Acronis True Image for MS SBS User Guide

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Acronis

True Image

for Microsoft Small Business Server

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End User License Agreement (EULA)

BEFORE INSTALLING AND USING THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT WHICH EITHER YOU HAVE DOWNLOADED OR IS CONTAINED ON THESE DISKS (“SOFTWARE”) YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING LICENSE AGREEMENT (“AGREEMENT”) THAT APPLIES TO THE SOFTWARE. CLICK “ACCEPT” IF YOU FULLY ACCEPT AND AGREE TO ALL OF THE PROVISIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. OTHERWISE, CLICK “DO NOT ACCEPT.” CLICKING “ACCEPT” OR OTHERWISE DOWNLOADING, INSTALLING AND OR USING THE SOFTWARE ESTABLISHES A BINDING AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AS THE PERSON LICENSING THE SOFTWARE (THE "LICENSEE") AND ACRONIS, INC. LOCATED AT: ACRONIS INTERNATIONAL GMBH VERWALTUNG EURO HAUS RHEINWEG 5 SCHAFFHAUSEN, SWITZERLAND CH-8200, ("LICENSOR"). IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU SHALL HAVE NOT RIGHT TO DOWNLOAD, INSTALL AND/OR USE THE SOFTWARE AND MUST DELETE THE SOFTWARE AND ASSOCIATED FILES IMMEDIATELY.

This Agreement applies to the Software, whether licensed under a Software License and/or an Evaluation License, each as defined and described below:

purchase of a license to the Software, LICENSOR grants and LICENSEE accepts a nonexclusive, nontransferable,

Purchased License of Software

nonassignable license to use Software only for LICENSEE’s own internal use solely on the specific number of Hardware (as defined below) licensed owned, leased or otherwise controlled by LICENSEE. LICENSEE may make one copy of Software only for archival purposes, only in machine readable form, provided that such archival copy is only used for archival purposes and never in a production environment and is marked with every notice on the original Installation of Software is LICENSEE’s responsibility. The license described in this section shall be referred to as a “Software License”).

. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, upon

Evaluation License of Software: The LICENSEE has the right to evaluate the Software for a period of

time not to exceed fifteen (15) days (the “Evaluation Period’) unless extended by LICENSOR. Software licensed under this Evaluation License may not be used in a production environment. There will be no charge to the LICENSEE for said evaluation of the Software under this Evaluation License. At the conclusion of the Evaluation Period, unless a Software License to the Software is purchased, the LICENSEE will delete the Software from its systems and have no further license or other rights with respect to the Software except as to the rights and responsibilities in this Agreement. LICENSOR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM USE OF SOFTWARE UNDER THE EVALUATION LICENSE UNDER ANY CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER THEORY. THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY. The following sections of this Agreement also apply to Evaluation License(s) of the Software:

Limitations, Confidentiality Miscellaneous. The license described in this section shall be referred to as an “Evaluation License”).

, Disclaimer of Warranties, LICENSEE Indemnity, Law, Export Restrictions, and

Use Rights: Assigning the License

that license to one of your PCs or Servers (depending upon the license you have purchased or are evaluating and such purchase or evaluation is based upon the operating system on which that hardware operates, such PCs or Servers shall be referred to as the “Hardware”). That Hardware is the licensed Hardware for that particular Software license. You may assign other Software Licenses to the same Hardware, but you may not assign the same Software License to more than one Hardware except as identified herein.

You may reassign a Software License if you retire the licensed Hardware due to permanent Hardware failure. If you reassign a Software License, the Hardware to which you reassign the license becomes the new licensed Hardware for that particular Software License.

. Before you run any instance of the Software under a Software License, you must assign

Running Instances of the Hardware Software. You have the rights to run the Software on one piece of

Hardware as defined above. Every Hardware creating an image and every Hardware to which an image is either deployed to or restored from must have a valid license. In the case of Universal Deploy or Universal Restore, every time an image is deployed or restored (as appropriate to either Universal Restore or Universal Deploy), to Hardware that is dissimilar to the Hardware from which the image was originally created, a valid license of the Universal Deploy or Universal Restore is required.

You have the rights below for each Software License you assign:

Standard Software license. A standard Software License is the general license that is available to LICENSEE.

Unless the Virtual Edition Software is purchased, you have purchased the standard Software License and may run on the licensed Hardware, at any one time as follows:

• One (1) instance of the Hardware installed Software in one physical operating system environment; and

• Up to four (4) instances of the Hardware installed Software in virtual operating system environments (only

one (1) instance per virtual operating system environment).

If you run all five (5) permitted instances at the same time, the instance of the Hardware installed Software running in the physical operating system environment may be used only to run hardware virtualization software and to manage and service operating system environments on the licensed Hardware.

Virtual Edition. Virtual Edition (as identified by the product name (for example, True Image Virtual Edition)) is

licensed by physical Hardware. You may run on the licensed Hardware, at any one time as follows:

• One instance of the Hardware software in one physical operating system environment; and

• As many instances of the Hardware software in virtual operating system environments.

Support. If LICENSEE is under a current support contract with LICENSOR with respect to the Software and is

current in paying all amounts due thereunder, LICENSOR shall make available to LICENSEE the support described in this paragraph (the “Support”) on a twenty four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days per week basis. Support shall consist of: (i) supplying telephone or other electronic support, as determined by LICENSOR in its sole discretion, to LICENSEE in order to help LICENSEE locate and, on its own, correct problems with the Software and (ii) supplying all extensions, enhancements and other changes that LICENSOR, at its sole discretion, makes or adds to the Software and which LICENSOR makes generally available, without additional charge, to other licensees of the Software that are enrolled in Support. Upon mutual written agreement by both parties, LICENSOR may, but shall not be required to: (i) supply code corrections to LICENSEE to correct Software malfunctions in order to bring such Software into substantial conformity with the published operating specifications for the most current version of the Software unless LICENSEE’s unauthorized modifications prohibit or hamper such corrections or cause the malfunction; or (ii) supply code corrections to correct insubstantial problems at the next general release of the Software.

Limitations. Notwithstanding any references to “purchase” , the Software is licensed and not sold pursuant to this

Agreement. This Agreement confers a limited license to the Software and does not constitute a transfer of title to or sale of all or a portion of the Software, and LICENSOR retains ownership of all copies of the Software. LICENSEE acknowledges that the Software contain trade secrets of LICENSOR, its suppliers or licensors, including but not limited to the specific internal design and structure of individual programs and associated interface information. Accordingly, except as otherwise expressly provided under this Agreement, LICENSEE shall have no right, and LICENSEE specifically agrees not to: (i) transfer, assign or sublicense its license rights to any other person or entity, or use the Software on ay equipment other than the Hardware, and LICENSEE acknowledges that any attempted transfer, assignment, sublicense or use shall be void; (ii) make error corrections to or otherwise modify or adapt the Software or create derivative works based upon the Software, or permit third parties to do the same; (iii) reverse engineer or decompile, decrypt, disassemble or otherwise reduce the Software to human-readable form, except to the extent otherwise expressly permitted under applicable law notwithstanding this restriction; (iv) use or permit the Software to be used to perform services for third parties, whether on a service bureau or time sharing basis or otherwise, without the express written authorization of LICENSEE; or (v) disclose, provide, or otherwise make available trade secrets contained within the Software in any form to any third party without the prior written consent of LICENSOR.

Confidentiality. The Software is a trade secret of LICENSOR and is proprietary to LICENSOR. LICENSEE shall

maintain Software in confidence and prevent disclosure of Software using at least the same degree of care it uses for its own similar proprietary information, but in no event less than a reasonable degree of care. LICENSEE shall not disclose Software or any part thereof to anyone for any purpose, other than to employees for the purpose of exercising the rights expressly granted under this Agreement. License shall not, and shall not allow any third party to, decompile, disassemble or otherwise, reverse engineer or attempt to reconstruct or discover any source code or underlying ideas, algorithms, file formats or programming or interoperability interfaces of Software or of any files contained or generated using Software by any means whatsoever. The obligations under this paragraph shall survive any termination of the Agreement.

Disclaimer of Warranties. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND LICENSOR DISCLAIMS ALL

WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WITH RESPECT TO SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTIES’ RIGHTS, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, LICENSOR DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN SOFTWARE WILL OPERATE IN THE COMBINATION LICENSEE SELECTS, THAT OPERATION OF SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE AND/OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY LICENSEE. FURTHERMORE, LICENSOR DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY RE PRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE U SE OR THE RESULT S OF THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR RELATED DOCUMENTATION IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS, OR OTHERWISE. NO ORAL OR WR ITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN

BY LICENSOR SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY.

Liability Limitations. LICENSOR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, OR

CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM USE OF SOFTWARE UNDER ANY CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER THEORY. LICENSOR’S CUMULATIVE LIAB ILIT Y FOR DAMAGE S HEREUNDER, WHETHER IN AN ACTION IN CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, INDEMNITY, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL IN NO EVENT EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF LICENSE FEES PAID BY THE LICENSEE FOR THE SOFTWARE LICENSED UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY.

LICENSEE Indemnity. LICENSEE agrees to indemnify and defend LICENSOR, and hold it harmless from all

costs, including attorney’s fees, arising from any claim that may be made against LICENSOR by any third party as a direct or indirect result of any use by LICENSEE of the Software,

Termination. This Agreement and the license may be terminated without fee reduction (i) by LICENSEE without

cause on thirty (30) days notice; (ii) by LICENSOR, in addition to other remedies, if LICENSEE is in default and fails to cure within ten (10) days following notice; (iii) on notice by either party hereto if the other party ceases to do business in the normal course, becomes insolvent, or becomes subject to any bankruptcy, insolvency, or equivalent proceedings. Upon termination for any reason, LICENSEE shall immediately return Software and all copies to LICENSOR and delete all Software and all copies from the Hardware.

Law. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, exclusive of its

conflicts of laws provisions and without regard to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, and any suit under this Agreement shall exclusively be brought in a federal or state court in Massachusetts. Any action against LICENSOR under this Agreement must be commenced within one year after such cause of action accrues.

Government End Users. This provision applies to all Software acquired directly or indirectly by or on behalf of the

United States Government. The Software is a commercial product, licensed on the open market at market prices, and was developed entirely at private expense and without the use of any U.S. Government funds. If the Software is supplied to the Department of Defense, the U.S. Government acquires only the license rights customarily provided to the public and specified in this Agreement. If the Software is supplied to any unit or agency of the U.S. Government other than the Department of Defense, the license to the U.S. Government is granted only with restricted rights. Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to the restrictions set forth in subparagraph (c) of the Commercial Computer Software Restricted Rights clause of FAR 52.227-19.

Export Restriction. LICENSEE will not remove or export from the United States or the country originally shipped

to by LICENSOR (or re-export from anywhere) any part of the Software or any direct product thereof except in compliance with applicable export laws and regulations, including without limitation, those of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Miscellaneous. This Agreement contains the entire understanding of the parties and supersedes all other

agreements, oral or written, including purchase orders submitted by LICENSEE, with respect to the subject matter covered in this Agreement The delay or failure of either party to exercise any right provided in the Agreement shall not be deemed a waiver. All notices must be in writing and shall be delivered by hand (effective when received) or mailed by registered or certified mail (effective on the third day following the date of mailing). The notices addressed to LICENSOR shall be sent to its address set out above. If any provision is held invalid, all others shall remain in force. LICENSEE may not assign, pledge, or otherwise transfer this agreement, nor any rights or obligations hereunder in whole or in part to any entity. Paragraph headings are for convenience and shall have no effect on interpretation. In the event that it is necessary to undertake legal action to collect any amounts payable or to protect or to defend against the unauthorized use, disclosure, distribution, of the Software hereunder and/or other violation of this Agreement, LICENSOR shall be entitled to recover its costs and expenses including, without limitation,

reasonable attorneys' fees

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction ........................................................................................10

1.1 Acronis® True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server – a complete solution for

corporate users......................................................................................................................10

1.2 Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components...................................12

1.3 New in Acronis for Microsoft Small Business Server.............................................................12

1.4 Supported file systems and storage media.........................................................................14

1.4.1 Supported file systems ..............................................................................................14

1.4.2 Supported storage media...........................................................................................14

1.5 License policy..................................................................................................................15

1.6 Technical support............................................................................................................15

Chapter 2. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server installation

and startup .............................................................................................................16

2.1 System requirements.......................................................................................................16

2.1.1 Minimum hardware requirements ...............................................................................16

2.1.2 Supported operating systems.....................................................................................16

2.2 Security parameters.........................................................................................................16

2.2.1 Credentials...............................................................................................................16

2.2.2 Firewall setup...........................................................................................................17

2.2.3 Encrypted communication..........................................................................................17

2.2.4 Security parameters in Acronis Administrative Template...............................................18

2.3 Installing Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components.....................19

2.3.1 Installation of Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version and

Acronis True Image Agent for Windows................................................................................20

2.3.2 Installation of Acronis Group Server............................................................................21

2.3.3 Acronis Backup Server installation and setup...............................................................21

2.3.4 Acronis Universal Restore installation..........................................................................25

2.4 Extracting Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components....................25

2.5 Running Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components......................25

2.5.1 Running Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version).............25

2.5.2 Running Acronis True Image Management Console......................................................26

2.5.3 Running other Acronis components.............................................................................26

2.6 Removing Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components....................26

Chapter 3. General information and proprietary Acronis technologies ................ 27

3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images............................................27

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups..........................................................................27

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone®......................................................................................................28

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager....................................................................................29

3.4.1 How it works ............................................................................................................29

3.4.2 How to use...............................................................................................................29

3.5 Acronis Backup Server .....................................................................................................30

3.5.1 Backup locations.......................................................................................................30

3.5.2 Quotas and time limits for computers and users...........................................................31

3.5.3 Administrators and Users...........................................................................................31

3.5.4 Operations with archives............................................................................................32

3.6 Acronis Active restore......................................................................................................32

3.6.1 Limitations in using Acronis Active restore...................................................................32

3.6.2 How it works ............................................................................................................32

3.6.3 How to use...............................................................................................................33

3.7 Acronis Universal Restore.................................................................................................33

3.7.1 Acronis Universal Restore purpose..............................................................................33

3.7.2 Acronis Universal Restore general principles................................................................34

3.7.3 Acronis Universal Restore and Microsoft Sysprep..........................................................34

3.7.4 Limitations in using Acronis Universal Restore..............................................................35

3.7.5 Getting Acronis Universal Restore...............................................................................35

3.8 Backing up to tape libraries and tape drives.......................................................................35

3.8.1 Understanding backup to tape devices........................................................................36

3.8.2 Backing up to a tape device through Acronis Backup Server..........................................38

3.8.3 Backing up to a locally attached tape device................................................................38

3.8.4 Restoring data from archives located on tape devices...................................................39

3.9 Viewing disk and partition information...............................................................................39

Chapter 4. Using Acronis True Image Management Console................................ 40

4.1 General information.........................................................................................................40

4.2 Installing/updating Acronis components on remote machines..............................................40

4.3 Managing a single remote computer..................................................................................43

4.3.1 Connecting to a remote computer ..............................................................................43

4.3.2 Backup and recovery tasks.........................................................................................44

4.4 Managing groups of computers.........................................................................................46

4.4.1 Group status display..................................................................................................46

4.4.2 Creating new group tasks ..........................................................................................48

4.4.3 Group tasks management..........................................................................................50

4.4.4 Acronis Group Server options.....................................................................................51

4.5 Managing backup server ..................................................................................................51

4.5.1 Default settings.........................................................................................................52

4.5.2 Set up Administrator profiles......................................................................................54

4.5.3 Adding Users and Administrators to the Acronis Backup Server database.......................55

4.5.4 Changing User profiles...............................................................................................57

4.5.5 Configuring Backup Locations.....................................................................................57

4.5.6 Managing Archives....................................................................................................58

4.5.7 Limiting access to Acronis Backup Server ....................................................................59

Chapter 5. Using Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local

version) ..................................................................................................................61

5.1 Main program window .....................................................................................................61

5.2 Managing a local computer...............................................................................................63

Chapter 6. Creating backup archives .................................................................... 66

6.1 Backing up files and folders (file backup)...........................................................................66

6.2 Backing up disks and partitions (image backup).................................................................70

6.3 Setting backup options.....................................................................................................72

6.3.1 Archive protection.....................................................................................................73

6.3.2 Source files exclusion ................................................................................................73

6.3.3 Pre/post commands ..................................................................................................74

6.3.4 Database support......................................................................................................74

6.3.5 Compression level.....................................................................................................75

6.3.6 Backup performance .................................................................................................76

6.3.7 Fast incremental/differential backup ...........................................................................77

6.3.8 Archive splitting........................................................................................................77

6.3.9 File-level security settings..........................................................................................77

6.3.10 Media components..................................................................................................78

6.3.11 Error handling.........................................................................................................79

6.3.12 Dual destination backup...........................................................................................79

6.3.13 Wake On LAN .........................................................................................................80

6.3.14 Additional settings...................................................................................................80

Chapter 7. Restoring the backup data ..................................................................82

7.1 Considerations before recovery.........................................................................................82

7.1.1 Restore under Windows or boot from CD?...................................................................82

7.1.2 Network settings in rescue mode................................................................................82

7.1.3 Recovering dynamic volumes.....................................................................................83

7.2 Restoring files and folders from file archives......................................................................84

7.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images ...................................................................86

7.3.1 Starting the Restore Data Wizard................................................................................87

7.3.2 Archive selection.......................................................................................................87

7.3.3 Restoration type selection..........................................................................................88

7.3.4 Selecting a disk/partition to restore ............................................................................89

7.3.5 Selecting a target disk/partition..................................................................................89

7.3.6 Changing the restored partition type...........................................................................90

7.3.7 Changing the restored partition file system..................................................................91

7.3.8 Changing the restored partition size and location.........................................................91

7.3.9 Assigning a letter to the restored partition...................................................................92

7.3.10 Restoring several disks or partitions at once..............................................................92

7.3.11 Using Acronis Universal Restore................................................................................92

7.3.12 Setting restore options.............................................................................................93

7.3.13 Restoration summary and executing restoration.........................................................93

7.4 Setting restore options.....................................................................................................93

7.4.1 Files to exclude from restoration.................................................................................94

7.4.2 Files overwriting mode...............................................................................................94

7.4.3 Pre/post commands ..................................................................................................94

7.4.4 Restoration priority....................................................................................................95

7.4.5 File-level security settings..........................................................................................95

7.4.6 Specifying mass storage drivers..................................................................................95

7.4.7 Additional settings.....................................................................................................96

7.4.8 Error handling...........................................................................................................96

7.5 Creating dynamic disks and volumes.................................................................................97

7.5.1 Creating dynamic volumes.........................................................................................97

Chapter 8. Scheduling tasks................................................................................100

8.1 Creating scheduled tasks................................................................................................100

8.1.1 Setting up daily execution........................................................................................102

8.1.2 Setting up weekly execution.....................................................................................103

8.1.3 Setting up monthly execution...................................................................................104

8.1.4 Setting up one-time execution..................................................................................104

8.1.5 Setting up event-driven execution ............................................................................105

8.2 Managing scheduled tasks..............................................................................................105

Chapter 9. Managing the Acronis Secure Zone ...................................................106

9.1 Creating Acronis Secure Zone......................................................................................... 106

9.2 Resizing the Acronis Secure Zone....................................................................................108

9.3 Changing the password for Acronis Secure Zone..............................................................109

9.4 Deleting Acronis Secure Zone.........................................................................................109

Chapter 10. Creating bootable media ................................................................. 110

10.1 Creating Acronis rescue media...................................................................................... 110

10.2 Creating a Win PE ISO with Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server .........112

Chapter 11. Operations with archives.................................................................114

11.1 Validating backup archives ...........................................................................................114

11.2 Exploring archives and mounting images ....................................................................... 114

11.2.1 Exploring an archive..............................................................................................115

11.2.2 Mounting an image................................................................................................116

11.2.3 Unmounting an image ...........................................................................................118

11.3 Consolidating backups..................................................................................................118

Chapter 12. Notifications and event tracing .......................................................122

12.1 Email notification.........................................................................................................122

12.2 WinPopup notification..................................................................................................123

12.3 Viewing logs................................................................................................................123

12.4 Event tracing...............................................................................................................124

12.4.1 Windows event log................................................................................................124

12.4.2 SNMP notifications.................................................................................................125

12.5 Managing System Restore............................................................................................125

Chapter 13. Working with a virtual environment ...............................................127

13.1 Backing up data on virtual machines .............................................................................127

13.2 Recovering data on virtual machines.............................................................................127

13.3 Using the disk conversion feature..................................................................................128

13.3.1 Recover data on the VM.........................................................................................128

13.3.2 Recover both data and the VM ...............................................................................128

13.3.3 Physical to virtual migration ...................................................................................128

13.3.4 Converting workloads............................................................................................129

13. 4 Converting disk images to virtual disks ......................................................................... 129

Chapter 14. Transferring the system to a new disk............................................131

14.1 General information.....................................................................................................131

14.2 Security......................................................................................................................132

14.3 Executing transfers......................................................................................................132

14.3.1 Selecting Clone mode............................................................................................ 132

14.3.2 Selecting source disk.............................................................................................132

14.3.3 Selecting destination disk.......................................................................................133

14.3.4 Partitioned destination disk ....................................................................................134

14.3.5 Old and new disk partition layout............................................................................134

14.3.6 Old disk data ........................................................................................................134

14.3.7 Destroying the old disk data...................................................................................135

14.3.8 Selecting partition transfer method.........................................................................136

14.3.9 Partitioning the old disk .........................................................................................137

14.3.10 Old and new disk partition layouts ........................................................................137

14.3.11 Cloning summary.................................................................................................138

14.4 Cloning with manual partitioning...................................................................................138

14.4.1 Old and new disk partition layouts..........................................................................138

Chapter 15. Adding a new hard disk ...................................................................140

15.1 Selecting a hard disk....................................................................................................140

15.2 Creating new partitions................................................................................................140

15.3 Disk add summary....................................................................................................... 141

Chapter 16. Command-line mode and scripting .................................................142

16.1 Working in the command-line mode..............................................................................142

16.1.1 Supported commands............................................................................................142

16.1.2 Common options (options common for most trueimagecmd commands) ....................145

16.1.3 Specific options (options specific for individual trueimagecmd commands)..................146

16.1.4 trueimagecmd.exe usage examples.........................................................................151

16.1.5 Command-line mode usage under DOS...................................................................155

16.2 Scripting.....................................................................................................................156

16.2.1 Script execution parameters...................................................................................156

16.2.2 Script structure .....................................................................................................156

16.2.3 Script usage examples...........................................................................................157

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Acronis® True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server – a complete solution for corporate users

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server is a comprehensive backup and recovery solution for heterogeneous computer infrastructure that may include any combination of physical and virtual, networked and standalone, Windows- and Linuxbased servers.

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server creates a transportable image, independent of the hardware platform that can be restored directly to and from any virtual or physical environment.

Minimizes downtime

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server 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. it is not necessary to reinstall software or reconfigure your system or network settings. The complete system restoration can be performed to an existing system, to a new system with different hardware, or to virtual machines. With the Acronis Active restore feature, users can access the server and be gin working during the restore process, further decreasing downtime. File-level 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. A central management console provides remote administration, ensuring that all systems in the network, regardless of the domain or workgroup structure, can be managed from one location. Complete, unattended restores from remote locations are supported with a remote bootable agent.

Automates Backup

With the scheduling capability in Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server, you simply create backup tasks, tailored by group, or certain times or events.

To ensure that backups have occurred, or if user intervention is required, you can r equest notifications via email or Windows Pop-up. You can view Acronis events in the Win dows Application Events Log or Acronis own log files. Log messages can be automatically sent out to SNMP clients.

The product also supports the creation of custom comman ds 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 the image has been created. And because these tasks can be scheduled, you need not recreate the script to run the pre- and post-event tasks each time; you can set the scheduled events once and they will run each time automatically.

Ensures 24 X 7 Uptime

With Acronis’ patented drive snapshot technology, systems can be imaged while they are in use, ensuring 24-by-7 system 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 CPU’s availability for mission critical applications. Additionally, users can control hard disk drive writing speeds and control network bandwidth used during backups, allowing minimal disruption of business operations.

A feature that allows you to suspend database activity for several seconds is provided so that you can create a valid image of mission-critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. This database suspension process supports Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). If your database or operating system does not support VSS, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server will execute your custom commands to execute database suspension.

Supports Leading Edge Technology

Businesses today are moving to leverage the latest technologies, includ ing dual-core, 64bit processors and 64-bit operating systems. With Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server, you can protect these new machines, as well as legacy servers, running a single application with a common interface.

Leverages Existing Technology Investments

The product can leverage your current storage infrastru cture by supporting a 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 Storage ( DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Networks (SAN), Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks (RAID), tapes, USB and IEEE-1394 (FireWire) compliant storage devices, CDs, DVDs, removable drives (Floppy, Zip, etc.) and shared storage. Mor eover, the product ensures that you maximize the space on these reso urces with four levels of compression.

Disk cloning and new disk deployment

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server can be used to clone an image onto multiple servers. For example, let’s say a company purchased several servers and needs similar environments on each of them. Traditionally, the IT manager would install the operating system and programs on every server. With Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server, the IT manager would configure a single server, then create a disk image of the system. That image can then be duplicated onto multiple servers.

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

Volumes conversion

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server can back up and recover dynamic volumes.

Dynamic volume as is can be recovered over the same volume or unallocated space of a dynamic group. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server has necessary tools for any-to-any disks conversion in terms of basic disks and dynamic volumes of any type (simple, spanned, striped, mirrored or RAID 5). The tools are available in bootable program version as well. Having booted the Acronis environment, you can easily prepare the desired dynamic group on bare metal or a computer with non-Windows operating system.

1.2 Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server includes the following components.

1. Acronis True Image Management Console is a tool for remote access to Acroni s components. Administrator uses the console to install, configure and control the components from remote.

2. Acronis True Image Agent is an application that resides on client computers and performs Acronis operations such as data backup or restore.

3. Acronis Group Server is a management tool that provides ability to schedule, monitor and manage group backup tasks. It deploys group tasks to the ag ents, polls the agents for the status of running tasks and provides the administrator with the summary tasks state display over the network.

4. Acronis Backup Server is an application for centralized storage and management of enterprise backup archives.

The administrator can set space quotas and backup schemes, schedule check tasks that consolidate backups in case of quota violati on, perform one-time backups consolidation. This ensures optimal usage of the storage capacity . Acronis Backup Server also enables users to access a tape library, connected to the server.

5. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version) is a locally controlled server management tool with additional functionality as compared to Acronis True Image Agent. The local version supports, besides backup and recovery operations, exploring archives, mounting images as virtual drives, cloning hard disk s data and formatting partitions on new hard disks, creating dynamic volumes, command-line mode and scripts execution.

6. Acronis Universal Restore is an add-on to Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server that automatically configures Windows drivers in a system, recovered on dissimilar hardware. This enables the seamless system start and operation.

7. Acronis Bootable Rescue Media Builder - creates bootable media, its ISO image or the RIS package thus enabling data recovery over bare metal, non-Windows or corrupted operating systems.

1.3 New in Acronis for Microsoft Small Business Server

Management console

Reconnect (last connect) option Centralized installation and update of Acronis components on multiple computers

Group server

Import and export computers through txt/csv files Run, stop, restart, edit, check group tasks Group validation tasks Set how often to check the computers state (status refresh rate) Wake on LAN for backup

Backup server

Import/export archives from external locations Limit number of connections Limit bandwidth used per connection Access to tape library for every user

Backup

Backup and restore of 2+TB volumes Encrypting backups with industry-standard AES cryptographic algorithm (key size 128,

192, 256 bit) Multi-volume snapshot for databases spread on several disks Control network bandwidth usage when backing up to FTP Error handling: ignore bad sectors, silent mode (no pop-ups, continue on all errors) Dual destination backup: Acronis Secure Zone + network share Support for VMware Consolidated backup Archive bit reset (file-level backup only) Generating time-based names for bac kup files

Recovery

Recovery of dynamic volumes Recovery of system dynamic volumes on dissimilar hardware using Acronis Universal

Restore or Acronis Active restore

Scheduling

Schedule archive validation Start every N hours within daily schedule Start on free disk space change by the specified amount Cloning a task

Notification via e-mail

Multiple e-mail addresses From and Subject fields Logon to incoming mail server

Operations with archives

Convert disk images to virtual disks for VMware, Microsoft, XenServer and Parallels virtual machines

Consolidate backup files (create a consistent copy of archive while deleting selected backups)

Explore archives (open in read-only mode any image or file-level backup)

Operations with hard disks

Convert basic disk to dynamic

Create dynamic volumes

CLI features

MBR restore Backup to FTP server Allow logs on net share Merge unallocated space by moving partitions and create Acronis Secure Zone on the

space

Security

Encrypted (SSL) communication between Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

1.4 Supported file systems and storage media

1.4.1 Supported file systems

FAT16/32 NTFS Ext2/Ext3 ReiserFS Reiser4 Linux SWAP XFS JFS DFS If a file system is not supported or is corrupted, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small

Business Server can copy data using a sector-by-sector approach.

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

1.4.2 Supported storage media

Hard disk drives Networked storage devices such as Storage Area Networks (SANs) and Network Attached

Storage (NAS) Tape libraries, autoloaders, SCSI tape drives IDE and SCSI RAID controllers of any level FTP-servers* CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R (including double-layer DVD+R), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM** 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 2GB in size. It is recommended that you change the source computer firewall settings to open ports 20 and 21 for both TCP and UDP protocols and disable the Routing and Remote Access Windows service.

** - Burned rewritable discs cannot be read in Linux without kernel patch.

1.5 License policy

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server licensing is based on number of servers on which Acronis True Image Agent and/or Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version are to be installed. This means you need one license for each server you are going to backup, whether you will control it on-site (with the local program version) or remotely (using Acronis True Image Agent), or use both ways of control. The number of Acronis True Image Management Console, Acr onis Group Server and Acronis Backup Server installations is not counted.

Acronis Universal Restore is an option to Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server and has its own serial number.

1.6 Technical support

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

Support shall consist of supplying telephone or other electronic support to you in or der to help you locate and, on its own, correct problems with the Software and supplying patches, updates and other changes that Acronis, at its sole discretion, makes or adds to the Software and which Acronis makes generally available , without additional char ge, to other licensees of the Software that are enrolled in Support. Upon mutual agre ement by both parties, Acronis shall: (i) supply code corrections to you to correct Software malfunctions in order to bring such Software into substantial conformity with the published operating specifications for the most current version of the Software unless your unauthorized modifications prohibit or hamper such corrections or cause the malfunction; or (ii) supply code corrections to correct insubstantial problems at the next general release of the Software.

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

Chapter 2. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server installation and startup

2.1 System requirements

2.1.1 Minimum hardware requirements

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server requires the following hardware: Pentium processor or higher 256MB RAM FDD or CD-RW drive for bootable media creation Mouse (recommended).

2.1.2 Supported operating systems

Acronis True Image Management Console

Windows Small Business Server 2003 Windows Professional 2000 SP4/XP Professional SP2 Windows Server 2000/Advanced Server 2000/Server 2003 Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 x64 Editions Windows Vista all Editions (except for installation of Acronis components on remote

machines running Vista)

Acronis True Image Agent for Windows

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server

Acronis Backup Server

Acronis Group Server

Acronis Universal Restore (optional)

Windows Small Business Server 2003 Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server bootable version enables disk-

level backup and recovery on a computer running any PC-based operating system.

2.2 Security parameters

2.2.1 Credentials

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server fully supports all security standards used in Windows.

To install Acronis components on a computer, the user must be a member of the Administrators group on the computer.

To get access to Acronis True Image Agent, installed on a computer, the user must be a member of the Administrators or Backup operators group on the computer.

The Acronis Group Server uses administrator’s credentials to perform data backup tasks on the computers. You will be asked for the credentials during the Acronis Group Server installation. The credentials you provide will be used for running the Acronis Group Server service and also applied to all networked computers.

Therefore, it is recommended that you have a uniform account for all computers where the Acronis True Image Agent is installed. Domain administrators can use the domain administrator account. In a workgroup, it would make sense to create identical accounts in the Administrators group on each computer with Acronis True Image Agent.

If you do not wish to create a uniform account, provide credentials for each computer after Acronis Group Server installation as described in point 4 of

display

You can combine both methods, for example, to set up a uniform account for domain members and set individual accounts for members of a workgroup.

4.4.1 Group status

2.2.2 Firewall setup

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server uses the following ports and I P addresses for remote operation:

server (Acronis True Image Agent) UDP port: 9876 server (Acronis True Image Agent) TCP port: 9876, if busy choose a port at random client (Acronis True Image Management Console) UDP port: 9877, if busy choose a port

at random IPv4 multicast address: 239.255.219.45 IPv6 multicast address: FF05::fAA5:741E. You might have to set the appropriate firewall access options. Options for the Win dows

Firewall, included in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows 2003 Server, are set automatically during Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components installation. However, make sure that the option File and Printer Sharing in the Control panel -> Windows Firewall -> Exceptions is enabled on the remote computer, before the remote operation starts.

2.2.3 Encrypted communication

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server provides capability to secure all data transferred between Acronis components within local net and through DMZ, including the backup stream.

Encryption starts on the first (earliest) stage of connection attempt, so all data transferred on the next steps (including data required for client authentication) is encrypted.

Once Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components are installed, encrypted communication between the components is enabled automati cally.

The earlier versions of Acronis True Image Enterprise Server did not support encrypted communication, therefore connection to such components, if they present on the network, will not be encrypted. You have an option to completely disable non-encrypted communication with some or all Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components. In this case, the components will not be able to communicate with components of earlier versions. For how to disable non -encr ypted comm unication , s ee the next section.

The earlier versions of Acronis True Image Management Console cannot communicate with Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server agents. The console must be upgraded to the Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server console.

Encryption is provided with Secure Socket Layer mechanism. There ar e two stakeholders of the encryption operation:

Client application – the application that tries to establish (initiates) connection. This

could be the Acronis True Image Management Console or Acronis Group Server.

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version can also be a

client when it performs backup to Acronis Backup Server. Server application – the application to which the client tries to connect. This could be

Acronis True Image Agent, Acronis Group Server, Acronis Backup Server.

2.2.4 Security parameters in Acronis Administrative Template

As stated above, encryption generally does not require setting up. However, connecti on to Acronis components of earlier versions will not be encrypted. To completely disable nonencrypted communication with some or all Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components, use the Administrative Template, provided by Acronis.

Through the Microsoft Group Policy mechanism, the template can be applied to a single computer as well as to a domain.

How to apply Acronis Administrative Template

1. Run Windows Group Policy Objects Editor (\WINDOWS\system32\gpedit.msc).

2. Open the Group Policy object you want to edit, and in the console tree right-click Administrative Templates.

3. Click Add/Remove Templates.

4. Click Add.

5. Browse to the Acronis Administrative Template (\Program files\Common Files\Acronis\Agent \acronis_agent.adm or \Program

files\Acronis\TrueImageConsole\acronis_agent.adm), and click Open.

6. Once the template is added, open it and edit the desired settings.

For detailed information about Windows GPO Editor please see:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374163.aspx

For detailed information about Group Policies please see:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374177.aspx

The Acronis Administrative Template contains the following settings.

Encryption Options

Server Requires Encryption This option defines the server behavior in case the client does not support encryption.

When enabled, connection to the client will be terminated. When disabled, the client will be allowed to establish non-encrypted connection.

Client Requires Encryption When connecting to server applications, the Acronis client applications always attempt to

establish an encrypted connection. The Client Requires Encryption option defines the client behavior in case the server does not support encryption. When disabled, the nonencrypted connection will be established. When enabled, the connection will be terminated.

After applying the template or editing the encryption options, you should restart the Remote Agent(s).

2.3 Installing Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

To install Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components, run the Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server setup file.

If you have the trial version of Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server installed on your system, you must uninstall it before installing the commercial version of the product.

Select the program to install and follow instructions on the screen.

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server Install Window

It is recommended that you install Acronis True Image Management Console first. After that you will be able to install Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version) and Acronis True Image Agent for Windows remotely to networked computers.

2.3.1 Installation of Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version and Acronis True Image Agent for Windows

For Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server and Acronis True Image Agent for Windows, Typical, Custom and Complete installation is available. Having pressed Custom, you can choose to install, besides the main component, Rescue Media Builder and Bart PE plug-in for Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server, or Acronis Secure Zone manager for Acronis True Image Agent.

With Rescue Media Builder you can create bootable rescue disks or RIS packages (see details in

Chapter 10. Creating bootable 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.

The widely used Bart PE utility provides a Windows-like operating environment invoked via removable bootable media. Applications are installed into Bart PE in the form of plugins. Choosing Bart PE plug-in installation (disabled by default) provides the ability to include Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server into a Bart PE pl ug-in tab. The plug-in files will be placed into the component installation folder along with other program files.

). Installing the Bootable Rescue Media

Acronis Secure Zone manager lets you create, delete and resize a special hidden partition for storing backup archives (see

When installed, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (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

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone

connecting image backups as virtual disks (see

11.2.2 Mounting an image

2.3.2 Installation of Acronis Group Server

The Acronis Group Server only can be installed locally on a computer by running the setup program.

When installing Acronis Group Server, you will be asked for credentials. The credentials you provide are used for running the Acronis Group Server service and also appli ed to all networked computers.

Enter the uniform account information discussed in

2.2.1 Credentials

. If you do not use a uniform account, provide credentials for each computer after the Acronis Group Server installation as described in point 4 of

4.4.1 Group status display

2.3.3 Acronis Backup Server installation and setup

The Acronis Backup Server only can be installed locally on a computer by running the setup program.

Before starting installation of this component, please read section

Server

to get understanding of this component functionality and define the storage policy

advantageous to your network. We suggest that you start using Acronis Backup Server as follows:

3.5 Acronis Backup

1. Set up a server with a system drive and a high capacity storage drive.

2. Install Acronis Backup Server on the system drive. Reboot on prompt.

In Windows XP SP2 or Windows 2003 Server, the option Control panel -> Windows Firewall -> Exceptions -> File and Printer Sharing must be enabled. Otherwise remote users will not be able to back up on the backup server.

3. Connect the console to Acronis Backup Server.

When connecting to a backup server inside a domain, mind whether your domain or local account is saved on the backup server. If you used your local account to install the backup server, and then logged in Windows on the console computer using your domain account, enter the local user name along with the backup server name (for example, Server1\username). Otherwise the name will be identified as a domain one.

4. Acronis Backup Server Management -> Specify Default Settings -> Set Backup Location -> specify path to the storage drive. You can create a f older for the backup location on the storage drive. To see the folder in the tree and add it to the path , collapse and expand the drive.

5. Click Back -> Configure Backup Locations -> make sure that the new default location is created and delete the location in \Documents and Settings.

6. Set limitations to disk space and storage period for the location, if needed, according to the selected policy.

To do so, select Configure Backup Locations -> select location -> Quotas and time limits. The maximum backup location size can be set to the storage drive capacity minus the estimated size of the largest backup (some space must be reserved for the temporary file created at consolidation).

7. Set the default limitations for users/computers, if needed, according to the selected policy.

To do so, select Acronis Backup Server Management -> Specify Default Settings

-> Set Quotas and time limits. The maximum disk space allowed for a user/computer can be set as the max location size divided by total number of users and computers. Generally, value of this setting can reach the maximum location size.

8. Read about administrators and users profiles in

3.5.3 Administrators and Users

. Define if you need more than one administrator on the backup server. If yes, add administrators as follows:

Add the person’s local or domain account to the AcronisBackupServerUsers group on the backup server.

Click Set up User profiles -> Add. Choose the user name.

Select from the local backup server users or the domain users

Choose Create user with administrator’s rights. Click Proceed.

User or administrator?

9. Define which users will be allowed to back up data on the backup server. Add the users as follows:

Add the person’s local or domain account to the AcronisBackupServerUsers group on the backup server.

Click Set up User profiles -> Add. Choose the user name. Choose Use default settings. Click Proceed.

10. Define the computers which administrators will back up using Acronis True Image Agents. Add the computers as follows.

Click Set up Administrator profiles -> Add. Choose the computer or enter its name. Choose Use default settings. Click Proceed.

Adding a computer to the administrator profile

11. Schedule a check for exceeding the quotas and time limits, if needed according to the selected policy.

To do so, select Acronis Backup Server Management -> Specify Default Settings

-> Schedule automatic consolidation and backup management. Choose Periodically. Choose Weekly. Schedule check to be performed once a week during off-peak time. Click Proceed. The backup server is ready to work. To perform backup using the Administrator profile,

connect the console to the agent on a remote computer and create a standard backup task while selecting Acronis Backup Servers -> backup server name -> Personal Backup Location as backup destination. Or create a group task for several computers with the same destination.

Users can back up their data with local program versions while selecting the same destination.

2.3.4 Acronis Universal Restore installation

Acronis Universal Restore is an option for Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server. It is included at no extra charge with Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server and installed from a separate setup file. Acronis Universal Restore has its own serial number that is required at installation.

Acronis Universal Restore can only be installed on a computer where at least one of the following Acronis components is installed:

Acronis True Image Agent for Windows Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version) Bootable Media Builder. Acronis Universal Restore can be installed on a networked computer either locally, by

running the setup program, or remotely, using one of remote installation services such as Systems Management Server (a component of Microsoft Windows NT BackOffice progra m package). Remote installation of Acronis Universal Restore with Acronis True Image Management Console is not supported.

After installation, Acronis Universal Restore automatically plugs in one or more of abov e program components. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version) name, displayed in its main window, changes to Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server with Universal Restore.

2.4 Extracting Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

During Acronis True Image Management Console installation, all Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components’ setup (.msi) files will be placed to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\RemoteInstall folder. Thus, you will be able to remotely install, modify or repair the components using Acronis True Image Management Console or msiexec.exe utility.

When installing Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components on a local computer, you can save setup files for each Acronis True Image for Microsoft Smal l Business Server component separately on a local or network drive. This will help when modifying or recovering the existing component installation on a local computer.

To save a component’s setup file: run the Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server setup file in the Install Menu, right-click on the component name and select Extract select a location for the setup file and click Save.

2.5 Running Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

2.5.1 Running Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version)

You can run Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server in Windows by selecting Start -> Programs -> Acronis -> Acronis True Image for Microsoft

Small Business Server -> Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business

Server or clicking the appropriate shortcut on the desktop.

If your operating system fails to load, you can run Acronis Startup Recovery Manager.

prior

However, this must be activated to learn more about this procedure. To run the program, press F11 during the server bootup when you see a corresponding message that tells you to press that key. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server will be run in the standalone mode, allowing you to recover the damaged partitions.

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 for Microsoft Small Business Server version from the bootable media (created by you using Rescue Media Builder) or RIS-server. Then you will be able to restore the disk from a previously created image.

to use; see

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

2.5.2 Running Acronis True Image Management Console

To run Acronis True Image Management Console, select Start -> Programs -> Acronis

-> Acronis True Image Management Console -> Acronis True Image

Management Console.

2.5.3 Running other Acronis components

Acronis True Image Agents, Acronis Backup Server and Acronis Group Server run as services immediately after installation and the consequent system re boot (if the latter is required). Later on they will automatically launch at every system restart. You can stop and start these programs in the same way as other services.

2.6 Removing Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

You can remove any Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server component separately by selecting Control panel -> Add or remove programs -> <The component name> -> Remove. Then follow instructions on the screen. You may have to reboot your computer afterwards to complete the task.

In case you remove Acronis True Image Agent or Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version from the system, there is an option to keep the Acronis Secure Zone along with its contents (which will enable data recovery on booting from bootable media) or remove Acronis Secure Zone.

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, is compressed and stored.

Backing up disks and partitions is performed in a different way: A cronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server saves a sector-based 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 calle d “creating a disk image,” and the resulting backup archive is often called a disk/partitio n image.

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server 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), root and the zero track of the hard disk with master boot record (MBR).

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

All Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server archives files have a “.tib” extension by default.

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

11.2.2 Mounting an image

files or folders.

) or start the image restoration and select Restore specified

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server 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 only contains data changed since the last full or incremental backup creation. Therefore, it is smaller and takes less time to create. However, since it

all

does not contain all data needed to restore an image,

and

backups

the initial full backup are required for restoration.

the previous incremental

A differential backup creates an independent file containing all changes since the last full archive. Generally, data from a differential backup will be restored faster than an

incremental backup, as it does not have to process through a long chain of previous backups.

A standalone, full backup could be an optimal solution if you often roll back the system to the initial state (for example, systems in a gaming club or Interne t café where you need to undo changes made by the guests). In this case, you need not 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 most current data state to be able t o 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.

An incremental backup is most useful when you need frequent back ups and possibility to roll back to any one of multiple stored states. For example, let’s say you create a full backup once a month. If you then crea te 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 just examples for your information. Feel free to make up your own backup policy in accordance with your specific tasks and conditions. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server 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 applicati ons cannot access it. In the Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server 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 Active restore features (see below). The three features, in combination, instantly make operational a system that fails to boot.

A consistent external copy of archives, saved on Acronis Secure Zone, can be created on a network share using dual destination backup feature. See details in

destination backup

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

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server uses the following approaches to clear space in the Acronis Secure Zone:

6.3.12 Dual

If there is not enough free space in the zone to create a backup, t he 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.

If there is only one full backup left, and an incremental or differential backup is in

progress, you will get an error message telling you there is a lack of available space.

In that case, you will have to either re-create the full backup or increase the size of the Acronis Secure Zone.

You can back up data automatically on a schedule (see

Chapter 8. Scheduling tasks

), and not worry about zone overflow issues. However, if you keep long chains of incremental backups, it is a good practice to check the zone free space periodically. To do so, star t the Manage Acronis Secure Zone wizard and see the zone free space that is displayed on the wizard’s second page.

For information on how to create, resize or delete Acronis Secure Zone using this wizard,

Chapter 9. Managing the Acronis Secure Zone

see

In case you remove Acronis True Image Agent or Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version from the system, there is an option to keep Acronis Secure Zone along with its contents (which will enable data recovery on booting from bootable media) or remove Acronis Secure Zone.

The Acronis Secure Zone should not be the only location where a backup is stored. Should the disk have a physical failure, the Acronis Secure Zone could be lost. This is particularly critical for backups of servers; the Acronis Secure Zone should only be one part of an overall backup strategy.

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

3.4.1 How it works

The Acronis Startup Recovery Manager enables starting Acronis True Image for Micros oft Small Business Server on a local computer without loading the operating system. If the operating system won't load, you can run Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server by itself to restore damaged partitions. Unlike booting from the A cronis removable media or RIS server, you will not need a separate media or network connection to start Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server. It is especially handy for mobile users who need to run a server operating system on their laptop.

3.4.2 How to use

To be able to use Acronis Startup Recovery Manager at boot time, prepare as follows (you can do it either locally, using Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version, or remotely, using Acronis True Image Management Console):

1. Install Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version or Acronis True Image Agent on a computer.

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

Acronis Secure Zone

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 Secure Zone is missing from the system, you will be prompted to create the zone, 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

Chapter 9. Managing the

then Acronis Startup

Recovery Manager.

Here’s an example of how you would use this feature. If failure occurs on a computer, 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 for Microsoft Small Business Server that only slightly differs from the complete version. For information on restoring damaged partitions, see

Be careful! Disk letters in standalone Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server 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 7. Restoring the backup data

3.5 Acronis Backup Server

Acronis Backup Server is an application for centralized storage and management of enterprise backup archives in accordance with the policies, set by an administrator. It ensures optimal usage of storage resources us ed for backup archives. Outdated archives will be automatically deleted; at the same time, the latest data recovery is always possible. In addition, Acronis Backup Server facilitates creation and executing group backup tasks.

For information on how to install and set up Acronis Backup Server, see

Backup Server installation and setup

Server, see

4.5 Managing backup server

. For information on how to manage Acronis Backup

2.3.3 Acronis

3.5.1 Backup locations

Backup server is a networked computer where Acronis Backup Server is installed. A backup location is a storage area for backups on a local backup server hard drive.

At installation, Acronis Backup Server creates one (default) backup location. The location has the following properties:

Path: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupServer\ Backups

Maximum backup location size: Unlimited Maximum storage period (days): Unlimited

All backup data destined to the backup server will be saved in the default backup location. Because it may not be practical or efficient for you to store all backup data in one

location, the backup server allows you to cr ea te as many locations as you need, each with its own properties. The three basic rules are:

any location, except for the default one, must be assigned to at least one user or

computer only one location can be assigned to a user or computer the default location may not be assigned to a u ser or computer. There must be a default

backup location on a backup server though. You can create a separate location for each user or comp uter while adding them to the

backup server, distribute the users/computers between several locations, or assign the same location to all users/computers.

Maintaining multiple small backup locations on a single disk does not allow for tracking changes in total disk space usage. At the same time, manual management of thousands

of archives in a location may be a serious problem. Practice is the best criterion for your choice.

You can move, clear or delete existing backup locations or edit their size limitations and storage period.

3.5.2 Quotas and time limits for computers and users

Individual quotas and time limits determine every computer’s or user’s quota on a backup server. This include

1) maximum storage space, allocated to a user/computer, in MB, GB or TB

2) maximum number of backups

3) maximum number of incremental backups for each full backup

4) maximum storage period for the user’s/computer’s backups.

A storage period is the amount of time that is allotted for a user or the backup location to maintain a file.

These values define how Acronis Backup Server itself will handle the backup archives. At first backup of the computer/user’s data to the backup server, a full backup will be

created. The next backups will be incremental, until the maximum number of incremental backups is reached. After that a full backup and a set of subsequent incremental backups is created, then again a full backup and so on.

When backing up to backup server, a user cannot select backup mode (full, incremental, differential). The backup mode will be set by Acronis Backup Server.

An attempt to direct user/computer backup data to the backup server while space or number quota is exceeded will not succeed. Backup to the full location will also be prohibited.

An administrator can schedule a check of meeting the limitations. All archives on the backup server will be checked and, if the space quota is violated or the maximum number of backups is exceeded, the backups will be processed as follows:

Acronis Backup Server will combine the first full backup with the next incremental one

into one full backup which will be dated the later backup date. Then, if necessary, this

backup will be combined with the next, until the occupied storage space (or number

of backups) decreases to the preset limit. Thus, the archive integrity will not be

affected, in spite of the fact that the oldest backups will be deleted. This procedure is

called automatic consolidation.

The actual number of backups can exceed the Maximum number of backups by one. This enables the program to detect the fact of quota violation and start c ons olidation.

3.5.3 Administrators and Users

At installation, Acronis Backup Server creates the user group called AcronisBackupServerUsers:

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Local Users and Groups -> AcronisBackupServerUsers.

The person who installed the program becomes the administrator in this group. The administrator is automatically registered on the backup server.

Generally, there are two types of profiles on the backup server: Administrators and Users. The Administrators profiles are designed to p erform ba ckups on rem ote comp uters with

Acronis True Image Agents. Whatever computer the administrator backs up, backup data will be sent to the same location, assigned to the computer. Administrators can also manage archives on the backup server, including archives created via Users’ profiles.

The Users profiles are designed to back up data from computers with Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version. Whatever computer the user operates on, backup data will be sent to the same location assigned to that user.

3.5.4 Operations with archives

Acronis Backup Server can display a list of backups, stored on the backup server, and sort the list by location or owners (users and computers).

An administrator, if need be, can consolidate any backup ( except for the oldest one in t he archive) manually with the preceding backup file. This operation deletes the preceding backup and sets concatenation between the backup being consolidated and the backup before the deleted one. Thus, the archive integrity will not be affected, in spite of the fact that one backup will be deleted. Data recovery from any of the remaining backups will be possible.

An archive can be exported from Acronis Backup Server to a local har d drive or network share or imported from external location to a computer’s or user’s backup location on the backup server.

3.6 Acronis Active restore

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

3.6.1 Limitations in using Acronis Active restore

1. Acronis Active restore is currently available for images located in the Acronis Secure Zone only.

2. Acronis Active restore does not support images of Windows Vista. If any Vista edition is detected in an image, the Active restore option will not appear.

3. Acronis Active restore does not work if the image contains dynamic disks and volumes.

4. Acronis Active restore cannot be used if the image contains no operating system (a logical partition or disk image) or when restoring file archives.

3.6.2 How it works

When the restoration procedure is started, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server:

1. Finds the sectors in the image which contain system files, and restores these sectors first. First the OS is restored and can be star ted very quickly. Having started the OS, th e user sees the folder tree with files, though file contents still is not recovered. Nevertheless, the user can start working.

2. Next, the application writes on the hard disk its own drivers, which intercept system queries to the files. When the user attempts to open files or launch applications, the drivers receive the system queries and restore the sectors that are necessary for the requested operation.

3. At the same time, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server proceeds with the complete sector-by-sector image restoration in the background. However, the 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 10-20GB image (most common image size) takes about 10 minutes. The larger the image size, the more time you save.

3.6.3 How to use

To be able to use Acronis Active restore, prepare your system this way: (you can do it either locally, using Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version, or remotely using Acronis True Image Management Console):

1. Install Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version or Acronis True Image Agent on the local computer.

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

Managing the Acronis Secure Zone

3. Activate Acronis Startup Recovery manager (see

Manager

Microsoft Small Business Server (see

4. Back up (image) the local computer’s system disk to Acronis Secure Zone (see Backing up disks and partitions (image backup)). You can back up other disks/partitions as well, but the system image is mandatory.

If failure occurs, boot the local computer from th e bootable media, or RI S server, or using F11. Start the recovery procedure (see

images

restore and in the next window click Proceed. In a few seconds the computer will reboot to the restored system. Log in and start work – no additional reboots or other actions are required.

You can perform Active restore running Acronis True Image for Micros oft Small Business Server in Windows operating systems as well. However, it is mandatory to have bootable media in case Windows cannot boot.

) and create bootable media or RIS package with Acronis True Image for

When performing Active restore, the current Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server version always restores the entire system disk. Therefore, if your system disk consists of several partitions, all of them must be included in the image. Any partitions which are missing from the image will be lost.

), select the system disk image from Acronis Secure Zone, choose Use Active

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery

Chapter 10. Creating bootable

7.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from

media).

Chapter 9.

6.2

3.7 Acronis Universal Restore

3.7.1 Acronis Universal Restore purpose

A system disk image can be deployed easily on the hardware where it was created or to identical hardware. However, if you change a motherboard or use another processor version — a likely possibility in case of hardware failure — the restored system could be unbootable. An attempt to transfer the system to a new, much more powerful computer

will usually produce the same unbootable result because the new hardware is incompatible with the most critical drivers included in the image.

Using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) does not solve t his problem, because Sysprep permits replacing drivers only for Plug-and-Play devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.). As for system Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers, they must be identical on the source and the target computers (see Microsoft Knowledge Base, articles 302577 and 216915).

Acronis Universal Restore technology provides an efficient solution for hardwareindependent system restoration by replacing the crucial Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and mass storage device drivers.

Acronis Universal Restore is applicable for:

1. Instant recovery of a failed system on different hardware

2. Hardware-independent cloning and deployment of operating systems

3. Real-to-virtual and virtual-to-real computer migration for system recovery, test and other purposes.

3.7.2 Acronis Universal Restore general principles

1. Automatic HAL and mass storage drivers selection Acronis Universal Restore searches the Windows default driver storage folders (in the

image being restored) for HAL and mass storage device drivers and installs drivers that better fit the target hardware. You can specify a custom driver repository (a folder or folders on a network drive or CD) which will also be used for drivers search.

The Windows default driver storage folder is determined in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current version\DevicePath. This storage folder is usually WINDOWS/inf.

2. Manual selection of mass storage device driver If the target hardware has a specific mass storage controller (such as a SCSI, RAID, or

Fibre Channel adapter) for the hard disk, you can install the appropriate driver manually, bypassing the automatic driver search-and-install procedure.

3. Installing drivers for plug and play devices Acronis Universal Restore relies on built-in plug and play discovery and configuration

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

3.7.3 Acronis Universal Restore and Microsoft Sysprep

Acronis Universal Restore is

not

a system preparation tool. You can apply it to any s ystem image created by Acronis products, including images prepared with Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep). The following is an example of using both tools on the same system.

Acronis Universal Restore does not strip security identifier (SID) and us er profile settings in order to run the system immediately after recovery without re-joining the domain or remapping network user profiles. If you are going to change the above settings on a

recovered system, you can prepare the system with Sysprep, image it and restore, if need be, using Acronis Universal Restore.

3.7.4 Limitations in using Acronis Universal Restore

1. The system recovered by Acronis Universal Restore might 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 only selected partitions but not the entire source disk

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 a partition other than the first, this can confuse th e loader and prevent the restored system from startup.

To avoid the problem, we recommend that you image and restore the entire system disk.

2. The Acronis Universal Restore option does not work if a computer is booted with Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (using F11) or the backup image is located in Acronis Secure Zone. This is because Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and Acronis Secure Zone are primarily meant for instant data recovery on the same computer.

3.7.5 Getting Acronis Universal Restore

Acronis Universal Restore is an add-on to Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server. It is included at no extra charge with with Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server , has its own license, and is installed from a separate setup file.

Let’s assume for a moment that you own Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server but have not purchased Acronis Universal Restore. When you create a task for restoring a Windows system disk and select a target disk (either physical or virtual) in the Restore Data Wizard, the program compares crucial for the system star t devices found in the image registry and the target computer registry. If th e chipset, motherboard or mass storage device are different, and therefore there is a risk that the system cannot boot, you will be prompted whether you want to use Acronis Universal Restore. Follow the link and Acronis Universal Restore will be added automatically for free.

If you already have Acronis Universal Restore, the prompt will not come up and you will have an option to enable Acronis Universal Restore later in the Restore Data Wizard.

3.8 Backing up to tape libraries and tape drives

A tape library is a high-capacity storage device consisting of one or mor e tape drives and a loader that automatically selects and loads multiple tape cartridges. Tape libraries with only one drive and loader are known as autoloaders.

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server supports tape libraries, autoloaders, SCSI and USB tape drives as storage devices.

Tape libraries, autoloaders and tape drives are accessible through the Acronis Backup Server or using Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version. The

following diagram illustrates ways of access to tape devices for networks with (I) and without (II) backup server.

The devices must be locally attached to the servers and work through Windows Removable Storage Management (RSM). Devices that use the N etwork Data Management Protocol (NDMP) are not supported.

The following operations are available for backups stored on tape devices:

• validation

• data recovery

• converting an image to virtual disk.

Consolidation, mounting or exploring backups stored on tape devices is not supported. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server does not support tape devices

when working in preinstallation environment such as Win PE or Bart PE.

The bootable Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server version cannot access archives created by the local version on locally attached tape devices.

To be able to access archives with bootable media, please back up to Acronis Backup Server or back up to the local tape device using the bootable media.

3.8.1 Understanding backup to tape devices

Archives cataloguing

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server creates a dedicated database for archives and tapes cataloguing (\Program files\Common Files\Acronis\Fomatik\tape_archives.fdb.)

Each tape of an RSM-managed device has its own GUID stored in the Windows registry. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server creates its own ID for each tape, sets up the correspondence between this ID and the RSM GUID and stores that information along with information about the archive in its own database. Additionally, the program stores metadata on tape, so that identification infor m ation can be obtained when mounting a tape that is not registered in the database.

If the database is lost or not available (say, you detach the tape device and a ttach it to another computer or reinstall Windows) the necessary information is derived from the

metadata saved on the tape and the database will be recreated on the new host using the new host RSM. This operation is performed at first access to the tape device while setting up a backup, recovery or validation task. Therefore, under Windows the program knows which tape should be mounted even if the data is recovered on another machine.

When booted from Acronis rescue media, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server uses another mechanism for access to tape devices since RSM is not available.

Moving tapes between tape devices

A tape that already has backups can be added to a tape device. When the tape device is selected in the recovery or validation wizard, the newly added tape is scanned by the RSM and then by Acronis and added to the Acronis database and the Acronis pool. The a ccess to the archives on the tape becomes available.

However, Acronis will not scan the added tape for changes if the tape already is in the Acronis database. If you eject a tape, back up another machine on this tape and ta ke the tape back to the first tape device, the second machine archive will not be discovered by Acronis and therefore cannot be restored by the first tape device. Please be awar e of this limitation when using tapes between multiple computers.

Using RSM pools

At first backup to the tape device, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server takes a tape from the Free pool. The program creates the Acronis pool and puts th e 1st tape in the pool. The tape stays mounted after writing a backup is completed. The next backups, regardless of their contents, will be placed on the same tape, unless the tape free space runs out.

When the 1st tape is full, the program looks for another cartridge in the Free pool and uses it without user intervention. If the Free pool is empty, a cartridge from the Import media pool is used through a prompt. (You have an option to disable prompts, see

6.3.14 Additional settings

So, to fully automate changing tapes at backup, you must always have at least one tape in the Free pool (or a tape in the Import media pool and the prompt disabled.)

Overwriting old archives

You can move tapes with outdated archives from the Acronis pool to the Free pool periodically using the Removable storage snap-in. To do so:

1. Select Control panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer management -> Removable storage -> Media pools -> Acronis.

2. Right click on the tape in the Acronis pool, deallocate the tape if it is mounted and select Free from the context menu. The tape will be moved to the Free pool. After putting a tape in the Free pool RSM and then Acronis will rescan it and record it to the database with a new GUID.

A deleted archive is not necessarily deleted from the tape, it can be just marked as deleted in the catalogue.

Saving a full backup to a new tape

You can enable saving a full backup on a new tape even if the currently mounted tape is not full. To do so, deallocate the current tape and eject it, add a new t ape and move the tape to the Free pool using RSM. Incremental or differential backups cannot be performed in this way because access to the previous backups is required.

3.8.2 Backing up to a tape device through Acronis Backup Server

To enable backup to a tape device in the local network:

1. Install Acronis Backup Server on a server accessible to all users.

2. Attach the tape device to that server.

3. Move tapes from the Unrecognized or Import media pool to the Free pool using the Removable storage snap-in (Control panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer management -> Removable storage -> Media pools.)

4. Create local accounts on that server for all users who will back up their data to the autoloader. Accounts must belong to the Backup Operators group and be the real accounts with which users log in Windows.

5. When creating backup tasks (if logged in Windows with the above accounts), users of local Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server version will be able to select the tape device from the list of destination devices.

The backup server administrator can create group or individual tasks for computers to back up their data to the tape device using Acronis True Image Management Console. Filenames for backups are not needed when backing up to tape.

Archives, created on tape devices through Acronis Backup Server, can be accessed by Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local and bootable versions and agents for validation, data recovery and converting images to virtual disks.

You can attach the tape device to another Acronis Backup Server, if need be (say, the current backup server is down.) Before doing so, delete the Acronis database for tape devices on that server, if there is one (\Program files\Common Files\Acronis\Fomatik\tape_archives.fdb.) This will allow the backup server to create the database for the newly attached tape device using metadata contained on tapes.

Acronis Backup Server does not allow for creating manageable backup locations on tape devices. This means that you cannot limit the number of backups or the period while the archives are stored on tape devices. This functionality is supported only on the backup server internal hard drives.

3.8.3 Backing up to a locally attached tape device

Backup to a locally attached tape device can be performed using either Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version or bootable media.

The bootable Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server version cannot access archives created by the local version on locally attached tape devices.

To be able to access archives with bootable media, please back up to Acronis Backup Server or back up to the local tape device using the bootable media.

To enable backup to a locally attached tape device with A cronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version:

1. Install Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version.

2. Attach the tape device to the computer.

3. Move cartridges from the Unrecognized or Import media pool to the Free pool using the Removable storage snap-in (Control panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer management -> Removable storage -> Media pools.)

4. If the tape contains data, its contents will be overwritten on prompt. You have an option to disable prompts, see

5. When creating a backup task, you will be able to select the tape device from the list of destination devices. Filenames for backups are not needed when backing up to tape.

6. [Tape drive] As soon as the tape is full, a dialog window with a request to insert a new tape will appear.

[Tape library or autoloader] As soon as the tape is full, the program automatically draws a tape from the Free or Import media pool. The above request will appear if no tapes are found in either of these pools.

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

6.3.14 Additional settings

3.8.4 Restoring data from archives located on tape devices

Data recovery from archives located on tape devices is performed in the same way as with other storage devices.

When recovering, you start the restore wizard, select the local tape device or tap e device under the backup server, select the archive and the backup to restore data from.

[Tape drive] You will be prompted to insert tapes required for restoring data from the selected backup.

[Tape library or autoloader] The program finds the tapes and inserts them automatically in the right order. A prompt comes up if the required tape is not found.

3.9 Viewing disk and partition information

You can change the way data is represented 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-cli ck 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 right 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, fr ee space, assigned letter , etc.) parameters.

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

Chapter 4. Using Acronis True Image Management Console

4.1 General information

Acronis True Image Management Console is the primary tool for managing data backup/restore on remote computers where Acronis True Image Agent is installed. The console allows for the managing of computer groups and corporate backup archives using Group and Backup Servers, as well as managing individual backup/restore tasks for ever y computer.

Acronis True Image Management Console main window

4.2 Installing/updating Acronis components on remote machines

Acronis True Image Management Console allows for group installation and updates of Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version) and Acronis True Image Agent for Windows on remote computers. To perform any of these oper ations, you will need administrator rights on the target machines.

Installation of Acronis components onto remote machines running all Windows Vista editions is not possible. You will have to install the components locally on such computers.

If the remote computer runs Windows XP, the option Control panel -> Folder options

-> View -> Use simple file sharing must be disabled on that computer.

If the remote computer runs Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows 2003 Server, the option Control panel -> Windows Firewall -> Exceptions -> File and Printer Sharing must be enabled on that computer.

To install Acronis components:

1. Click Install Acronis components to a remote computer in the center of Acronis True Image Management Console main window, on the toolbar or the sidebar, or select the same item from the Tools menu.

2. Select the installer location from the list (Registered Components, Search

removable media or Specify location). The default selection Registered Components will use setup files from the default C:\Program Files\Common

Files\Acronis\RemoteInstall folder.

3. Select the Acronis component and specify the component features y ou want to install (for custom component features see

Business

Server components.)

2.3 Installing Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small

4. Select computers on which the Acronis component is to be installed. This can be done by:

- browsing the network. When browsing the network, you can select entire workgroups or domains

- typing the computers names or addresses (click Next then add computers to the list)

- importing the computers list from .txt or .csv files.

5. Provide administrator username and password for each computer. If there is a universal administrator account on the network, enter the account credentials for one computer and set the option to apply it to all computers that you select. Domain administrator credentials and universal credentials for wor kgroups can be applied in this way.

If you do not specify credentials for all machines involved, or if the credentials are not valid for some machines, you will have an option to provide credentials during installation (there is an option Other user in the username/password error prompt.)

Most Acronis components require the system restart on their installation. To allow immediate remote computer reboot, check th e Reboot the remote computer box. This option also can be applied to all computers or set to each machine individually.

6. The summary window displays a list of computers where the Acronis component will be installed.

7. Once the installation starts, the program displays the oper ation progress and the name of the computer on which the component is being installed.

To update an Acronis component on a remote computer, perform the same procedure.

4.3 Managing a single remote computer

To perform any operation on a single remote computer, you must first connect to it.

4.3.1 Connecting to a remote computer

To establish a remote connection:

1. Click Connect to a remote computer in the center of Acronis True Image Management Console main window or on the toolbar, or select New connection from the sidebar or the Connect menu.

2. Enter the computer network name, IP address or select it using Browse… button. Browse… will open a list, including all computers controllable with Acronis True Image Management Console.

3. Enter administrator or backup operator username and password.

When connecting to a backup server inside a domain, mind whether your domain or local account is registered on the backup server. If you entered Windows on a network computer using your domain account while your local account is registered, enter the local user name along with the backup server name (for example, Server1\username). Otherwise the name will be identified as a domain one.

After a connection is established, you will see a list of operations available in the central part of Acronis True Image Management Console main window:

Main window of Acronis True Image Management Console when connected to a remote

computer

The task list content depends on the programs installed on the connected computer. The most populated list will include managing Backup and Recovery Tasks (using the Acronis True Image Agent), Acronis Group Server Management and Acronis Backup Server Management.

While you are operating on a remote computer, the computer could reboot or the connection to the computer could be broken for other reasons. This will result in operations failure, such as hiding of the remote computer file system in wizards, or operation may hang. Use Reconnect on the sidebar to test whether the computer is available again or eliminate any malfunction that persists.

The console automatically attempts to reconnect to the last connected machine every 30 sec. To change the time interval between the attempts, select Tools -> Options -> Network -> Reconnect options.

When the console is disconnected, Reconnect provides a handy one-click connection to the most recently accessed machine.

4.3.2 Backup and recovery tasks

After clicking on Backup and Recovery Tasks, the program window will appear like the graphic below:

You can perform the following operations on the remote computer.

Operation How to access

Back up and Recover

Back up and restore data, including system disks/partitions

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

6. Creating backup archives Restoring the backup data.

and

Chapter

Chapter 7.

Browse logs of Acronis True Image Agent operation

Set up default backup or restore options, such as system/network resources usage, before/after backup commands, etc.

Set up default parameters for sending notifications about Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server operation and tracing this operation in the Windows Application Event Log

Scheduling Tasks Schedule backup and archive validation

operations

Run, stop, edit, clone, rename, delete backup and archive validation tasks

Click Show Log. See details in

Viewing logs

12.3

Click Remote Computer Options, select

Default backup options or Default restoration options and make settings.

See details in

7.4 Setting restore options.

and

6.3 Setting backup options

Click Remote Computer Options, select Notifications or Event tracing and make settings. See details in

Notifications and event tracing.

Chapter 12.

Click Show tasks to navigate to the Manage Computer Tasks window. Click Create then follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

Scheduling tasks

Chapter 8.

Click Show tasks to navigate to the Manage Computer Tasks window. See details in

8.2 Managing scheduled tasks

Archives Management Validate backup archives wherever they

reside, be it local, network or removable media

Consolidate backup files in an archive

Convert disk images to virtual disk files of the type you select (.vmdk, .vhd, .hdd)

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

11.1 Validating backup archives

Click Consolidate archive, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

11.3

Consolidating backup.

Click Convert backup to Virtual Disk and follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

virtual disks

13. 4 Converting disk images to

Hard Disk Management Manage Acronis Secure Zone (create,

delete, resize, remove or change password)

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

Chapter 9. Managing the Acronis Secure

Zone

Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager Click Activate Acronis Startup Recovery

Manager, then follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

Startup Recovery Manager

3.4 Acronis

Other Tools Create bootable rescue media, its ISO or

See

Chapter 10. Creating bootable media

RIS package Update the remote agent Click Update the remote agent, then

follow the Wizard’s instructions. The procedure is the same as described in

4.2 Installing/updating Acronis components on remote machine

After you perform all necessary operations on the remote computer, select Disconnect or New connection on the toolbar, sidebar or the Connect menu.

4.4 Managing groups of computers

4.4.1 Group status display

When connected to a computer where Acronis Group Server is installed, click Acronis Group Server management to display the following window.

Here you can monitor states of Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server tasks (backup, restore, validating backup archives) on all networked computers:

Ready – the remote computer is available for the next task Prepare - preparations are being made on a remote machine for the task execution

(analyzing partitions, preparing backup scripts, etc.)

Running – a task is being executed on the remote computer Paused – the task is paused and waiting for user input on the remote computer Failed – the task could not be completed because of an error Finished – the task has been completed successfully

Cancelled – the task has been cancelled on the remote computer Offline - the remote computer is not connected to the netw ork or is switched of f Inaccessible - the remote computer is not accessible due to lack of access rights,

firewall and security settings, etc. Unmanaged - the Acronis True Image Agent is not installed on the remote machine. Use Search to find a computer in the list quickly. To see details of the computer in brief (the computer role, operating system and IP

address), click the computer name. The details are displayed on the sidebar. To see details of the group task being executed on a remote computer, mouse over the

computer name. In this window you can also:

1. Filter out from the list offline, inaccessible or unmanaged computers or filter out online computers to see those that cannot be managed (use buttons in the Filter group).

2. Import computers into the group server in case they are not discovered automatically due to network behavior. It makes sense to i nstall Acronis components on these computers first so that you will be able to create tasks for these computers.

To add a single computer: click Add on the toolbar type in the computer name or IP address. To add computers from Active directory: click Add on the toolbar type in the name of the domain controller when the active directory is expanded, tick off the desired computers or the entire

directory. To add multiple computers from a file: prepare a .txt or .csv file, listing semicolon-separated computers names and IP addresses

as follows: Name1; IP1; Name2; IP2;… click Add on the toolbar specify path to the above file.

3. Export computers from the group server to a .txt or .csv file that can be used by other application or new versions of Acronis Group Server. To do so:

click Export on the toolbar specify name of the file and a path to a folder where you want to create it.

4. Set and test credentials for access to each computer. To do so, select th e computer, then select on the sidebar Computer details -> Credentials: Set, type username and password and click Test connection. The program will display the test result. Key icons for successfully tested connections are colored gold.

5. Set (or change) the MAC address for each computer. To do s o, select the computer, then select on the sidebar Computer details -> MAC address: Set or Change and type the hex MAC address as XXXXXXXXXXXX or XX-XX-XX-XX-XX. The program will test the MAC address for validity and display the test result.

6. Hide computers that you do not wish to browse or make a hidden computer visible. To hide a computer, select it, then select on the sidebar Computer details -> Visibility: Hide. To make a hidden computer visible (and monitored), enable Show hidden computers in the Filter group, select the hidden computer, then select on the sidebar Computer details -> Visibility: Unhide.

7. Create a group backup task for several remote computers at once (see

Creating new group tasks

8. Connect to a remote computer to see the operation log, start or edit tasks for this computer etc. (see and click Connect.

9. Switch to the Group tasks management window for managing group tasks.

4.3 Managing a single remote computer

). To do so, select a computer

4.4.2

4.4.2 Creating new group tasks

You can create a disk/partition backup task or a rchive validation task for several remote computers at once. File-level backup for groups of computers is unavailable.

1. In Group status or Group tasks management window, select New Group Task on the toolbar. The Create Group Task Wizard starts to guide you through the task creation procedure.

2. Select the type of the task: backup or validation.

3. Form a group for the current task: check computers in the list of remote computers.

4. For the backup task only: Select disks/partitions to backup. You can select any combination of hard disks (by number, according to Windows numeration) and partitions (by letter); or All hard disks. This setting is applied to every computer in the group, so having a standard (similar) disks/partitions layout on remote computers would be a plus.

5. Specify the paths for the backup archiv es. To place ever y archiv e on it s local comp uter, specify Local path or select Acronis Secure Zone, if there is such a zone on every remote computer. For more information about the Acronis Secure Zone see

Secure Zone

folder and specify the username and password for access to the network drive. When

. To place backups on the network, check Network path, select the target

3.3 Acronis

backing up to a backup server, choose Personal Backup Location or tape drive and enter backup server administrator’s credentials. For more information about backup servers see

3.5 Acronis Backup Server

You should also provide the archive name for each computer, unless the archives are targeted to Acronis Secure Zones or a backup server. Pressing the button to the right of the name input field will assign to each archive the respective computer’s name.

6. For the backup task only: Specify the usual backup settings: backup mode (full, incremental or differential), a password for the backup archive (if ne cessary), default or custom backup options and comment. For more information see

backup archives

Chapter 6. Creating

7. Provide a name for the group task. The name will be displayed in the Group Tasks Management window (see below) to allow quick task identification.

8. Select when you would like the task to be started. The scheduling procedure is almost the same for individual and group tasks, see

Chapter 8. Scheduling tasks

for details.

9. If, for any reason (traffic limitation, for example), you do not want the task to start on all computers simultaneously, set the Start time shift parameter. The task will start on all computers in turn, with the time shift you specify. As soon as you select time shift, the resulting task start time for the first and the last computer will be displayed.

10. Now enter the username and password. It is assumed that accounts with the same username and password exist on all computers of the group. In this case, the task will be automatically distributed to the computers. Otherwise, you will be asked for the username and password for every computer during the task distribution.

11. At the final step, the group task summary is displayed. Up to this point, you can clic k Back to make changes in the created task.

12. After you click Proceed, Acronis True Image Management Console connects to ever y computer of the group in turn to distribute the task. If a remote computer is inaccessible (shut down, for example), a dialog box appears. In this box, choose Ignore to exclude the computer from the group or Cancel to cancel the entire task.

When distribution is complete, the group task appears in Group Tasks Management window. If you connect to any computer included into the group, you will see its individual task, based on the group task you successfully created.

4.4.3 Group tasks management

The Group Tasks Management window displays the list of group tasks. To see details of a group task, mouse over the task name. To create new or delete existing backup task, use the New and Delete items on the

Group tasks toolbar. To edit a task, select it and click Edit. Editing is performed in the same way as creation,

however, the earlier selected options will be set, so you have to enter only the changes. Deleting or editing a task does not affect the current tas k execution. A task, that has been

edited or deleted while running, will come to an end without any changes. The changes you made will be applied when execution is completed.

In addition to editing tasks for groups, you can edit individual tasks produced by the group task on each computer involved. To do so, connect the console to the desired computer. For details, see

8.2 Managing scheduled tasks

To stop or restart the task execution, use the Stop or Restart toolbar items. The task schedule, if created, remains valid.

For a group task that is not currently being executed on either computer, the follo wing operations are also available:

Run now - an instant task start command. The task schedule, if created, remains valid. Check – the group server will connect in turn to all computers involved in the group task

and check if the child tasks are intact on the computers so that the group task can run effectively. The result will be displayed.

When managing a group task, enter the same username and password you entered when created the task.

4.4.4 Acronis Group Server options

Acronis Group Server regularly polls computers included in its database for their status (Ready, Offline and so on, according to between enquires is 2 seconds. You have an option to set the status re fresh rate based on your network requirements.

There is usually no need to refresh the view at all when the cons ole is disconnected from the group server. A separate option allows you to disable the polling on console disconnection or set a wider interval between packets.

There is also an option to stop scanning network for newly connected computers. This can speed up operations with the computers already discovered. After the scanning is disabled, Acronis Group Server stops sending the packets, bu t the response may come to the packets already sent. Therefore, some computers may be added to the computer list after scanning is disabled. This is not a malfunction.

4.4.1 Group status display.

) The default interval

To adjust the status refresh rate, connect the console to the computer where Acronis Group Server is installed and select Tools -> Options -> Network -> Status check interval.

4.5 Managing backup server

Before you start managing the backup server, be sure to r ead secti on

Server

When connected to a computer where Acronis Backup Server is installed, click Acronis Backup Server management to display the following window.

stating the basic operating principles of this application.

3.5 Acronis Backup

When connecting to a backup server inside a domain, be aware whether your domain or local account is registered on the backup server. If you entered Windows on a network computer using your domain account while your local account is registered, enter the local user name along with the backup server name (for example, Server1\username). Otherwise the name will be identified as a domain one.

4.5.1 Default settings

Each user or computer, added to Acronis Backup Serv er database, is associated with the default backup location and the default user/computer quotas and time limits.

When installed on a computer (which becomes a backup server from this point on), Acronis Backup Server creates the following folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupServer. This folder is a default backup location. You can change the default backup location and its quotas/time limits by selecting

Specify Default Settings -> Set backup location and entering the desired location and values. Changing the default backup location will direct backups of newly added users/computers to another folder, while users/computers associated with old default backup location will continue back up to the old place.

The default quotas/time limits are preset to Unlimited, except for Maximum number of incremental backups for each full backup, which is set to 5 (the largest value of this parameter is not limited, but it is recommended that you do not set unreasonably large values).

You can change the default user/computer quotas/time limits by selecting Specify Default Settings -> Set Quotas/Time limits and entering the desired values.

To enable Acronis Backup Server to process archives, schedule quotas/time limits check task. Select Specify Default Settings -> Schedule Automatic Consolidation and Backup Management and schedule one-time, daily, weekly or monthly check of all user’s/computers archives on the backup server for meeting limitations. If the check reveals that some of quotas/time limits are exceeded, the archive process ing described in

3.5.2 Quotas and time limits for computers and users

will be executed.

Please take note of the fact that checking limitations makes no sense if you have not changed at least one of the preset Unlimited values for quotas/time limits.

The actual number of backups created in a backup location can exceed the Maximum number of backups by one. This enables the program to detect the fact of exceeding and start consolidation. Backup to the full location will be prohibited until the consolidation takes place.

4.5.2 Set up Administrator profiles

Add a remote computer to Acronis Backup Server database if you want to be able to remotely back up data from that networked computer where Acronis True Image Agent is installed. Click Set up Administrator profiles -> Add, select the computer and specify backup location, quotas and time limits for this computer in Add Computer Profile Wizard windows.

You can use the default backup location, quotas and time limits or make particular settings for the new computer. If you specify a new path to backup location for the new computer, a new backup location will be created.

You might need to change a computer profile already set. To do so, sel ect the computer and click Edit. The Edit Computer Profile Wizard will guide you through the same selections, as the Add Computer Profile Wizard.

Changing the computer backup location will move all existing and redirect future backups of this computer to another folder (device etc.). As moving files may take a lot of time and system resources, it is recommended that you schedule this operation for the time when the backup server computing load will be minimal. You can do this in the Start Parameters window. To complete configuring the profile, click Finish in the final summary window.

To change a computer backup location within the same device, you must have at least as much free space on the device as the computer archives occupy because the archives will first be copied to the new location and then deleted from the old folder.

If you select a computer and click Clear, all archives of this computer data will be deleted.

Deleting a computer profile will disable backup to backup server for this computer and delete its existing archives. This operation can be time-consuming so schedule it for the off-peak period.

4.5.3 Adding Users and Administrators to the Acronis Backup Server database

Acronis Backup Server creates a user group named AcronisBackupServerUsers (see

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Local

Users and Groups) on the backup server when it is installed. At this point, the group

contains the only user who installed the program. By default, this user has administrator’s rights on the backup server and is able to

manage the backup server and perform backups using computer profiles. To enable any other user to back up data from any networked computer where Acronis

True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version is installed to backup server, an administrator should add this user to Acronis Backup Server database.

To do so, first, add this person’s local or domain account to the AcronisBackupServerUsers group. Then click Set up User profiles -> Add User.

The Add User Profile Wizard will offer you a choice of adding the new user name from the list of domain users, or entering it manually. In some cases, when the list of domain users is excessively big, the manual way of entering the new user name will prove quicker, but you have to know the exact user name.

If you click Next, you will go to the window where you can enter the user name manually, if you don’t know the correct user name, you will be able to return to the previous window and pick the other option.

If you opted for picking the user name out of the domain user list, you will skip the above window and proceed to the other windows where you will select the user name and specify backup location, quotas and time limits for this user in Add User Profile Wizard windows. Use the default backup location, quotas and time limits or make specific settings for the new user. If you specify a new path to backup location for the new user, a new backup location will be created.

To add another administrator, first add this person’s local or domain account to the AcronisBackupServerUsers group. Then click Set up User profiles -> Add, select the user name and choose Create user with administrator’s rights on the next page.

An administrator can manage all archives on the backup server regardless of their owner, while a common user can only backup or restore his data from the backup server. An administrator has no user profile, in other words, the administrator is not assigned a

backup location, quotas and time limits like common us ers are and uses the administrator profile for both remotely and locally controlled backups.

4.5.4 Changing User profiles

You might need to change a user profile that is already set. To do so, select the user and click Edit. The Edit User Profile Wizard will guide you through the same selections, as the Add User Profile Wizard, except administrator’s or user’s rights. To change the rights, you will have to delete the user profile and then add the user again with the new rights.

Changing the user’s backup location will move all existing and redirect future backups, performed by the user, to another folder (device, etc). As moving files can take a lot of time and system resources, it is recommended that you schedule this operation for the time when the backup server computing load will be minimal. You can do it in the Start Parameters window. To complete configuring the profile, click Finish in the final summary window.

To change a user’s backup location within the same device, you must have at least as much free space on the device as the user’s archives occupy because the archives will first be copied to the new location and then deleted from the old place.

If you select a user profile and click Clear, all archives created by this user will be deleted. However, this operation will not work for the administrators’ profiles.

If you select a user profile and click Delete, this will disable backup to the backup server for this user and his existing archives will be deleted. This operation might also be timeconsuming, so you can schedule it for the off-peak period.

Deleting an administrator profile will not result in deleting any archives. The person whose profile is deleted just loses the right to back up to the backup server and to manage the backup server.

There must be at least one administrator on a backup server. Therefore, deleting the last administrator profile is not possible. The maximum number of administrators is not limited.

4.5.5 Configuring Backup Locations

To display a full list of backup locations, click Configure Backup Locations.

To edit limitations for a backup location, select the backup location, click Quotas and Time Limits and enter the new values in the appearing window.

To move a backup location along with all archives existing on it, select the backup location and click Move to. The Move Backup Location Wizard will display all users and computers associated with the selected backup location so you coul d make sure your choice is right. Then select the new location for the archives.

As moving files can take a lot of time and system resources, it is recommended that you schedule this operation for the time when the backup server computing load will be minimal. You can do it in the Start Parameters window. To complete configuring the operation, click Finish in the final summary window.

To move a backup location within the same device, you must have at least as much free space on the device as all the archives in the backup location occupy, because the archives will first be copied to the new place, and then deleted from the old place.

To delete all archives stored in a backup location, select the location and click Clear. To delete a backup location, select the location and click Delete. This will delete all

archives stored in this location and redirect the associated co mputer/ user’s backups to the default backup location.

The default backup location cannot be deleted. If you try to do so, the program will clean the default backup location and issue an appropriate message. To delete the location completely, first reassign the default backup location by selecting Specify Default Settings -> Set backup location.

Cleaning and deleting backup locations might be time-consuming operations, so you can schedule them for the off-peak period.

4.5.6 Managing Archives

To display a full list of backups, stored on the backup server, click Manage Backup Archives.

You can:

1. Sort the list by Location or Owners (users and computers) by clicking on the respective item above the list.

2. Filter out from the list all user’s or all computer’s backups (use buttons in the Filter group).

3. Consolidate any backup (ex cept for the oldest one in the archive) wi th the preceding backup file. This operation deletes the preceding backup and sets concatenation between the backup being consolidated and the backup befor e the deleted one. Thus, the archive integrity will not be affected, in spite of the fact that one backup will be deleted. Data recovery from any of the remaining backups will be possible.

4. Export an archive from Acronis Backup Server to a local hard drive or network share. To do so, select any backup belonging to the archive and click Export. Then provide name for the archive copy and a path to the location where the copy will be created.

5. Import an archive from external location to a computer’s or user’s backup location on the backup server. To do so, use Import on the tool bar.

Editing images, mounted in R/W mode, results in creating incremental backups, that are a kind of offshoots of the incremental chain. Such backups are always excluded from the archive being imported.

4.5.7 Limiting access to Acronis Backup Server

To access the Acronis Backup Server options, connect the console to the backup server and select Tools -> Options from the menu.

1. Maximum number of connections

This comes in handy when you want to back up a group of computers quickly and not allow users to access the backup server at the time. Generally, limiting number of tasks simultaneously processed by Acronis Backup Server may speed up each taken separately backup procedure at the expense of its possible delay.

If maximum number of connections is set, then some agents or local Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server versions may be unable to access the server immediately after starting their task. They will be trying to connect to the server every 5 seconds until the connection is allowed. Therefore, the real backup start time may differ from the scheduled one. If it is not practical or efficient for you, be aware of this se tting when creating group tasks so that number of computers in the group does not exceed the limit you set.

By default, the number of connections is unlimited. This corresponds to setting “0”. The console connection to Acronis Backup Server is not counted.

2. Limit bandwidth for a connection to:

Limiting bandwidth for each connection helps equalize the server usage among simultaneously running tasks. Practice is the best way to determine the correct limit. In most cases you can leave it as is.

By default, bandwidth per connection is not limited. This corresponds to setting “0”.

Chapter 5. Using Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version)

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version) supports the GUI mode, the command-line mode, and can be used to execute XML scripts. Here we describe the operations available in the GUI mode, which provides the widest functionality. For console commands and scripting please see

mode and scripting

5.1 Main program window

The main program window contains the menu, the toolbar, the sidebar and the main area. The sidebar features a pane for selecting task category, the Tools and Help panes. The main area displays operation icons or tasks depending on the category selected.

Chapter 16. Command-line

By default, the program displays operations included in the Backup and Recovery category. Operation icons are divided into three groups.

The Task group contains the following operations:

Backup – create a backup archive Recovery – restore data from a previously created archive The Manage Tasks group contains the following operations: Tasks – schedule backup or archive validation tasks on your computer and manage them Logs – open the Log Viewer window

The Tools group contains the following items:

Explore and Validate Backup Archives – explore file-level archives, mount

disk/partition images as virtual drives, run the archive integrity checking procedure Manage Hard Disks – clone disk (i.e. transfer the OS, applications and data from the

old disk to the new one) or mark out partitions on a new hard disk added for data

storage with the OS and applications kept on the old one, convert basic disks to

dynamic and create dynamic volumes Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager – activate the b oot restoration manager (F11

key) Manage System Restore – turn on/off Microsoft Windows System Restore tool and set

its options directly from Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server

Create Bootable Rescue Media – run the bootable media creation procedure

Program menu

The program menu bar 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 The Tools menu contains the following items: Manage Acronis Secure Zone – create, delete and resize a special hidden partiti on for

storing archives (Acronis Secure Zone) Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager – activate the b oot restoration manager (F11

key) Explore Backup Archive – explore file-level archives or mount disk/partition imag es as

virtual drives

Validate Backup Archive – run the archive integrity checking procedure Consolidate archive – applicable for archives containing more than one backup s. This

will create a consistent copy of the archive with an option to exclude backups that are

no more needed Convert Backup to Virtual Disk - convert a disk image, created with the program

(.tib), to a virtual disk file of the type you select (.vmdk, .vhd, .hdd)

Create Bootable Rescue Media – run the bootable media creation procedure Dynamic Volume Creation Wizard – create dynamic volumes on basic or dynamic

disks

Show Log – open the Log Viewer window Options – open a window for editing default backup/restore options, setting text

appearance (fonts), configuring e-mail or Windows pop-up notifications etc. The Help menu is used to view help and obtain information about Acronis True Image for

Microsoft Small Business Server.

Most of the operations are represented two 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.

Status bar

There is a status bar divided into two parts at the bottom of th e main window. The left side 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 log window.

Taskbar notification area icon

During most of the operations, a special indicator icon appears in the Windows taskbar notification area. 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 b eing open. It is present for background execution of scheduled tasks as well.

5.2 Managing a local computer

You can perform the following operations on the local computer.

Operation How to access

Back up and Recover

Back up and restore data, including system disks/partitions

Browse logs of Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server operation

Set up default backup or restore options, such as system/network resources usage, before/after backup commands etc.

Set up default parameters for sending notifications about Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server operation and tracing this operation in Windows Application Event Log

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

6. Creating backup archives Restoring the backup data.

Click Logs in the Manage Tasks group or select the Show Log tool on the sidebar to navigate to the Event Log window. See details in

Select Tools -> Options -> Default

backup options or Default restoration options and make settings. See details in

12.3 Viewing logs

6.3 Setting backup options restore options.

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

event tracing

Chapter 12. Notifications and

and

Chapter

Chapter 7.

7.4 Setting

Scheduling Tasks Schedule backup and archive validation

operations

Click Tasks in the Manage Tasks group or select the Task Scheduling category on the sidebar to navigate to the Scheduled Tasks window. Then click the Create button on the toolbar and follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

8. Scheduling tasks

Chapter

Run, stop, edit, clone, rename, delete backup and archive validation tasks

Click Tasks in the Manage Tasks group or select the Task Scheduling category on the sidebar to navigate to the Scheduled Tasks window. See details in

scheduled tasks

8.2 Managing

Archives Management Explore any archive’s contents and restore

individual files from any archive

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

Select Tools -> Explore Backup Archive and follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

11.2.1 Exploring an archive

Select Tools -> Validate Backup Archive, then follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

backup archives

11.1 Validating

Consolidate backup files inside an archive Select Tools -> Consolidate archive,

then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See

Convert disk images to virtual disk files of the type you select (.vmdk, .vhd, .hdd)

details in Select Tools -> Convert backup to

Virtual Disk and follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

Converting disk images to virtual disks

11.3 Consolidating backup.

13. 4

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

Unmount previously mounted partition images

Select Operations -> Mount Image and follow the wizard’s instructions. See details

11.2.2 Mounting an image.

in Select Operations -> Unmount Image

and follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

11.2.3 Unmounting an image

. Hard Disk Management Manage Acronis Secure Zone (create,

delete, resize, remove or change password)

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

Chapter 9. Managing the Acronis Secure

Zone

Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager Click Activate Acronis Startup Recovery

Manager, then follow the wizard’s instructions. See details in

Startup Recovery Manager

3.4 Acronis

Create a dynamic volume Select Tools -> Dynamic volume

creation wizard, then follow the Wizard’s instructions. See details in

dynamic volumes.

7.5.1 Creating

Transfer the system to a new hard disk See

Format partitions on a new hard disk See

Chapter 14. Transferring the system to

a new disk

Chapter 15. Adding a new hard disk

Other Tools Create bootable rescue media, its ISO or

RIS package

Turn on/off Windows System Restore tool See

See

Chapter 10. Creating bootable media

12.5 Managing System Restore

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

16.1 Working in the command-line mode

Chapter 6. Creating backup archives

To be able to restore the lost data or roll back your system t o 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

6.1 Backing up files and folders (file backup)

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

2. Select My Data.

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

In order to restore your operating system, you must image the system disk or partition; a file-based backup is not sufficient for the operating system restore.

4. You can exclude specific files from a backup by setting filters for the types of files you do not wish to back up. For example, you may want to exclude hi dden and system files and folders or files with .~, .tmp and .bak extensions.

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

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

files exclusion.

6.3.2 Source

5. Select the name and location of the archive. 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 full backup, it will be overwritten.

Including [date] in the backup file name will add to the name the time and date of the backup creation formatted as <DD-Month-YYYY HH:MM:SS>. Example: C:\MyBackup[date].tib.

If you are going to create an incremental backup (see

differential backup

In fact, if all incremental backup files are stored together with the basic full backup, 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.

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

3.2 Full, incremental and

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

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, but won’t be useful if the computer is destroyed in a fire or flood. 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 Server

) for storing backups. In those cases, you need not provide the file name.

) or Acronis Backup Server (see details in

3.5 Acronis Backup

When backing up to Acronis Secure Zone, you have an option of dual destination backup. If enabled, the program will automatically place a copy of your backup archives on a local drive or network share as well as Acronis Secure Zone. See details in

destination backup

6.3.12 Dual

Dynamic volumes are fully supported as a backup destination place. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server can access backup archives, created on dynamic volumes, in standalone (rescue) mode as well as under Windows control.

See notes and recommendations for using the FTP server in

media

1.4.2 Supported storage

6. If your choice was not Acronis Backup Server, select whether you want to create a full, incremental or differential backup. If you have 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

7. Select the backup options (that is, backup file splitting, compression level, password protection, pre/post backup commands etc.). You may select 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 the defaults. See

6.3 Setting backup options

for more information.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. (For Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version only) The task progress will be shown in a 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 can 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 menu that appears. For information on how to set the default priority, see

6.3.6 Backup performance

11. 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.

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

6.2 Backing up disks and partitions (image backup)

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

2. Select My Computer.

3. Select disks, partitions or dynamic volumes to ba ck up. You can sel ect a random set of disks, partitions and dynamic volumes.

4. Select the name and location of the archive. 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 full backup, it will be overwritten.

Including [date] in the backup file name will add to the name the time and date of the backup creation formatted as <DD-Month-YYYY HH:MM:SS>. Example: C:\MyBackup[date].tib.

If you are going to create an incremental backup (see

differential backup

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

3.2 Full, incremental and

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 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 (see details in

3.5 Acronis Backup Server

3.3 Acronis Secure Zone

) for storing backups. In those cases, you need

) or Acronis Backup Server

not provide the file name. When backing up to Acronis Secure Zone, you have an option of dual destination backup.

If enabled, the program will automatically place a copy of your backup archives on a local drive or network share. See details in

6.3.12 Dual destination backup.

See notes and recommendations for using the FTP server in

media

1.4.2 Supported storage

5. If your choice was not Acronis Backup Server, select whether you want to create a full or incremental backup. If you have not backed up the selected disks/pa rtitions 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 incremen tal or differential backup (see

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backup

6. 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 the defaults. See

6.3 Setting backup options

for more information.

7. Provide a comment for the archive. This can help prevent you from restoring the wrong disk or partition. However, you also 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.

8. 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.

9. (For Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version only) The task progress will be shown in a special window. You can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel.

6.3.6 Backup performance

10. 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.

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

6.3 Setting backup options

To view or edit the default backup options in Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version, select Tools -> Options -> Default Backup Options from the main program menu.

To do the same remotely, connect Acronis True Image Management Console to the remote computer, click Remote Computer Options and select Default backup options.

You can edit the default (or set the tempor ary) backup options while creating a backup task as well.

6.3.1 Archive protection

Password

The preset is no password. An archive can be protected with a password. To protect the archive data from being

accessed by anybody except you, enter a password and its confirmation into the 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 for Microsoft Small Business Server will ask for the password in a special window, allowing access only to authorized users.

Passwords cannot be set for archives created in the Acronis Secure Zone. To protect such archives, set a password for the zone itself.

Encryption

The preset is 128 bit. Once the password has been set, you can choose to encrypt the backup for advanced

security with industry-standard AES cryptographic algorithm. The password is used to generate a key which may differ in length. There are 4 choices: no encryption , 128, 192 and 256-bit encryption. The more the k ey size, the longer time to cipher and the greater is your data security.

6.3.2 Source files exclusion

By default, all files from the selected folders will be included in the archive. You can set default filters for the specific types of files you do not wish to back up. 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.

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

6.3.3 Pre/post commands

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

backup procedure

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

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

The backup process will run concurrently with your commands if you uncheck the Do not perform operations until the commands execution is complete box, which is checked by default.

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

6.3.4 Database support

Database servers, such as MS SQL Server and MS Exchange, can be problematic to backup, partially due to open files and indexes and partially due to ra pid data changes. Therefore it is usually recommended that the database be suspended just before the backup (data capture). You can suspend th e database and clear all cac hes to ensure that all transactions are completed at the moment of data capture. If it become necessary to restore a damaged database, it will be restored completely and be ready to access after recovery.

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. The examples of VSSaware 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 transactions completion can be ensured by 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

resume_services.bat

). Use Edit buttons to the right of Before data capture command

pause_services.bat

and

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 Pre/post commands above, will be executed before and after the

data capture

process, which takes seconds, while the entire backup procedure may take much longer, dep ending on the amount of data to be imaged. Therefore, the database idle time will be minimal.

Before/after data capture commands can also be used for other purposes, especially if VSS support is enabled. You may want to suspend an application other than a database, for example. The commands execution and the VSS actions will be sequenced as follows:

“before” commands -> VSS Suspend -> data capture -> VSS Resume -> “after” commands.

The backup process will run concurrently with your commands if you uncheck the Do not perform operations until the commands execution is complete box, which is checked by default.

3. Multi-volume snapshot

The preset is disabled. Enable the Multi-volume snapshot feature if you are going to back up data loca ted on

multiple volumes and you must preserve its consistency (such as a database spanned across the volumes). In this case, a single snapshot for all volumes is created, which will be used for backup creation. When disabled, snapshots for volumes will be taken one by one.

6.3.5 Compression level

The preset is Normal. The data will be copied without any compression, which may significantly increase the

backup file size, if you select None as the compression level. However, if you select Maximum compression, the backup will take longer to create.

The optimal data compression level depends on the type of files stored in the archive. For example, even maximum compression will not significantly reduce the archive size if the archive contains essentially compressed files, such as .jpg, .pdf or .mp3. However, formats such as .doc or .xls will compress more than other file types.

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.

6.3.6 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 preset is Low. The priority of any process running in a system determines the amount of CPU usag e and

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

2. HDD writing speed The preset is Maximum. Backing up in the background to an internal hard disk (for example, to the Acronis Secure

Zone) may slow other programs’ performance because of the large amounts of data transferred to the disk. You can limit the hard disk usage by Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server to the desired level . To set the d esired HDD writing speed for data being backed up, drag the slider or enter the writing speed in kilobytes per second.

3. Network connection speed

The preset is Maximum.

If you frequently backup data to network drives, thi nk of limiting the networ k usage used by Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server. To set the desired data transfer speed, drag the slider or enter the bandwidth limit for transferri ng backup data in kilobytes per second. This setting is also applied to an FTP connection, if an FTP server is selected as backup destination device.

6.3.7 Fast incremental/differential backup

The preset is 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 for Microsoft Small Business Server determines whether the file has changed by file size and the date/tim e 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.

6.3.8 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 a n FTP server (data recovery directly from an FTP server requires the archive to be split into files no more than 2GB in size).

The preset is Automatic. With this setting, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server will act as follows:

When backing up to the hard disk:

The program will create a single archive file if the

selected disk has enough space and its file system allows the estimated file size. The program will automatically split the backup into several files if the storage disk has

enough space, but its file system does not allow the estimated file size.

FAT16 and FAT32 file systems have a 4GB file size limit. However, the existing hard drive’s capacity can reach as much as 2TB. 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 backup 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 for Microsoft Small Business Server 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 CD-R/RW or DVD+

Creating a backup directly on CD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW generally will take considerably more time than it would on a hard disk.

R/RW later on.

6.3.9 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 the user account, specified in the permissions, you may not be able to read or modify this file.

You can disable preserving the files’ security settings in archives to completely elim inate this kind of problem. Then the restored files/folders will always inherit the permissions from the folder to which they are restored (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

7.4.5 File-level security settings

below). The result will be

the same - the files will inherit the permissions from the parent folder.

In archives, store encrypted files in decrypted state

The preset is disabled. Simply ignore this option if you do not use the encryption feature available in Windows

2003 Server and Windows XP operating systems. (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.

6.3.10 Media components

The preset is disabled. When backing up to removable media, you can make this media bootable by writing to it

additional components. As a result, 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 the image archive, stored o n

removable media, allowing one-click disk recovery from this archive. This means that a t boot from the media and clicking “restore” all the data contained in the image will be silently restored.

Because the one-click approach does not presume user selections, such as selecting partitions to restore, Acronis One-Click Restore always restores the entire disk. Therefore, if your disk consists of several partitions and you are planning to use Acronis One-Click Restore, all the partitions must be included in the image. Any partitions missing from the image will be lost.

If you want more functionality during restoration, write a standalone version of Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server to the rescue disk. Then you will be able to configure the restore task using Restore Data Wizard, use A cronis Active restore or Acronis Universal Restore.

The Advanced tab lets you select full, safe or both Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server loader versions. The safe version does not have USB, PC card or SCSI drivers and is useful only in cases where the full version does not load. If you want 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.

6.3.11 Error handling

1. Ignore bad sectors The preset is disabled. With the default setting, the program will display a pop-up window each time it comes

across a bad sector and ask for user decision whether to continue or stop the backup procedure. In order to back up the valid information on a rapidly dying disk, enable ignoring bad sectors. The rest of the data will be backed up and you will be able to mount the image and extract valid files to another disk.

2. Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (“silent” mode) The preset is disabled. Corporate administrators need an option to continue a back up despite any errors that

might occur without the system popping up an error box. Details of the operation, including errors, if any, could be found in the operation log.

With the silent mode enabled, the program will not display interactive windows. Instead, it will automatically handle situations requiring user intervention such as running out disk space (except for handling bad sectors, which is defined as a separate option.) No prompts will be displayed, including those for removable media or overwriting data on a tape. If an operation cannot continue without user action, it will fail.

Therefore, enable this feature if you do not want unattended backup operations hang on pop-ups and errors.

3. If an error occurs, re-attempt in (minutes)

The preset is enabled. When the backup destination location on the network is not available or not reachable,

the program will attempt to reach the location at the specified time interval.

6.3.12 Dual destination backup

The preset is disabled. The option is available Acronis Secure Zone.

If enabled, the program will automatically place a copy of each backup being created in Acronis Secure Zone on a local drive or network share. The consistency of the external archive copy is maintained automatically. After a backup is saved to the Acronis Secure Zone, the program compares the updated archive contents to the copy contents, and if some backups are missing from the copy, they will be copied to the external location along with the new backup.

In addition to enhancing the archive security provided with replication, this feature allows traveling users to keep a consistent copy of the laptop data both on the laptop an d the corporate server. When the network is not available, the program will back up data to Acronis Secure Zone alone. When connected again, all changes made to the archive will be transferred to the copy during the first backup operation.

only

if the backup is destined for the

The feature provides quick backup to the internal drive as an intermediate step before saving the ready backup on the network on stationary servers. This comes in handy in cases of slow or busy networks and time-consuming backup procedures. Disconnection during the copy transfer will not affect the backup procedure as opposed to backing up directly to the remote location.

Even if a password is set for the Acronis Secure Zone, the copy archive will not be protected with the password.

6.3.13 Wake On LAN

This option is available only for tasks created by the Acronis Group Server. The preset is Enable Wake On LAN. With this setting, Acronis Group Server will send a magic packet to the remote computer

network interface card (NIC) before starting backup. (A magic packet is a packet that contains 16 contiguous copies of the receiving NIC's Ethernet address.) This will power on the computer for running the backup task. Once the backup procedure is over, the computer can go to sleep if it times out.

Before using the feature, make sure that Wake On LAN is enabled both on the computers that you intend to back up and the Acronis Group Server.

To enable the Wake On LAN feature on a computer to be backed up:

1. Enter the computer BIOS and set Power -> Wake On PCI PME -> Power On.

2. Set the NIC properties on the computer as follows. Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Network adapters -> select the NIC ->

Properties -> Advanced: Enable PME -> Enabled Wake On Link Settings -> OS Controlled Wake On Settings -> Wake On Magic Packet.

3. Find out the computer MAC address (Local Area Connection -> Status -> Support -> Details -> Physical Address.)

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for all computers you wish to wake on LAN.

To enable the Wake On LAN option on the Acronis Group Server:

1. Find the computer to be backed up in the list of computers.

2. Select the computer and enter its MAC address in the Acronis Group Server (sidebar -> Computer details -> MAC address: Set -> type the hex MAC address as XXXXXXXXXXXX or XX-XX-XX-XX-XX -> click OK). The program will test the MAC address for validity and display the test result.

3. Repeat steps 1-2 for all computers you wish to wake on LAN.

4. Schedule a group backup task for the above computers. When setting the backup options, ensure that the Wake On LAN option is enabled. An y computer that is asleep as the task starts will be powered on for running the task.

6.3.14 Additional settings

1. Validate backup archive upon operation completion

The preset is disabled. The program will check integrity of the just created or supplemented archive immediately

after backup when enabled.

To check archive data integrity, you must have all incremental and differential backups belonging to the archive and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing, validation is not possible.

2. Overwrite data on a tape without user confirmation

The preset is enabled. A full backup, when created on a tape drive, overwrites all data stored on the tape (see

Archives cataloguing

for more information). In this situation, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server 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 preset is 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 not possible if the user is away, because the program will wait for someone to press OK in the prompt box. Therefore, you should disable the prompt when scheduling a backup to removable media. Then, if the removable media is available (for example, CD-R/RW inserted), the task can run unattended.

4. Reset archive bit

The preset is disabled. The option relates only to file-level backup. In Windows operating systems, each file has an attribute File is ready for archiving,

available at selecting file -> Properties -> General -> Advanced -> Archive and Index attributes. This attribute, also known as archive bit, is set by the operating system each time the file is changed and can be reset by backup applications each tim e they include the file in a backup copy. Archive bit value is used by various applications such as databases.

With Reset archive bit enabled, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server will reset archive bits of all files being backed up. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server itself does not use the archive bit value. When performing incremental or differential backup, it determines whether a file has changed by the file size and the date/time when the file was last saved.

Chapter 7. Restoring the backup data

7.1 Considerations before recovery

7.1.1 Restore under Windows or boot from CD?

As mentioned above (see

Server

in several ways. We recommend that you first try to restore data running Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server under Windows because this method provides more functionality. Boot from the bootable media or use the Startup Recovery Manag er (see

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

(local version)), Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server can be run

3.4 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager)

If a backup image is located on bootable media, you might have a choice of using Acronis One-Click Restore. This operation always restores the entire physical disk. Therefore, if your disk consists of several partitions, the partitions that are missing from the image will be lost. Please make sure that the image contains all disk partitions or you do not need the partitions that are not imaged before using Acronis One-Click Restore. For more information on Acronis One-Click Restore, see

2.5.1 Running Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business

only if Windows does not load.

6.3.10 Media components

7.1.2 Network settings in rescue mode

When booted from removable media, RIS server or by Startup Recovery Manager, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server may not detect the network. This can occur if there is no DHCP server in your network or if your computer address was not identified automatically for some reason.

To enable a network connection, specify network settings manually in the window available at Tools -> Options -> Network adapters.

7.1.3 Recovering dynamic volumes

Dynamic volumes are volumes located on dynamic disks, i.e. disks managed by Windows Logical Disk Manager (LDM). For more information on dynamic disks, please refer to your Windows documentation.

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server can back up and recover dynamic volumes.

A dynamic volume can be recovered over the same volume or unallocated space of a dynamic group. If recovered over another volume, the target volume’s contents will be overwritten with the image contents, but the type or other properties of the target volume will not be changed.

To restore a dynamic volume exactly as it is, prepare a target dynamic group without volumes. In case you want to restore a dynamic volume in place of s ome volumes already existing on the target disks, delete the original volumes using third-party tools, such as the Windows Disk Management tool.

Dynamic volume contents alone can be recovered onto a basic or dynamic volume without changing the target volume type. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version has the Create dynamic volume tool so that you be able to prepare the desired volumes on the target disks.

Backward conversion of dynamic volume to basic disks can be performed, if need be, using the Add new disk operation (see

Chapter 15. Adding a new hard disk

With these tools, anywhere-to-anywhere data recovery becomes available, in terms of basic disks and dynamic volumes of any type (simple, spanned, striped, mirrored or RAID

5). The tools are available in bootable program version. Having booted the Acronis environment, you can easily prepare the desired dynamic group on bare metal or a computer with non-Windows operating system.

For how to use the above tools see

7.5 Creating dynamic disks and volumes.

7.2 Restoring files and folders from file archives

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

11.2.2 Mounting an image

(see specified files or folders (see

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

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

) or start the image restoration and select Restore

7.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images

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 an FTP server requires the archive to consist of files no more than 2GB in size. If you suspect 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. See notes and recommendations for supporting FTP server in

media

1.4.2 Supported storage

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 for Microsoft Small Business Server will ask for it. The comment and the Next button will be unavailable until you enter the correct password.

3. If the selected archive contains incremental backups, A cronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server will suggest that you select one of successive incremental backups by its creation date/time. Thus, you can return the files/folders to a specific time and date.

To restore data from an incremental backup, you must have all previous incremental backups and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing, restoration is not possible.

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

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

5. 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.

6. Select the options for the 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 you set options manually, 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

restore options

for more information.

7.4 Setting

7. Set filters for the specific types of files that are not t o be restored. 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.

You can also apply custom filters, using the common Windows masking rules. For example, to exclude all files with extension .exe, add *.exe. My???.exe 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 restore data, see

7.4.1 Files to exclude from restoration

8. 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.

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 be 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.

9. 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.

10. (For Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local or bootable version) The task progress will be shown in a special window. You can stop the procedure by clicking Cancel. Please keep in mind that the aborted procedure still may caus e changes in the destination folder.

7.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images

To restore a partition (disk) from an image, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server 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.

7.3.1 Starting the Restore Data Wizard

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

7.3.2 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 an FTP server requires the archive to be split into files no more than 2GB in size. If you suspect 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. See notes and recommendations for supporting FTP server in

storage media

1.4.2 Supported

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 for Microsoft Small Business Server will ask for it. The partitions layout, the comment and the Next button will be unavailable until you enter the correct password.

2. If the selected archive contains incremental backups, A cronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server will suggest that you select one of successive incremental backups by its creation date/time. Thus, you can return the disk data to a certain moment.

To restore data from an incremental backup, you must have all previous incremental backups and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing, restoration is not possible.

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

7.3.3 Restoration type selection

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 restored and so on. These steps look like those in file archive restore. However, watch your selection; if you want to restore files instead of disk/partition, uncheck the unnecessary folders. Otherwise you will restore a lot of extra files. Then you will be taken directly to Restoration Summary screen (

7.3.13 Restoration summary and executing restoration)

Restore disks or partitions

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

Using Active restore

When restoring a system disk/partition image (except for Windows Vista images) from Acronis Secure Zone, you will have the third choice – to use Acronis Active restore. Having selected this option, you will proceed directly to the summary window (

Restoration summary and executing restoration

). A few seconds after pressing Proceed,

7.3.13

the computer will reboot to the restored system. Log in and start work – no more reboots or other actions are required. For more about Acronis Active restore, see

Active restore

3.6 Acronis

When performing Active restore, the Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server always restores the entire system disk. Therefore, if your disk consists of several partitions, the partitions which are missing from the image will be lost. Please make sure that the image contains all disk partitions or you do not need the partitions that are not imaged before using Acronis Active 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 not be possible when using Acronis Active restore.

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

7.3.4 Selecting a disk/partition to restore

The selected backup can contain images of several partitions or even disks. Sel ect which disk/partition to restore.

Disks and partitions images contain a copy of track 0 along with the 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. R estore the MBR if it is critical to your system boot.

7.3.5 Selecting a target disk/partition

1. Select a target disk or partition where you want to deploy the sel ected image. You can restore data to its initial location, to another disk/partition or to a n un allocat ed space. The target partition should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data.

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

When restoring a Windows system disk and select a target disk, the program compares critical for the system start devices, found in the image registry and the target co mputer registry.

If the chipset, motherboard or mass storage d evice are different, there is a risk that the system will not be able to boot. Then you will be prompted whether you want to use Acronis Universal Restore. To find out more about this option, see

Universal Restore

. To get the option, follow the link.

3.7 Acronis

If you already have Acronis Universal Restore, the prompt will not come up and you will have an option to enable Acronis Universal Restore later in the Restore Data Wizard.

2. When restoring an entire disk, the program will analyze the target disk structure to see if the disk is free.

If there are partitions on the target disk, you will be prompted by the Nonempty Destination Hard Disk Drive window stating that the destination disk contains partitions, perhaps with data.

You will have to select between: Yes, I want to delete all the partitions on the destination hard disk before restoring – all

existing partitions will be deleted and all their data will be lost.

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

discontinuing the recovery operation. You will be able to cancel the operation or return to select another disk.

Note that no real changes or data destruction will be performed at this time! For now, the program will just map out the procedure. All changes will be implemented only when you click Proceed in the wizard’s final window.

To continue, select the first choice and click Next. You will be taken directly to step

7.3.10 Restoring several disks or partitions at once

7.3.6 Changing the restored partition type

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 want 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 likely 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.

7.3.7 Changing the restored partition file system

You can change the partition file system during its restoration, although it is seldom required. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server can make the foll owing file system conversions: FAT 16 -> FAT 32 and 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 high-capacity hard disk. That's because FAT16 supports partitions up to 4GB, so you will not be able to restore a 4GB 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.

7.3.8 Changing the restored partition size and location

You can resize and relocate a partition by dragging it or its borders wit h a mouse or by entering corresponding values in the appropriate fields.

Using this feature, you can redistribute the disk space between 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.

7.3.9 Assigning a letter to the restored partition

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server will assign an unused letter to a restored partition. You can select the desired letter from a drop-down list. If you s et 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.

7.3.10 Restoring several disks or partitions at once

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 actions 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 (7.3.4) again and will have to repeat the above steps. Otherwise, do not set this switch.

7.3.11 Using Acronis Universal Restore

Acronis Universal Restore is an add-on to Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server. It is included at no extra charge with with Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server and installed from a separate setup file. The following is true for Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server installations including Acronis Universal Restore.

1. Using Acronis Universal Restore will help you create a bootable system clone on different hardware (for more information see when restoring a system disk to a computer with a dissimilar processor, different motherboard or other mass storage device than in the imaged system.

3.7 Acronis Universal Restore

). Choose this

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

Use this option only if the automatic search-and-install procedure was unsuccessful.

Acronis Universal Restore uses three sources for drivers:

- the driver repository - a folder or folders on a netw ork drive or CD specified in restore options. If you have not specified the driver repository in advance, you can do it at next step.

- the mass storage device driver specified by the user at the current step

- the Windows default driver storage folders (in the image being restored). The program will find the most suitable drivers of all available drivers and install them into

the restored system. However, the driver defined by the user, will have the priority. It will be installed, with appropriate warnings, even if the program finds the better driver.

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 Specifying Mass Storage Drivers window. Use drivers bundled with your virtual machine software or download the latest drivers versions from the software manufacturer website.

7.3.12 Setting restore options

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

7.4 Setting restore options

for more

7.3.13 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. (For Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local or standalone version) The task progress will be shown in a 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 Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) or mass storage devices drivers compatible with the new hardware in all available sources, you will be prompted to browse to a network share drive or insert a floppy disk or CD with the necessary drivers. Upon starting Windows, it will initialize the standard procedure for installing new hardware. At this point, you will be able to specify drivers for devices if Windows cannot find them automatically.

7.4 Setting restore options

To view or edit the default restore options in Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version, select Tools -> Options -> Default Restoration Options from the main program menu.

To do the same remotely, connect the Acronis True Image Management Console to the remote computer, click Remote Computer Options and select Default Restoration options.

You can edit the default (or set the temporary) restore options while creating a restor e task as well.

7.4.1 Files to exclude from restoration

The preset is Restore all files. You can set the default filters for the specific types of files that are not to be restored.

Use the common Windows masking rules. For example, to exclude all files with extension .exe, add *.exe. My???.exe will exclude 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.

7.4.2 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 be 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.

7.4.3 Pre/post commands

You can specify commands or batch files to be automatically executed before and aft er 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 batch file.

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

The backup process will run concurrently with your commands if you uncheck the Do not perform operations until the commands execution is complete box, which is checked by default.

7.4.4 Restoration priority

The default setting – Low. The priority of any process running in a system determines the amount of CPU usag e 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 will depend on total CPU usage and other factors.

7.4.5 File-level security settings

The preset is Restore files with their security settings. 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

6.3.9 File-level security

the security settings of the folder where they will be restored. This option is effective only when restoring files from file/folders archives.

7.4.6 Specifying mass storage drivers

This option appears only in those computers’ options, where Acronis Universal Restore is installed.

Acronis Universal Restore is an option to Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server. It should be included at no extra charge with with Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server and installed from a separate setup file. For more information see

3.7 Acronis Universal Restore

Here you can specify a path to the driver repository on a network drive or CD where Acronis Universal Restore will search for drivers at restoring a system disk on dissimilar hardware. If several paths are specified, the program will scan all locations and choose the most suitable driver.

7.4.7 Additional settings

1. You can choose whether to restore files’ date and time from the archive or assign the files the current date and time.

2. Before data is restored from the archive, Acronis True Imag Business corrupte

3. Having restored a disk/par Business

system

Server can check its integrity. If you suspect that the archive might have been

d, select Validate backup archive before restoration.

To check archive data integrity you must have all incremental and differential backups belonging to the archive and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing, validation is not possible.

tition from an image, Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small

Server can check the integrity of the file system. To do so, select Check file

after restoration.

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

4. Restore file and fold

ers without full path The preset is disabled. When enabled, files and folders are restore

target folder. When disabled, the full path to the

d directly to the folder that you specified as a

files and folders that exists in the backup

will be reproduced within the target folder.

5. Change SID after restoration is finished The preset is disabled.

e for Microsoft Small

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server can generate a unique security identifier (SID) for the restored system. You do not need a new SID when restoring a system on the same computer where the image was taken from or when c

reating a full duplicate that will replace the original system. Generate a new SID if the original and the restored systems will work concurrently in the same workgroup or domain.

6. The bootable Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server version has also an option that after the restoration is finished, the compute r reboots and starts the newly restored OS without any us

er interaction. If this option is set, post operation com mands will not be executed. Include the reboot command in your batch file if you need these commands to be executed.

7.4.8 Error handling

1. Do not show messages and d

The preset is disabled. With the silent mode enabled, the program will not display interactive windows. Instead,

it will automatically handle situations requiring user intervention. No prompts will be displayed, including those for inserting remo

ialogs while processing (“silent” mode)

vable media or the next tape. If an operation

cannot continue without user action, it will fail. Details of the operation, including errors, if any, could be found in the operation log.

2. If an error occurs, re-attempt in (minutes)

The preset is enabled. When the backup location on the network is not available or not reachable, th e program

will attempt to reach the location at the specified time interval.

7.5 Creating dynamic disks and volumes

Acronis True Imag

e for Microsoft Small Business Server must obtain exclusive access to the disks to perform operations with disks and volumes. This means no other applications can access it at that time. Please close all

other applications that use the disks (such as Windows Disk Management) before starting the disk conversion and dynamic volume creation wizards.

7.5.1 Creating dynamic volumes

This operation is available only in Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version, including bootable version of this component. Having booted to the Acronis environment, you can eas compute

The operati be conv ted to dynamic.

r with a non-Windows operating system.

on supports both dynamic disks and MBR or GPT basic disks. Basic disks will

All data contained on the basic disk and the basic disk partitioning will be lost. On dynamic disks, only unallocated space will be used for the new volume.

An MBR basic disk must have at least 1MB of free space at the end of the disk dynamic disk database.

To create a dynamic volume:

ily prepare the desired dynamic group on bare metal or a

for the

1. Close all applications that use the disk(s) on which the volume is to be created.

2. Start the Dynamic Volume Creation Wizard by selecting Tools -> Create Dynamic Volume in th

e main program menu.

3. Select basic, dynamic or newly connected disks on which the dynamic volume will be created. Dynamic disks are selected by default. You can d eselect any, if need be, later in the wizard.

If you tick off disks other than dynamic, these will be converted to dynamic disks and included in the dynamic group. However, this will be done when the operation starts. While you are using the wizard, no changes are made to disks.

4. Select the type of dynamic volume that will be created: simple/spanned, striped, mirrored or RAID 5.

5. Specify amount of space that the dynamic volume will occupy on each of the selected disks. The value you set is adjusted to the selected volume type.

For a spanned volume, amount of space on each disk is selected independently. If only one disk is selected, a simple volume is created.

Striped, mirrored and RAID 5 volumes imply even distribution of data between disks. Therefore, the volume must occupy the same space on each disk. If you set different values, your latest setting will be applied to all the disks. If the set value is more than unallocated space on any disk, the minimal available space amount will be applied to all the disks. The resulting volume size is displayed under the disk selection field.

At this step, you can deselect disks that you do not want to be included in the volume.

6. Click Proceed in the summary window.

On completion of operations, the dynamic volumes are unformatted an d have no letters assigned. You will be able to assign the letters using Windows Disk Management tool after restoring Windows on the created volumes.

Chapter 8. Scheduling tasks

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server allows you to schedule periodic backup and archive validation tasks. Doing so will give you peace of mind, knowing that your data are safe.

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

All the scheduled tasks appear in the Scheduled Tasks window, where you can start, stop, edit, delete and rename them. To navigate to the Scheduled Tasks window, click Tasks in the Manage Tasks group or select the Task Scheduling category on the sidebar.

8.1 Creating scheduled tasks

1. To start the Schedule Task Wizard, click Create on the Scheduled Tasks window toolbar or select Operations -> Schedule Task from the main menu.

2. Choose the Backup or Validate operation. If the latter is the cas e, choos e the ar chiv e in the next window and you will be taken straight to step 4.

3. If backup is your choice, configure a backup task in the usual way (see

Creating backup archives

enter a user name and a password for the drive access.

4. Set the task execution periodicity.

). If you choose to create the backup archive on a network drive,

Chapter 6.

Acronis True Image for MS SBS User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Acronis® True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server – a complete solution for corporate users

1.2 Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

1.3 New in Acronis for Microsoft Small Business Server

1.4 Supported file systems and storage media

1.4.1 Supported file systems

1.4.2 Supported storage media

1.5 License policy

1.6 Technical support

Chapter 2. Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server installation and startup

2.1 System requirements

2.1.1 Minimum hardware requirements

2.1.2 Supported operating systems

2.2 Security parameters

2.2.1 Credentials

2.2.2 Firewall setup

2.2.3 Encrypted communication

2.2.4 Security parameters in Acronis Administrative Template

2.3 Installing Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

2.3.1 Installation of Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server local version and Acronis True Image Agent for Windows

2.3.2 Installation of Acronis Group Server

2.3.3 Acronis Backup Server installation and setup

2.3.4 Acronis Universal Restore installation

2.4 Extracting Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

2.5 Running Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

2.5.1 Running Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server (local version)

2.5.2 Running Acronis True Image Management Console

2.5.3 Running other Acronis components

2.6 Removing Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server components

Chapter 3. General information and proprietary Acronis technologies

3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images

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 Backup Server

3.5.1 Backup locations

3.5.2 Quotas and time limits for computers and users

3.5.3 Administrators and Users

3.5.4 Operations with archives

3.6 Acronis Active restore

3.6.1 Limitations in using Acronis Active restore

3.6.2 How it works

3.6.3 How to use

3.7 Acronis Universal Restore

3.7.1 Acronis Universal Restore purpose

3.7.2 Acronis Universal Restore general principles

3.7.3 Acronis Universal Restore and Microsoft Sysprep

3.7.4 Limitations in using Acronis Universal Restore

3.7.5 Getting Acronis Universal Restore

3.8 Backing up to tape libraries and tape drives

3.8.1 Understanding backup to tape devices

3.8.2 Backing up to a tape device through Acronis Backup Server

3.8.3 Backing up to a locally attached tape device

3.8.4 Restoring data from archives located on tape devices

3.9 Viewing disk and partition information

Chapter 4. Using Acronis True Image Management Console

4.1 General information

4.2 Installing/updating Acronis components on remote machines

4.3 Managing a single remote computer

4.3.1 Connecting to a remote computer

4.3.2 Backup and recovery tasks

4.4 Managing groups of computers

4.4.1 Group status display

4.4.2 Creating new group tasks

4.4.3 Group tasks management

4.4.4 Acronis Group Server options

4.5 Managing backup server

4.5.1 Default settings

4.5.2 Set up Administrator profiles

4.5.3 Adding Users and Administrators to the Acronis Backup Server database

4.5.4 Changing User profiles

4.5.5 Configuring Backup Locations

4.5.6 Managing Archives

4.5.7 Limiting access to Acronis Backup Server