite existing file – this will give the archived file unconditional priority over the file on the hard disk.

Overwrite existing file if it is older – this will give the priority to the most recent file modification, whether it is in the archive or on the disk

Do not overwrite existing file – this will give the file on the hard disk unconditional priority over the archived file.

16. At the final step, the restoration summary is displayed. Up to this point, you can click Back to make changes in the created task. Clicking Proceed will launch the task execution.

17. The task will appear on the Active tasks pane of the main window. The task progress will be shown in the special window. You can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel. Please keep in mind that the aborted procedure still may cause changes in the destination folder.

6.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images

To restore a partition (disk) from an image, Acronis True Image Server for Windows must obtain exclusive access to the target partition (disk). This means no other applications can

access it at that time. If you receive a message stating that the partition (disk) can not be blocked, close applications that use this partition (disk) and start over. If you can not determine which applications use the partition (disk), close them all.

6.3.1 Starting the Restore Data Wizard

1. Invoke the Restore Data Wizard by clicking on the restore operation icon in the main program window.

2. Click Next.

6.3.2 Archive selection

1. Select the archive. If the archive is located in Acronis Secure Zone, select it to choose the archive at the next step.

If the archive is located on removable media, e.g. CD, first insert the last CD and then insert disks in reverse order when Restore Data Wizard prompts.

Data recovery directly from ftp-server requires the archive to be split into files no more than 2 Gb in size. If you suppose that some of the files may be larger, first copy the entire archive (along with the initial full backup) to a local hard disk or network share disk.

If you added a comment to the archive, it will be displayed to the right of the drives tree. If the archive was protected with a password, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will ask for it. The partitions layout, the comment and the Next button will be unavailable until you enter the correct password.

2. Click Next.

3. If you are to restore data from an archive, containing incremental backups, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will suggest that you select one of successive incremental backups by date/time of its creation. Thus, you can return the disk/partition to a certain moment.

To restore data from an incremental backup, you must have all previous incremental backup files and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing, restoration is

impossible. To restore data from a differential backup, you must have the initial full backup as well.

4. Click Next.

6.3.3 Restoration type selection

1. Select what you want to restore:

Restore specified files or folders

With this selection, you will be further offered to select where to restore selected folders/files (original or new location), choose files/folders to be rest ored and so on . These ste ps look lik e those in file archive restore. However, watch your selection: if you are to restore files instead of disk/partition, uncheck the unnecessary folders. Otherwise you will restore a lot of excessive files. Then you will be taken directly to Restoration Summary screen (

Restoration summary and executing resto a ion

r t

6.3.13

Restore disks or partitions

Having selected a usual way of disks/partitions recovery, you will have to make all settings described below.

Using Snap Restore

When restoring a system disk/partition image from Acronis Secure Zone, you will have the third opportunity – to use Acronis Snap Restore. Having selected this option, you will

proceed directly to the summary window (

restoration

). In a few seconds after pressing Proceed the computer will reboot to the

6 3.13 Restoration summary and executing

restored system. Log in and work – no more reboots or other actions required. More about Acronis Snap Restore see in

When performing Snap Restore, the current Acronis True Image Server for Windows version always restores the entire system disk. Therefore, if your system disk consists of several partitions and you are planning to use Acronis Snap Restore, all partitions must be included into the image. Otherwise partitions, missing in the image, will be lost.

3.5 Acronis Snap Restore

However, you can choose an ordinary way of restoration for that image. This will allow you to make changes to the restored partition, that would be impossible when using Acronis Snap Restore.

Finally, if you are not going to recover the system, but only want to repair damaged files, select Restore specified files or folders.

2. Click Next.

6.3.4 Selecting a disk/partition to restore

1. The selected archive file can contain images of several partitions or even disks. Select which disk/partition to restore.

Disks and partitions images contain a copy of track 0 along with MBR (Master Boot Record). It appears in this window in a separate line. You can choose whether to restore MBR and track 0 by checking the respective box. Restore MBR if it is critical to your system boot.

2. Click Next.

6.3.5 Selecting a target disk/partition

1. Select a target disk or partition where you want to restore the selected image. You can restore data to their initial location, to another di sk/partition or to an unallocated sp ace. The target partition should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data.

All the data stored on the restored partition will be replaced by the image data, so be careful and watch for non-backed-up data that you might need.

2. Click Next.

6.3.6 Changing the restored partition type

1. When restoring a partition, you can change its type, though it is not required in most cases.

To illustrate why you might need to do this, let’s imagine that both the operating system and data were stored on the same primary partition on a damaged disk.

If you are restoring a system partition to the new (or the same) disk and wan t to load an operating system from it, you will select Active.

If you restore a system partition to another hard disk with its own partitions and OS, most probably, you will need only the data. In this case, you can restore the partition as Logical to access the data only.

By default, the original partition type is selected.

Selecting Active for a partition without an installed operating system could prevent your server from booting.

2. Click Next.

6.3.7 Changing the restored partition file system

1. Though seldom required, you can change the partition fi le system during its restoration. Acronis True Image Server for Windows can make the following file system conversions: FAT 16 -> FAT 32, Ext2 -> Ext3. For partitions with other native file systems this option is not available.

Let us imagine you are to restore a partition from an old, low-capacity FAT16 disk to a newer disk. FAT16 would not be effective and might even be impossible to set on the highcapacity hard disk. That's because FAT16 supports partitions up to 4 GB, so you will not be able to restore a 4 GB FAT16 partition to a partition that exceeds that limit without changing the file system. It would make sense here to change the file system from FAT16 to FAT32.

However, keep in mind that not all operating systems support FAT32. MS-DOS, Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.x, 4.x do not support FAT32 and will not be operable after you restore a partition and change its file system. These can be normally restored on a FAT16 partition only.

2. Click Next.

6.3.8 Changing the restored partition size and location

1. You can resize and relocate a partition by dr agging it or its borders with a mouse or by entering corresponding values into the appropriate fields.

Using this feature, you can redistribute the disk space betw een partitions being restored. In this case, you will have to restore the partition to be reduced first.

These changes might be useful if you are to copy your hard disk to a new high-capacity one by creating its image and restoring it to a new disk with larger partitions. This way of cloning is used if it is impossible to connect the second hard disk to the server (for more details about cloning see

12.1 General information

2. Click Next.

6.3.9 Assigning a letter to the restored partition

1. Acronis True Image Server for Windows will assign an unused letter to a restored partition. You can select the desired letter from a drop-down list. If you set the switch to No, no letters will be assigned to the restored partition, hiding it from OS.

You should not assign letters to partitions inaccessible to Windows, such as to those other than FAT and NTFS.

2. Click Next.

6.3.10 Restoring several partitions at once

1. During a single session, you can restore several partitions or disks, one by one, by selecting one disk and setting its parameters first and then repeating these a ctions for every partition or disk to be restored.

If you want to restore another disk (partition), select Yes, I want to restore another partition or hard disk drive. Then you will return to the partition selection window (6.3.4) again and will have to repeat the above steps. Otherwise, don’t set this switch.

2. Click Next.

6.3.11 Setting restore options

1. Select the options for restoration process (that is, pre/post restoration commands, restoration process priority etc.). You may Use default options or Set the options manually. If the latter is the case, the settings will be applied only to the current restore task. Alternatively, you can edit the default options from the current screen. Then your settings will be saved as default. See

6.4 Se ing restore options

for more information.

2. Click Next.

6.3.12 Using Acronis Universal Restore

Acronis Universal Restore is an optional Acronis True Image Server for Windows feature. It should be purchased separately and installed from a separate .msi setup file. The following is true for Acronis True Image Server for Windows installations including Acronis Universal Restore.

Acronis Universal Restore option is not available when restoring dynamic disks and volumes.

1. Using Acronis Universal Restore will help you create a bootable system clone on a different hardware (for more information see

3.6 Acronis Universal Restore

). Choose this when restoring a system disk (partition) to a computer with other processor, motherboar d or hard disk controller than in the imaged system.

2. Click Next.

3. You can specify a path to the driver repository (a folder or folders o n a network drive or CD where the program will search for drivers).

4. Click Next.

5. If you know which drivers will fit for the new hardware, add them to the drivers list in the next window. You can add HAL and hard disk controller drivers. Drivers for devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.) will be found by Windows itself when it boots.

Thus, Acronis Universal Restore uses three sources for drivers search: the driver repository, the list of user-specified (enforced) drivers, an d the Windows default driver storage folders (in the image being restored). The program will find the most suitable drivers of all available and install them into the restored system. However, the drivers, defined by the user (enforced drivers), will have the priority. They will be installed, with appropriate warning, even if the program finds the better driver.

When migrating from RAID to RAID, be sure to specify an appropriate driver for the RAID controller in the Forcedly Installed Drivers window. Otherwise a basic HDD driver will be installed.

When restoring the system to a virtual machine that uses SCSI hard drive controller, be sure to specify SCSI drivers for virtual environment in the Forcedly Installed Drivers window. Use drivers bundled with your virtual machine software or download the latest drivers versions from the software manufacturer website.

6. Click Next.

6.3.13 Restoration summary and executing restoration

1. At the final step, the restoration summary is displayed. Up to this point, you can click Back to make changes in the created task. If you click Cancel, no changes will be made to disk(s). Clicking Proceed will launch the task execution.

2. The task will appear on the Active tasks pane of the main window. The task progress will be shown in the special window.

You can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel. However, it is critical to note that the target partition will be deleted and its space unallocated – the same result you will get if the restoration is unsuccessful. To recover the “lost” partition, you will have to restore it from the image again.

If Acronis Universal Restore finds no HAL or hard disk controller drivers compatible with the new hardware in all available sources, you will be prompted to browse network share drive, floppy disk or CD to select missing drivers. On starting Windows, it will initialize a common procedure for installing new hardware. At this point, you will be able to specify drivers for devices, if Windows cannot find them automatically.

6.4 Setting restore options

To view or edit the default restore options, select Tools -> Options -> Default Restoration Options from the main program menu.

You can edit the default (or set the temporary) restore options while cr eating a restore task as well.

6.4.1 Files to restore exclusion

The default setting – Restore all files. You can set the default filters for not to restore files of specific types. Use the common

Windows masking rules. For example, to exclude all files with extension .exe, add *.exe mask. My???.exe mask will reject all .exe files with names, consisting of five symbols and starting with “my”.

This option is effective only when restoring files from file/folders archives. When restoring files from a disk/partition image, you cannot filter out any files.

6.4.2 Files overwriting mode

This option allows you to keep useful data changes, made since the backup being restored was done. Choose what to do if the program finds in the target folder a file with the same name as in the archive.

Overwrite existing file – this will give the archived file unconditional priority over the file on the hard disk.

Overwrite existing file if it is older – this will give the priority to the most recent file modification, whether it is in the archive or on the disk.

Do not overwrite existing file – this will give the file on the hard disk unconditional priority over the archived file.

This option is effective only when restoring files from file/folders archives.

6.4.3 Pre/post commands

You can specify commands or batch files to be automatically executed before and after the restore procedure. Click Edit to open the Edit Command window where you can easily input the command, its arguments and working directory or browse folders to find a bat ch file.

Unchecking the Do not perform operations until the commands execution is complete box, checked by default, will permit the restore procedure to run concurrently with your commands execution.

6.4.4 Restoration priority

The default setting – Low. The priority of any process, running in a system, determines the amount of CPU usage and

system resources allocated to that process. Decreasing the restoration priority will free more resources for other CPU tasks. Increasing of restoration priority may speed up the restore process due to taking resources from the other currently running processes. The effect wil l depend on total CPU usage and other factors.

6.4.5 File-level security settings

The default setting – Restore files with their security settings.

5 3.9 File level secu ity

If the files’ security settings were preserved during backup (see settings), you can choose whether to restore files’ security settings or let the files inherit the security settings of the folder where they will be restored.

This option is effective only when restoring files from file/folders archives.

. - r

6.4.6 Additional settings

1. You can choose whether to restore files’ date and tim e from the archiv e or assign t he files the current date and time.

2. Before data is restored from the archive, Acronis True Image Server for Windows can check its integrity. If you suspect that the archive might have been corrupted, select Validate backup archive before restoration.

To check data from an incremental backup, you must have all previous incremental backup files and the initial full backup. If any of the successive backups are missing, validation is impossible.

To check data from a differential backup, you must have the initial full backup as well. However, if you created several differential or both incremental and differential backups

based on the same full backup (and therefore, in the same folder), you will need ALL of these successive backups to validate the archive.

3. Having restored a disk/partition from an image, Acr onis True Image Server for Windows can check the integrity of its file system. To do so, select Check file system after restoration.

Verification of the file system is available only when restoring disk/partitions under Windows and for FAT16/32 and NTFS file systems.

Chapter 7. Scheduling tasks

Acronis True Image Server for Windows allows you to schedule periodic backup tasks. Doing so will give you peace of mind, knowing that your data are safe.

You can create more than one independentl y scheduled task. For example, you can ba ck up your current project daily and back up the application disk once a week.

All the scheduled tasks appear in the Active Tasks area of the main window. You can start, stop, edit, delete and rename the scheduled tasks.

7.1 Creating scheduled tasks

1. To invoke the Schedule Task Wizard, click on its icon on the Active Tasks toolbar or select Operations -> Schedule Task from the main menu.

2. Click Next.

3. Configure a backup task in the usual way (see you choose to create the backup archive on a network drive, you will have to enter a user name and a password for network access.

4. Set the task execution periodicity.

Chapter 5. Creating backup archives

). If

• Do not start automatically – the task will be saved, but not launched automatically.

You will be able to launch it later by clicking the start button on the Active Tasks pane

• Daily – the task will be executed once a day or once in several days

• Weekly – the task will be executed once a week or once in several weeks on sel ected

day

• Monthly – the task will be executed once a month on the selected day

• One time only – the task will be executed once at the specified time and day

• When my computer starts – the task will be executed at every OS startup

• When I log on – the task will be executed each time the current user logs in to the OS

• When my computer shuts down – the task will be executed before every server

shutdown or reboot

• When I log off – the task will be executed each time the current user logs off of the

OS.

Some of these options might be disabled depending on the operating system.

5. Click Next.

6. Specify the task start time and other schedule parameters, according to the selected periodicity (see 7.1.1 - 7.1.4).

7. Click Next.

8. Next you will have to specify the name of the user who owns the executed task; otherwise no scheduled execution will be available.

In the upper field, enter a user name. Enter a password twice in two fields below.

9. At the final step, the task configuration is displayed. Up to this point, you can click Back to make changes in the created task. If you click Cancel, all settings will be lost. Click Finish to save the task.

10. The task schedule and default name appear on the Active tasks pane of the main window. You are prompted to rename the task just now. If you do not want to do it, press Enter or Esc key.

7.1.1 Setting up daily execution

If you select the daily execution, set the Start time and days on which you want to execute the task:

• Every day

• Weekdays

• Every х days – once in several days (specify the interval).

If the computer is off when the scheduled time comes, the task won’t b e perform ed, but you can force the missed task to launch at the next system startup by checking a box under the Start time fields.

7.1.2 Setting up weekly execution

If you select the weekly execution, set the Start time, specify the task execution periodicity in the Every x weeks box (every week, every two weeks, etc.) and check days on which to execute the task.

7.1.3 Setting up monthly execution

If you select the monthly execution, set the Start time and days on which to execute the task:

• Day – on the specified date

• The <specify a day> – on the specified day (e.g. on second Tuesday or fourth Friday);

select this from the drop-down lists.

7.1.4 Setting up one-time execution

If you select the one-time execution, set the Start time and dat e on which to execute the task:

7.2 Managing scheduled tasks

The task Status, Schedule, Last Run Time and Last Result are shown on the Active tasks pane of the main window. To view the other task details, right-click on its name.

There are two ways of changing the task parameters. Editing allows you to change any task parameters. This is performed in the same way as creation, however, the earlier selected options will be set, so you have to enter only the changes. To edit a task, select it and click Edit the Selected Task on the Active tasks toolbar.

If you want to change only periodicity and/or start time, click Schedule the Selected Task on the Active tasks toolbar. Then you will have to perform only scheduling steps, leaving the backup settings the same.

To delete a task with confirmation, select it and click Delete the Selected Task on the Active tasks toolbar.

To rename a task, select it, click Rename the Selected Task on the Active tasks toolbar, enter the new task name and press Enter.

Chapter 8. Managing Acronis Secure Zone

8.1 Creating Acronis Secure Zone

Acronis Secure Zone can be located on any local disk. It is created using unallocated space, if available, or at the expense of free space on a partiti on. A computer can have only one secure zone. To create a zone on another disk, you must first delete an existing zone.

When you click Manage Acronis Secure Zone in the menu, the program searches for the zone on all local drives. If a zone is found, the wizard will offer to delete or resize it. If there is no zone, you’ll be prompted to create it.

1. Before creating the Acronis Secure Zone, you can estimate its size. To do this, start backup and select all data you are going to backup into the Acronis Secure Zone. At the Set Backup Options step choose Set the options manually, then set compression level. You will see the estimated full backup size. Multiply this by about 1.5 to be able to create incremental or differential archives.

2. If there are several disks installed, select one on which to create Acronis Secure Zone.

3. Select the partitions from which space will be used to create the zone.

4. In the next window, enter the size of the zone or drag the slider.

5. After this, you will be prompted to activate Acronis Recovery Manager, to be able to start Acronis True Image Server for Windows at boot time by pressing F11 key. Alternatively, you can activate this feature later from main program window.

6. Then you will see a list of operations to be performed on partitions (disks). After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will start creating the zone.

Progress will be reflected in the special window. If necessary, you can stop zone creation by clicking Cancel. However, the procedure will be canceled only after the current operation is finished.

Acronis Secure Zone creation might take several minutes or more. Please wait until the whole procedure is finished.

8.2 Resizing Acronis Secure Zone

1. When prompted by the wizard, select Manage Acronis Secure Zone.

2. Select to increase or decrease the zone. You might need to increase it to provide more space for archives. The opposite situation might arise if either partition lacks free space.

3. Select partitions from which free space will be used to increase Acronis Secure Zone or that will receive free space after the zone is reduced.

4. Enter the new size of the zone or drag the slider.

5. Next you will see a list of briefly described operations to be performed on partitions (disks).

After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will start resizing the zone. Progress will be reflected in the special window. If necessary, you can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel. However, the procedure will be canceled only after the current operation is finished.

Zone resizing can take several minutes or longer. Please wait until the whole procedure is finished.

8.3 Deleting Acronis Secure Zone

1. When prompted by the wizard, select Remove Acronis Secure Zone.

2. Select the partitions to which you want to add the space freed from the secure zone. If you select several partitions, the space will be distributed proportionally to each partition’s size.

3. Next, you will see a list of briefly described operations to be performed on partitions (disks).

After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will start del eting the zone. Progress will be reflected in the opened window. If necessary, you can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel. However, the procedure will be canceled only after the current operation is finished.

Zone deletion might take several minutes or more. Please wait until the whole procedure is finished.

Acronis Secure Zone deletion will automatically disable Acronis Startup Recovery Manager if it is activated and destroy all backups stored in the zone.

Chapter 9. Creating bootable media

You can run Acronis True Image Server for Windows on a bare metal or on a crashed computer that cannot boot. You can even back up disks on a non-Windows computer, copying all its data sector-by-sector into the backup archive. To do so, you will need bootable media with the standalone Acronis True Image Server for Windows version.

If you purchased the boxed product, you already have such a bootable CD, because the installation CD contains, besides the program installation files, the Acronis True Image Server for Windows standalone bootable version.

If you purchased Acronis True Image Server for Windows on the Web, you can create bootable media using the Bootable Media Builder. For this, you will need a CD-R/RW blank, several formatted diskettes (the wizard will tell you the exact number), or any other media your server can boot from, such as a Zip drive.

Acronis True Image Server for Windows also provides the ability to create an ISO image of a bootable disk on the hard disk. If there is a Microsoft RIS server in your local network, an IT administrator can save the bootable data on this server as well. Then any networked computer will be able to boot any program from the RIS package.

If you have other Acronis products, such as Acronis Disk Director Server, installed on your computer, you can include standalone versions of these programs on th e same bootable dis k as well.

If you have chosen not to install the Bootable Media Builder during Acronis True Image Server for Windows installation, you will not be able to use this feature.

1. Click Create Bootable Rescue Media on the toolbar or the sidebar, or select Create Bootable Rescue Media from the Tools menu. You can also run the Bootable Rescue Media Builder without loading Acronis True Image Server for Windows by selecting

Programs -> Acronis -> True Image -> Bootable Rescue Media Builder from the Start menu.

2. Select which components of Acronis programs you want to place on the bootable media.

Acronis True Image Server for Windows offers the following components:

• Acronis True Image Server for Windows full version

Includes support of USB, PC Card and SCSI interfaces along with the storage devices connected via them, therefore is highly recommended.

• Acronis True Image Server for Windows safe version

Does not include USB, PC Card, or SCSI drivers . Recommended for use in case of problems with running Full version

To find more about components of other Acronis products, see the respective user guides.

3. Select the type of bootable media (CD-R/RW or 3.5” diskettes) to create. If your BIOS has this feature, you can create other bootable media such as removable USB flash drives. You can also choose to create a bootable disk ISO image or save bootable data on the RIS server.

Having created an ISO disk image, you will be able to burn it onto any kind of DVD recordable, using DVD recording software. Creating a bootable DVD directly from Bootable Media Builder is impossible.

When using 3.5” diskettes, you will be able to write on a diskette (or a set of the diskettes) only one component at a time (for example, Acronis True Image Server for Windows). To write another component, start Bootable Media Builder once again .

4. If you are creating a CD, diskettes or any removable me dia, insert the blank disk so the program can determine its capacity. If you chose to create a bootable disk ISO image, specify the ISO file name and the folder where to place it. If you chose to save bootable data on a RIS server, specify the server and provide the user name and password to access it.

5. Next, the program will calculate how many blank disks are required (in case you have n ot chosen ISO or RIS) and give you time to prepare them. When you are finished, click Proceed.

After you create a boot disk, identify it and keep it in a safe place.

Chapter 10. Other operations

10.1 Validating backup archives

To be certain that your archives are not damaged, you can check their integrity.

1. To invoke the Backup Archive Validation Wizard, select Validate Backup Archive in the main window or in the Tools group or click Validate Backup Archive on the toolbar.

2. Click Next.

3. Select the archive to validate. If the archive is located in Acronis Secure Zone, select it to choose the archive on the next step.

4. Click Next.

5. Clicking Proceed will launch the validation procedure. After the validation is complete, you will see the results window. You can cancel checking by clicking Cancel.

To check data from an archive, containing incremental backups, you must have all incremental backup files and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing in the archive, the validation is impossible.

To check data from a differential backup, you must have the initial full backup as well. However, if you created several differential or both incremental and differential backups

based on the same full backup (and therefore, in the same folder), you will need ALL of these successive backups to validate the archive.

10.2 Operation results notification

Sometimes a backup or restore procedure can last for 30 minutes or more. Acronis True Image Server for Windows can notify you when it is finished using the WinPopup service or via e-mail. The program can also duplicate messages issued during the operation or send you the full operation log after operation completion.

By default all notifications are disabled.

10.2.1 Email notification

To set up the e-mail notification, select Tools -> Options -> Notifications -> E-mail:

Provide the email address to which notifications will be sent and the outgoing SMTP server name. A user name and a password might also be needed if the SMTP server requires authentication.

Below in this window you can choose whether you want to get notifications:

- when the operation is completed successfully (check Add full log to the notification to add the full operation log to the message)

- when the operation failed (check Add full log to the notification to add the full operation log to the message)

- during the operation when user interaction is required.

10.2.2 WinPopup notification

To set up WinPopup notification, select Tools -> Options -> Notifications -> WinPopup:

Provide the name of the computer to which notifications will be sent. Below in this window you can choose whether you want to get notifications:

- when the operation is completed successfully

- when the operation failed

- during the operation when user interaction is required.

10.3 Viewing logs

Acronis True Image Server for Windows allows users to view its working logs. They can provide information about scheduled backup tasks results, including reasons for failure, if any.

To invoke the log window, select Show log on the toolbar or from the Tools menu. The log browsing window contains two panes: the left one features the log list, while the

right one shows selected log contents.

The left panel can contain up to 50 logs. If there are more, you can brow se the list u sing the More and Less buttons with the left and right arrows.

To delete a log, select it and click Delete. If any step was terminated by an error, the corresponding log will be marked with a red

circle with a white cross inside. The right window features the list of steps contained in the selected lo g. The three buttons

to the right control message filters: the white cross in the red circle filters error messages, the exclamation sign in a yellow triangle filters warnings, and the “i” in the blue circle filters information messages.

To select columns (step parameters) to display, right-click the headers line or left-click the Choose Details button. Then check the desired parameters.

To sort messages by a particular parameter, click its header (click again to reverse order) or the Arrange Icons by button (the second from the right) and select the desired parameter.

You can also change column width by dragging the borders with a mouse.

10.4 Event tracing

10.4.1 Windows event log

You can choose whether to store event log messages, issued by Acr onis True Image Server for Windows, to Windows Event Log (to see this log, run eventvwr.exe or select Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Event Viewer -> Application).

The default setting – Do not save messages To change this setting, select Tools -> Options -> Windows event log. An additional choice is available between recording All events, Warnings and Errors, or

Errors only.

10.4.2 SNMP notifications

You can choose whether to send event log messages, issued by Acronis True Image Serve r for Windows, to computers, running SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) management applications.

The default setting – Do not send messages to SNMP clients Having chosen Send messages to SNMP clients, specify a name or IP address of the

client computer. Otherwise messages will be sent to all SNMP clients found in the local network.

An additional choice is available between sending All events, Warnings and Errors, or Errors only messages.

Acronis True Image Server for Windows provides the following SNMP objects to SNMP management applications:

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

1.3.6.1.4.1.24769.100.200.2.0 - string containing text description of occurred event (it looks identically to messages published by Acronis True Image Server for Windows in its log).

10.5 Managing System Restore

Microsoft Windows System Restore tool, available in Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server operating systems, is used to undo harmful changes to the system without losing recently changed or created user data. To run the System Restore tool or find out more about it, select Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore. (Please be aware that the older Windows Server versions do not feature System Restore, therefore, under these operating systems Manage System Restore tool is unavailable.)

If you run Acronis True Image Server for Windows regularly, this feature in your operating system is redundant. You can turn it off, freeing up to 12% of your hard disks space, directly from Acronis True Image Server for Windows.

1. To invoke the System Restore Management Wizard, select Manage System Restore from the menu or from the Tools group, or click Manage System Restore on the toolbar.

2. Click Next.

3. Now you can turn on/off System Restore on all your hard disk(s) partitions at once or do it individually for each partition.

Note that you cannot turn off System Restore on the system disk (partition), yet keep it on other disks (partitions).

4. Click Next.

5. The program lists the configured changes. You can click Back to choose different settings. If you click Cancel, all new settings will be lost. Click Proceed to apply the changes.

If you turn off System Restore on any disk or partition, all previously created restore points for that disk (partition) will be deleted. Please make sure you do not need those restore points before proceeding.

Chapter 11. Mounting an image as a virtual drive

Acronis True Image Server for Windows can mount partition images as virtual drives, thus letting you access them as though they were physical drives. This means that:

• A new disk with its own letter will appear in the drives list

• Using Windows Explorer and other file managers, you can view the image contents as if

they were located on a physical disk or partition

• You will be able to use the virtual disk in the same way as the real one: open, save,

copy, move, create, delete files or folders. If necessary, the image can be mounted in read-only mode.

Please keep in mind that, though both file archives and disk/partition images have a default “.tib” extension, only partition images can be mounted. If you want to view file archive contents, use the Restore Data Wizard (see

11.1 Mounting an image

1. Invoke the Mount Image Wizard by clicking on the Mount Image operati on icon in the main program window.

2. Click Next.

3. Select the archive from the drives tree. If the archive i s located in Acronis Secure Zone, select it to choose the archive at the next step.

If you added a comment to the archive, it will be displayed to the right of the drives tree. If the archive was protected with a password, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will ask for it. Neither the partitions layout, nor the Next button will be enabled until you enter the correct password.

4. Click Next.

5. If you are to mount an incremental image, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will suggest that you select one of successive incremental archives by date/time of its crea tion. Thus, you can explore the partition state to a certain moment.

To mount an incremental image, you must have all previous incremental images and the initial full image. If any of successive images is missing, connection is impossible.

To mount a differential image, you must have the initial full image as well.

6. Click Next.

7. Select a partition to mount as a virtual disk. (Note that you cannot mount the entire disk.) You can also select a letter to be assigned to the virtual disk from the Drive letter drop-

down list. If you do not want to assign a letter to the virtual drive, select Do not assign.

8. Click Next.

9. Select whether you want to mount image in Read-only or Read/Write mode.

10. Click Next.

11. If you select Read/Write mode, the program assumes that the connected image will be modified, and creates an incremental archive file to capture the changes. It is strongly recommended that you list the forthcoming changes in the comment to this file.

12. The program displays a summary containing a single operation. Click Proceed to connect the selected partition image as a virtual disk.

13. After the image is connected, the program will run Windows Explorer, showing its contents. Now you can operate with files or folders as if they were located on a real disk.

You can connect multiple partition images. If you want to con nect another partition image, repeat the procedure.

11.2 Unmounting an image

We recommend that you unmount the virtual disk after all necessary operations are finished, as keeping up virtual disks takes considerable system resources. If you do not, the virt ual disk will disappear after your server is turned off.

To disconnect the virtual disk, click Unmount Image and select the disk to unmount. You can also unmount the disk in Windows Explorer by right-clicking on its icon and selecting Unmount.

Chapter 12. Transferring the system to a new disk

12.1 General information

Sooner or later any server user finds out that his hard disk is too small. If you just don’t have space for more data, you can add another disk just for data storage as described in the following chapter.

However, you might find that your hard disk does not have enough space for the operating system and installed applications, preventing you from updating your software. In this case, you have to transfer the system to a higher-capacity hard disk.

To transfer the system, you must first install the disk in the server. If a server doesn’t have a bay for another hard disk, you can temporarily install it in place of your CD-ROM. If that is not possible, you can clone a hard disk by creating its image and restoring it to a new hard disk with larger partitions.

There are two transfer modes available: automatic and manual. In the automatic mode, you will only have to take several simple actions to transfer all the

data, including partitions, folders and files, to a newer disk, making it bootable if the original disk was bootable.

There will be only one difference between these disks – partitions on the newer disk will be larger. Everything else, including the installed operating sys tems, data, disk labels, settings, software and everything else on the disk, will remain the same.

This is the only result available in the automatic mode. The program can only duplicate the original disk layout to the new one. To obtain a different result, you will have to answer additional questions about cloning parameters.

The manual mode will provide more data transfer flexibility.

1. You will be able to select the method of partition and data transfer:

• as is

• new disk space is proportionally distributed between the old disk partitions

• new disk space is distributed manually

2. You will also be able to select operations to perform on the old disk:

• leave partitions (and data!) on the old disk

• remove all information from the old disk

• create new partitions on the old disk (and remove all the older information)

On program screens, damaged partitions are marked with a red circle and a white cross inside in the upper left corner. Before you start cloning, you should check such disks for errors using corresponding operating system tools.

12.2 Security

Please note the following: if the power goes out or you accidentally pre ss RESET during the transfer, the procedure will be incomplete and you will have to partition and format or clone the hard disk again.

No data will be lost because the original disk is only being read (no partitions are changed or resized) until data transfer is completed.

Nevertheless, we do not recommend that you delete data from the old disk until you are sure it is correctly transferred to the new disk, the server boots up from it and all applications work.

12.3 Executing transfers

12.3.1 Selecting Clone mode

You will see the Clone mode window just after the welcome window.

We recommend using automatic mode in most cases. The manual m ode can be useful if you need to change the disk partition layout.

If the program finds two disks, one partitioned and another unpartitioned, it will automatically recognize the source disk as the partitioned disk and the destination disk as the unpartitioned disk, so the next two steps will be bypassed.

12.3.2 Selecting source disk

If the program finds several partitioned disks, it will ask you which is the source (i.e. the older data disk).

You can determine the source and destination using the information provided in this window (disk number, capacity, label, partition and file system information).

12.3.3 Selecting destination disk

After you select the source disk, you have to select the destination where the disk information will be copied.

The previously selected source becomes grayed-out and disabled for selection.

If either disk is unpartitioned, the program will automatically recognize it as the destination and bypass this step.

12.3.4 Partitioned destination disk

At this point, the program checks to see if the destination disk is free. If not, you will be prompted by the Nonempty Destination Hard Disk window stating that the destination disk contains partitions, perhaps with data.

You will have to select between:

• Delete partitions on the destination hard disk – all existing partitions will be

deleted during cloning and all their data will be lost.

• No, I do not want to delete partitions – no existing partition will be deleted,

discontinuing the cloning operation. You will only be able to cancel this operation and return to select another disk.

To continue, select the first choice and click Next.

Note that no real changes or data destruction will be performed at this time! For now, the program will just map out cloning. All changes will be implemented only when you click Proceed.

12.3.5 Old and new disk partition layout

If you selected the automatic mode before, the program will ask you for nothing further. You will see the window graphically illustrating information (as rectangles) about the source disk (partitions and unallocated space) and the destination disk layout. Along with the disk number, some additional information is provided: disk capacity, label, partition and file system information. Partition types — primary, logical — and unallocated space are marked with different colors.

Next you will see the cloning summary.

12.3.6 Old disk data

If you selected the manual mode, the program will ask you what to do with the old disk:

• Create a new partition layout – All existing partitions and their data will be deleted

(but they will also be cloned to the new disk, so you won’t lose them)

• Keep data – leave the old disk partitions and data intact

• Destroy data – destroy all data on the old disk.

If you are going to sell or give away your old disk, we recommend that you make s ure you destroyed the data on it.

If you are going to keep it for data storage, you can create a new partition layout on it. In this case, the disk will be ready right after cloning is complete.

To protect yourself from unforeseen consequences, it would be better to leave the old disk data intact, as you will be able to delete it later.

12.3.7 Destroying the old disk data

If you elected to destroy the old disk data in the previous step, you will have to select the destruction method now:

• Quick – quick one-pass destruction

• Normal – multipass destruction

The second method takes more time, but makes it impossible to recover data afterwards, even with special equipment.

The first method is less secure, but is still suitable for most cases.

12.3.8 Selecting partition transfer method

Acronis True Image Server for Windows will offer you the following data transfer methods:

• As is

• Proportional – the new disk space will be proportionally distributed among cloned

partitions

• Manual – you will specify the new size and other parameters yourself

If you elect to transfer information "as is," a new partition will be created for every old one with the same size and type, file system and label. The unused space will become

unallocated. Further, you will be able to use the unallocated space to create new partitions or to enlarge the existing partitions with special tools, such as Acronis Disk Director Suite.

As a rule, "as is" transfers are inexpedient, as they leave much unallocated space on the new disk. Using the "as is" method, Acronis True Image Server for Windows transfers unsupported and damaged file systems.

If you transfer data proportionally, each partition will be enlarged, according to the proportion of the old and new disk capacities.

FAT16 partitions are enlarged less than others, as they have the 4 GB size limit. Depending on the selected combination, you will proceed to either the old disk partitioning

window, or the disk partition layout window (see below).

12.3.9 Partitioning the old disk

If you selected Create a new partition layout earlier in the process, it is now time to repartition your old disk.

During this step, you will see the current disk partition layout. Initially, the disk has unallocated space only. This will change when you create new partitions.

Having completed the required steps, you will add a new partition. To create another one, simply repeat those steps.

If you make a mistake, click Back to redo. After you create the necessary partitions, uncheck the Create new partition in

unallocated space box and click Next.

12.3.10 Old and new disk partition layouts

In the next window, you will see rectangles indicating the source hard disk, including its partitions and unallocated space, as well as the new disk layout.

Along with the hard disk number, you will also see disk capacity, label, partition and file system information. Different partition types, including primary, logical and unallocated space are marked with different colors.

If you have selected manual partition creation before, the partition layout will look different. This partitioning method is described below.

12.3.11 Cloning summary

In the next window, you will see a list of briefly described operations to be performed on the disks.

Cloning a disk containing the currently active operating system will require reboot. In that case, after clicking Proceed you will be asked to confirm the reboot. Canceling the reboot will cancel the entire procedure.

Cloning a non-system disk or a disk containing an operating system, but not active one at the moment, will proceed without reboot. After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will start cloning the old disk to the new disk, indicating the progress in the special window. You can stop this procedure by clicking Cancel. In that case, you will have to repartition and format the new disk or repeat the cloning procedure. After the operation is complete, you will see the results message.

12.4 Cloning with manual partitioning

12.4.1 Old and new disk partition layouts

The manual transfer method enables you to resize partitions on th e new disk. By def ault, the program resizes them proportionally.

In the next window, you will see rectangles indicating the source hard disk, including its partitions and unallocated space, as well as the new disk layout.

Along with the hard disk number, you will see disk capacity, label, partition and file system information. Different partition types, including primary, logical and unallocated space are marked with different colors.

To resize either partition, check the Proceed relayout box. If you are satisfied with the partition layout shown, uncheck this box (if checked). Clicking Next, you will proceed to the cloning summary window.

Be careful! Clicking Back in this window will reset all size and location changes that you've selected, so you will have to specify them again.

First, select a partition to resize. It will be underlined in red. Resize and relocate it on the next step. You can do this by entering values to Unallocated space before, Partition size,

Unallocated space after fields, by dragging partition borders or the partition itself. If the cursor turns to two vertical lines with left and right arrows, it is pointed at the partition

border and you can drag it to enlarge or reduce the partition’s size. If the cursor turns to four arrows, it is pointed at the partition, so you can move it to the left or right (if there's unallocated space near it).

Having provided the new location and size, click Next. You will be taken two steps back to the partition layout. You might have to perform some more resizing and relocation before you get the layout you need.

Chapter 13. Adding a new hard disk

If you don't have enough space for your data, you can either replace the old disk wi th a new higher-capacity one (data transfers to new disks are described in the previous chapter), or add a new disk only to store data, leaving the system on the old disk. If the server has space for another disk, it would be easier to add a data disk drive than to clone a system one.

This feature is available in Acronis True Image Server for Windows local version only. Adding disks using Acronis True Image Management Console is impossible.

To add a new disk, you must first install it in your server.

13.1 Selecting a hard disk

Select the disk that you've added to the server.

This window might be bypassed if the program detects the new disk itself. In this case, you will immediately proceed to the new partition creation.

If there are any partitions on the new disk, they must be deleted first. Select Delete partitions on the destination hard disk and click Next to continue.

13.2 Creating new partitions

Next you will see the current partition layout. Initially, all disk space will be unallocated. This will change after you add new partitions.

To create a partition, select Create new partition in unallocated space and click Next to perform steps required by the partition creation wizard.

You will be prompted to set the new partition location and size. You can do this by both entering values to Unallocated space before, Partition size, Unallocated space after fields, by dragging partition borders or the partition itself.

If the cursor turns to two vertical lines with left and right arrows, it is pointed at the partition border and you can drag it to enlarge or reduce the partiti on size. If the cursor turns to four arrows, it is pointed at the partition, so you can move it to the left or right (if there is unallocated space near it). Having provided the new partition location and size, you can input a label for the new partition.

If you make a mistake at partitioning, click Back to redo the process. Finally, you will be taken back to the partition layout screen. Check the resulting partitions

layout and start creating another partition or move on b y un checkin g Create new partition in unallocated space and clicking Next.

13.3 Disk add summary

The disk add summary contains a list of operations to be performed on disks.

After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image Server for Windows will start creating and formatting new partitions, indicating the progress in the special window. You can stop this procedure by clicking Cancel. In that case, you will have to repartition and format the new disk or repeat the disk add procedure.

Chapter 14. Command-line mode and scripting

Acronis True Image Server for Windows supports the command-line mode, as well as the GUI mode, and can be used to execute XML scripts.

14.1 Working in the command-line mode

An administrator might need a console interface in some situations. Acronis True Image Server for Windows supports this mode with TrueImageCmd.exe utility. The file is located in a folder where Acronis True Image Server for Windows has been installed, by default it is

C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageServer.

14.1.1 Supported commands

TrueImageCmd has the following format:

trueimagecmd /[command] /[option1] [option2]…

The following commands are supported (each command may be accompanied by additi onal options):

1. create

Creates an image file with the specified file name. A complete image is created by default. Use the /incremental option to create an incremental image.

Options

/progress:[on | off]

Shows/hides the progress information (percent completed). It is shown by default.

/filename:[filename]

Sets the image file name.

/password:[password]

Protects an image with a password.

/net_user:[username]

Specifies a user name when creating an image on a network drive.

/net_password:[password]

Specifies a user password when creating an image on a network drive.

/harddisk:[disk number]

Specifies the hard disks to include into the image file by numbers. The list of available hard disks is provided by the /list command. An image may contain data of more than on e hard disk. In that case, separate disk numbers by commas, e.g.:

/harddisk 1,3 /partition:[partition number]

Specifies the partitions to include into the image file by numbers. The list of available partitions is provided by /list. Partition numbers are specified as <disk number>-<partition number>, e.g.:

/partition: 1-1,1-2,3-1 /file_partition:[partition letter]

Specifies the partition where the image file will be stored (by letter or number). This option is used with /filename:file_name. In that case the file name must be specified without drive letter or root folder. For example:

/file_partition:D /filename:"\1.tib” /raw

Use this option to create an image of a disk (partition) with unrecognized or unsupported file system. This will copy all disk/partition contents sector-by-sector. Without this option only the sectors containing useful system and user data are imaged.

/compression:[0…9]

Specifies the image compression level. It ranges from 0 to 9 and is set to 3 by default.

/incremental

Sets the image type to incremental. If there is no a basic image file to append an incremental one, a complete image will be created.

/split:[size in MB]

Splits image file into parts of the specified size.

/reboot

Reboots the server after the operation is completed.

/log:[file name]

Creates a log file of the current operation with the specified fi le name.

2. deploy

Restores a disk or partition from an image.

Options

/filename:[filename]

Specifies the name of the image file to restore.

/net_user:[username]

Specifies a user name when restoring an image from a network drive.

/net_password:[password]

Specifies a user password when restoring an image from a network drive.

/file_partition:[partition letter]

Specifies the partition where the image file is stored (by letter or number). This option is used with /filename:file_name. In this case the file name must be specified without drive letter or root folder. For example:

/file_partition:D /filename:"\1.tib”

/password:[password]

Specifies the password for the image file (if required).

/harddisk:[disk number]

Specifies the hard disks to restore by numbers.

/partition:[partition number]

Specifies the partitions to restore by numbers.

/target_harddisk:[disk number]

Specifies the hard disk number where the image will be restored.

/start:[start sector]

Sets the start sector for restoring a partition to the hard disk unallocated space.

/size:[partition size in sectors]

Sets the new partition size (in sectors).

/type:[active | primary | logical]

Sets the new partition type. By default (if this option is not defined) an active partition is created on the first hard disk and logic partitions on other disks.

/target_partition:[partition number]

Specifies the target partition number for restoring a partition over the existing one. If the option is not specified, the program assumes that the tar get partition nu mber is the same as the partition number specified with the /partition option.

/reboot

Reboots the server after the operation is completed.

/log:[file name]

Creates a log file of the current operation with the specified fi le name.

3. list

Lists the available drives and partitions.

Options

/filename:[filename]

Lists the image file contents.

/password:[password]

Specifies the password for the image file (if required).

4. clone

Clones a hard disk.

Options

/harddisk:[disk number]

Specifies a source hard disk which will be cloned to the new hard disk.

/target_harddisk:[disk number]

Specifies the target hard disk number where the source hard disk will be cloned.

5. explore

Connects an image file as a virtual drive.

Options

/filename:[image file name]

The image file name.

/password:[image password]

The password for the image file (if required).

/partition:[partitions list]

Specifies a list of partitions to be mounted as virtual drives. Without this option, all partitions stored in the image file will be mounted.

/letter

Assigns letters to the mounted drives. This option is used with /partition option only.

/net_user:[username]

Specifies a user name when exploring an image from a network drive.

/net_password:[password]

Specifies a user password when exploring an image from a network drive.

/log:[file name]

Creates a log file of the current operation with the specified fi le name.

6. unplug

Unmounts the image file connected as a virtual drive.

Options

/letter:X

Specifies the virtual disk to be disconnected by letter.

/letter:all

Disconnects all virtual drives.

7. asz_create

Creates Acronis Secure Zone on the selected drive.

Options

/harddisk:X

Specifies the hard disk number where the Acronis Secure Zone will be created.

/partition:[partitions list]

Specifies partitions from which free space will be taken for Acronis Secure Zone creation.

/size:[ASZ size in sectors]

Sets the Acronis Secure Zone size (in sectors). If this size is not specified, it will be set as average between maximal and minimal values, including unallocated spaces on the all listed partitions.

/asz_activate

Activates the Acronis Secure Zone after creation (or, rather, activates Acronis Startup Recovery Manager).

/asz_activate option will not take effect, if the system partition is resized during Acronis Secure Zone creation. Use /asz_activate command to activate Acronis Secure Zone after it is created.

/reboot

Reboots the server after the Acronis Secure Zone is created.

/log:[file name]

Creates a log file of the current operation with the specified fi le name.

8. asz_delete

Deletes the Acronis Secure Zone from your hard disk.

Options

/partition:[partitions list]

Specifies partitions to which free space will be added after the Acronis Secure Zone is deleted. If you specify several partitions, the space will be distributed proportionally to each partition’s size.

/log:[file name]

Creates a log file of the current operation with the specified fi le name.

9. asz_activate

Activates the Acronis Secure Zone (or, rather, activates A cronis Startup Recovery Manager). This command may also be used as an option with ‘asz_create’ command.

10. verify

Verifies the image archive data integrity.

Options

/filename:[filename]

Specifies the name of the image file to verify.

/password:[image password]

Specifies the password for image file (if required).

/net_user:[username]

Specifies a user name when verifying an image from a network drive.

/net_password:[password]

Specifies a user password when verifying an image from a network drive.

11. help

Shows help for commands.

14.1.2 trueimagecmd.exe usage examples

1. Create image

trueimagecmd /create /filename:"C:\Test\1.tib" /partition:21,1-3

• This will create an image named 1.tib of the partitions 2-1 and 1-3. Image will be saved

to c:\Test\ folder.

trueimagecmd /create /filename:"\Test\1.tib" /partition:2-1,13 /file_partition:3-1

• This will create an image named 1.tib of the partitions 2-1 and 1-3. Image will be saved

to partition 3-1.

trueimagecmd /create /filename:"C:\Test\1.tib" /password:qwerty /harddisk:2 /reboot /raw /incremental /compression:5 /split:640 /progress:off

• This will append an incremental image to the image named 1.tib of hard disk 2. The

image will be saved to c:\Test\ folder, protected with password “qwerty”, split into parts of 640 MB, and contain all cluster data. Image compression level is 5. The server will be rebooted after the operation is completed.

2. Restore image

trueimagecmd /deploy /filename:"C:\Test\1.tib" /partition:2-1

• This will restore partition 2-1 from image 1.tib.

trueimagecmd /deploy /filename:"C:\Test\1.tib" /password:qwerty /harddisk:2

• This will restore hard disk 2 from image 1.tib, protected with password ‘qwerty’.

trueimagecmd /deploy /filename:"C:\Test\1.tib" /partition:2-1 /target_partition:1-1

• This will restore partition 2-1, stored in image 1.tib, to partition 1-1.

trueimagecmd /deploy /filename:"C:\Test\1.tib" /partition:2-1 /target_harddisk:3 /start:0 /size:64000 /type:logical

• This will restore partition 2-1, stored in image 1.tib, to hard disk 3. A new logical partition

will be created on disk 3 from 0 to 64000 sector.

trueimagecmd /deploy /filename:z:\Server30Cdrive.tib /partition:1-1 /target_partition:2-1 /type:active /password:123qwe

• This will restore partition 1-1, stored in image Server30Cdrive.tib, protected with

password ‘123qwe’, to partition 2-1. The restored partition will be of active type.

3. List

trueimagecmd /list

• This will list available partitions.

4. Clone

trueimagecmd /clone /harddisk:2 /target_harddisk:3

• Clone hard disk 2 to hard disk 3.

5. Explore image

trueimagecmd /explore /filename:\\myserver\backup\mybackup.tib /net_user:john /net_password:qwerty

• This will connect all images, stored in file mybackup.tib on the network drive, as virtual

drives.

14.1.3 Command-line mode usage under DOS

For use in the MS-DOS compatible environments Acronis True Image Server for Windows includes the TrueImageCmdDos.exe utility. It is located in a folder where Acronis True Image Server for Windows has been installed, by default it is C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageServer.

14.2 Scripting

14.2.1 Script execution parameters

Scripts are executed by the TrueImageTerminal.exe utility located in the Acronis True Image Server for Windows installation folder (i.e. C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageServer). This utility is also used to monitor backup progress.

TrueImageTerminal execution parameters:

TrueImageTerminal.exe [arguments]

Arguments include the following:

/help – outputs help information about TrueImageTerminal.exe parameters. /progress – outputs progress of backup operations run either from Acronis True Image

Server for Windows graphics user interface, or from the script. /execute: [script file name] – executes a script. If there are several scripts to be

executed, they are queued. An example for executing MyBackup.tis script:

TrueImageTerminal.exe /execute:C:\MyBackup.tis

/nowait – an optional script execution argument. Enables to terminate TrueImageTerminal before backup is finished. Example:

TrueImageTerminal /execute:C:\MyBackup.tis /nowait

By pressing Ctrl+C you can force backup progress output off and switch TrueImageTerminal to background operation.

You can terminate backup operation executed by TrueImageTerminal by pressing Ctrl+B.

14.2.2 Script structure

Scripts are written in the XML language and you can use the following tags: Source. Specifies the partitions or disks to be imaged. Letters assigned to partitions must be

used without colon. Disk numbers correspond to their system numbers. To create images of several partitions or disks, use the SOURCE tag for each of them, e.g.:

Target. Specifies the name and the location of an image file, e.g.:

username

resources. As a target for the image files you can indicate CD-R/RW or tape drive. Options. This tag can be used with a number of additional parameters:

Compression: Incremental:

“0”), a complete image file will be created. If there is already a file with the name specified, it will be replaced without warnings. If equal to “true” (or “1”) and there is already a file with the name specified, an incremental image will be created. Otherwise the program will create a complete image file. The default value for this parameter is “true”.

Description:

(though its length is not limited.)

Split:

be provided in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, etc.

Password:

and

splits a large image file into a number of smaller files of the specified size, which can

password

specifies the backup compression level. Can be

specifies if you need to create an incremental image file. If equal to ”false” (or

adds a description to an image file. The comment must be a single string

adds password protection to an image file.

parameters are optional. They are used to access networked

None, Low, Normal, High

14.2.3 Script usage examples

The following example illustrates the usage of a script to backup two partitions (logical drives), C and F. level is selected and the image is to be split into 650MB parts for recording to CD-R/RW media. Password protection will also be added. The entire script must be located between

the

mybackup2.tib

and

is specified as an incremental image file. High compression

tags.

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <backup> <source letter ="c" /> <source letter ="f" /> <target file="e:\mybackup2.tib" /> <options compression="high" incremental="true"

description="this is my backup" split="650 Mb" password="" />

</backup>

The script for backing up to tape (tapeN specifies the tapes numbers):

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <backup> <source letter =”c” /> <source letter ="f" /> <target cdrw="\taperecorder\\\.\tape0|||” /> <target cdrw="\taperecorder\\\.\tape1|||” /> <options compression="high" incremental="true"

description="this is my backup" /> </backup>

Acronis TRUE IMAGE 9.1 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

1.2 New in Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows

1.4 System requirements and supported media

1.4.1 Minimum system requirements

1.4.2 Supported operating systems

1.4.3 Supported file systems

1.4.4 Supported storage media

1.5 Technical support

2.1 Installing Acronis True Image Server for Windows

2.2 Extracting Acronis True Image Server for Windows

2.3 Running Acronis True Image Server for Windows

2.4 Removing Acronis True Image Server for Windows

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

3.4.1 How it works

3.4.2 How to use

3.5 Acronis Snap Restore

3.5.1 How it works

3.5.2 How to use

3.6 Acronis Universal Restore

3.7.1 How to use

3.7.3 Hints on using Acronis Universal Restore

3.7.4 Benefits

3.7 Using dynamic disks and volumes

3.8 Backing up to tape drive

3.9 Viewing disk and partition information

Chapter 4. Using Acronis True Image Server for Windows

4.1 Main program window

4.2 Managing a local computer

Chapter 5. Creating backup archives

5.1 Backing up files and folders (file backup)

5.2 Backing up disks and partitions (image backup)

5.3 Setting backup options

5.3.2 Source files exclusion

5.3.3 Pre/post commands

5.3.10 Media components

Chapter 6. Restoring the backup data

6.1 Restore under Windows or boot from CD?

6.1.1 Network settings in rescue mode

6.2 Restoring files and folders from file archives

6.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images

6.3.1 Starting the Restore Data Wizard

6.3.2 Archive selection

6.3.3 Restoration type selection

6.3.4 Selecting a disk/partition to restore

6.3.5 Selecting a target disk/partition

6.3.6 Changing the restored partition type

6.3.7 Changing the restored partition file system

6.3.8 Changing the restored partition size and location

6.3.9 Assigning a letter to the restored partition

6.3.10 Restoring several partitions at once

6.3.11 Setting restore options

6.3.12 Using Acronis Universal Restore

6.3.13 Restoration summary and executing restoration

6.4 Setting restore options

6.4.1 Files to restore exclusion

6.4.2 Files overwriting mode

6.4.3 Pre/post commands

6.4.4 Restoration priority

6.4.5 File-level security settings

6.4.6 Additional settings

Chapter 7. Scheduling tasks

7.1 Creating scheduled tasks

7.1.1 Setting up daily execution

7.1.2 Setting up weekly execution

7.1.3 Setting up monthly execution

7.1.4 Setting up one-time execution

7.2 Managing scheduled tasks

Chapter 8. Managing Acronis Secure Zone

8.1 Creating Acronis Secure Zone

8.2 Resizing Acronis Secure Zone

8.3 Deleting Acronis Secure Zone

Chapter 9. Creating bootable media

Chapter 10. Other operations

10.1 Validating backup archives

10.2 Operation results notification