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Acronis Backup 12
Update 1

USER GUIDE

Table of contents
1

What's new in Acronis Backup 12 .....................................................................................6

Installation ......................................................................................................................6

2.1

Installation overview ................................................................................................................. 6

2.2

Components ............................................................................................................................... 8

2.3

Software requirements ............................................................................................................10

2.3.1
2.3.2
2.3.3
2.3.4
2.3.5
2.3.6
2.3.7

Supported web browsers ............................................................................................................................. 10
Supported operating systems and environments ...................................................................................... 10
Supported Microsoft SQL Server versions ................................................................................................... 12
Supported Microsoft Exchange Server versions ......................................................................................... 13
Supported Microsoft SharePoint versions .................................................................................................. 13
Linux packages ............................................................................................................................................... 13
Compatibility with encryption software ...................................................................................................... 15

2.4

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

2.5

Supported file systems ............................................................................................................17

2.6

On-‐premise deployment ..........................................................................................................18

2.6.1
2.6.2
2.6.3
2.6.4

2.7

Installing the management server ............................................................................................................... 18
Adding machines via the web interface ...................................................................................................... 20
Installing agents locally ................................................................................................................................. 23
Managing licenses ......................................................................................................................................... 26

Cloud deployment ...................................................................................................................27

2.7.1
2.7.2
2.7.3
2.7.4

Preparation .................................................................................................................................................... 27
Proxy server settings ..................................................................................................................................... 28
Installing agents ............................................................................................................................................. 30
Activating the account .................................................................................................................................. 30

2.8

Deploying agents through Group Policy ..................................................................................31

2.9

Updating agents .......................................................................................................................32

2.10 Uninstalling the product ..........................................................................................................32
3

Accessing the backup console ......................................................................................... 34

Backup console views .................................................................................................... 34

Backup .......................................................................................................................... 35

5.1

Backup plan cheat sheet ..........................................................................................................37

5.2

Selecting data to back up .........................................................................................................38

5.2.1
5.2.2
5.2.3
5.2.4

5.3

Selecting a destination .............................................................................................................41

5.3.1

Selecting disks/volumes ................................................................................................................................ 38
Selecting files/folders .................................................................................................................................... 39
Selecting system state .................................................................................................................................. 40
Selecting ESXi configuration ......................................................................................................................... 41
About Secure Zone ........................................................................................................................................ 42

5.4

Schedule ...................................................................................................................................43

5.5

Retention rules ........................................................................................................................45

5.6

Replication ...............................................................................................................................45

5.7

Encryption ................................................................................................................................46

5.8

Starting a backup manually .....................................................................................................47

5.9

Backup options ........................................................................................................................47

5.9.1
5.9.2
5.9.3
5.9.4
5.9.5
5.9.6
5.9.7
5.9.8
5.9.9
5.9.10
5.9.11
5.9.12
5.9.13
5.9.14
5.9.15
5.9.16
5.9.17
5.9.18
5.9.19
5.9.20
5.9.21
5.9.22
5.9.23
5.9.24
5.9.25

Recovery ....................................................................................................................... 63

6.1

Recovery cheat sheet ...............................................................................................................63

6.2

Creating bootable media .........................................................................................................63

6.3

Recovering a machine ..............................................................................................................64

6.3.1
6.3.2
6.3.3
6.3.4
6.3.5

6.4

Physical machine ........................................................................................................................................... 64
Physical machine to virtual ........................................................................................................................... 65
Virtual machine ............................................................................................................................................. 66
Recovering disks by using bootable media ................................................................................................. 68
Using Universal Restore ................................................................................................................................ 68

Recovering files ........................................................................................................................71

6.4.1
6.4.2
6.4.3
6.4.4

Recovering files by using the web interface ................................................................................................ 71
Downloading files from the cloud storage .................................................................................................. 72
Recovering files by using bootable media ................................................................................................... 72
Extracting files from local backups ............................................................................................................... 73

6.5

Recovering system state ..........................................................................................................74

6.6

Recovering ESXi configuration .................................................................................................74

6.7

Recovery options .....................................................................................................................75

6.7.1
6.7.2
6.7.3
6.7.4
6.7.5
6.7.6
6.7.7
6.7.8
3

Backup consolidation .................................................................................................................................... 49
Backup validation .......................................................................................................................................... 49
Changed block tracking (CBT) ....................................................................................................................... 50
Compression level ......................................................................................................................................... 50
Email notifications ......................................................................................................................................... 50
Error handling ................................................................................................................................................ 51
Fast incremental/differential backup .......................................................................................................... 52
File filters ........................................................................................................................................................ 52
File-‐level backup snapshot ........................................................................................................................... 53
File-‐level security ........................................................................................................................................... 54
Log truncation................................................................................................................................................ 54
LVM snapshotting ......................................................................................................................................... 54
Mount points ................................................................................................................................................. 54
Multi-‐volume snapshot ................................................................................................................................. 55
Performance .................................................................................................................................................. 56
Pre/Post commands ...................................................................................................................................... 57
Pre/Post data capture commands ............................................................................................................... 58
Scheduling ...................................................................................................................................................... 60
Sector-‐by-‐sector backup ............................................................................................................................... 60
Splitting .......................................................................................................................................................... 61
Task failure handling ..................................................................................................................................... 61
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) ............................................................................................................ 61
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for virtual machines ......................................................................... 62
Weekly backup .............................................................................................................................................. 62
Windows event log ....................................................................................................................................... 62

Backup validation .......................................................................................................................................... 76
Date and time for files .................................................................................................................................. 76
Error handling ................................................................................................................................................ 76
File exclusions ................................................................................................................................................ 77
File-‐level security ........................................................................................................................................... 77
Flashback........................................................................................................................................................ 77
Full path recovery .......................................................................................................................................... 77
Mount points ................................................................................................................................................. 77
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

6.7.9
6.7.10
6.7.11
6.7.12
6.7.13

Performance .................................................................................................................................................. 78
Pre/Post commands ...................................................................................................................................... 78
SID changing .................................................................................................................................................. 79
VM power management .............................................................................................................................. 80
Windows event log ....................................................................................................................................... 80

Operations with backups ............................................................................................... 80

7.1

The Backups tab .......................................................................................................................80

7.2

Mounting volumes from a backup ...........................................................................................81

7.3

Deleting backups ......................................................................................................................82

Operations with backup plans ........................................................................................ 82

Bootable Media Builder ................................................................................................. 83

9.1

Linux-‐based bootable media ...................................................................................................83

9.1.1
9.1.2
9.1.3
9.1.4

9.2

Kernel parameters......................................................................................................................................... 84
Network settings ........................................................................................................................................... 86
Network port ................................................................................................................................................. 87
Drivers for Universal Restore ....................................................................................................................... 87

WinPE-‐based bootable media .................................................................................................88

9.2.1
9.2.2
9.2.3

Preparation: WinPE 2.x and 3.x .................................................................................................................... 88
Preparation: WinPE 4.0 and later................................................................................................................. 89
Adding Acronis Plug-‐in to WinPE ................................................................................................................. 89

10 Protecting mobile devices .............................................................................................. 90
11 Protecting applications .................................................................................................. 92
11.1 Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................93
11.2 Database backup......................................................................................................................94
11.2.1
11.2.2

Selecting SQL databases ............................................................................................................................... 94
Selecting Exchange Server data ................................................................................................................... 95

11.3 Application-‐aware backup .......................................................................................................95
11.3.1

Required user rights ...................................................................................................................................... 96

11.4 Recovering SQL databases .......................................................................................................96
11.4.1
11.4.2

Recovering system databases ...................................................................................................................... 98
Attaching SQL Server databases .................................................................................................................. 98

11.5 Recovering Exchange databases ..............................................................................................99
11.5.1

Mounting Exchange Server databases ...................................................................................................... 100

11.6 Recovering Exchange mailboxes and mailbox items .............................................................100
11.6.1
11.6.2

Recovering mailboxes ................................................................................................................................. 101
Recovering mailbox items .......................................................................................................................... 102

12 Advanced operations with virtual machines ................................................................. 103
12.1 Running a virtual machine from a backup (Instant Restore) .................................................103
12.1.1
12.1.2
12.1.3

Running the machine .................................................................................................................................. 104
Deleting the machine .................................................................................................................................. 105
Finalizing the machine ................................................................................................................................ 106

12.2 Replication of virtual machines .............................................................................................106
12.2.1
12.2.2
12.2.3
12.2.4
4

Creating a replication plan .......................................................................................................................... 107
Testing a replica ........................................................................................................................................... 108
Failing over to a replica ............................................................................................................................... 108
Replication options ..................................................................................................................................... 110
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

12.2.5
12.2.6

Failback options ........................................................................................................................................... 110
Seeding an initial replica ............................................................................................................................. 110

12.3 Managing virtualization environments ..................................................................................111
12.4 Machine migration .................................................................................................................112
12.5 Agent for VMware -‐ necessary privileges ..............................................................................112
12.6 Windows Azure and Amazon EC2 virtual machines ..............................................................114
13 Management server settings ........................................................................................ 115
13.1 Email server ...........................................................................................................................115
13.2 Email notifications .................................................................................................................116
14 Managing groups and accounts .................................................................................... 116
14.1 Accounts and groups .............................................................................................................116
14.2 Creating a group ....................................................................................................................117
14.3 Creating an account ...............................................................................................................118
14.4 Creating a report about the service usage ............................................................................119
14.5 Limiting access to the web interface .....................................................................................120
15 Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................... 121
16 Glossary ...................................................................................................................... 123

1 What's new in Acronis Backup 12

Brand new, modern-‐looking web interface (p. 34)
Management Server Ͷ the central point for managing all of your backups

Installation

Cloud or on-‐premise deployment (p. 6)
Remote installation of agents (p. 20)

Application backup

Backup of Exchange databases (p. 95)
Backup of SQL databases (p. 94)
Application-‐aware backup of physical and virtual machines (p. 95)
Granular recovery of Exchange data (p. 100)

Virtualization

Backup of Hyper-‐V virtual machines

File recovery into ESXi virtual machines (p. 71)

Running a virtual machine from a backup (Instant Restore) (p. 103)
Replication of ESXi virtual machines (p. 106)
WAN optimization for replication of virtual machines (replica seeding) (p. 110) Ͷ in on-‐premise
deployments only
Bare metal recovery of ESXi (p. 41)
Agent-‐based backup of virtual machines hosted on Windows Azure and Amazon EC2 (p. 114)
Flashback Ͷ incremental recovery of virtual machines (p. 77)

Common

Backup of Mac
Backup of mobile devices (p. 90) Ͷ in cloud deployments only
Managing groups and accounts (p. 116) Ͷ in cloud deployments only
Search for files and folders in a backup (p. 71)
Powerful file filters (p. 52)

2 Installation
2.1

Installation overview

Acronis Backup supports two methods of deployment: on-‐premise and cloud. The main difference
between them is the location of Acronis Backup Management Server.
Acronis Backup Management Server is the central point for managing all of your backups. With the
on-‐premise deployment, it is installed in your local network; with the cloud deployment, it is located
in one of the Acronis data centers. The web interface to this server is named a backup console.

Both types of deployment require that a backup agent is installed on each machine that you want to
back up. The supported types of storage are also the same: local folders, network shares, and Acronis
Cloud Storage. The cloud storage space is sold separately from the Acronis Backup licenses.

On-‐premise deployment
On-‐premise deployment means that all of the product components are installed in your local
network. This is the only deployment method available with a perpetual license. Also, you have to
use this method if your machines are not connected to the Internet.

Management server location
You can install the management server on a machine running either Windows or Linux. Installation in
Windows is recommended because you will be able to deploy agents to other machines from the
management server. Installation in Linux is recommended in a Linux-‐only environment. You will need
to install an agent locally on the machines that you want to back up.

Cloud deployment
Cloud deployment means that the management server is located in one of the Acronis data centers.
The benefit of this approach is that you do not need to maintain the management server in your local
network. You can think of Acronis Backup as of a backup service provided to you by Acronis.
Access to the account server enables you to create user accounts, set service usage quotas for them,
and create groups of users (units) to reflect the structure of your organization. Every user can access
the backup console, download the required agent, and install it on their machines in minutes.

Administrator accounts can be created at the unit or organization level. Each account has a view
scoped to their area of control. Users have access only to their own backups.

The following table summarizes differences between the on-‐premise and cloud deployments.
On-‐premise deployment

Cloud deployment

On-‐premise management server

Group and account management

Both subscription and perpetual licenses can be used

A subscription license is required

Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) and Agent for

No Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)

VMware (Windows)

WAN optimization for replication of virtual machines

Mobile backup to cloud

(replica seeding)

Bootable Media Builder
Backup and disk management in bootable media
Upgrade from previous versions of Acronis Backup,
including Acronis Backup for VMware

Participation in the Acronis Customer Experience
Program

2.2

Components

Agents
Agents are applications that perform data backup, recovery, and other operations on the machines
managed by Acronis Backup.
Choose an agent, depending on what you are going to back up. The following table summarizes the
information, to help you decide.
8

Note that Agent for Windows is installed along with Agent for Exchange, Agent for SQL, and Agent for
Active Directory. If you install, for example, Agent for SQL, you also will be able to back up the entire
machine where the agent is installed.
What are you going to
back up?

Which agent to install?

Where to install it?

Agent availability
On-‐prem

Cloud

Disks, volumes, and files Agent for Windows
on physical machines
running Windows

On the machine that will be backed up.

Disks, volumes, and files Agent for Linux
on physical machines
running Linux

On the machine that will be backed up.

Disks, volumes, and files Agent for Mac
on physical machines
running OS X

On the machine that will be backed up.

VMware ESXi virtual
machines

Agent for VMware
(Windows)

On a Windows machine that has network
access to vCenter Server and to the
virtual machine storage.*

Agent for VMware
(Virtual Appliance)

On the ESXi host.

Hyper-‐V virtual
machines

Agent for Hyper-‐V

On the Hyper-‐V host.

SQL databases

Agent for SQL

On the machine running Microsoft SQL
Server.

Exchange databases

Agent for Exchange

On the machine running the Mailbox role
of Microsoft Exchange Server.

Machines running Active Agent for Active Directory On the domain controller.
Directory Domain
Services

Virtual machines hosted The same as for physical
on Windows Azure
machines**

On the machine that will be backed up.

Virtual machines hosted The same as for physical
on Amazon EC2
machines**

On the machine that will be backed up.

Mobile devices running
Android

Mobile app for Android

On the mobile device that will be backed
up.

Mobile devices running
iOS

Mobile app for iOS

On the mobile device that will be backed
up.

*If your ESXi uses a SAN attached storage, install the agent on a machine connected to the same SAN. The
agent will back up the virtual machines directly from the storage rather than via the ESXi host and LAN.
**A virtual machine is considered virtual if it is backed up by an external agent. If an agent is installed in the
guest system, the backup and recovery operations are the same as with a physical machine. Nevertheless, the
machine is counted as virtual when you set quotas for the number of machines in a cloud deployment.

Other components
Component

Function

Where to install it?

Availability
On-‐prem

Cloud

Component

Function

Where to install it?

Availability
On-‐prem

Cloud

On a machine running Windows or Linux.

Backup Monitor

Enables users to monitor On a machine running Windows or OS X.
backups outside the web
interface.

Command-‐Line Tool

Provides the
command-‐line interface.

Management Server

Manages the agents.
Provides the web
interface to users.

Bootable Media Builder Creates bootable media.

On a machine running Windows or Linux.

2.3

Software requirements

2.3.1

Supported web browsers

The web interface supports the following web browsers:

Google Chrome 29 or later
Mozilla Firefox 23 or later
Opera 16 or later
Windows Internet Explorer 10 or later
Safari 5.1.7 or later running in the OS X and iOS operating systems

In other web browsers (including Safari browsers running in other operating systems), the user
interface might be displayed incorrectly, or some functions may be unavailable.

2.3.2

Supported operating systems and environments

2.3.2.1

Agents

Agent for Windows
Windows XP Professional SP2+ (x86, x64)
Windows Server 2003/2003 R2 ʹ Standard and Enterprise editions (x86, x64)
Windows Small Business Server 2003/2003 R2
Windows Vista
in cloud deployments ʹ all editions
in on-‐premise deployments ʹ all editions except for Vista Home Basic and Vista Home
Premium (x86, x64)
Windows Server 2008 ʹ Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web editions (x86, x64)
Windows Small Business Server 2008
Windows 7
in cloud deployments ʹ all editions
in on-‐premise deployments ʹ all editions except for the Starter and Home editions (x86,
x64)
Windows Server 2008 R2 ʹ Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Foundation, and Web editions
10

Windows MultiPoint Server 2010/2011/2012
Windows Small Business Server 2011 ʹ all editions
Windows 8/8.1 ʹ all editions except for the Windows RT editions (x86, x64)
Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 ʹ all editions
Windows Storage Server 2003/2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2
Windows 10 ʹ Home, Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions
Windows Server 2016 ʹ Technical Preview 4

Agent for SQL, Agent for Exchange, and Agent for Active Directory
Each of these agents can be installed on a machine running any operating system listed
above and a supported version of the respective application.

Agent for Linux
Linux with kernel from 2.6.9 to 4.5 and glibc 2.3.4 or later
Various x86 and x86_64 Linux distributions, including:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2
Ubuntu 9.10, 10.04, 10.10, 11.04, 11.10, 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04, 14.10, 15.04,
15.10, 16.04
Fedora 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 ʹ supported on file systems, except for Btrfs
Debian 4, 5, 6, 7.0, 7.2, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5
CentOS 5.x, 6.x, 7, and 7.1
Oracle Linux 5.x, 6.x, 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2 ʹ both Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel and Red Hat
Compatible Kernel
CloudLinux 5.x, 6.x, 7, and 7.1
ClearOS 5.x, 6.x, 7, and 7.1
Before installing the product on a system that does not use RPM Package Manager, such as
an Ubuntu system, you need to install this manager manually; for example, by running the
following command (as the root user): apt-‐get install rpm

Agent for Mac
OS X Mountain Lion 10.8
OS X Mavericks 10.9
OS X Yosemite 10.10
OS X El Capitan 10.11

Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)
This agent is delivered as a virtual appliance for running on an ESXi host.
VMware ESXi 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0

Agent for VMware (Windows)
This agent is delivered as a Windows application for running in any operating system listed
above for Agent for Windows with the following exceptions:

32-‐bit operating systems are not supported.
Windows XP, Windows Server 2003/2003 R2, and Windows Small Business Server
2003/2003 R2 are not supported.
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

Agent for Hyper-‐V
Windows Server 2008 (x64) with Hyper-‐V
Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-‐V
Microsoft Hyper-‐V Server 2008/2008 R2
Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 with Hyper-‐V
Microsoft Hyper-‐V Server 2012/2012 R2
Windows 8, 8.1 (x64) with Hyper-‐V
Windows 10 ʹ Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions with Hyper-‐V
Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-‐V

2.3.2.2

Management Server (for on-premise deployment only)

In Windows
Windows Server 2008 ʹ Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions (x86, x64)
Windows Small Business Server 2008
Windows 7 ʹ all editions except for the Starter and Home editions (x86, x64)
Windows Server 2008 R2 ʹ Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Foundation editions
Windows MultiPoint Server 2010/2011/2012
Windows Small Business Server 2011 ʹ all editions
Windows 8/8.1 ʹ all editions except for the Windows RT editions (x86, x64)
Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 ʹ all editions
Windows Storage Server 2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2
Windows 10 ʹ Home, Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions
Windows Server 2016 ʹ Technical Preview 4

In Linux
Linux with kernel from 2.6.18 to 4.5 and glibc 2.3.4 or later
Various x86_64 Linux distributions, including:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2
Ubuntu 9.10, 10.04, 10.10, 11.04, 11.10, 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04, 14.10, 15.04,
15.10, 16.04
Fedora 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, 11, and 12
Debian 4, 5, 6, 7.0, 7.2, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5
CentOS 5.x, 6.x, 7, and 7.1
Oracle Linux 5.x, 6.x, 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2 ʹ both Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel and Red Hat
Compatible Kernel
CloudLinux 5.x, 6.x, 7, and 7.1

2.3.3

Supported Microsoft SQL Server versions

Microsoft SQL Server 2016
Microsoft SQL Server 2014
Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Microsoft SQL Server 2005

2.3.4

Supported Microsoft Exchange Server versions

Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 ʹ all editions.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 ʹ all editions, Cumulative Update 1 (CU1) and later.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 ʹ all editions, all service packs.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 ʹ all editions, all service packs. Recovery of mailboxes and
mailbox items is not supported.

2.3.5

Supported Microsoft SharePoint versions

Acronis Backup 12 supports the following Microsoft SharePoint versions:

Microsoft SharePoint 2013
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 SP1
Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2*
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2*

*In order to use SharePoint Explorer with these versions, you need a SharePoint recovery farm to attach the
databases to.

The backups or databases from which you extract data must originate from the same SharePoint
version as the one where SharePoint Explorer is installed.

2.3.6

Linux packages

To add the necessary modules to the Linux kernel, the setup program needs the following Linux
packages:

The package with kernel headers or sources. The package version must match the kernel version.

The Make tool.

The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) compiler system. The GCC version must be the one with
which the kernel was compiled.
The Perl interpreter.

The names of these packages vary depending on your Linux distribution.
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and Fedora, the packages normally will be installed by the setup
program. In other distributions, you need to install the packages if they are not installed or do not
have the required versions.

Are the required packages already installed?
To check whether the packages are already installed, perform these steps:
1. Run the following command to find out the kernel version and the required GCC version:
cat /proc/version

This command returns lines similar to the following: Linux version 2.6.35.6 and gcc
version 4.5.1
2. Run the following command to check whether the Make tool and the GCC compiler are installed:
13

make -‐v
gcc -‐v

For gcc, ensure that the version returned by the command is the same as in the gcc version in
step 1. For make, just ensure that the command runs.
3. Check whether the appropriate version of the packages for building kernel modules is installed:

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and Fedora, run the following command:
yum list installed | grep kernel-‐devel

In Ubuntu, run the following commands:
dpkg -‐-‐get-‐selections | grep linux-‐headers
dpkg -‐-‐get-‐selections | grep linux-‐image

In either case, ensure that the package versions are the same as in Linux version in step 1.
4. Run the following command to check whether the Perl interpreter is installed:
perl -‐-‐version

If you see the information about the Perl version, the interpreter is installed.

Installing the packages from the repository
The following table lists how to install the required packages in various Linux distributions.
Linux
distribution

Package names

How to install

Red Hat
Enterprise
Linux

kernel-‐devel
gcc
make

The setup program will download and install the packages
automatically by using your Red Hat subscription.

perl

Run the following command:
yum install perl

CentOS
Fedora

kernel-‐devel
gcc
make

The setup program will download and install the packages
automatically.

perl

Run the following command:
yum install perl

Ubuntu

linux-‐headers
linux-‐image
gcc
make
perl

Run the following commands:
sudo apt-‐get update
sudo apt-‐get install linux-‐headers-‐`uname -‐r`
sudo apt-‐get install linux-‐image-‐`uname -‐r`
sudo apt-‐get install gcc-‐
sudo apt-‐get install make
sudo apt-‐get install perl

The packages will be downloaded from the distribution's repository and installed.
For other Linux distributions, please refer to the distribution's documentation regarding the exact
names of the required packages and the ways to install them.

Installing the packages manually
You may need to install the packages manually if:

The machine does not have an active Red Hat subscription or Internet connection.

The setup program cannot find the kernel-‐devel or gcc version corresponding to the kernel
version. If the available kernel-‐devel is more recent than your kernel, you need to either update
the kernel or install the matching kernel-‐devel version manually.

You have the required packages on the local network and do not want to spend time for
automatic search and downloading.

Obtain the packages from your local network or a trusted third-‐party website, and install them as
follows:

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, or Fedora, run the following command as the root user:
rpm -‐ivh PACKAGE_FILE1 PACKAGE_FILE2 PACKAGE_FILE3

In Ubuntu, run the following command:
sudo dpkg -‐i PACKAGE_FILE1 PACKAGE_FILE2 PACKAGE_FILE3

Example: Installing the packages manually in Fedora 14
Follow these steps to install the required packages in Fedora 14 on a 32-‐bit machine:
1. Run the following command to determine the kernel version and the required GCC version:
cat /proc/version

The output of this command includes the following:
Linux version 2.6.35.6-‐45.fc14.i686
gcc version 4.5.1

2. Obtain the kernel-‐devel and gcc packages that correspond to this kernel version:
kernel-‐devel-‐2.6.35.6-‐45.fc14.i686.rpm
gcc-‐4.5.1-‐4.fc14.i686.rpm

3. Obtain the make package for Fedora 14:
make-‐3.82-‐3.fc14.i686

4. Install the packages by running the following commands as the root user:
rpm -‐ivh kernel-‐devel-‐2.6.35.6-‐45.fc14.i686.rpm
rpm -‐ivh gcc-‐4.5.1.fc14.i686.rpm
rpm -‐ivh make-‐3.82-‐3.fc14.i686

You can specify all these packages in a single rpm command. Installing any of these packages may
require installing additional packages to resolve dependencies.

2.3.7

Compatibility with encryption software

There are no limitations on backing up and recovering data that is encrypted by file-‐level encryption
software.
Disk-‐level encryption software encrypts data on the fly. This is why data contained in the backup is
not encrypted. Disk-‐level encryption software often modifies system areas: boot records, or partition
tables, or file system tables. These factors affect disk-‐level backup and recovery, the ability of the
recovered system to boot and access to Secure Zone.
You can back up the data encrypted by the following disk-‐level encryption software:

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

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

Common installation rule
The strong recommendation is to install the encryption software before installing the backup agents.

The way of using Secure Zone
Secure Zone must not be encrypted with disk-‐level encryption. This is the only way to use Secure
Zone:
1. Install the encryption software; then, install the agent.
2. Create Secure Zone.
3. Exclude Secure Zone when encrypting the disk or its volumes.

Common backup rule
You can do a disk-‐level backup in the operating system. Do not try to back up using bootable media.

Software-‐specific recovery procedures
Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption
To recover a system that was encrypted by BitLocker:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Boot from the bootable media.
Recover the system. The recovered data will be unencrypted.
Reboot the recovered system.
Turn on BitLocker.

If you only need to recover one partition of a multi-‐partitioned disk, do so under the operating
system. Recovery under bootable media may make the recovered partition undetectable for
Windows.

McAfee Endpoint Encryption and PGP Whole Disk Encryption
You can recover an encrypted system partition by using bootable media only.
If the recovered system fails to boot, rebuild Master Boot Record as described in the following
Microsoft knowledge base article: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2622803

2.4

System requirements

The following table summarizes disk space and memory requirements for typical installation cases.
The installation is performed with the default settings.
Components to be installed
Agent for Windows

Occupied disk space

Minimum memory
consumption

850 MB

150 MB

950 MB

170 MB

Agent for Windows and one of the following agents:

Agent for SQL
Agent for Exchange

Agent for Windows and one of the following agents:

Agent for VMware (Windows)

1170 MB

180 MB

Agent for Linux

720 MB

130 MB

Agent for Mac

500 MB

150 MB

Management Server in Windows

1.7 GB

200 MB

Management Server in Linux

0.6 GB

200 MB

Management Server and Agent for Windows

2.4 GB

360 MB

Management Server and agents on a machine running
Windows, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, and
Active Directory Domain Services

3.35 GB

400 MB

Management Server and Agent for Linux

1.2 GB

340 MB

Agent for Hyper-‐V

For on-‐premise deployments only

While backing up, an agent typically consumes about 350 MB of memory (measured during a 500-‐GB
volume backup). The peak consumption may reach 2 GB, depending on the amount and type of data
being processed.
Bootable media or a disk recovery with a reboot requires at least 1 GB of memory.
A management server with one registered machine consumes 200 MB of memory. Each of the newly
registered machines adds about 4 MB. Thus, a server with 100 registered machines consumes
approximately 600 MB above the operating system and running applications. The maximum number
of registered machines is 900-‐1000. This limitation originates from the management server's
embedded SQLite.

2.5

Supported file systems

A backup agent can back up any file system that is accessible from the operating system where the
agent is installed. For example, Agent for Windows can back up and recover an ext4 file system if the
corresponding driver is installed in Windows.
The following table summarizes the file systems that can be backed up and recovered. The
limitations apply to both the agents and bootable media.
Supported by
File system
Agents

FAT16/32
NTFS

All agents

Win-‐PE
bootable
media

Linux-‐based Mac bootable
bootable media
media

Limitations

No limitations
ext2/ext3/ext4
HFS+

Agent for Mac

-‐

Supported by
File system
Agents

JFS
ReiserFS3

Agent for Linux

ReiserFS4
ReFS

Win-‐PE
bootable
media

Linux-‐based Mac bootable
bootable media
media

-‐

Linux swap

Agent for Linux

Files cannot be excluded
from a disk backup

Files cannot be
excluded from a disk
backup

resized during a
recovery

-‐

No limitations

All agents
XFS

Limitations

Volumes cannot be

The software automatically switches to the sector-‐by-‐sector mode when backing up drives with
unrecognized or unsupported file systems. A sector-‐by-‐sector backup is possible for any file system
that:

is block-‐based
spans a single disk
has a standard MBR/GPT partitioning scheme

If the file system does not meet these requirements, the backup fails.

2.6
2.6.1
2.6.1.1

On-premise deployment
Installing the management server
Installation in Windows

To install the management server
1. Log on as an administrator and start the Acronis Backup setup program.
2. [Optional] To change the language the setup program is displayed in, click Setup language.
3. Accept the terms of the license agreement and select whether the machine will participate in the
Acronis Customer Experience Program (CEP).

4. Leave the default setting Install a backup agent and Acronis Backup Management Server.

By default, the following components will be installed:

Management Server

Bootable Media Builder

Agent for Windows
Other agents (Agent for Hyper-‐V, Agent for Exchange, Agent for SQL, and Agent for Active
Directory), if the respective hypervisor or application is detected on the machine
Command-‐Line Tool

Backup Monitor
You can configure the setup by clicking Customize installation settings.
5. Proceed with the installation.
6. After the installation completes, click Close. The backup console will open in your default web
browser.

2.6.1.2

Installation in Linux

Preparation
1. Before installing the product on a system that does not use RPM Package Manager, such as an
Ubuntu system, you need to install this manager manually; for example, by running the following
command (as the root user): apt-‐get install rpm.
2. If you want to install Agent for Linux along with the management server, ensure that the
necessary Linux packages (p. 13) are installed on the machine.

Installation
To install the management server
1. As the root user, run the installation file.
2. Accept the terms of the license agreement.
3. [Optional] Select the components that you want to install.
19

By default, the following components will be installed:

4.
5.
6.
7.

Management Server
Agent for Linux

Bootable Media Builder
Specify the port that will be used by a web browser to access the management server. The
default value is 9877.
Specify the port that will be used for communication between the product components. The
default value is 7780.
Click Next to proceed with the installation.
After the installation completes, select Open web console, and then click Exit. The backup
console will open in your default web browser.

2.6.2

Adding machines via the web interface

To start adding a machine to the management server, click All devices > Add.
If the management server is installed in Linux, you will be asked to select the setup program based
on the type of the machine that you want to add. Once the setup program is downloaded, run it
locally on that machine.
The operations described later in this section are possible if the management server is installed in
Windows. In most cases, the agent will be silently deployed to the selected machine.

2.6.2.1

Adding a machine running Windows

Preparation
1. For successful installation on a remote machine running Windows XP, the option Control panel >
Folder options > View > Use simple file sharing must be disabled on that machine.
For successful installation on a remote machine running Windows Vista or later, the option
Control panel > Folder options > View > Use Sharing Wizard must be disabled on that machine.
2. For successful installation on a remote machine that is not a member of an Active Directory
domain, User Account Control (UAC) must be disabled (p. 21).
3. File and Printer Sharing must be enabled on the remote machine. To access this option:

On a machine running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows 2003 Server: go to
Control panel > Windows Firewall > Exceptions > File and Printer Sharing.

On a machine running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, or later: go to
Control panel > Windows Firewall > Network and Sharing Center > Change advanced
sharing settings.
4. Acronis Backup uses TCP ports 445 and 25001 for remote installation. Also, it uses TCP port 9876
for remote installation and for communication between the components.
Port 445 is automatically opened when you enable File and Printer Sharing. Ports 9876 and
25001 are automatically opened through Windows Firewall. If you use a different firewall, make
sure that these three ports are open (added to exceptions) for both incoming and outgoing
requests.
After the remote installation is complete, you can remove ports 445 and 25001 from exceptions.
Port 25001 is automatically closed through Windows Firewall. Port 9876 needs to remain open.

Adding the machine
1. Click All devices > Add.
20

2. Click Windows or the button that corresponds to the application that you want to protect.
Depending on the button you click, one of the following options is selected:

Agent for Windows
Agent for Hyper-‐V
Agent for SQL + Agent for Windows
Agent for Exchange + Agent for Windows

Agent for Active Directory + Agent for Windows
3. Specify the host name or IP address of the machine, and the credentials of an account with
administrative privileges on that machine.
4. Click Add.

Requirements on User Account Control (UAC)
On a machine that is running Windows Vista or later and is not a member of an Active Directory
domain, centralized management operations (including remote installation) require that UAC be
disabled.

To disable UAC
Do one of the following depending on the operating system:

In a Windows operating system prior to Windows 8:
Go to Control panel > View by: Small icons > User Accounts > Change User Account Control
Settings, and then move the slider to Never notify. Then, restart the machine.

In any Windows operating system:
1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. For the EnableLUA value, change the setting to 0.
4. Restart the machine.

2.6.2.2

Adding a machine running Linux

1. Click All devices > Add.
2. Click Linux. This will download the installation file.
3. On the machine that you want to protect, run the setup program locally (p. 24).

2.6.2.3

Adding a machine running OS X

1. Click All devices > Add.
2. Click Mac. This will download the installation file.
3. On the machine that you want to protect, run the setup program locally (p. 25).

2.6.2.4

Adding a vCenter or an ESXi host

There are three methods of adding a vCenter or a stand-‐alone ESXi host to the management server:

Deploying Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) (p. 22)
This method is recommended in most cases. The virtual appliance will be automatically deployed
to every host managed by the vCenter you specify. You can select the hosts and customize the
virtual appliance settings.
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

Installing Agent for VMware (Windows) (p. 22)
You may want to install Agent for VMware on a physical machine running Windows for the
purpose of an offloaded or LAN-‐free backup. The agent will be automatically deployed to the
machine you specify.

Offloaded backup
Use if your production ESXi hosts are so heavily loaded that running the virtual appliances is
not desirable.

LAN-‐free backup
If your ESXi uses a SAN attached storage, install the agent on a machine connected to the
same SAN. The agent will back up the virtual machines directly from the storage rather than
via the ESXi host and LAN.

Registering an already installed Agent for VMware (p. 23)
Use this method if you installed Agent for VMware (Windows) manually, deployed Agent for
VMware (Virtual Appliance) from an OVF template (p. 25), or had to re-‐install the management
server.

Deploying Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) via the web interface
1.
2.
3.
4.

Click All devices > Add.
Click VMware ESXi.
Select Deploy as a virtual appliance to each host of a vCenter.
Specify the address and access credentials for the vCenter Server or stand-‐alone ESXi host. We
recommend using an account that has the Administrator role assigned. Otherwise, provide an
account with the necessary privileges (p. 112) on the vCenter Server or ESXi.
5. [Optional] Click Settings to customize the deployment settings:

ESXi hosts that you want to deploy the agent to (only if a vCenter Server was specified in the
previous step).

The virtual appliance name.
The datastore where the appliance will be located.
The resource pool or vApp that will contain the appliance.
The network that the virtual appliance's network adapter will be connected to.

Network settings of the virtual appliance. You can choose DHCP auto configuration or specify
the values manually, including a static IP address.
6. Click Deploy.

Installing Agent for VMware (Windows)
Preparation
Follow the preparatory steps described in the "Adding a machine running Windows" (p. 20) section.

Installation
1.
2.
3.
4.

Click All devices > Add.
Click VMware ESXi.
Select Remotely install on a machine running Windows.
Specify the host name or IP address of the machine, and the credentials of an account with
administrative privileges on that machine. Click Connect.

5. Specify the address and credentials for the vCenter Server or stand-‐alone ESXi host, and then
click Connect. We recommend using an account that has the Administrator role assigned.
Otherwise, provide an account with the necessary privileges (p. 112) on the vCenter Server or
ESXi.
6. Click Install to install the agent.

Registering an already installed Agent for VMware
This section describes registering Agent for VMware via the web interface.
Alternative registration methods:

You can register Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) by specifying the management server in
the virtual appliance UI. See step 3 under "Configuring the virtual appliance" in the "Deploying
Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) from an OVF template" (p. 25) section.

Agent for VMware (Windows) is registered during its local installation (p. 23).
To register Agent for VMware
1.
2.
3.
4.

Click All devices > Add.
Click VMware ESXi.
Select Register an already installed agent.
If you register Agent for VMware (Windows), specify the host name or IP address of the machine
where the agent is installed, and credentials of an account with administrative privileges on that
machine.
If you register Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance), specify the host name or IP address of the
virtual appliance, and credentials for the vCenter Server or the stand-‐alone ESXi host where the
appliance is running.
Click Connect.
5. Specify the host name or IP address of the vCenter Server or the ESXi host, and credentials to
access it, and then click Connect. We recommend using an account that has the Administrator
role assigned. Otherwise, provide an account with the necessary privileges (p. 112) on the
vCenter Server or ESXi.
6. Click Register to register the agent.

2.6.3

Installing agents locally

2.6.3.1

Installation in Windows

To install Acronis Backup agents in Windows, except for Agent for VMware (Windows)
1. Log on as an administrator and start the Acronis Backup setup program.
2. [Optional] To change the language the setup program is displayed in, click Setup language.
3. Accept the terms of the license agreement and select whether the machine will participate in the
Acronis Customer Experience Program (CEP).
4. Select Install a backup agent, and then specify the host name or IP address of the machine
where the management server is installed.
By default, the following components will be installed:

Bootable Media Builder
Command-‐Line Tool

Backup Monitor
You can configure the setup by clicking Customize installation settings.
5. Proceed with the installation.
6. After the installation completes, click Close.

To install Agent for VMware (Windows)
1. Log on as an administrator and start the Acronis Backup setup program.
2. [Optional] To change the language the setup program is displayed in, click Setup language.
3. Accept the terms of the license agreement and select whether the machine will participate in the
Acronis Customer Experience Program (CEP).
4. Click Customize installation settings.
5. Next to What to install, click Change.
6. Select the Agent for VMware (Windows) check box. If you do not want to install other
components on this machine, clear the corresponding check boxes. Click Done to continue.
7. Next to Acronis Backup Management Server, click Change, and then specify the host name or IP
address of the machine where the management server is installed. Click Done to continue.
8. [Optional] Change other installation settings.
9. Click Install to proceed with the installation.
10. After the installation completes, click Close.
11. Perform the procedure described in the "Registering an already installed Agent for VMware" (p.
23) section.

2.6.3.2

Installation in Linux

Preparation
1. Before installing the product on a system that does not use RPM Package Manager, such as an
Ubuntu system, you need to install this manager manually; for example, by running the following
command (as the root user): apt-‐get install rpm.
2. Ensure that the necessary Linux packages (p. 13) are installed on the machine.

Installation
To install Agent for Linux
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

As the root user, run the appropriate installation file (an .i686 or an .x86_64 file).
Accept the terms of the license agreement.
Clear the Acronis Backup Management Server check box, and then click Next.
Specify the host name or IP address of the machine where the management server is installed.
Click Next to proceed with the installation.
After the installation completes, click Exit.

Troubleshooting information is provided in the file:
/usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/HOWTO.INSTALL

2.6.3.3

Installation in OS X

To install Agent for Mac
1.
2.
3.
4.

Double-‐click the installation file (.dmg).
Wait while the operating system mounts the installation disk image.
Double-‐click Install.
Follow the on-‐screen instructions.

2.6.3.4

Deploying Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) from an OVF
template

After the management server is installed, the virtual appliance's OVF package is located in the
folder %ProgramFiles%\Acronis\ESXAppliance. The folder contains one .ovf file and two .vmdk files.
Ensure that these files can be accessed from the machine running the vSphere Client.

Deploying the OVF template
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

9.
10.
11.

Start the vSphere Client and log on to the vCenter Server.
On the File menu, click Deploy OVF Template.
In Source, specify the path to the virtual appliance's OVF package.
Review the OVF Template Details and click Next.
In Name and Location, type the name for the appliance or leave the default name of
AcronisESXAppliance.
In Host / Cluster, select the ESXi host that the appliance will be deployed to.
[Optional] In Resource Pool, select the resource pool that will contain the appliance.
In Storage, leave the default datastore unless it does not have enough space for the virtual
appliance. In this case, select another datastore. Skip this step if there is only one datastore on
the server.
In Disk Format, select any required value. The disk format does not affect the appliance
performance.
In Network mapping, select the bridged mode for the network adapter.
Review the summary, and then click Finish. After the successful deployment is reported, close
the progress window.

Configuring the virtual appliance
1. Starting the virtual appliance
In the vSphere Client, display the Inventory, right-‐click the virtual appliance's name, and then
select Power > Power On. Select the Console tab. On the welcome screen, click Close.
2. vCenter/ESX(i)
Under Agent options, in vCenter/ESX(i), click Change and specify the vCenter Server name or IP
address. The agent will be able to back up and recover any virtual machine managed by the
vCenter Server.
If you do not use a vCenter Server, specify the name or IP address of the ESXi host whose virtual
machines you want to back up and recover. Normally, backups run faster when the agent backs
up virtual machines hosted on its own host.
Specify the credentials that the agent will use to connect to the vCenter Server or ESXi. We
recommend using an account that has the Administrator role assigned. Otherwise, provide an
account with the necessary privileges (p. 112) on the vCenter Server or ESXi.
You can click Check connection to ensure the access credentials are correct.
25

3. Acronis Backup Management Server
Under Agent options, in Acronis Backup Management Server, click Change.
Specify the host name or IP address of the machine where the management server is installed,
and the access credentials for that machine.
4. Time zone
Under Virtual machine, in Time zone, click Change. Select the time zone of your location to
ensure that the scheduled operations run at the appropriate time.
The virtual appliance is ready to work. In addition, you can change the following settings:

Network settings
The agent's network connection is configured automatically by using Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP). To change the default configuration, under Agent options, in eth0, click Change
and specify the desired network settings.

Local storages
You can attach an additional disk to the virtual appliance so the Agent for VMware can back up to
this locally attached storage. This kind of backup is normally faster than a backup via LAN and it
does not consume the network bandwidth.
The virtual disk size must be at least 10 GB. Add the disk by editing the settings of the virtual
machine and click Refresh. The Create storage link becomes available. Click this link, select the
disk, and then specify a label for it.
Be careful when adding an already existing disk. Once the storage is created, all data previously contained
on this disk will be lost.

2.6.4

Managing licenses

Licensing of Acronis Backup is based on the number of the backed-‐up physical machines and
virtualization hosts. Both subscription and perpetual licenses can be used. A subscription expiration
period starts when you register it on the Acronis site.
To start using Acronis Backup, you need to add at least one license key to the management server. A
license is automatically assigned to a machine when a backup plan is applied. You can also assign and
revoke licenses manually.

To add a license key
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Click Settings > Licenses.
Click Add keys.
Enter the license keys.
Click Add.
To activate a subscription, you must be signed in. If you entered at least one subscription key,
enter the email address and password of your Acronis account, and then click Sign in. If you
entered only perpetual keys, skip this step.
6. Click Done.
Tip If you have already registered the subscription keys, the management server can import them from your
Acronis account. To synchronize the subscription keys, click Sync and sign in.

Managing perpetual licenses
To assign a perpetual license to a machine
1. Click Settings > Licenses.
26

2. Select a perpetual license.
The software displays the license keys that correspond to the selected license.
3. Select the key to assign.
4. Click Assign.
The software displays the machines that the selected key can be assigned to.
5. Select the machine, and then click Done.

To revoke a perpetual license from a machine
1. Click Settings > Licenses.
2. Select a perpetual license.
The software displays the license keys that correspond to the selected license. The machine that
the key is assigned to is shown in the Assigned to column.
3. Select the license key to revoke.
4. Click Revoke.
5. Confirm your decision.
The revoked key will remain in the license keys list. It can be assigned to another machine.

Managing subscription licenses
To assign a subscription license to a machine
1. Click Settings > Licenses.
2. Select a subscription license.
The software displays the machines that the selected license is already assigned to.
3. Click Assign.
The software displays the machines that the selected license can be assigned to.
4. Select the machine, and then click Done.

To revoke a subscription license from a machine
1. Click Settings > Licenses.
2. Select a subscription license.
The software displays machines that the selected license is already assigned to.
3. Select the machine to revoke the license from.
4. Click Revoke license.
5. Confirm your decision.

2.7
2.7.1

Cloud deployment
Preparation

Step 1
Choose the agent, depending on what you are going to back up. For the information about the
agents, refer to the "Components" (p. 8) section.

Step 2
Download the setup program. To find the download links, click All devices > Add.

The Add devices page provides web installers for each agent that is installed in Windows. A web
installer is a small executable file that downloads the main setup program from the Internet and
saves it as a temporary file. This file is deleted immediately after the installation.
If you want to store the setup programs locally, download a package containing all agents for
installation in Windows by using the link at the bottom of the Add devices page. Both 32-‐bit and
64-‐bit packages are available. These packages enable you to customize the list of components to
install. These packages also enable unattended installation, for example, via Group Policy. This
advanced scenario is described in "Deploying agents through Group Policy" (p. 31).
Installation in Linux and OS X is performed from ordinary setup programs.
All setup programs require an Internet connection to register the machine in the backup service. If
there is no Internet connection, the installation will fail.

Step 3
Before the installation, ensure that your firewalls and other components of your network security
system (such as a proxy sever) allow both inbound and outbound connections through the following
TCP ports:

443 and 8443 These ports are used for accessing the backup console, registering the agents,
downloading the certificates, user authorization, and downloading files from the cloud storage.

7770...7800 The agents use these ports to communicate with the backup management server.
44445 The agents use this port for data transfer during backup and recovery.

If a proxy server is enabled in your network, refer to the "Proxy server settings" (p. 28) section to
understand whether you need to configure these settings on each machine that runs a backup agent.

2.7.2

Proxy server settings

The backup agents can transfer data through an HTTP proxy server.
The agent installation requires an Internet connection. If a proxy server is configured in Windows
(Control panel > Internet Options > Connections), the setup program reads the proxy server settings
from the registry and uses them automatically. In Linux and OS X, you must specify the proxy settings
before the installation.
Use the procedures below to specify the proxy settings before the agent installation or to change
them at a later time.

In Linux
1. Create the file /etc/Acronis/Global.config and open it in a text editor.
2. Copy and paste the following lines into the file:
"1"
"proxy.company.com"
"443"

3. Replace proxy.company.com with your proxy server host name/IP address, and 443 with the
decimal value of the port number.
28

4. Save the file.
5. If the backup agent is not installed yet, you can now install it. Otherwise, restart the agent by
executing the following command in any directory:
sudo service acronis_mms restart

In OS X
1. Create the file /Library/Application Support/Acronis/Registry/Global.config and open it in a
text editor, such as Text Edit.
2. Copy and paste the following lines into the file:
"1"
"proxy.company.com"
"443"

3. Replace proxy.company.com with your proxy server host name/IP address, and 443 with the
decimal value of the port number.
4. Save the file.
5. If the backup agent is not installed yet, you can now install it. Otherwise, do the following to
restart the agent:
a. Go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal
b. Run the following commands:
sudo launchctl stop acronis_mms
sudo launchctl start acronis_mms

In Windows
1. Create a new text document and open it in a text editor, such as Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following lines into the file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\Global\HttpProxy]
"Enabled"=dword:00000001
"Host"="proxy.company.com"
"Port"=dword:000001bb

3. Replace proxy.company.com with your proxy server host name/IP address, and 000001bb
with the hexadecimal value of the port number. For example, 000001bb is port 443.
4. Save the document as proxy.reg.
5. Run the file as an administrator.
6. Confirm that you want to edit the Windows registry.
7. If the backup agent is not installed yet, you can now install it. Otherwise, do the following to
restart the agent:
a. In the Start menu, click Run, and then type: cmd
b. Click OK.
c. Run the following commands:
net stop mms
net start mms

2.7.3

Installing agents

In Windows
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Ensure that the machine is connected to the Internet.
Log on as an administrator and start the setup program.
Click Install.
Specify the credentials of the account to which the machine should be assigned.
Click Show proxy settings if you want to verify or change the proxy server host name/IP address
and port. Otherwise, skip this step. If a proxy server is enabled in Windows, it is detected and
used automatically.
6. [Only when installing Agent for VMware] Specify the address and access credentials for the
vCenter Server or stand-‐alone ESXi host whose virtual machines the agent will back up. We
recommend using an account that has the Administrator role assigned. Otherwise, provide an
account with the necessary privileges (p. 112) on the vCenter Server or ESXi.
7. [Only when installing on a domain controller] Specify the user account under which the agent
service will run. For security reasons, the setup program does not automatically create new
accounts on a domain controller.
8. Click Start installation.
You can change the installation path and the account for the agent service by clicking Customize
installation settings on the first step of the installation wizard.

In Linux
1.
2.
3.
4.

Ensure that the machine is connected to the Internet.
As the root user, run the installation file.
Specify the credentials of the account to which the machine should be assigned.
Complete the installation procedure.

Troubleshooting information is provided in the file:
/usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/HOWTO.INSTALL

In OS X
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Ensure that the machine is connected to the Internet.
Double-‐click the installation file (.dmg).
Wait while the operating system mounts the installation disk image.
Double-‐click Install.
If prompted, provide administrator credentials.
Specify the credentials of the account to which the machine should be assigned.
Complete the installation procedure.

2.7.4

Activating the account

When an administrator creates an account for you, an email message is sent to your email address.
The message contains the following information:

An account activation link. ˁůŝĐŬƚŚĞůŝŶŬĂŶĚƐĞƚƚŚĞƉĂƐƐǁŽƌĚĨŽƌƚŚĞĂĐĐŽƵŶƚ͘ZĞŵĞŵďĞƌǇŽƵƌ
login that is shown on the account activation page.

A link to the backup console login page. Use this link to access the console in future. The login
and password are the same as in the previous step.

2.8

Deploying agents through Group Policy

You can centrally install (or deploy) Agent for Windows onto machines that are members of an Active
Directory domain, by using Group Policy.
In this section, you will find out how to set up a Group Policy object to deploy agents onto machines
in an entire domain or in its organizational unit.
Every time a machine logs on to the domain, the resulting Group Policy object will ensure that the
agent is installed and registered.

Prerequisites
Before proceeding with agent deployment, ensure that:

You have an Active Directory domain with a domain controller running Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 or later.

You are a member of the Domain Admins group in the domain.
You have downloaded the All agents for installation in Windows setup program. The download
link is available on the Add devices page in the backup console.

Step 1: Creating the .mst transform and extracting the installation package
1. Log on as an administrator on any machine in the domain.
2. Create a shared folder that will contain the installation packages. Ensure that domain users can
access the shared folderͶfor example, by leaving the default sharing settings for Everyone.
3. Copy the setup program to the folder you created.
4. Start the setup program.
5. Click Create .mst and .msi files for unattended installation.
6. If prompted, specify the credentials of the account to which the machines should be assigned.
7. Review or modify the installation settings that will be added to the .mst file.
8. Click Generate.
As a result, the .mst transform is generated and the .msi and .cab installation packages are extracted
to the folder you created. You can now move or delete the setup program .exe file.

Step 2: Setting up the Group Policy objects
1. Log on to the domain controller as a domain administrator; if the domain has more than one
domain controller, log on to any of them as a domain administrator.
2. If you are planning to deploy the agent in an organizational unit, ensure that the organizational
unit exists in the domain. Otherwise, skip this step.
3. In the Start menu, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and
Computers (in Windows Server 2003) or Group Policy Management (in Windows Server 2008
and Windows Server 2012).
4. In Windows Server 2003:

Right-‐click the name of the domain or organizational unit, and then click Properties. In the
dialog box, click the Group Policy tab, and then click New.
In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012:

Right-‐click the name of the domain or organizational unit, and then click Create a GPO in this
domain, and Link it here.
5. Name the new Group Policy object Agent for Windows.
31

6. Open the Agent for Windows Group Policy object for editing, as follows:

In Windows Server 2003, click the Group Policy object, and then click Edit.

In Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012, under Group Policy Objects, right-‐click
the Group Policy object, and then click Edit.
7. In the Group Policy object editor snap-‐in, expand Computer Configuration.
8. In Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008:

Expand Software Settings.
In Windows Server 2012:

9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

Expand Policies > Software Settings.
Right-‐click Software installation, then point to New, and then click Package.
Select the agent's .msi installation package in the shared folder that you previously created, and
then click Open.
In the Deploy Software dialog box, click Advanced, and then click OK.
On the Modifications tab, click Add, and then select the .mst transform that you previously
created.
Click OK to close the Deploy Software dialog box.

2.9

Updating agents

On-‐premise deployment: to update the agents, first update the management server, and then
repeat the agent installation locally or by using the web interface.

Cloud deployment: the agents are updated automatically as soon as a new version is released. If
an automatic update fails for any reason, use the procedure described below.

To find the agent version, select the machine, and then click Overview.

To update an agent in a cloud deployment
1. Click Settings > Agents.
The software displays the list of machines. The machines with outdated agent versions are
marked with an orange exclamation mark.
2. Select the machines that you want to update the agents on. The machines must be online.
3. Click Update agent.
The update progress is shown in the status column for each machine.

2.10 Uninstalling the product
If you want to remove individual product components from a machine, run the setup program,
choose to modify the product, and clear the selection of the components that you want to remove.
The links to the setup programs are present on the Downloads page (click the account icon in the
top-‐right corner > Downloads).
If you want to remove all of the product components from a machine, follow the steps described
below.
Warning In on-‐premise deployments, please do not uninstall the management server by mistake. The backup
console will become unavailable. You will no longer be able to back up and recover all machines that are
registered on the management server.

In Windows
1. Log on as an administrator.
2. Go to Control panel, and then select Programs and Features (Add or Remove Programs in
Windows XP) > Acronis Backup > Uninstall.
3. [Optional] Select the Remove the logs and configuration settings check box.
Keep this check box cleared if you are uninstalling an agent and are planning to install it again. If
you select the check box, the machine may be duplicated in the backup console and the backups
of the old machine may not be associated with the new machine.
4. Confirm your decision.
5. If you are planning to install the agent again, skip this step. Otherwise, in the backup console,
click Settings > Agents, select the machine where the agent was installed, and then click Delete.

In Linux
1. As the root user, run /usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/uninstall/uninstall.
2. [Optional] Select the Clean up all product traces (Remove the product's logs, tasks, vaults, and
configuration settings) check box.
Keep this check box cleared if you are uninstalling an agent and are planning to install it again. If
you select the check box, the machine may be duplicated in the backup console and the backups
of the old machine may not be associated with the new machine.
3. Confirm your decision.
4. If you are planning to install the agent again, skip this step. Otherwise, in the backup console,
click Settings > Agents, select the machine where the agent was installed, and then click Delete.

In OS X
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Double-‐click the installation file (.dmg).
Wait while the operating system mounts the installation disk image.
Inside the image, double-‐click Uninstall.
If prompted, provide administrator credentials.
Confirm your decision.
If you are planning to install the agent again, skip this step. Otherwise, in the backup console,
click Settings > Agents, select the machine where the agent was installed, and then click Delete.

Removing Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)
1. Start the vSphere Client and log on to the vCenter Server.
2. If the virtual appliance (VA) is powered on, right-‐click it, and then click Power > Power Off.
Confirm your decision.
3. If the VA uses a locally attached storage on a virtual disk and you want to preserve data on that
disk, do the following:
a. Right-‐click the VA, and then click Edit Settings.
b. Select the disk with the storage, and then click Remove. Under Removal Options, click
Remove from virtual machine.
c. Click OK.
As a result, the disk remains in the datastore. You can attach the disk to another VA.
4. Right-‐click the VA, and then click Delete from Disk. Confirm your decision.
5. If you are planning to install the agent again, skip this step. Otherwise, in the backup console,
click Settings > Agents, select the virtual appliance, and then click Delete.
33

3 Accessing the backup console
Enter the login page address to the web browser address bar, and then specify the user name and
password.

On-‐premise deployment
The login page address is the IP address or name of the machine where the management server is
installed.
To be able to log in, you must be a member of the Acronis Centralized Admins group on the machine
running the management server. By default, this group includes all members of the Administrators
group. If the management server is installed in Linux, only the root user is allowed to log in.

Cloud deployment
The login page address is https://backup.acronis.com/. The user name and password are those of
your Acronis account.
If your account was created by the backup administrator, you need to activate the account and set
the password by clicking the link in your activation email.

Changing the language
When logged in, you can change the language of the web interface by clicking the human-‐figure icon
in the top-‐right corner.

4 Backup console views
The backup console has two views: a simple view and a table view. To switch between the views,
click the corresponding icon in the top right corner.

The simple view supports a small number of machines.

The table view is enabled automatically when the number of machines becomes large.

Both views provide access to the same features and operations. This document describes access to
operations from the table view.

5 Backup
A backup plan is a set of rules that specify how the given data will be protected on a given machine.
A backup plan can be applied to multiple machines at the time of its creation, or later.

To create the first backup plan
1. Select the machines that you want to back up.
2. Click Backup.

The software displays a new backup plan template.

3. [Optional] To modify the backup plan name, click the default name.
4. [Optional] To modify the plan parameters, click the corresponding section of the backup plan
panel.
5. [Optional] To modify the backup options, click the gear icon.
6. Click Apply.

To apply an existing backup plan
1. Select the machines that you want to back up.
2. Click Backup. If a common backup plan is already applied to the selected machines, click Add
backup plan.

The software displays previously created backup plans.

3. Select a backup plan to apply.
4. Click Apply.

5.1

Backup plan cheat sheet

The following table summarizes the available backup plan parameters. Use the table to create a
backup plan that best fits your needs.
WHAT TO BACK UP

ITEMS TO BACK UP WHERE TO BACK
UP
Selection methods

SCHEDULE
Backup schemes

HOW LONG TO KEEP

(not for Cloud)

Cloud (p. 41)
Local folder (p.
41)
Direct selection (p. 38)
Disks/volumes
Network folder
Policy rules (p. 38)
(physical machines)
(p. 41)
Always incremental
File filters (p. 52)
NFS (p. 41)*
(Single-‐file) (p. 43)
Secure Zone (p.
Always full (p. 43)
41)**
Weekly full, daily
By backup age
incremental (p. 43)
Cloud (p. 41)
(single rule/per
Local folder (p. Custom (F-‐D-‐I) (p. 43)
backup set) (p. 45)
Disks/volumes
Policy rules (p. 38)
41)
By number of
(virtual machines)
File filters (p. 52)
Network folder
backups (p. 45)
(p. 41)
Keep indefinitely (p.
NFS (p. 41)*
45)
Cloud (p. 41)
Local folder (p.
41)
Always full (p. 43)
Direct selection (p. 39)
Files (physical
Network folder
Weekly full, daily
Policy rules (p. 39)
machines only)
(p. 41)
incremental (p. 43)
File filters (p. 52)
NFS (p. 41)*
Custom (F-‐D-‐I) (p. 43)
Secure Zone (p.
41)**

ESXi configuration

Direct selection (p. 41)

System state

Direct selection (p. 40)

SQL databases

Direct selection (p. 94)

Exchange databases Direct selection (p. 95)

Local folder (p.
41)
Network folder
(p. 41)
NFS (p. 41)*
Cloud (p. 41)
Local folder (p.
41)
Network folder
(p. 41)

Always full (p. 43)
Weekly full, daily
incremental (p. 43)
Custom (F-‐I) (p. 43)

* Backup to NFS shares is not available in Windows.
** Secure Zone cannot be created on a Mac.

5.2
5.2.1

Selecting data to back up
Selecting disks/volumes

A disk-‐level backup contains a copy of a disk or a volume in a packaged form. You can recover
individual disks, volumes, or files from a disk-‐level backup. A backup of an entire machine is a backup
of all its disks.
There are two ways of selecting disks/volumes: directly on each machine or by using policy rules. You
can exclude files from a disk backup by setting the file filters (p. 52).

Direct selection
Direct selection is available only for physical machines.
1.
2.
3.
4.

In What to back up, select Disks/volumes.
Click Items to back up.
In Select items for backup, select Directly.
For each of the machines included in the backup plan, select the check boxes next to the disks or
volumes to back up.
5. Click Done.

Using policy rules
1.
2.
3.
4.

In What to back up, select Disks/volumes.
Click Items to back up.
In Select items for backup, select Using policy rules.
Select any of the predefined rules, type your own rules, or combine both.
The policy rules will be applied to all of the machines included in the backup plan. If no data
meeting at least one of the rules is found on a machine when the backup starts, the backup will
fail on that machine.
5. Click Done.

Rules for Windows, Linux, and OS X
[All volumes] selects all volumes on machines running Windows and all mounted volumes on
machines running Linux or OS X.

Rules for Windows
Drive letter (for example C:\) selects the volume with the specified drive letter.
38

[Fixed Volumes (Physical machines)] selects all volumes of physical machines, other than
removable media. Fixed volumes include volumes on SCSI, ATAPI, ATA, SSA, SAS, and SATA
devices, and on RAID arrays.

[BOOT+SYSTEM] selects the system and boot volumes. This combination is the minimal set of
data that ensures recovery of the operating system from the backup.

[Disk 1] selects the first disk of the machine, including all volumes on that disk. To select
another disk, type the corresponding number.

Rules for Linux
/dev/hda1 selects the first volume on the first IDE hard disk.
/dev/sda1 selects the first volume on the first SCSI hard disk.
/dev/md1 selects the first software RAID hard disk.
To select other basic volumes, specify /dev/xdyN, where:

"x" corresponds to the disk type
"y" corresponds to the disk number (a for the first disk, b for the second disk, and so on)
"N" is the volume number.

To select a logical volume, specify its name along with the volume group name. For example, to back
up two logical volumes, lv_root and lv_bin, both of which belong to the volume group
vg_mymachine, specify:
/dev/vg_mymachine/lv_root
/dev/vg_mymachine/lv_bin

Rules for OS X
[Disk 1] Selects the first disk of the machine, including all volumes on that disk. To select
another disk, type the corresponding number.

5.2.2

Selecting files/folders

File-‐level backup is available only for physical machines.
A file-‐level backup is not sufficient for recovery of the operating system. Choose file backup if you
plan to protect only certain data (the current project, for example). This will reduce the backup size,
thus saving storage space.
There are two ways of selecting files: directly on each machine or by using policy rules. Either
method allows you to further refine the selection by setting the file filters (p. 52).

Direct selection
1.
2.
3.
4.

In What to back up, select Files/folders.
Click Items to back up.
In Select items for backup, select Directly.
For each of the machines included in the backup plan:
a. Click Select files and folders.
b. Click Local folder or Network folder.
The share must be accessible from the selected machine.
c. Browse to the required files/folders or enter the path and click the arrow button. If
prompted, specify the user name and password for the shared folder.
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

d. Select the required files/folders.
e. Click Done.

Using policy rules
1.
2.
3.
4.

In What to back up, select Files/folders.
Click Items to back up.
In Select items for backup, select Using policy rules.
Select any of the predefined rules, type your own rules, or combine both.
The policy rules will be applied to all of the machines included in the backup plan. If no data
meeting at least one of the rules is found on a machine when the backup starts, the backup will
fail on that machine.
5. Click Done.

Selection rules for Windows
Full path to a file or folder, for example D:\Work\Text.doc or C:\Windows.
Templates:
[All Files] selects all files on all volumes of the machine.
[All Profiles Folder] selects the folder where all user profiles are located (typically,
C:\Users or C:\Documents and Settings).

Environment variables:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE% selects the folder where the common data of all user profiles is
located (typically, C:\ProgramData or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users).

%PROGRAMFILES% selects the Program Files folder (for example, C:\Program Files).

%WINDIR% selects the folder where Windows is located (for example, C:\Windows).
You can use other environment variables or a combination of environment variables and text. For
example, to select the Java folder in the Program Files folder, type: %PROGRAMFILES%\Java.

Selection rules for Linux
Full path to a file or directory. For example, to back up file.txt on the volume /dev/hda3
mounted on /home/usr/docs, specify /dev/hda3/file.txt or /home/usr/docs/file.txt.

/home selects the home directory of the common users.
/root selects the root user's home directory.
/usr selects the directory for all user-‐related programs.
/etc selects the directory for system configuration files.

Selection rules for OS X
Full path to a file or directory.
Examples:

To back up file.txt on your desktop, specify /Users//Desktop/file.txt, where
is your user name.

To back up all users' home directories, specify /Users.
To back up the directory where the applications are installed, specify /Applications.

5.2.3

Selecting system state

System state backup is available for machines running Windows Vista and later.
40

To back up system state, in What to back up, select System state.
A system state backup is comprised of the following files:

Task scheduler configuration
VSS Metadata Store
Performance counter configuration information
MSSearch Service
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
The registry
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
Component Services Class registration database

5.2.4

Selecting ESXi configuration

A backup of an ESXi host configuration enables you to recover an ESXi host to bare metal. The
recovery is performed under bootable media.
The virtual machines running on the host are not included in the backup. They can be backed up and
recovered separately.
A backup of an ESXi host configuration includes:

The bootloader and boot bank partitions of the host.

Extensions and patches installed or staged on the host.

The host state (configuration of virtual networking and storage, SSL keys, server network settings,
and local user information).
Log files.

Prerequisites
SSH must be enabled in the Security Profile of the ESXi host configuration.
You must know the password for the 'root' account on the ESXi host.
To select an ESXi configuration
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Go to VMware > Host and clusters.
Browse to the ESXi hosts that you want to back up.
Select the ESXi hosts and click Backup.
In What to back up, select ESXi configuration.
In ESXi 'root' password, specify a password for the 'root' account on each of the selected hosts
or apply the same password to all of the hosts.

5.3

Selecting a destination

Click Where to back up, and then select one of the following:

Cloud storage
Backups will be stored in the cloud data center.

Local folders
If a single machine is selected, browse to a folder on the selected machine or type the folder
path.

If multiple machines are selected, type the folder path. Backups will be stored in this folder on
each of the selected physical machines or on the machine where the agent for virtual machines is
installed. If the folder does not exist, it will be created.

Network folder
This is a folder shared via SMB/CIFS.
Browse to the required shared folder or enter the path and click the arrow button. If prompted,
specify the user name and password for the shared folder.

NFS folder (available for machines running Linux or OS X)
Browse to the required NFS folder or enter the path in the following format:
nfs:///:/
Then, click the arrow button.
It is not possible to back up to an NFS folder protected with a password.

Secure Zone (available if it is present on each of the selected machines)
Secure Zone is a secure partition on a disk of the backed-‐up machine. This partition has to be
created manually prior to configuring a backup. For information about how to create Secure
Zone, its advantages and limitations, refer to "About Secure Zone" (p. 42).

5.3.1

About Secure Zone

Secure Zone is a secure partition on a disk of the backed-‐up machine. It can store backups of disks or
files of this machine.
Should the disk experience a physical failure, the backups located in the Secure Zone may be lost.
That's why Secure Zone should not be the only location where a backup is stored. In enterprise
environments, Secure Zone can be thought of as an intermediate location used for backup when an
ordinary location is temporarily unavailable or connected through a slow or busy channel.

Why use Secure Zone?
Secure Zone:

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

Eliminates the need for a separate media or network connection to back up or recover the data.
This is especially useful for roaming users.

Can serve as a primary destination when using replication of backups.

Offers a cost-‐effective and handy method for protecting data from software malfunction, virus
attack, human error.

Limitations

Secure Zone cannot be organized on a Mac.

Secure Zone is formatted with the FAT32 file system. Because FAT32 has a 4-‐GB file size limit,
larger backups are split when saved to Secure Zone. This does not affect the recovery procedure
and speed.

Secure Zone does not support the single-‐file backup format (p. 123). When you change the
destination to Secure Zone in a backup plan that has the Always incremental (Single-‐file) backup
scheme, the scheme is changed to Weekly full, daily incremental.

Secure Zone is a partition on a basic disk. It cannot be organized on a dynamic disk or created as
a logical volume (managed by LVM).

How to create Secure Zone
1. Decide which disk you want to create Secure Zone on.
2. Start the command-‐line interface and type acrocmd list disks to see the disk's number.
3. Use the create asz command of the acrocmd utility. The command first uses the unallocated
space on that disk and then, if the unallocated space is insufficient, takes free space from the
specified volumes. For details, refer to "How creating Secure Zone transforms the disk" below.
Examples:

Creating Secure Zone on disk 1 of the local machine. Secure Zone will be created with a
default size that is the average between the maximum (all the unallocated space) and
minimum (about 50 MB) values.
acrocmd create asz -‐-‐disk=1

Creating a password-‐protected Secure Zone of size 100 GB on disk 2 of the local machine. If
the unallocated space is not enough, the space will be taken from the second volume of that
disk.
acrocmd create asz -‐-‐disk=2 -‐-‐volume=2-‐2 -‐-‐asz_size=100gb -‐-‐password=abc12345

Creating Secure Zone of size 20 GB on disk 1 of a remote machine.
acrocmd create asz -‐-‐host=192.168.1.2 -‐-‐credentials=john,pass1 -‐-‐disk=1
-‐-‐asz_size=20gb

For the detailed description of the create asz command, see the command-‐line reference.

How creating Secure Zone transforms the disk

Secure Zone is always created at the end of the hard disk. When calculating the final layout of
the volumes, the program will first use unallocated space at the end.

If there is no or not enough unallocated space at the end of the disk, but there is unallocated
space between volumes, the volumes will be moved to add more unallocated space to the end.

When all unallocated space is collected but it is still not enough, the program will take free space
from the volumes you select, proportionally reducing the volumes' size. Resizing of locked
volumes requires a reboot.

However, there should be free space on a volume, so that the operating system and applications
can operate; for example, for creating temporary files. The program will not decrease a volume
where free space is or becomes less than 25 percent of the total volume size. Only when all
volumes on the disk have 25 percent or less free space, will the program continue decreasing the
volumes proportionally.

As is apparent from the above, specifying the maximum possible Secure Zone size is not advisable.
You will end up with no free space on any volume, which might cause the operating system or
applications to work unstably and even fail to start.

5.4

Schedule

The scheduling parameters depend on the backup destination.

When backing up to cloud storage
By default, backups are performed on a daily basis, Monday to Friday. You can select the time to run
the backup.
If you want to change the backup frequency, move the slider, and then specify the backup schedule.

Important The first backup is full, which means that it is the most time-‐consuming. All subsequent backups are
incremental and take significantly less time.

When backing up to a local or network folder
You can choose one of the predefined backup schemes or create a custom scheme. A backup scheme
is a part of the backup plan that includes the backup schedule and the backup methods.
In Backup scheme, select one of the following:

[Only for disk-‐level backups] Always incremental (single-‐file)
By default, backups are performed on a daily basis, Monday to Friday. You can select the time to
run the backup.
If you want to change the backup frequency, move the slider, and then specify the backup
schedule.
The backups use the new single-‐file backup format (p. 123).

Always full
By default, backups are performed on a daily basis, Monday to Friday. You can select the time to
run the backup.
If you want to change the backup frequency, move the slider, and then specify the backup
schedule.
All backups are full.

Weekly full, Daily incremental
By default, backups are performed on a daily basis, Monday to Friday. You can modify the days of
the week and the time to run the backup.
A full backup is created once a week. All other backups are incremental. The day on which the
full backup is created depends on the Weekly backup option (click the gear icon, then Backup
options > Weekly backup).

Custom
Specify schedules for full, differential, and incremental backups.
Differential backup is not available when backing up SQL data, Exchange data, or system state.

Additional scheduling options
With any destination, you can do the following:

Set a date range for when the schedule is effective. Select the Run the plan within a date range
check box, and then specify the date range.

Disable the schedule. While the schedule is disabled, the retention rules are not applied unless a
backup is started manually.

Introduce a delay from the scheduled time. The delay value for each machine is selected
randomly and ranges from zero to the maximum value you specify. You may want to use this
setting when backing up multiple machines to a network location, to avoid excessive network
load.
Click the gear icon, then Backup options > Scheduling. Select Distribute backup start times
within a time window, and then specify the maximum delay. The delay value for each machine is
determined when the backup plan is applied to the machine and remains the same until you edit
the backup plan and change the maximum delay value.
Note In cloud deployments, this option is enabled by default, with the maximum delay set to 30 minutes.
In on-‐premise deployments, by default all backups start exactly as scheduled.

5.5

Retention rules

1. Click How long to keep.
2. In Cleanup, choose one of the following:

By backup age (default)
Specify how long to keep backups created by the backup plan. By default, the retention rules
are specified for each backup set (p. 123) separately. If you want to use a single rule for all
backups, click Switch to single rule for all backup sets.

By number of backups
Specify the maximum number of backups to keep.

Keep backups indefinitely

Note A backup stored in a local or network folder cannot be deleted if it has dependent backups that are not
subject to deletion. Such backup chains are deleted only when the lifetime of all their backups expires. This
requires extra space for storing backups whose deletion is postponed. Also, the backup age and number of
backups may exceed the values you specify.

5.6

Replication

If you enable backup replication, each backup will be copied to a second location immediately after
creation. If earlier backups were not replicated (for example, the network connection was lost), the
software also replicates all of the backups that appeared after the last successful replication.
Replicated backups do not depend on the backups remaining in the original location and vice versa.
You can recover data from any backup, without access to other locations.

Usage examples

Reliable disaster recovery
Store your backups both on-‐site (for immediate recovery) and off-‐site (to secure the backups
from local storage failure or a natural disaster).

Using the cloud storage to protect data from a natural disaster
Replicate the backups to the cloud storage by transferring only the data changes.

Keeping only the latest recovery points
Delete older backups from a fast storage according to retention rules, in order to not overuse
expensive storage space.

Supported locations
You can replicate a backup from any of these locations:

A local folder
A network folder

You can replicate a backup to any of these locations:

A local folder
A network folder
The cloud storage
To enable backup replication
1. On the backup plan panel, enable the Replicate backups switch.

2. In Where to replicate, specify the replication destination, as described in "Selecting a
destination" (p. 41).
3. In How long to keep, specify the retention rules, as described in "Retention rules" (p. 45).

5.7

Encryption

We recommend that you encrypt all backups that are stored in the cloud storage, especially if your
company is subject to regulatory compliance.
Important There is no way to recover encrypted backups if you lose or forget the password.

Encryption in a backup plan
To enable encryption, specify the encryption settings when creating a backup plan. After a backup
plan is applied, the encryption settings cannot be modified. To use different encryption settings,
create a new backup plan.

To specify the encryption settings in a backup plan
1. On the backup plan panel, enable the Encryption switch.
2. Specify and confirm the encryption password.
3. Select one of the following encryption algorithms:

AES 128 ʹ the backups will be encrypted by using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
algorithm with a 128-‐bit key.

AES 192 ʹ the backups will be encrypted by using the AES algorithm with a 192-‐bit key.

AES 256 ʹ the backups will be encrypted by using the AES algorithm with a 256-‐bit key.
4. Click OK.

Encryption as a machine property
This option is intended for administrators who handle backups of multiple machines. If you need a
unique encryption password for each machine or if you need to enforce encryption of backups
regardless of the backup plan encryption settings, save the encryption settings on each machine
individually.
Saving the encryption settings on a machine does not affect the currently applied backup plans, but
will override the encryption settings of all backup plans applied later. Any backup created by these
backup plans will be encrypted, even if encryption is disabled. After the settings are saved, they
cannot be modified, but you can reset them as described below.
This option is available for machines running Windows or Linux. It is not supported for OS X.
This option can be used on a machine running Agent for VMware. However, be careful if you have
more than one Agent for VMware connected to the same vCenter Server. It is mandatory to use the
same encryption settings for all of the agents, because there is a kind of load balancing among them.

To save the encryption settings on a machine
1. Log on as an administrator (in Windows) or the root user (in Linux).
2. Run the following script:

In Windows: \PyShell\bin\acropsh.exe -‐m manage_creds
-‐-‐set-‐password

Here, is the backup agent installation path. By default, it
is %ProgramFiles%\BackupClient in cloud deployments and %ProgramFiles%\Acronis in
on-‐premise deployments.

In Linux: /usr/sbin/acropsh -‐m manage_creds -‐-‐set-‐password

The backups will be encrypted using the AES algorithm with a 256-‐bit key.

To reset the encryption settings on a machine
1. Log on as an administrator (in Windows) or root user (in Linux).
2. Run the following script:

In Windows: \PyShell\bin\acropsh.exe -‐m manage_creds -‐-‐reset
Here, is the backup agent installation path. By default, it
is %ProgramFiles%\BackupClient in cloud deployments and %ProgramFiles%\Acronis in
on-‐premise deployments.

In Linux: /usr/sbin/acropsh -‐m manage_creds -‐-‐reset

Important After you reset the encryption settings on a machine, the backups of this machine will fail. To
continue backing up the machine, create a new backup plan.

How the encryption works
The AES cryptographic algorithm operates in the Cipher-‐block chaining (CBC) mode and uses a
randomly generated key with a user-‐defined size of 128, 192 or 256 bits. The larger the key size, the
longer it will take for the program to encrypt the backups and the more secure your data will be.
The encryption key is then encrypted with AES-‐256 using an SHA-‐256 hash of the password as a key.
The password itself is not stored anywhere on the disk or in the backups; the password hash is used
for verification purposes. With this two-‐level security, the backup data is protected from any
unauthorized access, but recovering a lost password is not possible.

5.8
1.
2.
3.
4.

Starting a backup manually

Select a machine that has at least one applied backup plan.
Click Backup.
If more than one backup plans are applied, select the backup plan.
Click Run now on the backup plan panel.

The backup progress is shown in the Status column for the machine.

5.9

Backup options

To modify the backup options, click the gear icon next to the backup plan name, and then click
Backup options.

Availability of the backup options
The set of available backup options depends on:

The environment the agent operates in (Windows, Linux, OS X).
The type of the data being backed up (disks, files, virtual machines, application data).
The backup destination (the cloud storage, local or network folder).

The following table summarizes the availability of the backup options.
47

Windows

Linux

OS X

ESXi

Hyper-‐V

Windows

SQL and
Exchange

OS X

Virtual
machines

Linux

File-‐level backup

Windows

Disk-‐level backup

Backup consolidation (p. 49)

-‐

Backup validation (p. 49)

Changed block tracking (CBT)
(p. 50)

-‐

Compression level (p. 50)

Email notifications (p. 50)

Re-‐attempt, if an error occurs

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

Ignore bad sectors

-‐

Re-‐attempt, if an error occurs
during VM snapshot creation

-‐

Fast incremental/differential
backup (p. 52)

-‐

File-‐level backup snapshot (p.
53)

-‐

File-‐level security (p. 54)

-‐

File filters (p. 52)

-‐

Log truncation (p. 54)

-‐

SQL only

LVM snapshotting (p. 54)

-‐

Mount points (p. 54)

-‐

Multi-‐volume snapshot (p. 55)

-‐

Performance (p. 56)

Pre/Post commands (p. 57)

Pre/Post data capture
commands (p. 58)

-‐

Distribute start times within a
time window

Limit the number of
simultaneously running
backups

-‐

Error handling (p. 51)

Scheduling (p. 60)

Windows

Linux

OS X

ESXi

Hyper-‐V

Windows

SQL and
Exchange

OS X

Virtual
machines

Linux

File-‐level backup

Windows

Disk-‐level backup

Sector-‐by-‐sector backup (p.
60)

-‐

Splitting (p. 61)

Task failure handling (p. 61)

Volume Shadow Copy Service
(VSS) (p. 61)

-‐

Volume Shadow Copy Service
(VSS) for virtual machines (p.
62)

-‐

Weekly backup (p. 62)

Windows event log (p. 62)

-‐

5.9.1

Backup consolidation

This option is effective for the Always full; Weekly full, Daily incremental; and Custom backup
schemes.
The preset is: Disabled.
Consolidation is the process of combining two or more subsequent backups into a single backup.
If this option is enabled, a backup that should be deleted during cleanup is consolidated with the
next dependent backup (incremental or differential).
Otherwise, the backup is retained until all dependent backups become subject to deletion. This helps
avoid the potentially time-‐consuming consolidation, but requires extra space for storing backups
whose deletion is postponed. The backups' age or number can exceed the values specified in the
retention rules.
Important Please be aware that consolidation is just a method of deletion, but not an alternative to deletion.
The resulting backup will not contain data that was present in the deleted backup and was absent from the
retained incremental or differential backup.

5.9.2

Backup validation

Validation is an operation that checks the possibility of data recovery from a backup. When this
option is enabled, each backup created by the backup plan is validated immediately after creation.
The preset is: Disabled.

Validation calculates a checksum for every data block that can be recovered from the backup. The
only exception is validation of file-‐level backups that are located in the cloud storage. These backups
are validated by checking consistency of the metadata saved in the backup.
Validation is a time-‐consuming process, even for an incremental or differential backup, which are
small in size. This is because the operation validates not only the data physically contained in the
backup, but all of the data recoverable by selecting the backup. This requires access to previously
created backups.
While the successful validation means a high probability of successful recovery, it does not check all
factors that influence the recovery process. If you back up the operating system, we recommend
performing a test recovery under the bootable media to a spare hard drive or running a virtual
machine from the backup (p. 103) in the ESXi or Hyper-‐V environment.

5.9.3

Changed block tracking (CBT)

This option is effective for disk-‐level backups of virtual machines and of physical machines running
Windows.
The preset is: Enabled.
This option determines whether to use Changed Block Tracking (CBT) when performing an
incremental or differential backup.
The CBT technology accelerates the backup process. Changes to the disk content are continuously
tracked at the block level. When a backup starts, the changes can be immediately saved to the
backup.

5.9.4

Compression level

The option defines the level of compression applied to the data being backed up. The available levels
are: None, Normal, High.
The preset is: Normal.
A higher compression level means that the backup process takes longer, but the resulting backup
occupies less space.
The optimal data compression level depends on the type of data being backed up. For example, even
maximum compression will not significantly reduce the backup size if the backup contains essentially
compressed files, such as .jpg, .pdf or .mp3. However, formats such as .doc or .xls will be compressed
well.

5.9.5

Email notifications

The option enables you to set up email notifications about errors, warnings, and successfully
completed backups.
This option is available only in on-‐premise deployments. In cloud deployments, the settings are
configured per account when an account is created (p. 118).
The preset is: Use the default settings.
You can either use the default settings, or override them with custom values that will be specific for
this plan only. The default settings are configured as described in "Email notifications" (p. 116).
50

Important When the default settings are changed, all backup plans that use the default settings are affected.

Before enabling this option, ensure that the Email server (p. 115) settings are configured.

To customize email notifications for a backup plan
1. Select Customize the settings for this backup plan.
2. In the Recipients' email addresses field, type the destination email address. You can enter
several addresses separated by semicolons.
3. Select the types of notifications that you want to be sent. The following types are available:

Errors
Warnings
Successful backups

The subject of the email messages is based on the following template: [subject] [machine name]
[backup plan name]. The [subject] placeholder will be replaced by one of the following phrases:
Backup succeeded, Backup failed, Backup succeeded with warnings.

5.9.6

Error handling

These options enable you to specify how to handle errors that might occur during backup.

Re-‐attempt, if an error occurs
The preset is: Enabled. Number of attempts: 30. Interval between attempts: 30 seconds.
When a recoverable error occurs, the program re-‐attempts to perform the unsuccessful operation.
You can set the time interval and the number of attempts. The attempts will be stopped as soon as
the operation succeeds OR the specified number of attempts are performed, depending on which
comes first.
For example, if the backup destination on the network becomes unavailable or not reachable, the
program will attempt to reach the destination every 30 seconds, but no more than 30 times. The
attempts will be stopped as soon as the connection is resumed OR the specified number of attempts
is performed, depending on which comes first.
Note If the cloud storage is selected as the primary or the second destination, the option value is automatically
set to Enabled. Number of attempts: 300.

Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode)
The preset is: Enabled.
With the silent mode enabled, the program will automatically handle situations requiring user
interaction (except for handling bad sectors, which is defined as a separate option). If an operation
cannot continue without user interaction, it will fail. Details of the operation, including errors, if any,
can be found in the operation log.

Ignore bad sectors
The preset is: Disabled.
When this option is disabled, each time the program comes across a bad sector, the backup activity
will be assigned the Interaction required status. 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 resulting disk backup and extract valid files to another disk.
51

Re-‐attempt, if an error occurs during VM snapshot creation
The preset is: Enabled. Number of attempts: 3. Interval between attempts: 5 minutes.
When taking a virtual machine snapshot fails, the program re-‐attempts to perform the unsuccessful
operation. You can set the time interval and the number of attempts. The attempts will be stopped
as soon as the operation succeeds OR the specified number of attempts are performed, depending
on which comes first.

5.9.7

Fast incremental/differential backup

This option is effective for incremental and differential disk-‐level backup.
The preset is: Enabled.
Incremental or differential backup captures only data changes. To speed up the backup process, the
program determines whether a file has changed or not by the file size and the date/time when the
file was last modified. Disabling this feature will make the program compare the entire file contents
to those stored in the backup.

5.9.8

File filters

File filters define which files and folders to skip during the backup process.
File filters are available for both disk-‐level and file-‐level backup.

To enable file filters
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select the data to back up.
Click the gear icon next to the backup plan name, and then click Backup options.
Select File filters.
Use any of the options described below.

Exclude files matching specific criteria
There are two options that function in an inverse manner.

Back up only files matching the following criteria
Example: If you select to back up the entire machine and specify C:\File.exe in the filter criteria,
only this file will be backed up.

Do not back up files matching the following criteria
Example: If you select to back up the entire machine and specify C:\File.exe in the filter criteria,
only this file will be skipped.

It is possible to use both options simultaneously. The latter option overrides the former, i.e. if you
specify C:\File.exe in both fields, this file will be skipped during a backup.

Criteria
Full path
Specify the full path to the file or folder, starting with the drive letter (when backing up
Windows) or the root directory (when backing up Linux or OS X).
Both in Windows and Linux/OS X, you can use a forward slash in the file or folder path (as in
C:/Temp/File.tmp). In Windows, you can also use the traditional backslash (as in
C:\Temp\File.tmp).
52

Name
Specify the name of the file or folder, such as Document.txt. All files and folders with that name
will be selected.

The criteria are not case-‐sensitive. For example, by specifying C:\Temp, you will also select C:\TEMP,
C:\temp, and so on.
You can use one or more wildcard characters (* and ?) in the criterion. These characters can be used
both within the full path and in the file or folder name.
The asterisk (*) substitutes for zero or more characters in a file name. For example, the criterion
Doc*.txt matches files such as Doc.txt and Document.txt
The question mark (?) substitutes for exactly one character in a file name. For example, the criterion
Doc?.txt matches files such as Doc1.txt and Docs.txt, but not the files Doc.txt or Doc11.txt

Exclude hidden files and folders
Select this check box to skip files and folders that have the Hidden attribute (for file systems that are
supported by Windows) or that start with a period (.) (for file systems in Linux, such as Ext2 and Ext3).
If a folder is hidden, all of its contents (including files that are not hidden) will be excluded.

Exclude system files and folders
This option is effective only for file systems that are supported by Windows. Select this check box to
skip files and folders with the System attribute. If a folder has the System attribute, all of its contents
(including files that do not have the System attribute) will be excluded.
Tip You can view file or folder attributes in the file/folder properties or by using the attrib command. For more
information, refer to the Help and Support Center in Windows.

5.9.9

File-level backup snapshot

This option is effective only for file-‐level backup.
This option defines whether to back up files one by one or by taking an instant data snapshot.
Note Files that are stored on network shares are always backed up one by one.

The preset is: Create snapshot if it is possible.
You can select one of the following:

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

Always create a snapshot
The snapshot enables backing up of all files including files opened for exclusive access. The files
will be backed up at the same point in time. Choose this setting only if these factors are critical,
that is, backing up files without a snapshot does not make sense. If a snapshot cannot be taken,
the backup will fail.

Do not create a snapshot
Always back up files directly. Trying to back up files that are opened for exclusive access will
result in a read error. Files in the backup may be not time-‐consistent.

5.9.10 File-level security
This option is effective only for file-‐level backup in Windows.
This option defines whether to back up NTFS permissions for files along with the files.
The preset is: Enabled.
When this option is enabled, files and folders are backed up with the original permissions to read,
write or execute the files for each user or user group. If you recover a secured file/folder on a
machine without the user account specified in the permissions, you may not be able to read or
modify this file.
If this option is disabled, the recovered files and folders will inherit the permissions from the folder
to which they are recovered or from the disk, if recovered to the root.
Alternatively, you can disable recovery (p. 77) of the security settings. The result will be the same -‐
the files will inherit the permissions from the parent folder.

5.9.11 Log truncation
This option is effective for backup of Microsoft SQL Server databases and for disk-‐level backup with
enabled Microsoft SQL Server application backup.
This option defines whether the SQL Server transaction logs are truncated after a successful backup.
The preset is: Enabled.
When this option is enabled, a database can be recovered only to a point in time of a backup created
by this software. Disable this option if you back up transaction logs by using the native backup engine
of Microsoft SQL Server. You will be able to apply the transaction logs after a recovery and thus
recover a database to any point in time.

5.9.12 LVM snapshotting
This option is effective only for physical machines.
This option is effective for disk-‐level backup of volumes managed by Linux Logical Volume Manager
(LVM). Such volumes are also called logical volumes.
This option defines how a snapshot of a logical volume is taken. The backup software can do this on
its own or rely on Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
The preset is: By the backup software.

By the backup software. The snapshot data is kept mostly in RAM. The backup is faster and
unallocated space on the volume group is not required. Therefore, we recommend changing the
preset only if you are experiencing problems with backing up logical volumes.

By LVM. The snapshot is stored on unallocated space of the volume group. If the unallocated
space is missing, the snapshot will be taken by the backup software.

5.9.13 Mount points
This option is effective only in Windows for a file-‐level backup of a data source that includes
mounted volumes or cluster shared volumes.
54

This option is effective only when you select for backup a folder that is higher in the folder hierarchy
than the mount point. (A mount point is a folder on which an additional volume is logically attached.)

If such folder (a parent folder) is selected for backup, and the Mount points option is enabled, all
files located on the mounted volume will be included in the backup. If the Mount points option is
disabled, the mount point in the backup will be empty.
During recovery of a parent folder, the mount point content will or will not be recovered,
depending on whether the Mount points option for recovery (p. 77) is enabled or disabled.

If you select the mount point directly, or select any folder within the mounted volume, the
selected folders will be considered as ordinary folders. They will be backed up regardless of the
state of the Mount points option and recovered regardless of the state of the Mount points
option for recovery (p. 77).

The preset is: Disabled.
Tip. You can back up Hyper-‐V virtual machines residing on a cluster shared volume by backing up the required
files or the entire volume with file-‐level backup. Just power off the virtual machines to be sure that they are
backed up in a consistent state.

Example
Let's assume that the C:\Data1\ folder is a mount point for the mounted volume. The volume
contains folders Folder1 and Folder2. You create a backup plan for file-‐level backup of your data.
If you select the check box for volume C and enable the Mount points option, the C:\Data1\ folder in
your backup will contain Folder1 and Folder2. When recovering the backed-‐up data, be aware of
proper using the Mount points option for recovery (p. 77).
If you select the check box for volume C, and disable the Mount points option, the C:\Data1\ folder
in your backup will be empty.
If you select the check box for the Data1, Folder1 or Folder2 folder, the checked folders will be
included in the backup as ordinary folders, regardless of the state of the Mount points option.

5.9.14 Multi-volume snapshot
This option is effective only for Windows operating systems.
This option applies to disk-‐level backup. This option also applies to file-‐level backup when the
file-‐level backup is performed by taking a snapshot. (The "File-‐level backup snapshot" (p. 53) option
determines whether a snapshot is taken during file-‐level backup).
This option determines whether to take snapshots of multiple volumes at the same time or one by
one.
The preset is: Enabled.
When this option is enabled, snapshots of all volumes being backed up are created simultaneously.
Use this option to create a time-‐consistent backup of data spanning multiple volumes; for instance,
for an Oracle database.
When this option is disabled, the volumes' snapshots are taken one after the other. As a result, if the
data spans several volumes, the resulting backup may be not consistent.

5.9.15 Performance
Process priority
This option defines the priority of the backup process in the operating system.
The available settings are: Low, Normal, High.
The preset is: Low (in Windows, corresponds to Below normal).
The priority of a process running in a system determines the amount of CPU and system resources
allocated to that process. Decreasing the backup priority will free more resources for other
applications. Increasing the backup priority might speed up the backup process by requesting the
operating system to allocate more resources like the CPU to the backup application. However, the
resulting effect will depend on the overall CPU usage and other factors like disk in/out speed or
network traffic.
This option sets the priority of the backup process (service_process.exe) in Windows and the
niceness of the backup process (service_process) in Linux and OS X.

Output speed during backup
This option enables you to limit the hard drive writing speed (when backing up to a local folder) or
the speed of transferring the backup data through the network (when backing up to a network share
or to cloud storage).
The preset is: Disabled.
When this option is enabled, you can specify the maximum allowed output speed in KB/second.

5.9.16 Pre/Post commands
The option enables you to define the commands to be automatically executed before and after the
backup procedure.
The following scheme illustrates when pre/post commands are executed.
Pre-‐backup
command

Backup

Post-‐backup
command

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

Delete some temporary files from the disk before starting backup.
Configure a third-‐party antivirus product to be started each time before the backup starts.
Selectively copy backups to another location. This option may be useful because the replication
configured in a backup plan copies every backup to subsequent locations.

The agent performs the replication after executing the post-‐backup command.
The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for
example, "pause").

5.9.16.1

Pre-backup command

To specify a command/batch file to be executed before the backup process starts
1. Enable the Execute a command before the backup switch.
2. In the Command... field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not
support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".)
3. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will
be executed.
4. In the Arguments ĨŝĞůĚƐƉĞĐŝĨǇƚŚĞĐŽŵŵĂŶĚ͛ƐĞǆĞĐƵƚŝŽŶĂƌŐƵŵĞŶƚƐ͕ŝĨƌĞƋƵŝƌĞĚ͘
5. Depending on the result you want to obtain, select the appropriate options as described in the
table below.
6. Click Done.
Check box

Selection

Fail the backup if the command
execution fails*

Selected

Cleared

Selected

Cleared

Do not back up until the
command execution is
complete

Selected

Cleared

Result

Preset

Perform the
backup after the
Perform the backup
command is
only after the
executed despite
command is
execution failure
successfully
or success.
executed. Fail the
backup if the
command execution
fails.

N/A

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

* A command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero.

5.9.16.2

Post-backup command

To specify a command/executable file to be executed after the backup is completed
1. Enable the Execute a command after the backup switch.
2. In the Command... field, type a command or browse to a batch file.
3. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will
be executed.
4. In the Arguments field, specify the command execution arguments, if required.
5. Select the Fail the backup if the command execution fails check box if successful execution of
the command is critical for you. The command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to
zero. If the command execution fails, the backup status will be set to Error.
When the check box is not selected, the command execution result does not affect the backup
failure or success. You can track the command execution result by exploring the Activities tab.
6. Click Done.

5.9.17 Pre/Post data capture commands
The option enables you to define the commands to be automatically executed before and after data
capture (that is, taking the data snapshot). Data capture is performed at the beginning of the backup
procedure.
The following scheme illustrates when the pre/post data capture commands are executed.
Pre-‐backup
command

<-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ Backup -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐>
Pre-‐data
capture
command

Data
capture

Post-‐data
capture
command

Post-‐backup
command

If the Volume Shadow Copy Service option (p. 61) is enabled, the commands' execution and the
Microsoft VSS actions will be sequenced as follows:
ΗĞĨŽƌĞĚĂƚĂĐĂƉƚƵƌĞ͟ĐŽŵŵĂŶĚƐ-‐> VSS Suspend -‐> Data capture -‐> VSS Resume -‐> "After data
capture" commands.
By using the pre/post data capture commands, you can suspend and resume a database or
application that is not compatible with VSS. Because the data capture takes seconds, the database or
application idle time will be minimal.

5.9.17.1

Pre-data capture command

To specify a command/batch file to be executed before data capture
1. Enable the Execute a command before the data capture switch.
2. In the Command... field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not
support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".)
3. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will
be executed.
4. In the Arguments ĨŝĞůĚƐƉĞĐŝĨǇƚŚĞĐŽŵŵĂŶĚ͛ƐĞǆĞĐƵƚŝŽŶĂƌŐƵŵĞŶƚƐ͕ŝĨƌĞƋƵŝƌĞĚ͘
5. Depending on the result you want to obtain, select the appropriate options as described in the
table below.
6. Click Done.

Check box

Selection

Fail the backup if the
command execution fails*

Selected

Cleared

Selected

Cleared

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

Selected

Cleared

Result

Preset

Perform the data N/A
capture after the
Perform the data
command is
capture only after the
executed despite
command is
execution failure
successfully executed.
or success.
Fail the backup if the
command execution
fails.

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

* A command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero.

5.9.17.2

Post-data capture command

To specify a command/batch file to be executed after data capture
1. Enable the Execute a command after the data capture switch.
2. In the Command... field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not
support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".)
3. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will
be executed.
4. In the Arguments ĨŝĞůĚƐƉĞĐŝĨǇƚŚĞĐŽŵŵĂŶĚ͛ƐĞǆĞĐƵƚŝŽŶĂƌŐƵŵĞŶƚƐ͕ŝĨƌĞƋƵŝƌĞĚ͘
5. Depending on the result you want to obtain, select the appropriate options as described in the
table below.
6. Click Done.
Check box

Selection

Fail the backup if the
command execution fails*

Selected

Cleared

Selected

Cleared

Do not back up until the
command execution is
complete

Selected

Cleared

Result

Preset

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

N/A

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

* A command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero.

5.9.18 Scheduling
This option defines whether backups start as scheduled or with a delay, and how many virtual
machines are backed up simultaneously.
The preset is:

On-‐premise deployment: Start all backups exactly as scheduled.
Cloud deployment: Distribute backup start times within a time window. Maximum delay: 30
minutes.

You can select one of the following:

Start all backups exactly as scheduled
Backups of physical machines will start exactly as scheduled. Virtual machines will be backed up
one by one.

Distribute start times within a time window
Backups of physical machines will start with a delay from the scheduled time. The delay value for
each machine is selected randomly and ranges from zero to the maximum value you specify. You
may want to use this setting when backing up multiple machines to a network location, to avoid
excessive network load. The delay value for each machine is determined when the backup plan is
applied to the machine and remains the same until you edit the backup plan and change the
maximum delay value.
Virtual machines will be backed up one by one.

Limit the number of simultaneously running backups by
This option is available only when a backup plan is applied to multiple virtual machines. This
option defines how many virtual machines an agent can back up simultaneously when executing
the given backup plan.
If, according to the backup plan, an agent has to start backing up multiple machines at once, it
will choose two machines. (To optimize the backup performance, the agent tries to match
machines stored on different storages.) Once any of the two backups is completed, the agent
chooses the third machine and so on.
You can change the number of virtual machines for an agent to simultaneously back up. The
maximum value is 10.
Backups of physical machines will start exactly as scheduled.

5.9.19 Sector-by-sector backup
The option is effective only for disk-‐level backup.
This option defines whether an exact copy of a disk or volume on a physical level is created.
The preset is: Disabled.
If this option is enabled, all disk or volume's sectors will be backed up, including unallocated space
and those sectors that are free of data. The resulting backup will be equal in size to the disk being
backed up (if the "Compression level" (p. 50) option is set to None). The software automatically
switches to the sector-‐by-‐sector mode when backing up drives with unrecognized or unsupported file
systems.

5.9.20 Splitting
This option is effective for the Always full; Weekly full, Daily incremental; and Custom backup
schemes.
This option enables you to select the method of splitting of large backups into smaller files.
The preset is: Automatic.
The following settings are available:

Automatic
A backup will be split if it exceeds the maximum file size supported by the file system.

Fixed size
Enter the desired file size or select it from the drop-‐down list.

5.9.21 Task failure handling
This option determines the program behavior when execution of a backup plan fails.
If this option is enabled, the program will try to execute the backup plan again. You can specify the
number of attempts and the time interval between the attempts. The program stops trying as soon
as an attempt completes successfully OR the specified number of attempts is performed, depending
on which comes first.
The preset is: Disabled.

5.9.22 Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
This option is effective only for Windows operating systems.
The option defines whether a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) provider has to notify VSS-‐aware
applications that the backup is about to start. This ensures the consistent state of all data used by the
applications; in particular, completion of all database transactions at the moment of taking the data
snapshot by the backup software. Data consistency, in turn, ensures that the application will be
recovered in the correct state and become operational immediately after recovery.
The preset is: Enabled. Automatically select snapshot provider.
You can select one of the following:

Automatically select snapshot provider
Automatically select among the hardware snapshot provider, software snapshot providers, and
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider.

Use Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider
We recommend choosing this option when backing up application servers (Microsoft Exchange
Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, or Active Directory).

Disable this option if your database is incompatible with VSS. Snapshots are taken faster, but data
consistency of the applications whose transactions are not completed at the time of taking a
snapshot cannot be guaranteed. You may use Pre/Post data capture commands (p. 58) to ensure that
the data is backed up in a consistent state. For instance, specify pre-‐data capture commands that will
suspend the database and flush all caches to ensure that all transactions are completed; and specify
post-‐data capture commands that will resume the database operations after the snapshot is taken.
61

Enable VSS full backup
If this option is enabled, logs of Microsoft Exchange Server and of other VSS-‐aware applications
(except for Microsoft SQL Server) will be truncated after each successful full, incremental or
differential disk-‐level backup.
The preset is: Disabled.
Leave this option disabled in the following cases:

If you use Agent for Exchange or third-‐party software for backing up the Exchange Server data.
This is because the log truncation will interfere with the consecutive transaction log backups.

If you use third-‐party software for backing up the SQL Server data. The reason for this is that the
third-‐party software will take the resulting disk-‐level backup for its "own" full backup. As a result,
the next differential backup of the SQL Server data will fail. The backups will continue failing until
the third-‐party software creates the next "own" full backup.

If other VSS-‐aware applications are running on the machine and you need to keep their logs for
any reason.

Enabling this option does not result in the truncation of Microsoft SQL Server logs. To truncate the
SQL Server log after a backup, enable the Log truncation (p. 54) backup option.

5.9.23 Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for virtual machines
This option defines whether quiesced snapshots of virtual machines are taken. To take a quiesced
snapshot, the backup software applies VSS inside a virtual machine by using VMware Tools or
Hyper-‐V Integration Services.
The preset is: Enabled.
If this option is enabled, transactions of all VSS-‐aware applications running in a virtual machine are
completed before taking snapshot. If a quiesced snapshot fails after the number of re-‐attempts
specified in the "Error handling" (p. 51) option, and application backup is disabled, a non-‐quiesced
snapshot is taken. If application backup is enabled, the backup fails.
If this option is disabled, a non-‐quiesced snapshot is taken. The virtual machine will be backed up in a
crash-‐consistent state.

5.9.24 Weekly backup
This option determines which backups are considered "weekly" in retention rules and backup
schemes. A "weekly" backup is the first backup created after a week starts.
The preset is: Monday.

5.9.25 Windows event log
This option is effective only in Windows operating systems.
This option defines whether the agents have to log events of the backup operations in the
Application Event Log of Windows (to see this log, run eventvwr.exe or select Control Panel >
Administrative tools > Event Viewer). You can filter the events to be logged.
The preset is: Disabled.

6 Recovery
6.1

Recovery cheat sheet

The following table summarizes the available recovery methods. Use the table to choose a recovery
method that best fits your need.
What to recover

Recovery method

Physical machine
(Windows or Linux)
Physical machine (Mac)
Virtual machine
(VMware or Hyper-‐V)
ESXi configuration

Using the web interface (p. 64)
Using bootable media (p. 68)
Using bootable media (p. 68)
Using the web interface (p. 66)
Using bootable media (p. 68)
Using bootable media (p. 74)
Using the web interface (p. 71)
Downloading files from the cloud storage (p. 72)
Using bootable media (p. 72)
Extracting files from local backups (p. 73)
Using the web interface (p. 74)
Using the web interface (p. 96)
Using the web interface (p. 99)
Using the web interface (p. 100)

Files/Folders
System state
SQL databases
Exchange databases
Exchange mailboxes

Note for Mac users
Starting with 10.11 El Capitan, certain system files, folders, and processes are flagged for protection
with an extended file attribute com.apple.rootless. This feature is called System Integrity Protection
(SIP). The protected files include preinstalled applications and most of the folders in /system, /bin,
/sbin, /usr.
The protected files and folders cannot be overwritten during a recovery under the operating system.
If you need to overwrite the protected files, perform the recovery under bootable media.

6.2

Creating bootable media

Bootable media is a CD, DVD, USB flash drive, or other removable media that enables you to run the
agent without the help of an operating system. The main purpose of bootable media is to recover an
operating system that cannot start.
We highly recommend that you create and test a bootable media as soon as you start using disk-‐level
backup. Also, it is a good practice to re-‐create the media after each major update of the backup
agent.
You can recover either Windows or Linux by using the same media. To recover OS X, create a
separate media on a machine running OS X.

To create bootable media in Windows or Linux
1. Download the bootable media ISO file. To download the file, select a machine, and then click
Recover > More ways to recover... > Download ISO image.
2. Do any of the following:

Burn a CD/DVD using the ISO file.
Create a bootable USB flash drive by using the ISO file and one of the free tools available
online.
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

Use ISO to USB or RUFUS if you need to boot an UEFI machine, Win32DiskImager for a
BIOS machine. In Linux, using the dd utility makes sense.

Connect the ISO file as a CD/DVD drive to the virtual machine that you want to recover.

Alternatively, you can create bootable media by using Bootable Media Builder (p. 83).

To create bootable media in OS X
1. On a machine where Agent for Mac is installed, click Applications > Rescue Media Builder.
2. The software displays the connected removable media. Select the one that you want to make
bootable.
Warning All data on the disk will be erased.

3. Click Create.
4. Wait while the software creates the bootable media.

6.3

Recovering a machine

6.3.1

Physical machine

This section describes recovery of physical machines by using the web interface.
Use bootable media instead of the web interface if you need to recover:

OS X
Any operating system to bare metal or to an offline machine

Recovery of an operating system requires a reboot. You can choose whether to restart the machine
automatically or assign it the Interaction required status. The recovered operating system goes
online automatically.

To recover a physical machine
1. Select the backed-‐up machine.
2. Click Recovery.
3. Select a recovery point. Note that recovery points are filtered by location.
If the machine is offline, the recovery points are not displayed. Do any of the following:

If the backup is located in the cloud storage or on a network share, click Select machine,
select a target machine that is online, and then select a recovery point.

Select a recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80).

To recover to another physical machine, click Target machine, and then select a target
machine that is online.

Recover the machine as described in "Recovering disks by using bootable media" (p. 68).
4. Click Recover > Entire machine.
The software automatically maps the disks from the backup to the disks of the target machine.

If the disk mapping fails, recover the machine as described in "Recovering disks by using
bootable media" (p. 68). The media enables you to choose disks for recovery and to map the
disks manually.

5. Click Start recovery.
6. Confirm that you want to overwrite the disks with their backed-‐up versions. Choose whether to
restart the machine automatically.
The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

6.3.2

Physical machine to virtual

This section describes recovery of a physical machine as a virtual machine by using the web interface.
This operation can be performed if at least one Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-‐V is installed
and registered.
For more information about P2V migration, refer to "Machine migration" (p. 112).

To recover a physical machine as a virtual machine
1. Select the backed-‐up machine.
2. Click Recovery.
3. Select a recovery point. Note that recovery points are filtered by location.
If the machine is offline, the recovery points are not displayed. Do any of the following:

If the backup is located in the cloud storage or on a network share, click Select machine,
select a machine that is online, and then select a recovery point.

Select a recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80).

Recover the machine as described in "Recovering disks by using bootable media" (p. 68).
4. Click Recover > Entire machine.
5. In Recover to, select Virtual machine.
6. Click Target machine.
a. Select the hypervisor (VMware ESXi or Hyper-‐V).
At least one Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-‐V must be installed.
65

b. Select whether to recover to a new or existing machine. The new machine option is
preferable as it does not require the disk configuration of the target machine to exactly
match the disk configuration in the backup.
c. Select the host and specify the new machine name, or select an existing target machine.
d. Click OK.
7. [Optional] When recovering to a new machine, you can also do the following:

Click Datastore for ESXi or Path for Hyper-‐V, and then select the datastore (storage) for the
virtual machine.

ˁůŝĐŬVM settings to change the memory size, the number of processors, and the network
connections of the virtual machine.

8. Click Start recovery.
9. When recovering to an existing virtual machine, confirm that you want to overwrite the disks.
The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

6.3.3

Virtual machine

A virtual machine must be stopped during the recovery to this machine. The software stops the
machine without a prompt. When the recovery is completed, you have to start the machine
manually.
This behavior can be changed by using the VM power management recovery option (click Recovery
options > VM power management).

To recover a virtual machine
1. Do one of the following:

Select a backed-‐up machine, click Recovery, and then select a recovery point.
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

2.
3.

Select a recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80).
Click Recover > Entire machine.
If you want to recover to a physical machine, select Physical machine in Recover to. Otherwise,
skip this step.
Recovery to a physical machine is possible only if the disk configuration of the target machine
exactly matches the disk configuration in the backup.
If this is the case, continue to step 4 in "Physical machine" (p. 64). Otherwise, we recommend
that you perform the V2P migration by using bootable media (p. 68).
The software automatically selects the original machine as the target machine.
To recover to another virtual machine, click Target machine, and then do the following:
a. Select the hypervisor (VMware ESXi or Hyper-‐V).
b. Select whether to recover to a new or existing machine.
c. Select the host and specify the new machine name, or select an existing target machine.
d. Click OK.
[Optional] When recovering to a new machine, you can also do the following:

Click Datastore for ESXi or Path for Hyper-‐V, and then select the datastore (storage) for the
virtual machine.

ˁůŝĐŬVM settings to change the memory size, the number of processors, and the network
connections of the virtual machine.

6. Click Start recovery.
7. When recovering to an existing virtual machine, confirm that you want to overwrite the disks.
The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

6.3.4

Recovering disks by using bootable media

For information about how to create bootable media, refer to "Creating bootable media" (p. 63).

To recover disks by using bootable media
1. Boot the target machine by using bootable media.
2. Click Manage this machine locally or click Rescue Bootable Media twice, depending on the
media type you are using.
3. If a proxy server is enabled in your network, click Tools > Proxy server, and then specify the
proxy server host name/IP address and port. Otherwise, skip this step.
4. On the welcome screen, click Recover.
5. Click Select data, and then click Browse.
6. Specify the backup location:

To recover from cloud storage, select Cloud storage. Enter the credentials of the account to
which the backed up machine is assigned.

To recover from a local or a network folder, browse to the folder under Local folders or
Network folders.
Click OK to confirm your selection.
7. Select the backup from which you want to recover the data. If prompted, type the password for
the backup.
8. In Backup contents, select the disks that you want to recover. Click OK to confirm your selection.
9. Under Where to recover, the software automatically maps the selected disks to the target disks.
If the mapping is not successful or if you are unsatisfied with the mapping result, you can re-‐map
disks manually.
Changing disk layout may affect the operating system bootability. Please use the original machine's disk
layout unless you feel fully confident of success.

10. [When recovering Linux] If the backed-‐up machine had logical volumes (LVM) and you want to
reproduce the original LVM structure:
a. Ensure that the number of the target machine disks and each disk capacity are equal to or
exceed those of the original machine, and then click Apply RAID/LVM.
b. Review the volume structure, and then click Apply RAID/LVM to create it.
11. [Optional] Click Recovery options to specify additional settings.
12. Click OK to start the recovery.

6.3.5

Using Universal Restore

The most recent operating systems remain bootable when recovered to dissimilar hardware,
including the VMware or Hyper-‐V platforms. If a recovered operating system does not boot, use the
Universal Restore tool to update the drivers and modules that are critical for the operating system
startup.
Universal Restore is applicable to Windows and Linux.

To apply Universal Restore
1. Boot the machine from the bootable media.
2. Click Apply Universal Restore.
3. If there are multiple operating systems on the machine, choose the one to apply Universal
Restore to.
68

4. [For Windows only] Configure the additional settings (p. 69).
5. Click OK.

6.3.5.1

Universal Restore in Windows

Preparation
Prepare drivers
Before applying Universal Restore to a Windows operating system, make sure that you have the
drivers for the new HDD controller and the chipset. These drivers are critical to start the operating
system. Use the CD or DVD supplied by the hardware vendor or download the drivers from the
ǀĞŶĚŽƌ͛ƐǁĞďƐŝƚĞ͘dŚĞĚƌŝǀĞƌĨŝůĞƐƐŚŽƵůĚŚĂǀĞƚŚĞΎ͘ŝŶĨĞǆƚĞŶƐŝŽŶ͘/ĨǇŽƵĚŽǁŶůŽĂĚƚŚĞĚƌŝǀĞƌƐŝŶƚŚĞ
*.exe, *.cab or *.zip format, extract them using a third-‐party application.
The best practice is to store drivers for all the hardware used in your organization in a single
repository sorted by device type or by the hardware configurations. You can keep a copy of the
repository on a DVD or a flash drive; pick some drivers and add them to the bootable media; create
the custom bootable media with the necessary drivers (and the necessary network configuration) for
each of your servers. Or, you can simply specify the path to the repository every time Universal
Restore is used.

Check access to the drivers in bootable environment
Make sure you have access to the device with drivers when working under bootable media. Use
WinPE-‐based media if the device is available in Windows but Linux-‐based media does not detect it.

Universal Restore settings
Automatic driver search
Specify where the program will search for the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), HDD controller
driver and network adapter driver(s):

If the drivers are on a vendor's disc or other removable media, turn on the Search removable
media.

If the drivers are located in a networked folder or on the bootable media, specify the path to the
folder by clicking Add folder.

In addition, Universal Restore will search the Windows default driver storage folder. Its location is
determined in the registry value DevicePath, which can be found in the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion. This storage folder is
usually WINDOWS/inf.
Universal Restore will perform the recursive search in all the sub-‐folders of the specified folder, find
the most suitable HAL and HDD controller drivers of all those available, and install them into the
system. Universal Restore also searches for the network adapter driver; the path to the found driver
is then transmitted by Universal Restore to the operating system. If the hardware has multiple
network interface cards, Universal Restore will try to configure all the cards' drivers.

Mass storage drivers to install anyway
You need this setting if:

The hardware has a specific mass storage controller such as RAID (especially NVIDIA RAID) or a
fibre channel adapter.

You migrated a system to a virtual machine that uses a SCSI hard drive controller. Use SCSI
drivers bundled with your virtualization software or download the latest drivers versions from
the software manufacturer website.

If the automatic drivers search does not help to boot the system.

Specify the appropriate drivers by clicking Add driver. The drivers defined here will be installed, with
appropriate warnings, even if the program finds a better driver.

Universal Restore process
After you have specified the required settings, click OK.
If Universal Restore cannot find a compatible driver in the specified locations, it will display a prompt
about the problem device. Do one of the following:

Add the driver to any of the previously specified locations and click Retry.
If you do not remember the location, click Ignore to continue the process. If the result is not
satisfactory, reapply Universal Restore. When configuring the operation, specify the necessary
driver.

Once Windows boots, it will initialize the standard procedure for installing new hardware. The
network adapter driver will be installed silently if the driver has the Microsoft Windows signature.
Otherwise, Windows will ask for confirmation on whether to install the unsigned driver.
After that, you will be able to configure the network connection and specify drivers for the video
adapter, USB and other devices.

6.3.5.2

Universal Restore in Linux

Universal Restore can be applied to Linux operating systems with a kernel version of 2.6.8 or later.
When Universal Restore is applied to a Linux operating system, it updates a temporary file system
known as the initial RAM disk (initrd). This ensures that the operating system can boot on the new
hardware.
Universal Restore adds modules for the new hardware (including device drivers) to the initial RAM
disk. As a rule, it finds the necessary modules in the /lib/modules directory. If Universal Restore
ĐĂŶŶŽƚĨŝŶĚĂŵŽĚƵůĞŝƚŶĞĞĚƐ͕ŝƚƌĞĐŽƌĚƐƚŚĞŵŽĚƵůĞ͛ƐĨŝůĞŶĂŵĞŝŶƚŽƚŚĞlog.
Universal Restore may modify the configuration of the GRUB boot loader. This may be required, for
example, to ensure the system bootability when the new machine has a different volume layout than
the original machine.
Universal Restore never modifies the Linux kernel.

Reverting to the original initial RAM disk
You can revert to the original initial RAM disk if necessary.
The initial RAM disk is stored on the machine in a file. Before updating the initial RAM disk for the
first time, Universal Restore saves a copy of it to the same directory. The name of the copy is the
name of the file, followed by the _acronis_backup.img suffix. This copy will not be overwritten if you
run Universal Restore more than once (for example, after you have added missing drivers).
To revert to the original initial RAM disk, do any of the following:

Rename the copy accordingly. For example, run a command similar to the following:
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2016

mv initrd-‐2.6.16.60-‐0.21-‐default_acronis_backup.img
initrd-‐2.6.16.60-‐0.21-‐default

Specify the copy in the initrd line of the GRUB boot loader configuration.

6.4
6.4.1

Recovering files
Recovering files by using the web interface

1. Select the machine that originally contained the data that you want to recover.
2. Click Recovery.
3. Select the recovery point. Note that recovery points are filtered by location.
If the selected machine is physical and it is offline, recovery points are not displayed. Select a
recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80) or use other ways to recover:

4.
5.

6.
7.
8.

Download the files from the cloud storage (p. 72)

The machine that originally contained the files that you want to recover (if it is a machine
with an agent or an ESXi virtual machine).

Use bootable media (p. 72)
Click Recover > Files/folders.
Browse to the required folder or use search to obtain the list of the required files and folders.
You can use one or more wildcard characters (* and ?). For more details about using wildcards,
refer to "File filters" (p. 52).
Select the files that you want to recover.
If you want to save the files as a .zip file, click Download, select the location to save the data to,
and click Save. Otherwise, skip this step.
Click Recover.
In Recover to, you see one of the following:

The machine where Agent for Hyper-‐V is installed (if the files originate from a Hyper-‐V virtual
machine). Files from a Hyper-‐V virtual machine cannot be recovered to the original machine.
This is the target machine for the recovery. You can select another machine, if necessary.
9. [Only when recovering to an ESXi virtual machine] Provide the credentials of a guest system user.
The user must be a member of the Administrators group in Windows or a root user in Linux.
10. In Path, select the recovery destination. You can select one of the following:

The original location (when recovering to the original machine)

Overwrite existing files

A local folder on the target machine

A network folder that is accessible from the target machine.
11. Click Start recovery.
12. Select one of the file overwriting options:
Overwrite an existing file if it is older
Do not overwrite existing files

The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

6.4.2

Downloading files from the cloud storage

You can browse the cloud storage, view the contents of the backups, and download files that you
need.
Limitation: Backups of system state, SQL databases, and Exchange databases cannot be browsed.

To download files from the cloud storage
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select a machine that was backed up.
Click Recover > More ways to recover... > Download files.
Enter the credentials of the account to which the backed up machine is assigned.
[When browsing disk-‐level backups] Under Versions, click the backup from which you want to
recover the files.

[When browsing file-‐level backups] You can select the backup date and time in the next step,
under the gear icon located to the right of the selected file. By default, files are recovered from
the latest backup.
5. Browse to the required folder or use search to obtain the list of the required files and folders.

6. Select the check boxes for the items you need to recover, and then click Download.
If you select a single file, it will be downloaded as is. Otherwise, the selected data will be archived
into a .zip file.
7. Select the location to save the data to, and then click Save.

6.4.3

Recovering files by using bootable media

For information about how to create bootable media, refer to "Creating bootable media" (p. 63).

To recover files by using bootable media
1. Boot the target machine by using the bootable media.
2. Click Manage this machine locally or click Rescue Bootable Media twice, depending on the
media type you are using.
3. If a proxy server is enabled in your network, click Tools > Proxy server, and then specify the
proxy server host name/IP address and port. Otherwise, skip this step.
4. On the welcome screen, click Recover.
5. Click Select data, and then click Browse.
6. Specify the backup location:

To recover from cloud storage, select Cloud storage. Enter the credentials of the account to
which the backed up machine is assigned.

7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

To recover from a local or a network folder, browse to the folder under Local folders or
Network folders.
Click OK to confirm your selection.
Select the backup from which you want to recover the data. If prompted, type the password for
the backup.
In Backup contents, select Folders/files.
Select the data that you want to recover. Click OK to confirm your selection.
Under Where to recover, specify a folder. Optionally, you can prohibit overwriting of newer
versions of files or exclude some files from recovery.
[Optional] Click Recovery options to specify additional settings.
Click OK to start the recovery.

6.4.4

Extracting files from local backups

You can browse the contents of backups and extract files that you need.

Requirements

This functionality is available only in Windows by using File Explorer.

The backup must be stored in a local folder, on a network share (SMB/CIFS), or in the Secure
Zone.

A backup agent must be installed on the machine from which you browse a backup.
The backed-‐up file system must be one of the following: FAT16, FAT23, NTFS, ReFS, Ext2, Ext3,
Ext4, XFS, or HFS+.

To extract files from a backup
1. Browse to the backup location by using File Explorer.
2. Double-‐click the backup file. The file names are based on the following template:
-‐
3. If the backup is encrypted, enter the encryption password. Otherwise, skip this step.
File Explorer displays the recovery points.
4. Double-‐click the recovery point.
File Explorer displays the backed-‐up data.
5. Browse to the required folder.
6. Copy the required files to any folder on the file system.

6.5
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Recovering system state

Select the machine for which you want to recover the system state.
Click Recovery.
Select a system state recovery point. Note that recovery points are filtered by location.
Click Recover system state.
Confirm that you want to overwrite the system state with its backed-‐up version.

The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

6.6

Recovering ESXi configuration

To recover an ESXi configuration, you need Linux-‐based bootable media. For information about how
to create bootable media, refer to "Creating bootable media" (p. 63).
If you are recovering an ESXi configuration to a non-‐original host and the original ESXi host is still
connected to the vCenter Server, disconnect and remove this host from the vCenter Server to avoid
unexpected issues during the recovery. If you want to keep the original host along with the
recovered one, you can add it again after the recovery is complete.
The virtual machines running on the host are not included in an ESXi configuration backup. They can
be backed up and recovered separately.

To recover an ESXi configuration
1. Boot the target machine by using the bootable media.
2. Click Manage this machine locally.
3. If the backup is located in cloud storage that is accessed via a proxy server, click Tools > Proxy
server, and then specify the proxy server host name/IP address and port. Otherwise, skip this
step.
4. On the welcome screen, click Recover.
5. Click Select data, and then click Browse.
6. Specify the backup location:

To recover from cloud storage, select Cloud storage. Enter the credentials of the account to
which the backed-‐up host is assigned.

7.
8.
9.
10.

To recover from a local or a network folder, browse to the folder under Local folders or
Network folders.
Click OK to confirm your selection.
In Show, select ESXi configurations.
Select the backup from which you want to recover the data. If prompted, type the password for
the backup.
Click OK.
In Disks to be used for new datastores, do the following:

Under Recover ESXi to, select the disk where the host configuration will be recovered. If you
are recovering the configuration to the original host, the original disk is selected by default.

[Optional] Under Use for new datastore, select the disks where new datastores will be
created. Be careful because all data on the selected disks will be lost. If you want to preserve
the virtual machines in the existing datastores, do not select any disks.

11. If any disks for new datastores are selected, select the datastore creation method in How to
create new datastores: Create one datastore per disk or Create one datastore on all selected
HDDs.
12. [Optional] In Network mapping, change the result of automatic mapping of the virtual switches
present in the backup to the physical network adapters.
13. [Optional] Click Recovery options to specify additional settings.
14. Click OK to start the recovery.

6.7

Recovery options

To modify the recovery options, click Recovery options when configuring recovery.

Availability of the recovery options
The set of available recovery options depends on:

The environment the agent that performs recovery operates in (Windows, Linux, OS X, or
bootable media).

The type of data being recovered (disks, files, virtual machines, application data).

The following table summarizes the availability of the recovery options.

Windows

Linux

OS X

Bootable
media

ESXi and
Hyper-‐V

Windows

SQL and
Exchange

Bootable
media

Virtual
machines

Linux

Files

Windows

Disks

Backup
validation (p. 76)

Date and time
for files (p. 76)

-‐

Error handling
(p. 76)

File exclusions
(p. 77)

-‐

File-‐level
security (p. 77)

-‐

Flashback (p. 77)

-‐

Full path
recovery (p. 77)

-‐

Mount points (p.
77)

-‐

Performance (p.
78)

-‐

Pre/post
commands (p.
78)

-‐

Restart during
recovery

-‐

Windows

Linux

OS X

Bootable
media

ESXi and
Hyper-‐V

Windows

SQL and
Exchange

Bootable
media

Virtual
machines

Linux

Files

Windows

Disks

SID changing (p.
79)

-‐

VM power
management (p.
80)

-‐

Windows event
log (p. 80)

-‐

Hyper-‐V
only

6.7.1

Backup validation

This option defines whether to validate a backup to ensure that the backup is not corrupted, before
data is recovered from it.
The preset is: Disabled.
Validation calculates a checksum for every data block saved in the backup. The only exception is
validation of file-‐level backups that are located in the cloud storage. These backups are validated by
checking consistency of the meta information saved in the backup.
Validation is a time-‐consuming process, even for an incremental or differential backup, which are
small in size. This is because the operation validates not only the data physically contained in the
backup, but all of the data recoverable by selecting the backup. This requires access to previously
created backups.

6.7.2

Date and time for files

This option is effective only when recovering files.
This option defines whether to recover the files' date and time from the backup or assign the files the
current date and time.
If this option is enabled, the files will be assigned the current date and time.
The preset is: Enabled.

6.7.3

Error handling

These options enable you to specify how to handle errors that might occur during recovery.

Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode)
The preset is: Disabled.
With the silent mode enabled, the program will automatically handle situations requiring user
interaction where possible. If an operation cannot continue without user interaction, it will fail.
Details of the operation, including errors, if any, can be found in the operation log.

6.7.4

File exclusions

This option is effective only when recovering files.
The option defines which files and folders to skip during the recovery process and thus exclude from
the list of recovered items.
Note Exclusions override the selection of data items to recover. For example, if you select to recover file
MyFile.tmp and to exclude all .tmp files, file MyFile.tmp will not be recovered.

6.7.5

File-level security

This option is effective only for recovery from file-‐level backup of Windows files.
This option defines whether to recover NTFS permissions for files along with the files.
The preset is: Enabled.
If the file NTFS permissions were preserved during backup (p. 54), you can choose whether to
recover the permissions or let the files inherit their NTFS permissions from the folder to which they
are recovered.

6.7.6

Flashback

This option is effective when recovery to a virtual machine is performed by Agent for VMware or
Agent for Hyper-‐V.
The Flashback technology accelerates recovery of virtual machines. If the option is enabled, only the
differences between backup and the target are recovered. Data is compared at the block level.
The preset is: Enabled.

6.7.7

Full path recovery

This option is effective only when recovering data from a file-‐level backup.
If this option is enabled, the full path to the file will be re-‐created in the target location.
The preset is: Disabled.

6.7.8

Mount points

This option is effective only in Windows for recovering data from a file-‐level backup.
Enable this option to recover files and folders that were stored on the mounted volumes and were
backed up with the enabled Mount points (p. 54) option.

The preset is: Disabled.
This option is effective only when you select for recovery a folder that is higher in the folder
hierarchy than the mount point. If you select for recovery folders within the mount point or the
mount point itself, the selected items will be recovered regardless of the Mount points option value.
Note Please be aware that if the volume is not mounted at the moment of recovery, the data will be recovered
directly to the folder that has been the mount point at the time of backing up.

6.7.9

Performance

This option defines the priority of the recovery process in the operating system.
The available settings are: Low, Normal, High.
The preset is: Normal.
The priority of a process running in a system determines the amount of CPU and system resources
allocated to that process. Decreasing the recovery priority will free more resources for other
applications. Increasing the recovery priority might speed up the recovery process by requesting the
operating system to allocate more resources to the application that will perform the recovery.
However, the resulting effect will depend on the overall CPU usage and other factors like disk I/O
speed or network traffic.

6.7.10 Pre/Post commands
The option enables you to define the commands to be automatically executed before and after the
data recovery.
Example of how you can use the pre/post commands:

Launch the Checkdisk command in order to find and fix logical file system errors, physical errors
or bad sectors to be started before the recovery starts or after the recovery ends.

The program does not support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for
example, "pause".)
A post-‐recovery command will not be executed if the recovery proceeds with reboot.

6.7.10.1

Pre-recovery command

To specify a command/batch file to be executed before the recovery process starts
1. Enable the Execute a command before the recovery switch.
2. In the Command... field, type a command or browse to a batch file. The program does not
support interactive commands, i.e. commands that require user input (for example, "pause".)
3. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will
be executed.
4. In the Arguments ĨŝĞůĚƐƉĞĐŝĨǇƚŚĞĐŽŵŵĂŶĚ͛ƐĞǆĞĐƵƚŝŽŶĂƌŐƵŵĞŶƚƐ͕ŝĨƌĞƋƵŝƌĞĚ͘
5. Depending on the result you want to obtain, select the appropriate options as described in the
table below.
6. Click Done.
Check box
Fail the recovery if the
78

Selection
Selected

Cleared

Selected

Cleared

command execution fails*
Selected

Do not recover until the
command execution is
complete

Selected

Cleared

N/A

Perform the
recovery
concurrently with
the command
execution and
irrespective of the
command execution
result.

Result

Preset

Perform the
recovery after the
Perform the recovery
command is
only after the
executed despite
command is
execution failure
successfully executed.
or success.
Fail the recovery if the
command execution
failed.

* A command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to zero.

6.7.10.2

Post-recovery command

To specify a command/executable file to be executed after the recovery is completed
1. Enable the Execute a command after the recovery switch.
2. In the Command... field, type a command or browse to a batch file.
3. In the Working directory field, specify a path to a directory where the command/batch file will
be executed.
4. In the Arguments field, specify the command execution arguments, if required.
5. Select the Fail the recovery if the command execution fails check box if successful execution of
the command is critical for you. The command is considered failed if its exit code is not equal to
zero. If the command execution fails, the recovery status will be set to Error.
When the check box is not selected, the command execution result does not affect the recovery
failure or success. You can track the command execution result by exploring the Activities tab.
6. Click Done.
Note A post-‐recovery command will not be executed if the recovery proceeds with reboot.

6.7.11 SID changing
This option is effective when recovering Windows 8.1/Windows Server 2012 R2 or earlier.
This option is not effective when recovery to a virtual machine is performed by Agent for VMware or
Agent for Hyper-‐V.
The preset is: Disabled.
The software can generate a unique security identifier (Computer SID) for the recovered operating
system. You only need this option to ensure operability of third-‐party software that depends on
Computer SID.
Microsoft does not officially support changing SID on a deployed or recovered system. So use this
option at your own risk.

6.7.12 VM power management
These options are effective when recovery to a virtual machine is performed by Agent for VMware or
Agent for Hyper-‐V.

Power off target virtual machines when starting recovery
The preset is: Enabled.
Recovery to an existing virtual machine is not possible if the machine is online, and so the machine is
powered off automatically as soon as the recovery starts. Users will be disconnected from the
machine and any unsaved data will be lost.
Clear the check box for this option if you prefer to power off virtual machines manually before the
recovery.

Power on the target virtual machine when recovery is complete
The preset is: Disabled.
After a machine is recovered from a backup to another machine, there is a chance the existing
machine's replica will appear on the network. To be on the safe side, power on the recovered virtual
machine manually, after you take the necessary precautions.

6.7.13 Windows event log
This option is effective only in Windows operating systems.
This option defines whether the agents have to log events of the recovery operations in the
Application Event Log of Windows (to see this log, run eventvwr.exe or select Control Panel >
Administrative tools > Event Viewer). You can filter the events to be logged.
The preset is: Disabled.

7 Operations with backups
7.1

The Backups tab

The Backups tab shows backups of all machines ever registered on the management server. This
includes offline machines and machines that are no longer registered.
In a cloud deployment, users have access only to their own backups. An administrator can view
backups on behalf of any account that belongs to the same group and its child groups. This account is
indirectly chosen in Machine to browse from. The Backups tab shows backups of all machines ever
registered under the same account as this machine is registered.
Backup locations that are used in backup plans are automatically added to the Backups tab. To add a
custom folder (for example, a detachable USB device) to the list of backup locations, click Browse
and specify the folder path.

To select a recovery point by using the Backups tab
1. On the Backups tab, select the location where the backups are stored.
The software displays all backups that your account is allowed to view in the selected location.
The backups are combined in groups. The group names are based on the following template:
80

-‐
2. Select a group from which you want to recover the data.
3. [Optional] Click Change next to Machine to browse from, and then select another machine.
Some backups can only be browsed by specific agents. For example, you must select a machine
running Agent for SQL to browse the backups of Microsoft SQL Server databases.
Important Please be aware that the Machine to browse from is a default destination for recovery from a
physical machine backup. After you select a recovery point and click Recover, double check the Target
machine setting to ensure that you want to recover to this specific machine. To change the recovery
destination, specify another machine in Machine to browse from.

4. Click Show backups.
5. Select the recovery point.

7.2

Mounting volumes from a backup

Mounting volumes from a disk-‐level backup lets you access the volumes as though they were
physical disks. Volumes are mounted in the read-‐only mode.

Requirements
This functionality is available only in Windows by using File Explorer.
Agent for Windows must be installed on the machine that performs the mount operation.
The backed-‐up file system must be supported by the Windows version that the machine is
running.

The backup must be stored in a local folder, on a network share (SMB/CIFS), or in the Secure
Zone.

To mount a volume from a backup
1. Browse to the backup location by using File Explorer.
2. Double-‐click the backup file. The file names are based on the following template:
-‐
3. If the backup is encrypted, enter the encryption password. Otherwise, skip this step.
File Explorer displays the recovery points.
4. Double-‐click the recovery point.
File Explorer displays the backed-‐up volumes.
Tip Double-‐click a volume to browse its content. You can copy files and folders from the backup to any
folder on the file system.

5. Right-‐click a volume to mount, and then click Mount in read-‐only mode.
6. If the backup is stored on a network share, provide access credentials. Otherwise, skip this step.
The software mounts the selected volume. The first unused letter is assigned to the volume.

To unmount a volume
1. Browse to Computer (This PC in Windows 8.1 and later) by using File Explorer.
2. Right-‐click the mounted volume.
3. Click Unmount.
The software unmounts the selected volume.

7.3

Deleting backups

To delete backups of a machine that is online and present in the backup console
1.
2.
3.
4.

On the All devices tab, select a machine whose backups you want to delete.
Click Recovery.
Select the location to delete the backups from.
Do one of the following:

To delete a single backup, select the backup to delete, and then click the recycle bin icon.

To delete all backups in the selected location, click Delete all.
5. Confirm your decision.

To delete backups of any machine
1. On the Backups tab, select the location from which you want to delete the backups.
The software displays all backups that your account is allowed to view in the selected location.
The backups are combined in groups. The group names are based on the following template:
-‐
2. Select a group.
3. Do one of the following:

To delete a single backup, click Show backups, select the backup to delete, and then click the
recycle bin icon.

To delete the selected group, click Delete.
4. Confirm your decision.

8 Operations with backup plans
To edit a backup plan
1. If you want to edit the backup plan for all machines to which it is applied, select one of these
machines. Otherwise, select the machines for which you want to edit the backup plan.
2. Click Backup.
3. Select the backup plan that you want to edit.
4. Click the gear icon next to the backup plan name, and then click Edit.
5. To modify the plan parameters, click the corresponding section of the backup plan panel.
6. Click Save changes.
7. To change the backup plan for all machines to which it is applied, click Apply the changes to this
backup plan. Otherwise, click Create a new backup plan only for the selected devices.

To revoke a backup plan from machines
1. Select the machines that you want to revoke the backup plan from.
2. Click Backup.
3. If several backup plans are applied to the machines, select the backup plan that you want to
revoke.
4. Click the gear icon next to the backup plan name, and then click Revoke.

To delete a backup plan
1. Select any machine to which the backup plan that you want to delete is applied.
2. Click Backup.
82

3. If several backup plans are applied to the machine, select the backup plan that you want to
delete.
4. Click the gear icon next to the backup plan name, and then click Delete.
As a result, the backup plan is revoked from all of the machines and completely removed from
the web interface.

9 Bootable Media Builder
Bootable Media Builder is a dedicated tool for creating bootable media. It is available in on-‐premise
deployments only.
Bootable Media Builder is installed by default when you install the management server. You can
install the media builder separately on any machine running Windows or Linux. The supported
operating systems are the same as for the corresponding agents.

Why use the media builder?
The bootable media that is available for downloading in the backup console can be used only for
recovery. This media is based on a Linux kernel. Unlike Windows PE, it does not allow injecting
custom drivers on the fly.

The media builder enables you to create a customized Linux-‐based or WinPE-‐based bootable
media with the backup functionality.

Apart from creating physical media or its ISO, you can upload the media to Windows Deployment
Services (WDS) and use network boot.

Finally, you can write the media directly to a flash drive, without using third-‐party tools.

32-‐ or 64-‐bit?
Bootable Media Builder can be installed from both 32-‐bit and 64-‐bit setup programs. The bitness of
the media corresponds to the bitness of the setup program. However, you can create a 32-‐bit
WinPE-‐based media by using the 64-‐bit media builder, if you download the 32-‐bit plugin.
Please remember that in most cases you need a 64-‐bit media to boot a machine that uses Unified
Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).

9.1

Linux-based bootable media

To create a Linux-‐based bootable media
1. Start the Bootable Media Builder.
2. Specify the license key. The license will not get assigned or reassigned. It determines which
functionality to enable for the created media. Without the license keys, you can create media
only for recovery.
3. Select Bootable media type: Default (Linux-‐based media).
Select the way volumes and network resources will be handledͶcalled the media style:

A media with Linux-‐style volume handling displays the volumes as, for example, hda1 and
sdb2. It tries to reconstruct MD devices and logical (LVM) volumes before starting a recovery.

A media with Windows-‐style volume handling displays the volumes as, for example, C: and D:.
It provides access to dynamic (LDM) volumes.
4. [Optional] Specify the parameters of the Linux kernel. Separate multiple parameters with spaces.

8.
9.
10.
11.

For example, to be able to select a display mode for the bootable agent each time the media
starts, type: vga=ask
For a list of parameters, see Kernel parameters (p. 84).
Select the components to be placed on the media: the bootable agent and/or Universal Restore.
Using a media with the bootable agent, you can perform backup, recovery, and disk
management operations on any PC-‐compatible hardware, including bare metal.
Universal Restore enables you to boot an operating system recovered to dissimilar hardware or
to a virtual machine if the system bootability issues occur. The tool finds and installs drivers for
devices that are critical for the operating system start, such as storage controllers, motherboard,
or chipset.
[Optional] Specify the timeout interval for the boot menu plus the component that will
automatically start on timeout.
If not configured, the loader waits for someone to select whether to boot the operating system
(if present) or the component.
If you set, say, 10 sec. for the bootable agent, the agent will launch 10 seconds after the menu is
displayed. This enables unattended onsite operation when booting from WDS/RIS.
[Optional] Specify the remote logon settings: the user name and password to be specified in a
command string if the acrocmd utility is running on a different machine. If you leave these boxes
empty, the command does not need to contain credentials.
[Optional] Specify network settings (p. 86): TCP/IP settings to be assigned to the machine
network adapters.
[Optional] Specify a network port (p. 87): The TCP port that the bootable agent listens for
incoming connection.
[Optional] If a proxy server is enabled in your network, specify its host name/IP address and port.
Select the type of media to create. You can:

Create CD, DVD, or other bootable media such as removable USB flash drives if the hardware
BIOS allows for boot from such media.

Build an ISO image to burn it later on a blank disc or to connect it to a virtual machine.

Upload the selected components to a WDS/RIS.
12. [Optional] Add Windows system drivers to be used by Universal Restore (p. 87). This window
appears if Universal Restore is added to media and media other than WDS/RIS is selected.
13. If prompted, specify the host name/IP address and credentials for WDS/RIS, or a path to the
media ISO file.
14. Check your settings in the summary screen and click Proceed.

9.1.1

Kernel parameters

This window lets you specify one or more parameters of the Linux kernel. They will be automatically
applied when the bootable media starts.
These parameters are typically used when experiencing problems while working with the bootable
media. Normally, you can leave this field empty.
You can also specify any of these parameters by pressing F11 while in the boot menu.

Parameters
When specifying multiple parameters, separate them with spaces.

acpi=off
Disables Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). You may want to use this
parameter when experiencing problems with a particular hardware configuration.
noapic
Disables Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC). You may want to use this
parameter when experiencing problems with a particular hardware configuration.
vga=ask
Prompts for the video mode to be used by the bootable media's graphical user interface.
Without the vga parameter, the video mode is detected automatically.
vga=mode_number
Specifies the video mode to be used by the bootable media's graphical user interface. The mode
number is given by mode_number in the hexadecimal formatͶfor example: vga=0x318
Screen resolution and the number of colors corresponding to a mode number may be different
on different machines. We recommend using the vga=ask parameter first to choose a value for
mode_number.
quiet
Disables displaying of startup messages when the Linux kernel is loading, and starts the
management console after the kernel is loaded.
This parameter is implicitly specified when creating the bootable media, but you can remove this
parameter while in the boot menu.
Without this parameter, all startup messages will be displayed, followed by a command prompt.
To start the management console from the command prompt, run the command: /bin/product
nousb
Disables loading of the USB (Universal Serial Bus) subsystem.
nousb2
Disables USB 2.0 support. USB 1.1 devices still work with this parameter. This parameter allows
you to use some USB drives in the USB 1.1 mode if they do not work in the USB 2.0 mode.
nodma
Disables direct memory access (DMA) for all IDE hard disk drives. Prevents the kernel from
freezing on some hardware.
nofw
Disables the FireWire (IEEE1394) interface support.
nopcmcia
Disables detection of PCMCIA hardware.
nomouse
Disables mouse support.
module_name=off
Disables the module whose name is given by module_name. For example, to disable the use of
the SATA module, specify: sata_sis=off
pci=bios
85

Forces the use of PCI BIOS instead of accessing the hardware device directly. You may want to
use this parameter if the machine has a non-‐standard PCI host bridge.
pci=nobios
Disables the use of PCI BIOS; only direct hardware access methods will be allowed. You may want
to use this parameter when the bootable media fails to start, which may be caused by the BIOS.
pci=biosirq
Uses PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt routing table. You may want to use this parameter if the
kernel is unable to allocate interrupt requests (IRQs) or discover secondary PCI buses on the
motherboard.
These calls might not work properly on some machines. But this may be the only way to get the
interrupt routing table.

9.1.2

Network settings

While creating bootable media, you have an option to pre-‐configure network connections that will be
used by the bootable agent. The following parameters can be pre-‐configured:

IP address
Subnet mask
Gateway
DNS server
WINS server.

KŶĐĞƚŚĞďŽŽƚĂďůĞĂŐĞŶƚƐƚĂƌƚƐŽŶĂŵĂĐŚŝŶĞ͕ƚŚĞĐŽŶĨŝŐƵƌĂƚŝŽŶŝƐĂƉƉůŝĞĚƚŽƚŚĞŵĂĐŚŝŶĞ͛ƐŶĞƚǁŽƌŬ
interface card (NIC). If the settings have not been pre-‐configured, the agent uses DHCP auto
configuration. You also have the ability to configure the network settings manually when the
bootable agent is running on the machine.

Pre-‐configuring multiple network connections
You can pre-‐configure TCP/IP settings for up to ten network interface cards. To ensure that each NIC
will be assigned the appropriate settings, create the media on the server for which the media is
customized. When you select an existing NIC in the wizard window, its settings are selected for
saving on the media. The MAC address of each existing NIC is also saved on the media.
You can change the settings, except for the MAC address; or configure the settings for a non-‐existent
NIC, if need be.
Once the bootable agent starts on the server, it retrieves the list of available NICs. This list is sorted
by the slots the NICs occupy: the closest to the processor on top.
The bootable agent assigns each known NIC the appropriate settings, identifying the NICs by their
MAC addresses. After the NICs with known MAC addresses are configured, the remaining NICs are
assigned the settings that you have made for non-‐existent NICs, starting from the upper
non-‐assigned NIC.
You can customize bootable media for any machine, and not only for the machine where the media
is created. To do so, configure the NICs according to their slot order on that machine: NIC1 occupies
the slot closest to the processor, NIC2 is in the next slot and so on. When the bootable agent starts
on that machine, it will find no NICs with known MAC addresses and will configure the NICs in the
same order as you did.

Example
The bootable agent could use one of the network adapters for communication with the management
console through the production network. Automatic configuration could be done for this connection.
Sizeable data for recovery could be transferred through the second NIC, included in the dedicated
backup network by means of static TCP/IP settings.

9.1.3

Network port

While creating bootable media, you have an option to pre-‐configure the network port that the
bootable agent listens to for an incoming connection from the acrocmd utility. The choice is
available among:

the default port
the currently used port
the new port (enter the port number)

If the port has not been pre-‐configured, the agent uses port 9876.

9.1.4

Drivers for Universal Restore

While creating bootable media, you have an option to add Windows drivers to the media. The drivers
will be used by Universal Restore to boot up Windows that was migrated to dissimilar hardware.
You will be able to configure Universal Restore:

to search the media for the drivers that best fit the target hardware
to get the mass-‐storage drivers that you explicitly specify from the media. This is necessary when
the target hardware has a specific mass storage controller (such as a SCSI, RAID, or Fiber Channel
adapter) for the hard disk.

The drivers will be placed in the visible Drivers folder on the bootable media. The drivers are not
loaded into the targetmachine RAM, therefore, the media must stay inserted or connected
throughout the Universal Restore operation.
Adding drivers to bootable media is available when you are creating a removable media or its ISO or
detachable media, such as a flash drive. Drivers cannot be uploaded on WDS/RIS.
The drivers can be added to the list only in groups, by adding the INF files or folders containing such
files. Selecting individual drivers from the INF files is not possible, but the media builder shows the
file content for your information.

To add drivers:
1. Click Add and browse to the INF file or a folder that contains INF files.
2. Select the INF file or the folder.
3. Click OK.
The drivers can be removed from the list only in groups, by removing INF files.

To remove drivers:
1. Select the INF file.
2. Click Remove.

9.2

WinPE-based bootable media

Bootable Media Builder provides three methods of integrating Acronis Backup with WinPE:

Creating the PE ISO with the plug-‐in from scratch.
Adding the Acronis Plug-‐in to a WIM file for any future purpose (manual ISO building, adding
other tools to the image and so on).

Bootable Media Builder supports WinPE distributions that are based on any the following kernels:

Windows Vista (PE 2.0)
Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 (PE 2.1)
Windows 7 (PE 3.0) with or without the supplement for Windows 7 SP1 (PE 3.1)
Windows 8 (PE 4.0)
Windows 8.1 (PE 5.0)
Windows 10 (PE for Windows 10)

Bootable Media Builder supports both 32-‐bit and 64-‐bit WinPE distributions. The 32-‐bit WinPE
distributions can also work on 64-‐bit hardware. However, you need a 64-‐bit distribution to boot a
machine that uses Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).
PE images based on WinPE 4 and later require approximately 1 GB of RAM to work.

9.2.1

Preparation: WinPE 2.x and 3.x

To be able to create or modify PE 2.x or 3.x images, install Bootable Media Builder on a machine
where Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) is installed. If you do not have a machine with AIK,
prepare it as follows.

To prepare a machine with AIK
1. Download and install Windows Automated Installation Kit.
Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista (PE 2.0):
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C7D4BC6D-‐15F3-‐4284-‐9123-‐67983
0D629F2&displaylang=en
Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 (PE 2.1):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94bb6e34-‐d890-‐4932-‐81a5-‐5b50c
657de08&DisplayLang=en
Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 (PE 3.0):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=696DD665-‐9F76-‐4177-‐A811-‐39C26
D3B3B34&displaylang=en
Automated Installation Kit (AIK) Supplement for Windows 7 SP1 (PE 3.1):
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5188
You can find system requirements for installation by following the above links.
2. [Optional] Burn the WAIK to DVD or copy to a flash drive.
3. Install the Microsoft .NET Framework from this kit (NETFXx86 or NETFXx64, depending on your
hardware).
4. Install Microsoft Core XML (MSXML) 5.0 or 6.0 Parser from this kit.
5. Install Windows AIK from this kit.
6. Install Bootable Media Builder on the same machine.
88

It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the help documentation supplied with Windows
AIK. To access the documentation, select Microsoft Windows AIK -‐> Documentation from the start
menu.

9.2.2

Preparation: WinPE 4.0 and later

To be able to create or modify PE 4 or later images, install Bootable Media Builder on a machine
where Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) is installed. If you do not have a machine
with ADK, prepare it as follows.

To prepare a machine with ADK
1. Download the setup program of Assessment and Deployment Kit.
Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 8 (PE 4.0):
http://www.microsoft.com/en-‐us/download/details.aspx?id=30652.
Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 8.1 (PE 5.0):
http://www.microsoft.com/en-‐US/download/details.aspx?id=39982.
Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 10 (PE for Windows 10):
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-‐us/windows/hardware/dn913721%28v=vs.8.5%29.aspx.
You can find system requirements for installation by following the above links.
2. Install Assessment and Deployment Kit on the machine.
3. Install Bootable Media Builder on the same machine.

9.2.3

Adding Acronis Plug-in to WinPE

To add Acronis Plug-‐in to WinPE:
1. Start the Bootable Media Builder.
2. Specify the license keys. The license keys will not get assigned or reassigned. They determine
which functionality to enable for the created media. Without the license keys, you can create
media only for recovery.
3. Select Bootable media type: Windows PE or Bootable media type: Windows PE (64-‐bit). A
64-‐bit media is required to boot a machine that uses Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
(UEFI).
If you have selected Bootable media type: Windows PE, do the following first:

4.
5.

6.
7.

Click Download the Plug-‐in for WinPE (32-‐bit).

Save the plug-‐in to %PROGRAM_FILES%\Acronis\BootableComponents\WinPE32.
If you plan to recover an operating system to dissimilar hardware or to a virtual machine and
want to ensure the system bootability, select the Include the Universal Restore tool... check box.
Select Create WinPE automatically.
The software runs the appropriate script and proceeds to the next window.
Select whether to enable or disable the remote connection to a machine booted from the media.
If enabled, enter a user name and password to be specified in a command line if the acrocmd
utility is running on a different machine. If you leave these boxes empty, the remote connection
will be disabled.
Specify network settings (p. 86) for the machine network adapters or choose DHCP auto
configuration.
[Optional] Specify the Windows drivers to be added to Windows PE.

Once you boot a machine into Windows PE, the drivers can help you access the device where the
backup is located. Add 32-‐bit drivers if you use a 32-‐bit WinPE distribution or 64-‐bit drivers if you
use a 64-‐bit WinPE distribution.
Also, you will be able to point to the added drivers when configuring Universal Restore for
Windows. For using Universal Restore, add 32-‐bit or 64-‐bit drivers depending on whether you are
planning to recover a 32-‐bit or a 64-‐bit Windows operating system.
To add the drivers:

Click Add and specify the path to the necessary *.inf file for a corresponding SCSI, RAID, SATA
controller, network adapter, tape drive or other device.

8.
9.
10.
11.

Repeat this procedure for each driver you want to be included in the resulting WinPE media.
Choose whether you want to create ISO or WIM image or upload the media on a server (WDS or
RIS).
Specify the full path to the resulting image file including the file name, or specify the server and
provide the user name and password to access it.
Check your settings in the summary screen and click Proceed.
Burn the .ISO to CD or DVD using a third-‐party tool or copy to a flash drive.

Once a machine boots into WinPE, the agent starts automatically.

To create a PE image (ISO file) from the resulting WIM file:
Replace the default boot.wim file in your Windows PE folder with the newly created WIM file.
For the above example, type:
copy c:\AcronisMedia.wim c:\winpe_x86\ISO\sources\boot.wim

Use the Oscdimg tool. For the above example, type:
oscdimg -‐n -‐bc:\winpe_x86\etfsboot.com c:\winpe_x86\ISO
c:\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.iso
Do not copy and paste this example. Type the command manually, otherwise it will fail.

For more information on customizing Windows PE 2.x and 3.x, see the Windows Preinstallation
Environment User's Guide (Winpe.chm). The information on customizing Windows PE 4.0 and later is
available in the Microsoft TechNet Library.

10 Protecting mobile devices
To back up and recover the data on your mobile devices, use the backup app.

Supported mobile devices

Smartphones and tablets running Android 4.1 or later.
iPhones, iPads, and iPods running iOS 8 or later.

What you can back up

What you need to know

You can back up the data only to the cloud storage.
If an SD card is present, the data stored on this card is also backed up.
Any time you open the app, you see the summary of data changes and can start a backup
manually.

The Continuous backup functionality is enabled by default. In this mode, the backup app checks
for the data changes every six hours and runs a backup automatically if some data has changed.
You can turn off continuous backup or change it to Only when charging in the app settings.

You can access the backed-‐up data from any mobile device registered under your account. This
helps you transfer the data from an old mobile device to a new one. Contacts and photos from
an Android device can be recovered to an iOS device and vice versa. You can also download a
photo, video, or contact to a computer by using the backup console.

In the backup app, you can recover the data only from the latest backup. If you need to recover
from older backups, use the backup console on either a tablet or a computer.

Retention rules are not applied to backups of mobile devices. If the storage quota is exceeded,
you can delete backups manually by using the backup console.

Step-‐by-‐step instructions
To get the backup app
1. In the backup console, click All devices > Add.
2. Select the device type.
You will get the direct link to the backup app. If you specify your email address, you will receive a
message with this link.

To start backing up
1. After the backup app is installed, open it.
2. Sign in with your account.
91

3.
4.
5.
6.

Tap Create backup.
Select the data categories that you want to back up. By default, all categories are selected.
Tap Start Backup.
[Only on iOS devices] Allow the app access to your personal data.

To access data via the backup console
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

On a computer, open a browser and type the backup console URL.
Sign in with your account.
In All devices, select your mobile device name, and then click Recovery.
Select the recovery point.
Select the data category, and then select the data item. You can preview text messages, photos,
and contacts.
6. [Optional] Click Download to download a photo, a video, or a contact.
For more information, refer to https://docs.acronis.com/mobile-‐backup. This help is also available in
the backup app (tap Settings > Help on the app menu).

11 Protecting applications
Protecting Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server
There are two methods of protecting these applications:

Database backup
This is a file-‐level backup of the databases and the metadata associated with them. The
databases can be recovered to a live application or as files.

Application-‐aware backup
This is a disk-‐level backup that also collects the applications' metadata. This metadata enables
browsing and recovery of the application data without recovering the entire disk or volume. The
disk or volume can also be recovered as a whole. This means that a single solution and a single
backup plan can be used for both disaster recovery and data protection purposes.

Protecting Microsoft SharePoint
A Microsoft SharePoint farm consists of front-‐end servers that run SharePoint services, database
servers that run Microsoft SQL Server, and (optionally) application servers that offload some
SharePoint services from the front-‐end servers. Some front-‐end and application servers may be
identical to each other.
To protect an entire SharePoint farm:

Back up all of the database servers with application-‐aware backup.
Back up all of the unique front-‐end servers and application servers with usual disk-‐level backup.

The backups of all servers should be done on the same schedule.
To protect only the content, you can back up the content databases separately.

Protecting a domain controller
A machine running Active Directory Domain Services can be protected by application-‐aware backup.
If a domain contains more than one domain controller, and you recover one of them, a
nonauthoritative restore is performed and a USN rollback will not occur after the recovery.
92

Recovering applications
The following table summarizes the available application recovery methods.

Microsoft SQL Server

From a database backup

From an application-‐aware
backup

From a disk backup

Databases to a live SQL
Server instance (p. 96)
Databases as files (p. 96)

Entire machine (p. 64)
Databases to a live SQL
Server instance (p. 96)
Databases as files (p. 96)

Entire machine (p. 64)

Microsoft Exchange
Server

Entire machine (p. 64)
Databases to a live
Databases to a live
Exchange (p. 99)
Exchange (p. 99)
Databases as files (p. 99)
Databases as files (p. 99)
Granular recovery to a live
Granular recovery to a live
Exchange (p. 100)
Exchange (p. 100)

Entire machine (p. 64)

Microsoft SharePoint
database servers

Entire machine (p. 64)
Databases to a live SQL
Databases to a live SQL
Server instance (p. 96)
Server instance (p. 96)
Databases as files (p. 96)
Databases as files (p. 96)
Granular recovery by using
Granular recovery by using
SharePoint Explorer
SharePoint Explorer

Entire machine (p. 64)

Microsoft SharePoint
front-‐end web servers

-‐

Entire machine (p. 64)

Active Directory
Domain Services

-‐

Entire machine (p. 64)

-‐

11.1 Prerequisites
Before configuring the application backup, ensure that the requirements listed below are met.
To check the VSS writers state, use the vssadmin list writers command.

Common requirements
For Microsoft SQL Server, ensure that:

At least one Microsoft SQL Server instance is started.

The SQL writer for VSS is turned on.

SQL Server Browser Service and TCP/IP protocol are enabled. For instructions on how to start SQL
Server Browser Service, refer to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-‐us/library/ms189093.aspx. You
can enable the TCP/IP protocol by using a similar procedure.

For Microsoft Exchange Server, ensure that:

The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service is started.

Microsoft .NET Framework is installed.
For Exchange 2007, the Microsoft .NET Framework version must be at least 2.0.
For Exchange 2010 or later, the Microsoft .NET Framework version must be at least 3.5.

The Exchange writer for VSS is turned on.

Windows PowerShell is installed. For Exchange 2010 or later, the Windows PowerShell version
must be at least 2.0.

On a domain controller, ensure that:

The Active Directory writer for VSS is turned on.

When creating a backup plan, ensure that:

For physical machines, the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) (p. 61) backup option is enabled.
For virtual machines, the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for virtual machines (p. 62) backup
option is enabled.

Additional requirements for application-‐aware backups
When creating a backup plan, ensure that Entire machine is selected for backup.
If the applications run on virtual machines that are backed up by Agent for VMware, ensure that:

The virtual machines being backed up meet the requirements for application-‐consistent
quiescing listed in the following VMware knowledge base article:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-‐60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vddk.pg.doc%2FvddkBk
upVadp.9.6.html

VMware Tools is installed and up-‐to-‐date on the machines.
User Account Control (UAC) is disabled on the machines. If you do not want to disable UAC, you
must provide the credentials of a built-‐in domain administrator (DOMAIN\Administrator) when
enabling application backup.

11.2 Database backup
Before backing up databases, ensure that the requirements listed in "Prerequisites" (p. 93) are met.
Select the databases as described below, and then specify other settings of the backup plan as
appropriate (p. 37).

11.2.1 Selecting SQL databases
A backup of an SQL database contains the database files (.mdf, .ndf), log files (.ldf), and other
associated files. The files are backed with the help of the SQL Writer service. The service must be
running at the time that the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) requests a backup or recovery.
The SQL transaction logs are truncated after each successful backup. SQL log truncation can be
disabled in the backup plan options (p. 54).

To select SQL databases
1. Click Microsoft SQL.
Machines with Agent for SQL installed are shown.
2. Browse to the data that you want to back up.
Double-‐click a machine to view the SQL Server instances it contains. Double-‐click an instance to
view the databases it contains.
3. Select the data that you want to back up. You can select entire instances or individual databases.

If you select entire SQL Server instances, all current databases and all databases that are
added to the selected instances in the future will be backed up.

If you select databases directly, only the selected databases will be backed up.

4. Click Backup. If prompted, provide credentials to access the SQL Server data. The account must
be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators group on the machine and a member
of the sysadmin role on each of the instances that you are going to back up.

11.2.2 Selecting Exchange Server data
The following table summarizes the Microsoft Exchange Server data that you can select for backup
and the minimal user rights required to back up the data.
Exchange version

Data items

2007

Storage groups

2010/2013/2016

Databases

User rights
Membership in the Exchange Organization
Administrators role group
Membership in the Organization Management role
group.

A full backup contains all of the selected Exchange Server data.
An incremental backup contains the changed blocks of the database files, the checkpoint files, and a
small number of the log files that are more recent than the corresponding database checkpoint.
Because changes to the database files are included in the backup, there is no need to back up all the
transaction log records since the previous backup. Only the log that is more recent than the
checkpoint needs to be replayed after a recovery. This makes for faster recovery and ensures
successful database backup, even with circular logging enabled.
The transaction log files are truncated after each successful backup.

To select Exchange Server data
1. Click Microsoft Exchange.
Machines with Agent for Exchange installed are shown.
2. Browse to the data that you want to back up.
Double-‐click a machine to view the databases (storage groups) it contains.
3. Select the data that you want to back up. If prompted, provide the credentials to access the data.
4. Click Backup.

11.3 Application-aware backup
Application-‐aware disk-‐level backup is available for physical machines and for ESXi virtual machines.
When you back up a machine running Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, or Active
Directory Domain Services, enable Application backup for additional protection of these
applications' data.

Why use application-‐aware backup?
By using application-‐aware backup, you ensure that:
1. The applications are backed up in a consistent state and thus will be available immediately after
the machine is recovered.
2. You can recover the SQL and Exchange databases, mailboxes, and mailbox items without
recovering the entire machine.
3. The SQL transaction logs are truncated after each successful backup. SQL log truncation can be
disabled in the backup plan options (p. 54). The Exchange transaction logs are truncated on
virtual machines only. You can enable the VSS full backup option (p. 61) if you want to truncate
Exchange transaction logs on a physical machine.
4. If a domain contains more than one domain controller, and you recover one of them, a
nonauthoritative restore is performed and a USN rollback will not occur after the recovery.

What do I need to use application-‐aware backup?
On a physical machine, Agent for SQL and/or Agent for Exchange must be installed, in addition to
Agent for Windows. On a virtual machine, no agent installation is required; it is presumed that the
machine is backed up by Agent for VMware (Windows).
Other requirements are listed in the "Prerequisites" (p. 93) and "Required user rights" (p. 96)
sections.

11.3.1 Required user rights
An application-‐aware backup contains metadata of VSS-‐aware applications that are present on the
disk. To access this metadata, the agent needs an account with the appropriate rights, which are
listed below. You are prompted to specify this account when enabling application backup.

For SQL Server:
The account must be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators group on the
machine, and a member of the sysadmin role on each of the instances that you are going to back
up.

For Exchange Server:
Exchange 2007: The account must be a member of the Exchange Organization Administrators
role group.
Exchange 2010 and later: The account must be a member of the Organization Management role
group.

For Active Directory:
The account must be a domain administrator.

11.4 Recovering SQL databases
This section describes recovery from both database backups and application-‐aware backups.
You can recover SQL databases to a SQL Server instance, if Agent for SQL is installed on the machine
running the instance. You will need to provide credentials for an account that is a member of the
Backup Operators or Administrators group on the machine and a member of the sysadmin role on
the target instance.
Alternatively, you can recover the databases as files. This can be useful if you need to recover
databases to a machine where Agent for SQL is not installed, or you need to extract data for data
96

mining, audit, or further processing by third-‐party tools. You can attach the SQL database files to a
SQL Server instance, as described in "Attaching SQL Server databases" (p. 98).
If you use only Agent for VMware, recovering databases as files is the only available recovery
method.
System databases are basically recovered in the same way as user databases. The peculiarities of
system database recovery are described in "Recovering system databases" (p. 98).

To recover SQL databases
1.
2.
3.
4.

When recovering from a database backup, click Microsoft SQL. Otherwise, skip this step.
Select the machine that originally contained the data that you want to recover.
Click Recovery.
Select a recovery point. Note that recovery points are filtered by location.
If the machine is offline, the recovery points are not displayed. Do one of the following:

If the backup is located in the cloud storage or on a network share, click Select machine,
select an online machine that has Agent for SQL, and then select a recovery point.

Select a recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80).
The machine chosen for browsing in either of the above actions becomes a target machine for
the SQL databases recovery.
5. Do one of the following:

When recovering from a database backup, click Recover SQL databases.

Ready to use (RESTORE WITH RECOVERY) (default)
After the recovery completes, the database will be ready for use. Users will have full access
to it. The software will roll back all uncommitted transactions of the recovered database that
are stored in the transaction logs. You will not be able to recover additional transaction logs
from the native Microsoft SQL backups.

Non-‐operational (RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY)
After the recovery completes, the database will be non-‐operational. Users will have no
access to it. The software will keep all uncommitted transactions of the recovered database.

When recovering from an application-‐aware backup, click Recover > SQL databases.
6. Select the data that you want to recover. Double-‐click an instance to view the databases it
contains.
7. If you want to recover the databases as files, click Recover as files, select a local or a network
folder to save the files to, and then click Recover. Otherwise, skip this step.
8. Click Recover.
9. By default, the databases are recovered to the original ones. If the original database does not
exist, it will be recreated. You can select another machine or another SQL Server instance to
recover the databases to.
To recover a database as a different one to the same instance:
a. Click the database name.
b. In Recover to, select New database.
c. Specify the new database name.
d. Specify the new database path and log path. The folder you specify must not contain the
original database and log files.
10. [Optional] To change the database state after recovery, click the database name, and then
choose one of the following states:

You will be able to recover additional transaction logs from the native Microsoft SQL backups
and thus reach the necessary recovery point.

Read-‐only (RESTORE WITH STANDBY)
After the recovery completes, users will have read-‐only access to the database. The software
will undo any uncommitted transactions. However, it will save the undo actions in a
temporary standby file so that the recovery effects can be reverted.
This value is primarily used to detect the point in time when a SQL Server error occurred.
11. Click Start recovery.
The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

11.4.1 Recovering system databases
All system databases of an instance are recovered at once. When recovering system databases, the
software automatically restarts the destination instance in the single-‐user mode. After the recovery
completes, the software restarts the instance and recovers other databases (if any).
Other things to consider when recovering system databases:

System databases can only be recovered to an instance of the same version as the original
instance.

System databases are always recovered in the "ready to use" state.

Recovering the master database
System databases include the master database. The master database records information about all
databases of the instance. Hence, the master database in a backup contains information about
databases which existed in the instance at the time of the backup. After recovering the master
database, you may need to do the following:

Databases that have appeared in the instance after the backup was done are not visible by the
instance. To bring these databases back to production, attach them to the instance manually by
using SQL Server Management Studio.

Databases that have been deleted after the backup was done are displayed as offline in the
instance. Delete these databases by using SQL Server Management Studio.

11.4.2 Attaching SQL Server databases
This section describes how to attach a database in SQL Server by using SQL Server Management
Studio. Only one database can be attached at a time.
Attaching a database requires any of the following permissions: CREATE DATABASE, CREATE ANY
DATABASE, or ALTER ANY DATABASE. Normally, these permissions are granted to the sysadmin role
of the instance.

To attach a database
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Run Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
Connect to the required SQL Server instance, and then expand the instance.
Right-‐click Databases and click Attach.
Click Add.
In the Locate Database Files dialog box, find and select the .mdf file of the database.

6. In the Database Details section, make sure that the rest of database files (.ndf and .ldf files) are
found.
Details. SQL Server database files may not be found automatically, if:

They are not in the default location, or they are not in the same folder as the primary
database file (.mdf). Solution: Specify the path to the required files manually in the Current
File Path column.

You have recovered an incomplete set of files that make up the database. Solution: Recover
the missing SQL Server database files from the backup.
7. When all of the files are found, click OK.

11.5 Recovering Exchange databases
This section describes recovery from both database backups and application-‐aware backups.
You can recover Exchange Server data to a live Exchange Server. This may be the original Exchange
Server or an Exchange Server of the same version running on the machine with the same fully
qualified domain name (FQDN). Agent for Exchange must be installed on the target machine.
The following table summarizes the Exchange Server data that you can select for recovery and the
minimal user rights required to recover the data.
Exchange version

Data items

2007

Storage groups

2010/2013/2016

Databases

User rights
Membership in the Exchange Organization
Administrators role group.
Membership in the Organization Management
role group.

Alternatively, you can recover the databases (storage groups) as files. The database files, along with
transaction log files, will be extracted from the backup to a folder that you specify. This can be useful
if you need to extract data for an audit or further processing by third-‐party tools, or when the
recovery fails for some reason and you are looking for a workaround to mount the databases
manually (p. 100).
If you use only Agent for VMware, recovering databases as files is the only available recovery
method.

To recover Exchange data
We will refer to both databases and storage groups as "databases" throughout this procedure.
1.
2.
3.
4.

When recovering from a database backup, click Microsoft Exchange. Otherwise, skip this step.
Select the machine that originally contained the data that you want to recover.
Click Recovery.
Select a recovery point. Note that recovery points are filtered by location.
If the machine is offline, the recovery points are not displayed. Use other ways to recover:

If the backup is located in the cloud storage or on a network share, click Select machine,
select an online machine that has Agent for Exchange, and then select a recovery point.

Select a recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80).
The machine chosen for browsing in either of the above actions becomes a target machine for
the Exchange data recovery.
5. Click Recover > Exchange databases.
99

6. Select the data that you want to recover.
7. If you want to recover the databases as files, click Recover as files, select a local or a network
folder to save the files to, and then click Recover. Otherwise, skip this step.
8. Click Recover. If prompted, provide credentials to access the Exchange Server.
9. By default, the databases are recovered to the original ones. If the original database does not
exist, it will be recreated.
To recover a database as a different one:
a. Click the database name.
b. In Recover to, select New database.
c. Specify the new database name.
d. Specify the new database path and log path. The folder you specify must not contain the
original database and log files.
10. Click Start recovery.
The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

11.5.1 Mounting Exchange Server databases
After recovering the database files, you can bring the databases online by mounting them. Mounting
is performed by using Exchange Management Console, Exchange System Manager, or Exchange
Management Shell.
The recovered databases will be in a Dirty Shutdown state. A database that is in a Dirty Shutdown
state can be mounted by the system if it is recovered to its original location (that is, information
about the original database is present in Active Directory). When recovering a database to an
alternate location (such as a new database or as the recovery database), the database cannot be
mounted until you bring it to a Clean Shutdown state by using the Eseutil /r command.
specifies the log file prefix for the database (or storage group that contains the database) into
which you need to apply the transaction log files.
The account you use to attach a database must be delegated an Exchange Server Administrator role
and a local Administrators group for the target server.
For details about how to mount databases, see the following articles:

Exchange 2016: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-‐us/library/aa998871.aspx
Exchange 2013: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-‐us/library/aa998871(v=EXCHG.150).aspx
Exchange 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-‐us/library/aa998871(v=EXCHG.141).aspx
Exchange 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-‐us/library/aa998871(v=EXCHG.80).aspx

11.6 Recovering Exchange mailboxes and mailbox items
This section describes how to recover Exchange mailboxes and mailbox items from database backups
and from application-‐aware backups.

Overview
Granular recovery can be performed to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and later. The source backup
may contain databases of any supported Exchange version.

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Granular recovery can be performed by Agent for Exchange or Agent for VMware (Windows). The
target Exchange Server and the machine running the agent must belong to the same Active Directory
forest.
The following items can be recovered:

Mailboxes
Public folders
Public folder items
Email folders
Email messages
Calendar events
Tasks
Contacts
Journal entries
Notes

You can use search to locate the items.
When a mailbox is recovered to an existing mailbox, the existing items with matching IDs are
overwritten.
Recovery of mailbox items does not overwrite anything. The mailbox items are always recovered to
the Recovered items folder of the target mailbox.

Requirements on user accounts
A mailbox being recovered from a backup must have an associated user account in Active Directory.
User mailboxes and their contents can be recovered only if their associated user accounts are
enabled. Shared, room, and equipment mailboxes can be recovered only if their associated user
accounts are disabled.
A mailbox that does not meet the above conditions is skipped during recovery.
If some mailboxes are skipped, the recovery will succeed with warnings. If all mailboxes are skipped,
the recovery will fail.

11.6.1 Recovering mailboxes
1.
2.
3.
4.

If the backup is located in the cloud storage or on a network share, click Select machine,
select an online machine that has Agent for Exchange or Agent for VMware, and then select a
recovery point.

Select a recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80).
The machine chosen for browsing in either of the above actions will perform the recovery instead
of the original machine that is offline.
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5. Click Recover > Exchange mailboxes.
6. Select the mailboxes that you want to recover.
You can search mailboxes by name. Wildcards are not supported.

7. Click Recover.
8. Click Target machine with Microsoft Exchange Server to select or change the target machine.
This step allows recovery to a machine that is not running Agent for Exchange.
Specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the machine where the Client Access role of
Microsoft Exchange Server is enabled. The machine must belong to the same Active Directory
forest as the machine that performs the recovery.
If prompted, provide the credentials of an account that is a member of the Organization
Management role group.
9. [Optional] Click Database to re-‐create any missing mailboxes to change the automatically
selected database.
10. Click Start recovery.
11. Confirm your decision.
The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

11.6.2 Recovering mailbox items
1.
2.
3.
4.

If the backup is located in the cloud storage or on a network share, click Select machine,
select an online machine that has Agent for Exchange or Agent for VMware, and then select a
recovery point.

Select a recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80).
The machine chosen for browsing in either of the above actions will perform the recovery instead
of the original machine that is offline.
5. Click Recover > Exchange mailboxes.
6. Click the mailbox that originally contained the items that you want to recover.
7. Select the items that you want to recover.
The following search options are available. Wildcards are not supported.

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For tasks: search by subject and date.

For contacts: search by name, email address, and phone number.
When an email message is selected, you can click Show content to view its contents, including
attachments.
Tip Click the name of an attached file to download it.

To be able to select folders, click the recover folders icon.

8. Click Recover.
9. Click Target machine with Microsoft Exchange Server to select or change the target machine.
This step allows recovery to a machine that is not running Agent for Exchange.
Specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the machine where the Client Access role of
Microsoft Exchange Server is enabled. The machine must belong to the same Active Directory
forest as the machine that performs the recovery.
If prompted, provide the credentials of an account that is a member of the Organization
Management role group.
10. In Target mailbox, view, change, or specify the target mailbox.
By default, the original mailbox is selected. If this mailbox does not exist or a non-‐original target
machine is selected, you must specify the target mailbox.
11. Click Start recovery.
12. Confirm your decision.
The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab.

12 Advanced operations with virtual machines
12.1 Running a virtual machine from a backup (Instant
Restore)
You can run a virtual machine from a disk-‐level backup that contains an operating system. This
operation, also known as instant recovery, enables you to spin up a virtual server in seconds. The
virtual disks are emulated directly from the backup and thus do not consume space on the datastore
(storage). The storage space is required only to keep changes to the virtual disks.
We recommend running this temporary virtual machine for up to three days. Then, you can
completely remove it or convert it to a regular virtual machine (finalize) without downtime.
As long as the temporary virtual machine exists, retention rules cannot be applied to the backup
being used by that machine. Backups of the original machine can continue to run.

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Usage examples

Disaster recovery
Instantly bring a copy of a failed machine online.

Testing a backup
Run the machine from the backup and ensure that the guest OS and applications are functioning
properly.

Accessing application data
While the machine is running, use application's native management tools to access and extract
the required data.

Prerequisites

At least one Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-‐V must be registered in the backup service.

The backup must contain an entire machine or all of the volumes that are required for the
operating system to start.

Backups of both physical and virtual machines can be used. Backups of Virtuozzo containers
cannot be used.

The backup can be stored in a network folder or in a local folder of the machine where Agent for
VMware or Agent for Hyper-‐V is installed. If you select a network folder, it must be accessible
from that machine. A virtual machine can also be run from a backup stored in the cloud storage,
but it works slower because this operation requires intense random-‐access reading from the
backup.

12.1.1 Running the machine
1. Do one of the following:

Select a backed-‐up machine, click Recovery, and then select a recovery point.

Select a recovery point on the Backups tab (p. 80).
2. Click Run as VM.

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The software automatically selects the host and other required parameters.

3. [Optional] Click Target machine, and then change the virtual machine type (ESXi or Hyper-‐V), the
host, or the virtual machine name.
4. [Optional] Click Datastore for ESXi or Path for Hyper-‐V, and then select the datastore for the
virtual machine.
Changes to the virtual disks accumulate while the machine is running. Ensure that the selected
datastore has enough free space.
5. ΀KƉƚŝŽŶĂů΁ˁůŝĐŬVM settings to change the memory size and network connections of the virtual
machine.
6. [Optional] Select the VM power state (On/Off).
7. Click Run now.

As a result, the machine appears in the web interface with one of the following icons:

. Such virtual machines cannot be selected for backup.

12.1.2 Deleting the machine
We do not recommend to delete a temporary virtual machine directly in vSphere/Hyper-‐V. This may
lead to artifacts in the web interface. Also, the backup from which the machine was running may
remain locked for a while (it cannot be deleted by retention rules).
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To delete a virtual machine that is running from a backup
1. On the All devices tab, select a machine that is running from a backup.
2. Click Delete.
The machine is removed from the web interface. It is also removed from the vSphere or Hyper-‐V
inventory and datastore (storage). All changes that occurred to the data while the machine was
running are lost.

12.1.3 Finalizing the machine
While a virtual machine is running from a backup, the virtual disks' content is taken directly from that
backup. Therefore, the machine will become inaccessible or even corrupted if the connection is lost
to the backup location or to the backup agent.
For an ESXi machine, you have the option to make this machine permanent, i.e. recover all of its
virtual disks, along with the changes that occurred while the machine was running, to the datastore
that stores these changes. This process is named finalization.
Finalization is performed without downtime. The virtual machine will not be powered off during
finalization.

To finalize a machine that is running from a backup
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

On the All devices tab, select a machine that is running from a backup.
Click Finalize.
[Optional] Specify a new name for the machine.
[Optional] Change the disk provisioning mode. The default setting is Thin.
Click Finalize.

The machine name changes immediately. The recovery progress is shown on the Activities tab. Once
the recovery is completed, the machine icon changes to that of a regular virtual machine.

12.2 Replication of virtual machines
Replication is available only for VMware ESXi virtual machines.
Replication is the process of creating an exact copy (replica) of a virtual machine, and then
maintaining the replica in sync with the original machine. By replicating a critical virtual machine, you
will always have a copy of this machine in a ready-‐to-‐start state.
The replication can be started manually or on the schedule you specify. The first replication is full
(copies the entire machine). All subsequent replications are incremental and are performed with
Changed Block Tracking (p. 110), unless this option is disabled.

Replication vs. backing up
Unlike scheduled backups, a replica keeps only the latest state of the virtual machine. A replica
consumes datastore space, while backups can be kept on a cheaper storage.
However, powering on a replica is much faster than a recovery and faster than running a virtual
machine from a backup. When powered on, a replica works faster than a VM running from a backup
and does not load the Agent for VMware.

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Usage examples

Replicate virtual machines to a remote site.
Replication enables you to withstand partial or complete datacenter failures, by cloning the
virtual machines from a primary site to a secondary site. The secondary site is usually located in a
remote facility that is unlikely to be affected by environmental, infrastructure, or other factors
that might cause the primary site failure.

Replicate virtual machines within a single site (from one host/datastore to another).
Onsite replication can be used for high availability and disaster recovery scenarios.

What you can do with a replica

Test a replica (p. 108)
The replica will be powered on for testing. Use vSphere Client or other tools to check if the
replica works correctly. Replication is suspended while testing is in progress.

Failover to a replica (p. 108)
Failover is a transition of the workload from the original virtual machine to its replica. Replication
is suspended while a failover is in progress.

Back up the replica
Both backup and replication require access to virtual disks, and thus impact the performance of
the host where the virtual machine is running. If you want to have both a replica and backups of
a virtual machine, but don't want to put additional load on the production host, replicate the
machine to a different host, and set up backups of the replica.

Restrictions
The following types of virtual machines cannot be replicated:

Fault-‐tolerant machines running on ESXi 5.5 and lower.
Machines running from backups.
Replicas of virtual machines.

12.2.1 Creating a replication plan
A replication plan must be created for each machine individually. It is not possible to apply an
existing plan to other machines.

To create a replication plan
1. Select a virtual machine to replicate.
2. Click Replication.
The software displays a new replication plan template.
3. [Optional] To modify the replication plan name, click the default name.
4. Click Target machine, and then do the following:
a. Select whether to create a new replica or use an existing replica of the original machine.
b. Select the ESXi host and specify the new replica name, or select an existing replica.
The default name of a new replica is [Original Machine Name]_replica.
c. Click OK.
5. [Only when replicating to a new machine] Click Datastore, and then select the datastore for the
virtual machine.
6. [Optional] Click Schedule to change the replication schedule.
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By default, replication is performed on a daily basis, Monday to Friday. You can select the time to
run the replication.
If you want to change the replication frequency, move the slider, and then specify the schedule.
You can also do the following:

Set a date range for when the schedule is effective. Select the Run the plan within a date
range check box, and then specify the date range.

Disable the schedule. In this case, replication can be started manually.
7. [Optional] Click the gear icon to modify the replication options (p. 110).
8. Click Apply.
9. [Optional] To run the plan manually, click Run now on the plan panel.
As a result of running a replication plan, the virtual machine replica appears in the All devices list

with the following icon:

12.2.2 Testing a replica
To prepare a replica for testing
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select a replica to test.
Click Test replica.
Click Start testing.
Select whether to connect the powered-‐on replica to a network. By default, the replica will not
be connected to a network.
5. [Optional] If you chose to connect the replica to the network, select the Stop original virtual
machine check box to stop the original machine before powering on the replica.
6. Click Start.

To stop testing a replica
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select a replica for which testing is in progress.
Click Test replica.
Click Stop testing.
Confirm your decision.

12.2.3 Failing over to a replica
To failover a machine to a replica
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select a replica to failover to.
Click Replica actions.
Click Failover.
Select whether to connect the powered-‐on replica to a network. By default, the replica will be
connected to the same network as the original machine.
5. [Optional] If you chose to connect the replica to the network, clear the Stop original virtual
machine check box to keep the original machine online.
6. Click Start.
While the replica is in a failover state, you can choose one of the following actions:

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Stop failover if the original machine was fixed. The replica will be powered off. Replication will be
resumed.

Perform permanent failover to the replica (p. 109)
This instant operation removes the 'replica' flag from the virtual machine, so that replication to it
is no longer possible. If you want to resume replication, edit the replication plan to select this
machine as a source.

Failback (p. 109)
Perform failback if you failed over to the site that is not intended for continuous operations. The
replica will be recovered to the original or a new virtual machine. Once the recovery to the
original machine is complete, it is powered on and replication is resumed. If you choose to
recover to a new machine, edit the replication plan to select this machine as a source.

12.2.3.1

Stopping failover

To stop a failover
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select a replica that is in the failover state.
Click Replica actions.
Click Stop failover.
Confirm your decision.

12.2.3.2

Performing a permanent failover

To perform a permanent failover
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Select a replica that is in the failover state.
Click Replica actions.
Click Permanent failover.
[Optional] Change the name of the virtual machine.
[Optional] Select the Stop original virtual machine check box.
Click Start.

12.2.3.3

Failing back

To failback from a replica
1. Select a replica that is in the failover state.
2. Click Replica actions.
3. Click Failback from replica.
The software automatically selects the original machine as the target machine.
4. [Optional] Click Target machine, and then do the following:
a. Select whether to failback to a new or existing machine.
b. Select the ESXi host and specify the new machine name, or select an existing machine.
c. Click OK.
5. [Optional] When failing back to a new machine, you can also do the following:

Click Datastore to select the datastore for the virtual machine.

ˁůŝĐŬVM settings to change the memory size, the number of processors, and the network
connections of the virtual machine.
6. [Optional] Click Recovery options to modify the failback options (p. 110).
7. Click Start recovery.
109

8. Confirm your decision.

12.2.4 Replication options
To modify the replication options, click the gear icon next to the replication plan name, and then click
Replication options.

Changed Block Tracking (CBT)
This option is similar to the backup option "Changed Block Tracking (CBT)" (p. 50).

Disk provisioning
This option defines the disk provisioning settings for the replica.
The preset is: Thin provisioning.
The following values are available: Thin provisioning, Thick provisioning, Keep the original setting.

Error handling
This option is similar to the backup option "Error handling" (p. 51).

Pre/Post commands
This option is similar to the backup option "Pre/Post commands" (p. 57).

Volume Shadow Copy Service VSS for virtual machines
This option is similar to the backup option "Volume Shadow Copy Service VSS for virtual machines" (p.
62).

12.2.5 Failback options
To modify the failback options, click Recovery options when configuring failback.

Error handling
This option is similar to the recovery option "Error handling" (p. 76).

Performance
This option is similar to the recovery option "Performance" (p. 78).

Pre/Post commands
This option is similar to the recovery option "Pre/Post commands" (p. 78).

VM power management
This option is similar to the recovery option "VM power management" (p. 80).

12.2.6 Seeding an initial replica
To speed up replication to a remote location and save network bandwidth, you can perform replica
seeding.
Important To perform replica seeding, Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) must be running on the target
ESXi.
110

To seed an initial replica
1. Do one of the following:

3.
4.

5.
6.

If the original virtual machine can be powered off, power it off, and then skip to step 4.

If the original virtual machine cannot be powered off, continue to the next step.
Create a replication plan (p. 107).
When creating the plan, in Target machine, select New replica and the ESXi that hosts the
original machine.
Run the plan once.
A replica is created on the original ESXi.
Export the virtual machine (or the replica) files to an external hard drive.
a. Connect the external hard drive to the machine where vSphere Client is running.
b. Connect vSphere Client to the original vCenter\ESXi.
c. Select the newly created replica in the inventory.
d. Click File > Export > Export OVF template.
e. In Directory, specify the folder on the external hard drive.
f. Click OK.
Transfer the hard drive to the remote location.
Import the replica to the target ESXi.
a. Connect the external hard drive to the machine where vSphere Client is running.
b. Connect vSphere Client to the target vCenter\ESXi.
c. Click File > Deploy OVF template.
d. In Deploy from a file or URL, specify the template that you exported in step 4.
e. Complete the import procedure.
Edit the replication plan that you created in step 2. In Target machine, select Existing replica,
and then select the imported replica.

As a result, the software will continue updating the replica. All replications will be incremental.

12.3 Managing virtualization environments
You can view the vSphere and Hyper-‐V environments in their native presentation. Once the
corresponding agent is installed and registered, the VMware or Hyper-‐V tab appears under Devices.
The VMware tab enables you to change access credentials for the vCenter Server or stand-‐alone ESXi
host without re-‐installing the agent.

To change the vCenter Server or ESXi host access credentials
1. Under Devices, click VMware.
2. Click Hosts and Clusters.
3. In the Hosts and Clusters list (to the right of the Hosts and Clusters tree), select the vCenter
Server or stand-‐alone ESXi host that was specified during the Agent for VMware installation.
4. Click Overview.
5. Under Credentials, click the user name.
6. Specify the new access credentials, and then click OK.

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12.4 Machine migration
You can perform machine migration by recovering its backup to a non-‐original machine.
The following table summarizes the available migration options.
Available recovery destinations
Backed-‐up machine type
Physical machine

ESXi virtual machine

Hyper-‐V virtual machine

Physical machine

VMware ESXi virtual machine

Hyper-‐V virtual machine

For instructions on how to perform migration, refer to the following sections:

Physical-‐to-‐virtual (P2V) -‐ "Physical machine to virtual" (p. 65)
Virtual-‐to-‐virtual (V2V) -‐ "Virtual machine" (p. 66)
Virtual-‐to-‐physical (V2P) -‐ "Virtual machine" (p. 66) or "Recovering disks by using bootable
media" (p. 68)

Although it is possible to perform V2P migration in the web interface, we recommend using bootable
media in specific cases. Sometimes, you may want to use the media for migration to ESXi or Hyper-‐V.
The media enables you to do the following:

Choose individual disks or volumes for recovery.
Manually map the disks from the backup to the target machine disks.
Recreate logical volumes (LVM) or Linux Software RAID on the target machine.
Provide drivers for specific hardware that is critical for the system bootability.

12.5 Agent for VMware - necessary privileges
This section describes the privileges required for operations with ESXi virtual machines and,
additionally, for virtual appliance deployment. Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) is available in
on-‐premise deployment only.
To perform operations on all hosts and clusters managed by a vCenter Server, Agent for VMware
needs the privileges on the vCenter Server. If you want the agent to operate on a specific ESXi host
only, provide the agent with the same privileges on the host.
Specify the account with the necessary privileges during Agent for VMware installation or
configuration. If you need to change the account at a later time, refer to the "Managing virtualization
environments" (p. 111) section.

Operation

Object

Privilege

Datastore

Allocate space

Browse datastore

Configure datastore

112

Back up a
VM

Recover to a Recover to
new VM
an existing
VM

Run VM
VA
from backup deployment

Operation

Object

Privilege

Low level file
operations

Global

Licenses

Disable methods

Enable methods

Host >
Configuration

VM autostart
configuration

Storage partition
configuration

Host > Inventory

Modify cluster

Host > Local
operations

Create VM

Delete VM

Reconfigure VM

Network

Assign network

Resource

Assign VM to
resource pool

vApp

Import

Virtual machine >
Configuration

Add existing disk

Add new disk

Add or remove
device

Advanced

Change CPU count

Disk lease

Memory

Remove disk

Rename

Settings

Virtual machine >
Interaction

Acquire guest
control ticket

Configure CD media

Console interaction

Guest operating
system management
by VIX API

113

Back up a
VM

Recover to a Recover to
new VM
an existing
VM

Run VM
VA
from backup deployment

Operation

Object

Privilege

Back up a
VM

Recover to a Recover to
new VM
an existing
VM

Run VM
VA
from backup deployment

Power off

Power on

Virtual machine >
Inventory

Create from existing

Create new

Move

Remove

Unregister

Virtual machine >
Provisioning

Allow disk access

Allow virtual
machine download

Virtual machine >
State

Create snapshot

Remove snapshot

12.6 Windows Azure and Amazon EC2 virtual machines
To back up a Windows Azure or Amazon EC2 virtual machine, install a backup agent on the machine.
The backup and recovery operations are the same as with a physical machine. Nevertheless, the
machine is counted as virtual when you set quotas for the number of machines in a cloud
deployment.
The difference from a physical machine is that Windows Azure and Amazon EC2 virtual machines
cannot be booted from bootable media. If you need to recover to a new Windows Azure or Amazon
EC2 virtual machine, follow the procedure below.

To recover a machine as a Windows Azure or Amazon EC2 virtual machine
1. Create a new virtual machine from an image/template in Windows Azure or Amazon EC2. The
new machine must have the same disk configuration as the machine that you want to recover.
2. Install Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux on the new machine.
3. Recover the backed-‐up machine as described in "Physical machine" (p. 64). When configuring the
recovery, select the new machine as the target machine.

Network requirements
The agents installed on the backed-‐up machines must be able to communicate with the management
server over the network.

On-‐premise deployment
If both the agents and the management server are installed in the Azure/EC2 cloud, all machines
are already located in the same network. No additional actions are required.
114

If the management server is located outside the Azure/EC2 cloud, the machines in the cloud will
not have network access to the local network where the management server is installed. To
enable the agents installed on such machines to communicate with the management server, a
virtual private network (VPN) connection between the local (on-‐premises) and the cloud
(Azure/EC2) network must be created. For instructions about how to create the VPN connection,
refer to the following articles:
Amazon EC2:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/VPC_VPN.html#vpn-‐create-‐cgw
Windows Azure:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-‐us/documentation/articles/vpn-‐gateway-‐site-‐to-‐site-‐create

Cloud deployment
In a cloud deployment, the management server is located in one of the Acronis data centers and is
thus reachable by the agents. No additional actions are required.

13 Management server settings
These settings are only available in on-‐premise deployments.
To access these settings, click Settings > System settings.
For information about managing Acronis Backup licenses, refer to "Managing licenses" (p. 26).

13.1 Email server
You can specify an email server that will be used to send email notifications from the management
server.

To specify the email server
1. Click Settings > System settings > Email server.
2. In Email service, select one of the following:

Custom

Yahoo Mail

In SMTP server, enter the name of the outgoing mail server (SMTP).

Some Internet service providers require authentication on the incoming mail server before
being allowed to send something. If this is the case for you, select the Configure an incoming
mail server (POP) check box to enable a POP server and to set up its settings:

Gmail
The Less secure apps setting must be turned on in your Gmail account. For more information,
refer to https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255.

Outlook.com
3. [Only for a custom email service] Specify the following settings:

115

In SMTP port, set the port of the outgoing mail server. By default, the port is set to 25.
Select whether to use SSL or TLS encryption. Select None to disable encryption.
If the SMTP server requires authentication, select the SMTP server requires authentication
check box, and then specify the credentials of an account that will be used to send messages.
If you are not sure whether the SMTP server requires authentication, contact your network
administrator or your email service provider for assistance.

In POP server, enter the name of the POP server.
In POP port, set the port of the incoming mail server. By default, the port is set to 110.

Specify the access credentials for the incoming mail server.
4. [Only for Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook.com] Specify the credentials of an account that will be
used to send messages.
5. In Sender, type the name of the sender. This name will be shown in the From field of the email
notifications. If you leave this field empty, the messages will contain the account specified in step
3 or 4.
6. [Optional] Click Send test message to check whether the email notifications work correctly with
the specified settings. Enter an email address to send the test message to.

13.2 Email notifications
You can configure default settings that are common for all email notifications sent from the
management server.
When creating a backup plan, you can either use the default settings, or override them with custom
values that will be specific for this plan only.
Important When the default settings are changed, all backup plans that use the default settings are affected.

Before configuring these settings, ensure that the Email server (p. 115) settings are configured.

To configure default email notification settings
1. Click Settings > System settings > Email notifications.
2. In the Recipients' email addresses field, type the destination email address. You can enter
several addresses separated by semicolons.
3. Select the types of notifications that you want to be sent. The following types are available:

Errors
Warnings
Successful backups

14 Managing groups and accounts
The functionality described in this section is available only in a cloud deployment for accounts that
have administrative privileges.

14.1 Accounts and groups
There are two account types: administrator accounts and user accounts. Both the user and the
administrators can manage backups of the user's data.
Each account belongs to a group. The Customer group is automatically created for your organization.
Optionally, you can create Unit groups, which typically correspond to units or departments of the
organization.

116

An administrator can create and manage groups, administrator accounts, and user accounts on or
below their level in the hierarchy.
The following diagram illustrates two hierarchy levelsͶthe customer and unit groups. Optional
groups and accounts are shown by a dotted line.

The following table summarizes operations that can be performed by the administrators and users.
Operation

Users

Administrators

Create groups

Yes

Create accounts

Yes

Download and install the backup
software

Yes

Manage backup

Yes

Manage recovery

Yes

Create reports about the service usage

Yes

14.2 Creating a group
You may want to create a new Unit group within your company when expanding the backup service
to a new organizational unit.

To create a group
1. Log in to the backup console.
2. Click Manage accounts.

117

3.
4.
5.
6.

Select a group in which you want to create the new group.
On the bottom of the Groups pane, click "+".
In Name, specify a name for the new group.
[Optional] In Identifier, type a string that will act as the identifier for the group. This identifier
will appear in monthly reports, together with the group's usage data. You can use this identifier
to refer to this group in other software, such as in your billing or monitoring systems.
The identifier can consist of up to 256 Unicode characters (for example, numbers and Latin
letters). It does not need to be unique across groups.
7. In Default language, select the default language of notifications, reports, and backup software
that will be used within this group.
8. [Optional] In Backup locations, select the backup locations for this group and its child groups.
The following values are available:

Local and cloud

Cloud only
9. [Optional] Disable the Agent auto update switch. If you do this, the agents that are registered
under the accounts within this group and its child groups will not be updated automatically when
a new version is released.
10. [Optional] In Contact information, specify the contact information for the group.
11. Click Create.
The newly created group appears in the Groups tree.
If you want to specify the billing information for a group, select the group in the Groups list, click
Properties, and then complete the billing information section.

14.3 Creating an account
At least one account (either an administrator or a user) must exist within a unit.

To create an account
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Log in to the backup console.
Click Manage accounts.
Select a group in which you want to create the account.
Click the Accounts tab.
Click "+".
Specify the following contact information for the account.

Email address
[Optional] First name

[Optional] Last name
7. If you want this account to be an administrator account, enable the Administrator privileges
switch.
8. [Optional] Disable the Agent auto update switch. If you do this, the agents that are registered
under this account not be updated automatically when a new version is released.

118

9. [Optional] Specify the storage quota and the maximum number of machines the user is allowed
to back up.

Physical workstations
Physical servers
Windows Server Essentials
Virtual hosts
Mobile devices

Storage quota
These quotas are "soft". If any of these values are exceeded, a notification will be sent to the
email address specified in step 6. Restrictions on using the backup service are not applied.
10. [Optional] Specify the quota overages. An overage allows the user to exceed the quota by the
specified value. When the overage is exceeded, backups fail.
Important If you set both a quota and its overage to zero, the corresponding functionality will be hidden
from the user.

11. [Optional] In Backup locations, select the backup locations for this account. The following values
are available:

Local and cloud

Cloud only
12. [Optional] Change the Backup notifications level. If you disable backup notifications, the
notifications about backup failures, warnings, and successful backups will not be sent to the
specified email address.
13. [Optional] Disable Business notifications. If you do this, notifications about exceeded quotas will
not be sent to the specified email address.
14. Click Add.
As a result:

A new account appears in the Accounts tab.
An email message containing the activation link is sent to the email address you specified.

14.4 Creating a report about the service usage
Usage reports provide historical data about using the backup service.
Only administrators can create these reports.

Reporting parameters
The report includes the following data about a unit and its accounts:

Size of backups by group, by account, by machine type.
Amount of protected machines by group, by account, by machine type.
Price value by group, by account, by machine type.
The total size of backups.
The total amount of protected machines.
Total price value.

Report scope
You can select the scope of the report from the following values:
119

Direct customers and partners
The report will include the values of the reporting parameters only for the immediate child
groups of your group.

All customers and partners
The report will include the values of the reporting parameters for all child groups of your group.

All customers and partners (including account details)
The report will include the values of the reporting parameters for all child groups of your group
and for all user accounts within the groups.

Enabling or disabling scheduled usage reports
A scheduled report covers system usage data for the last full calendar month. The reports are
generated at 23:59:59 by UTC time on the first day of a month and sent on the second day of that
month to all administrators of your group.
1.
2.
3.
4.

In the account management console, click Reports.
Select the Scheduled tab.
Enable or disable the scheduled usage reports by clicking the on/off switch.
In Level of detail, select the report scope as described above.

Generating a custom usage report
This type of report can be generated on demand and cannot be scheduled. The report will be sent to
your email address.
1. In the account management console, click Reports.
2. Select the Custom tab.
3. In Period, select the reporting period:

Current calendar month

Summary report: The report will include the total values of the reporting parameters for the
specified period, including the total price value.

Previous calendar month

Custom
4. If you want to specify a custom reporting period, select the start and the end dates. Otherwise,
skip this step.
5. In Type, select the report type:

Daily statistics: The report will include the values of the reporting parameters for each day of
the specified period, excluding the price values.
6. In Level of detail, select the report scope as described above.
7. To generate the report, click Generate and send.

14.5 Limiting access to the web interface
You can limit access to the web interface by specifying a list of IP addresses from which the members
of a group are allowed to log in.
This restriction is not applied to the members of the child groups.

To limit access to the web interface
1. Log in to the account management console.
120

2.
3.
4.
5.

Select a group for which you want to limit the access.
Click Security.
Enable the Logon control switch.
In Allowed IP addresses, specify the allowed IP addresses.
You can enter any of the following parameters, separated by a semicolon:

IP addresses, for example 192.0.2.0
IP ranges, for example 192.0.2.0-‐192.0.2.255
Subnets, for example 192.0.2.0/24

15 Troubleshooting
This section describes how to save an agent log to a .zip file. If a backup fails for an unclear reason,
this file will help the technical support personnel to identify the problem.

To collect logs
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select the machine that you want to collect the logs from.
Click Activities.
Click Collect system information.
If prompted by your web browser, specify where to save the file.

121

Copyright Statement
Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-‐2016. All rights reserved.
͞ĐƌŽŶŝƐ͟ĂŶĚ͞ĐƌŽŶŝƐ^ĞĐƵƌĞŽŶĞ͟ĂƌĞƌĞŐŝƐƚĞƌĞĚƚƌĂĚĞŵĂƌŬƐŽĨĐƌŽŶŝƐ/ŶƚĞƌŶĂƚŝŽŶĂů'ŵď,͘
͞ĐƌŽŶŝƐŽŵƉƵƚĞǁŝƚŚŽŶĨŝĚĞŶĐĞ͕͟͞ĐƌŽŶŝƐ^ƚĂƌƚƵƉZĞĐŽǀĞƌǇDĂŶĂŐĞƌ͕͟͞ĐƌŽŶŝƐĐƚŝǀĞZĞƐƚŽƌĞ͕͟
͞ĐƌŽŶŝƐ/ŶƐƚĂŶƚZĞƐƚŽƌĞ͟ĂŶĚƚŚĞĐƌŽŶŝƐůŽŐŽĂƌĞƚƌĂĚĞŵĂƌŬƐŽĨĐƌŽŶŝƐ/ŶƚĞƌŶĂƚŝŽŶĂů'ŵď,͘
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
VMware and VMware Ready are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the
United States and/or other jurisdictions.
Windows and MS-‐DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners.
Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit
permission of the copyright holder.
Distribution of this work or derivative work in any standard (paper) book form for commercial
purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder.
KhDEdd/KE/^WZKs/͞^/^͟E>>yWZ^^KZ/DW>/KE/d/KE^͕
REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-‐INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE
EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID.
Third party code may be provided with the Software and/or Service. The license terms for such
third-‐parties are detailed in the license.txt file located in the root installation directory. You can
always find the latest up-‐to-‐date list of the third party code and the associated license terms used
with the Software and/or Service at http://kb.acronis.com/content/7696

Acronis patented technologies
Technologies, used in this product, are covered and protected by one or more U.S. Patent Numbers:
7,047,380; 7,275,139; 7,281,104; 7,318,135; 7,353,355; 7,366,859; 7,475,282; 7,603,533; 7,636,824;
7,650,473; 7,721,138; 7,779,221; 7,831,789; 7,886,120; 7,895,403; 7,934,064; 7,937,612; 7,949,635;
7,953,948; 7,979,690; 8,005,797; 8,051,044; 8,069,320; 8,073,815; 8,074,035; 8,145,607; 8,180,984;
8,225,133; 8,261,035; 8,296,264; 8,312,259; 8,347,137; 8,484,427; 8,645,748; 8,732,121 and patent
pending applications.

122

16 Glossary
B
Backup set
A group of backups to which an individual retention rule can be applied.
For the Custom backup scheme, the backup sets correspond to the backup methods (Full,
Differential, and Incremental).
In all other cases, the backup sets are Monthly, Daily, Weekly, and Hourly.

A monthly backup is the first backup created after a month starts.

A daily backup is the first backup created after a day starts.

A weekly backup is the first backup created on the day of the week selected in the Weekly
backup option (click the gear icon, then Backup options > Weekly backup).
An hourly backup is the first backup created after an hour starts.

D
Differential backup
A differential backup stores changes to the data against the latest full backup (p. 123). You need
access to the corresponding full backup to recover the data from a differential backup.

F
Full backup
A self-‐sufficient backup containing all data chosen for backup. You do not need access to any other
backup to recover the data from a full backup.

I
Incremental backup
A backup that stores changes to the data against the latest backup. You need access to other backups
to recover data from an incremental backup.

S
Single-file backup format
A new backup format, in which the initial full and subsequent incremental backups are saved to a
single .tib file, instead of a chain of files. This format leverages the speed of the incremental backup
method, while avoiding its main disadvantageʹdifficult deletion of outdated backups. The software
marks the blocks used by outdated backups as "free" and writes new backups to these blocks. This
results in extremely fast cleanup, with minimal resource consumption.

123

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