Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Server for Linux

Installation Guide

Table of Contents

1. 1.1.

1.1.1. 1.1.2. 1.1.3.
Before installation... 3 Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components... 3
Agent for Linux..... 3 Bootable components and media builder.... 3 Management Console.... 4
1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 2. 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 3. 3.1. 3.2. 4. 4.1. 5.
Supported operating systems... 4 Hardware requirements.... 4 License policy..... 5 Installation in Linux... 5 Installation procedure.... 5 Command-line parameters.... 6 Uninstalling components.... 7 Upgrading from trial to full product version.. 8 Changing a license.... 8 Upgrading components for Linux... 8 Upgrading to stand-alone editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.. 9 Importing a task.... 10 Index.... 12

1. Before installation

This section answers questions that might arise before the product installation.
1.1. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components
This section contains a list of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components with a brief description of their functionality.
Components for a managed machine (agents)
These are applications that perform data backup, recovery and other operations on the machines managed with Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. Agents require a license to perform operations on each managed machine. Agents have multiple features, or add-ons, that enable additional functionality and so might require additional licenses. With bootable media builder, you can create bootable media in order to use the agents and other rescue utilities in a rescue environment. Availability of the agent add-ons in a rescue environment depends on whether an add-on is installed on the machine where the media builder is working.

Console

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

1.1.1.

Agent for Linux
This agent enables disk-level and file-level data protection under Linux.

Disk backup

Disk-level data protection is based on backing up either a disk or a volume file system as a whole, along with all information necessary for the operating system to boot; or all the disk sectors using the sector-by-sector approach (raw mode.) A backup that contains a copy of a disk or a volume in a packaged form is called a disk (volume) backup or a disk (volume) image. It is possible to recover disks or volumes as a whole from such backup, as well as individual folders or files.

File backup

File-level data protection is based on backing up files and directories residing on the machine where the agent is installed or on a network share accessed using the smb or nfs protocol. Files can be recovered to their original location or to another place. It is possible to recover all files and directories that were backed up or select which of them to recover.

1.1.2.

Bootable components and media builder
Bootable components of the agent enable operations with reboot, such as recovery of the volume containing the currently active operating system. Once the operations are completed, the machine boots into the operating system again. The bootable components are based on the Linux kernel. You
Copyright Acronis, Inc., 2000-2009 3
can choose not to install the bootable components and perform operations that require reboot using bootable media. Acronis Bootable Media Builder is a dedicated tool for creating bootable media containing the bootable components. The media builder creates bootable media that represents volumes and network in the Linux-like style (hda1, sdb2, smb://server/share).

1.1.3.

Management Console
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console is an administrative tool for local access to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux. Remote connection to the agent is not possible.
1.2. Supported operating systems
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux
Linux with kernel 2.4.18 or later (including 2.6.x kernels) and glibc 2.3.2 or later Various Linux distributions, including: o Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 o CentOS 4 and 5 o Fedora 9 and 10 o Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) and 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) o Debian 4 (Lenny) and 5 (Etch) o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 o openSUSE o Asianux x64 versions of the above Linux distributions and other Linux distributions are also supported. The agent for Linux is in fact a 32-bit executable. For authentication, the agent uses system libraries, 32-bit versions of which are not always installed by default with 64-bit distributions. When using the agent on a 64-bit RedHat based distribution, such as RHEL, CentOS, Fedora or Scientific Linux, make sure that the following 32-bit packages are installed in the system: pam.i386 libselinux.i386 libsepol.i386 These packages should be available in the repository of your Linux distribution.
1.3. Hardware requirements
This section lists the minimum and recommended hardware requirements to install and run Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components.
Copyright Acronis, Inc., 2000-2009
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console
Item Computer processor Minimum requirements Modern processor, 800 MHz or faster Itanium platforms are not supported System memory Screen resolution Installation disk space Other hardware 128 MB 800*600 pixels 50 MB Mouse CD-RW/ DVD-RW drive for bootable media creation Recommended 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor 512 MB or more 1024*768 pixels or higher
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux
Item System memory Installation disk space Minimum requirements 256 MB 100 MB Recommended 512 MB or more

1.4. License policy

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 licensing is based on the number of machines managed and protected by the product. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux requires a license to perform operations on each managed machine. The license key has to be entered during the agent installation.

2. Installation in Linux

This section describes installation of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components on a machine running Linux. By using command-line parameters, you can choose between the interactive and unattended installation modes.
2.1. Installation procedure

Preparation

You need the AcronisBackupRecoveryServerLinux.i686 installation file. Make sure that the file is assigned the necessary access permissions to execute it.

Installation

1. Run the AcronisBackupRecoveryServerLinux.i686 installation file. 2. Read the terms of the license agreement, then select Next. 3. Select Enter the license key, and then type your Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 license key.
4. When prompted to select the edition to install, select Next. 5. Select the components that you want to install.
Note: You need Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Upgrade Tool only if you are upgrading from Acronis True Image Echo.
6. The setup program may ask you to compile the SnapAPI module for your Linux kernel. Click Continue to compile the module now (recommended), or click Skip to compile it manually later.
Note: If the setup program could not compile the necessary module for your Linux distribution, or if you have chosen to compile the module manually later, please refer to the file: /usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/HOWTO.INSTALL
2.2. Command-line parameters
By using command-line parameters, you can choose between the interactive and unattended installation modes. When running the AcronisBackupRecoveryServerLinux.i686 installation file, you can specify one or more of command-line parameters.

Examples

Example 1: Ubuntu system. The following command installs Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux on an Ubuntu system, which does not use RPM Package Manager:
./AcronisBackupRecoveryServerLinux.i686 -c -i BackupAndRecoveryAgent
Example 2: Unattended setup. The following command installs Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux and Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console in the unattended mode (without asking for confirmations) and uses the license key 12345-7890-ABCDE:
./AcronisBackupRecoveryServerLinux.i686 -a -i BackupAndRecoveryAgent,ManagementConsole -l 12345-67890-ABCDE

Parameters

-v or --version Displays the product version and then exits. -a or --auto Performs installation in the so-called unattended setup mode, as opposed to the default interactive mode. The setup program will proceed without asking for interaction, such as typing the license key or clicking the Next buttons. Specify the license key by using the -l parameter. Specify the component to install by using the -i parameter. If the SnapAPI module needs to be compiled and the compilation is possible, the setup program will automatically compile the module; otherwise, it will skip the compilation.

-n or --nodeps Ignores dependencies during an unattended setup. This option is effective only in the unattended setup mode (see the -a parameter described previously). -u or --uninstall Uninstalls the component. You do not need to specify a license key. -c or --norpm Uses the installation file's own RPM Package Manager and not the system's package manager. Specify this parameter when installing the component on a system which does not use RPM Package Managersuch as an Ubuntu system. -d or --debug Puts verbose information to the installation log. -i ComponentName or --id=ComponentName Specifies the name of the component being installed: For Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux: BackupAndRecoveryAgent For Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Bootable Components and Media Builder: BackupAndRecoveryBootableComponents For Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console: ManagementConsole For Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Upgrade Tool: AcronisUpgradeTool -l LicenseKey or --serial=LicenseKey Applies only to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Linux and Acronis Media Builder. Specifies the license key for the component. -? or --help Displays help and then exits. --usage Displays a brief usage message and then exits.
2.3. Uninstalling components
To uninstall Acronis Backup & Recovery 10
Do the following as the root user: 1. Run the following commands to uninstall the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components:
# # # # # # # # cd /usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/uninstall./uninstall cd /usr/lib/Acronis/BootableComponents/uninstall./uninstall cd /usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecoveryConsole/uninstall./uninstall cd /usr/lib/Acronis/UpgradeTool/uninstall./uninstall 7
2. Run the following command to delete the source files of the SnapAPI module:
# rm -rf /usr/src/snapapi*
3. Upgrading from trial to full product version
The trial key required at installation can be obtained on the Acronis Web site. The Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 trial version has the following limitations for bootable media:
The disk management functionality is available, but there is no option to commit the changes. Besides disk management, only the recovery functionality is available.
To upgrade from the trial version to the standard product you do not need to re-download the software. When the trial period is over, the product GUI displays a notification requesting you to specify a standard license key. To specify the standard license key, use the Change License window in the management console, or run the setup program and follow its instructions.

3.1. Changing a license

By changing the license, you switch to a different version or edition of the product. The following table summarizes the available options. Switching a license trial > full trial > trial different edition trial > full different edition Why you may need it Upgrade from trial to full product version Define the edition that better fits your needs The edition you bought differs from the edition of the trial version

You can also enable Acronis Deduplication and Acronis Universal Restore by using additional licenses, if these are available for the version and edition you are switching to. Switching between advanced and standalone editions is not possible.

To change a license:

1. Click Help > Change license. 2. Enter the new license key.
3.2. Upgrading components for Linux
To specify the full license key, run the AcronisBackupRecoveryServerLinux.i686 installation file and proceed as described in the Installation procedure (p. 5) section. When asked for the license key, enter the full license key.
4. Upgrading to stand-alone editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10
This section describes how to upgrade Acronis True Image Echo Server for Linux to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Server for Linux.
Before proceeding with the upgrade, make sure that:
You have a license key for Acronis True Image Echo Server for Linux. You have an upgrade license key for Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Server for Linux.

Installing components

1. Run the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 setup file: AcronisBackupRecoveryServerLinux.i686 2. Specify the upgrade license key and the license key for Acronis True Image Echo Server for Linux. 3. Confirm deletion of the currently installed product components. 4. If you want to import Acronis True Image Echo backup tasks and validation tasks, make sure that the Upgrade tool component is selected to install. If not, select it. 5. Follow the on-screen instructions. For details, see "Installation in Linux (p. 5)". Result:
The Acronis True Image Echo components are replaced with the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components.

Importing tasks

After you have upgraded the agent, you might want to import Acronis True Image Echo backup tasks and validation tasks to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. If you do not import them, these tasks will no longer run. You can import the tasks at any time.
Note: The tasks that back up data to Acronis Backup Server or validate archives stored on it will not be imported to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.
To import the old tasks, use Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Upgrade Tool: 1. Change the current directory to: /usr/lib/Acronis/UpgradeTool 2. Run the following command:

./UpgradeTool.sh Agent

Result:
Tasks that were present in Acronis True Image Echo are converted to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 tasks and appear in the Backup plans and tasks view. Each backup task's schedule, items to back up, and backup destination are the same as before, but the task will create a new archive to perform further backups. Each backup task is part of a backup plan. You can edit the backup plan to change the task's schedule or other parameters.

Importing old options

The upgrade tool enables you to import the default backup options, default restoration options, notification options, and event tracing options of Acronis True Image Echo to the default backup and recovery options of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10. To import the old options: 1. Change the current directory to the one where the upgrade tool is installed. 2. Run the following command:

./UpgradeTool.sh Options

The old options are imported as follows:
Notifications is imported as Notifications in both Default backup options and Default recovery options. Event tracing is imported as Event tracing in both Default backup options and Default recovery options. Archive splitting is imported as Backup splitting. In Media components, if Place Acronis One-Click Restore on media is the only check box selected, it is imported as Acronis Bootable Agent and One-Click Restore. Validate backup archive upon its creation completion is not imported from Additional settings in Default backup options or Default recovery options. In Default recovery options, Files to exclude from restoration, Files overwriting mode, and Restore files and folders without restoring full path (in Additional settings) are not imported. Other options are imported as the corresponding options in Default backup options and Default recovery options.
Using backup archives created with Acronis True Image Echo
After the upgrade to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, you have the ability to recover data from backups created with Acronis True Image Echo. To facilitate access to these backups, you may want to create a personal vault where the backups are located. For instructions on how to create a personal vault, see the "Actions on personal vaults" section in the User's Guide. A personal vault can store both Acronis True Image Echo archives and Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 archives. You can specify this vault as a destination for new backup plans.

4.1. Importing a task

Instead of importing the tasks from Acronis True Image Echo as a whole, you can use the upgrade tool to import a particular backup or validation task.
Note: The tasks that back up data to Acronis Backup Server or validate archives stored on it cannot be imported.
Acronis True Image Echo stores each task as a.tis file. By default, these files are located in the directory /etc/Acronis/TrueImage/Scripts.

The names of the.tis files are Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs), such as 6AED5F49-7EED-4E3E939E-19360A44137F.tib.tis. Each file has the XML format. The <display> tag in the file specifies the task name as it appears in the list of tasks.

To import a task

1. Determine the file name of the task that you want to importfor example, by examining the content of the <display> tag. 2. Change the current folder to the one where the upgrade tool is installed. 3. Run the following command, specifying the task's file name:
./UpgradeTool.sh Script -f /etc/Acronis/TrueImage/Scripts/6AED5F49-7EED-4E3E939E-19360A44137F.tib.tis"
As a result, the task is imported as an Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 task and becomes part of a backup plan.

5. Index

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components 3 Agent for Linux 3
Before installation 3 Bootable components and media builder 3
Changing a license 8 Command-line parameters 6

Hardware requirements 4

Importing a task 10 Installation in Linux 5, 9 Installation procedure 5, 8

License policy 5

Management Console 4
Supported operating systems 4
Uninstalling components 7 Upgrading components for Linux 8 Upgrading from trial to full product version 8 Upgrading to stand-alone editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 9

'[Item's name]' actions

Contains a set of actions that can be performed on the items selected in any of the navigation views. Clicking the action opens the respective action page (p. 11). Items of different navigation views have their own set of actions. The bar's name changes in accordance with the item you select. For example, if you select the backup plan named System backup in the Backup plans and tasks view, the actions bar will be named as 'System backup' actions and will have the set of actions typical to backup plans. All actions can also be accessed in the respective menu items. A menu item appears on the menu bar when you select an item in any of the navigation views.
Examples of "'Item name' actions" bars

Actions

Contains a list of common operations that can be performed on a managed machine or on a management server. Always the same for all views. Clicking the operation opens the respective action page (see the Action pages (p. 11) section.) All the actions can also be accessed in the Actions menu.
"Actions" bar on a managed machine and on a management server
Contains a list of the Acronis tools. Always the same across all the program views. All the tools can also be accessed in the Tools menu.

"Tools" bar

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

1.2.1.3

Operations with panes
How to expand/minimize panes
By default, the Navigation pane appears expanded and the Actions and Tools - minimized. You might need to minimize the pane in order to free some additional workspace. To do this, click the chevron ( - for the Navigation pane; - for the Actions and tools pane). The pane will be minimized and the chevron changes its direction. Click the chevron once again to expand the pane.
How to change the panes' borders
1. Point to the pane's border. 2. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow, drag the pointer to move the border. The management console "remembers" the way the panes' borders are set. When you run the management console next time, all the panes' borders will have the same position that was set previously.

Keep backups: Daily This step defines the retention rule for daily backups. The cleanup task will run after each daily backup and delete all daily backups that are older than you specify. Keep backups: Weekly This step defines the retention rule for weekly backups. The cleanup task will run after each weekly backup and delete all weekly backups that are older than you specify. The weekly backups' retention period cannot be less than the daily backups' retention period. It is usually set several times longer. Keep backups: Monthly This step defines the retention rule for monthly backups. The cleanup task will run after each monthly backup and delete all monthly backups that are older than you specify. The monthly backups retention period cannot be less than the weekly backups retention period. It is usually set several times longer. You have the option to keep the monthly backups infinitely.
The resulting archive: ideal
Assume you select to keep daily backups for 7 days, weekly backups for 2 weeks and monthly backups for 6 months. Here is how your archive would appear after the backup plan is launched if all the backups were full and so could be deleted as soon as the scheme requires. The left column shows days of the week. For each day of the week, the content of the archive after the regular backup and the subsequent cleanup is shown. D stands for the backup that is considered Daily. W stands for the backup that is considered Weekly. M stands for the backup that is considered Monthly.
An ideal archive created according to the GFS scheme. Schedule: Workdays at 8:00 PM Weekly/Monthly: Friday Keep daily backups: 7 days Keep weekly backups: 2 weeks Keep monthly backups: 6 months
Starting from the third week, weekly backups will be regularly deleted. After 6 months, monthly backups will start to be deleted. The diagram for weekly and monthly backups will look similar to the week-based timescale.
The resulting archive: real
In reality, the archive content will somewhat differ from the ideal scheme. When using the incremental and differential backup methods, you cannot delete a backup as soon as the scheme requires if later backups are based on this backup. Regular consolidation is unacceptable because it takes too much system resources. The program has to wait until the scheme requires the deletion of all the dependent backups and then deletes the entire chain. Here is how the first month of your backup plan will appear in real life. F stands for full backup. Dif stands for differential backup. I stands for incremental backup. The backups that outlive their nominal lifetime because of dependencies are marked pink. The initial full backup will be deleted as soon as all differential and incremental backups based on this backup are deleted.

Filter log entries by task, Type the required value (task name, machine name, owner name, etc.) in the field managed entity, below the respective column header. machine, code, owner As a result you will see that the list of log entries fully or just partly coincide with the entered value. Sort log entries by date and time Click the column's header to sort the log entries in ascending order. Click it once again to sort the log entries in descending order.
Configuring the log table
By default, the table has seven columns that are displayed, others are hidden. If required, you can hide the shown columns and show the hidden ones.

6.1.3.3

Log entry details
Displays detailed information on the log entry you have selected and lets you copy the details to the clipboard. To copy the details, click the Copy to clipboard button.

Log entry data fields

A local log entry contains the following data fields:
Type - type of event (Error; Warning; Information) Date - date and time of the event occurrence Backup plan - the backup plan the event relates to (if any) Task - the task the event relates to (if any) Code - the program code of the event. Every type of event in the program has its own code. A code is an integer number that may be used by Acronis support service to solve the problem. Module - number of the program module where the event has occurred. It is an integer number that may be used by Acronis support service to solve the problem. Owner - user name of the backup plan owner (only under operating system) Message - a text description of the event.
---------------------------Log Entry Details--------------------------Type: Information Date and time: DD.MM.YYYY HH:MM:SS Backup plan: Backup plan name Task: Task name Message: Description of the operation Code: 12(3x45678A) Module: Module name Owner: Owner of the plan -----------------------------------------------------------------------
The log entry's details that you copy will have the appearance as follows:
Date and time presentation varies depending on your locale settings.

Creating a backup plan

Before creating your first backup plan (p. 162), please familiarize yourself with the basic concepts (p. 17) used in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.
To create a backup plan, perform the following steps.

General

Plan name [Optional] Enter a unique name for the backup plan. A conscious name lets you identify the plan among others. Plan's credentials (p. 104) [Optional] The backup plan will run on behalf of the user who is creating the plan. You can change the plan account credentials if necessary. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box. Comments
[Optional] Type a description of the backup plan. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

Differential

Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform a differential backup. If the archive contains no full backups at the time of the task run, a full backup is created instead of the differential backup.

Clean up archive

Specifies how to get rid of old backups: either to apply retention rules (p. 30) regularly or clean up the archive during a backup when the destination location runs out of space. By default, the retention rules are not specified, which means older backups will not be deleted automatically. Using retention rules Specify the retention rules and when to apply them.
This setting is recommended for backup destinations such as shared folders or centralized vaults. When there is insufficient space while backing up The archive will be cleaned up only during backup and only if there is not enough space to create a new backup. In this case, the program will act as follows:
Delete the oldest full backup with all dependent incremental/differential

backups

If there is only one full backup left and a full backup is in progress, then
delete the last full backup with all dependent incremental/differential backups
If there is only one full backup left, and an incremental or differential backup
is in progress, an error occurs saying there is a lack of available space This setting is recommended when backing up to a USB drive or Acronis Secure Zone. This setting is not applicable to managed vaults. This setting enables deletion of the last backup in the archive, in case your storage device cannot accommodate more than one backup. However, you might end up with no backups if the program is not able to create the new backup for some reason. Apply the rules (only if the retention rules are set) Specifies when to apply the retention rules (p. 30). For example, the cleanup procedure can be set up to run after each backup, and also on schedule. This option is available only if you have set at least one retention rule in Retention rules. Cleanup schedule (only if On schedule is selected) Specifies a schedule for archive cleanup. For example, the cleanup can be scheduled to start on the last day of each month. This option is available only if you selected On schedule in Apply the rules.

Weekly full backup

The following scheme yields a full backup performed every Friday night. Full backup: Schedule: Weekly, every Friday, at 10:00 PM Here, all parameters except Schedule in Full backup are left empty. All backups in the archive are kept indefinitely (no archive cleanup is performed).

Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK. To learn more about using credentials in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, see the Owners and credentials (p. 23) section. To learn more about operations available depending on the user privileges, see the User privileges on a managed machine (p. 23) section.

Archive selection

Selecting the archive
1. Enter the full path to the location in the Path field, or select the desired folder in the folders tree.
If the archive is stored in a centralized vault, expand the Centralized group and click the vault. If the archive is stored in a personal vault, expand the Personal group and click the vault. If the archive is stored in a local folder on the machine, expand the Local folders group and click the required folder.
If the archive is located on removable media, e.g. DVDs, first insert the last DVD and then insert the discs in order starting from the first one when the program prompts.
If the archive is stored on a network share, expand the Network folders group, then select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them.
If the archive is stored on an FTP or SFTP server, type the server name or address in the Path field as follows: ftp://ftp_server:port _number or sftp://sftp_server:port number
If the port number is not specified, port 21 is used for FTP and port 22 is used for SFTP. After entering access credentials, the folders on the server become available. Click the appropriate folder on the server. You can access the server as an anonymous user if the server enables such access. To do so, click Use anonymous access instead of entering credentials.
If the archive is stored on a locally attached tape device, expand the Tape drives group, then click the required device. 2. In the table to the right of the tree, select the archive. The table displays the names of the archives contained in each vault/folder you select. While you are reviewing the location content, archives can be added, deleted or modified by another user or by the program itself according to scheduled operations. Use the Refresh button to refresh the list of archives. 3. Click OK.

Unmounting images

Maintaining the mounted volumes takes considerable system resources. It is recommended that you unmount the volumes after the necessary operations are completed. If not unmounted manually, a volume will remain mounted until the operating system restarts. To unmount an image, select it in the table and click To unmount all the mounted volumes, click Unmount.

Unmount all.

Exporting archives and backups
The export operation creates a copy of an archive or a self-sufficient part copy of an archive in the location you specify. The original archive remains untouched. The export operation can be applied to:
a single archive - an exact archive copy will be created
a single backup - an archive consisting of a single full backup will be created. The export of an incremental or a differential backup is performed using consolidation of the preceding backups up to the nearest full backup your choice of backups belonging to the same archive - the resulting archive will contain only the specified backups. Consolidation is performed as required, so the resulting archive may contain full, incremental and differential backups.
Usage scenarios Export enables you to separate a specific backup from a chain of incremental backups for fast recovery, writing onto removable or detachable media or other purposes. By exporting a managed vault to a detachable media, you obtain a portable unmanaged vault that can be used in the following scenarios:
keeping an off-site copy of your vault or of the most important archives physical transportation of a vault to a distant branch office recovery without access to the storage node in case of networking problems or failure of the storage node recovery of the storage node itself.
Export from an HDD-based vault to a tape device can be considered as simple on-demand archive staging. The resulting archive's name By default, the exported archive inherits the name of the original archive. Because having multiple archives of the same names in the same location is not advisable, the following actions are disabled with the default archive name:

exporting part of an archive to the same location exporting an archive or part of an archive to a location where an archive of the same name exists exporting an archive or part of an archive to the same location twice
In any of the above cases, provide an archive name that is unique to the destination folder or vault. If you need to redo the export using the same archive name, first delete the archive that resulted from the previous export operation. The resulting archive's options The exported archive inherits the options of the original archive, including encryption and the password. When exporting a password-protected archive, you are prompted for the password. If the original archive is encrypted, the password is used to encrypt the resulting archive. Source and destination locations When the console is connected to a managed machine, you can export an archive or part of an archive to and from any location accessible to the agent residing on the machine. These include personal vaults, locally attached tape devices, removable media and, in the advanced product versions, managed and unmanaged centralized vaults. When the console is connected to a management server, two export methods are available:
export from a managed vault. The export is performed by the storage node that manages the vault. The destination can be a network share or a local folder of the storage node.
export from an unmanaged centralized vault. The export is performed by the agent installed on the managed machine you specify. The destination can be any location accessible to the agent, including a managed vault.
Tip. When configuring export to a deduplicating managed vault, choose a machine where the deduplication add-on to the agent is installed. Otherwise the export task will fail.
Operations with an export task An export task starts immediately after you complete its configuration. An export task can be stopped or deleted in the same way as any other task. Once the export task is completed, you can run it again at any time. Before doing so, delete the archive that resulted from the previous task run if the archive still exists in the destination vault. Otherwise the task will fail. You cannot edit an export task to specify another name for the destination archive (this is a limitation).
Tip. You can implement the staging scenario manually, by regularly running the archive deletion task followed by the export task.

Creating Acronis Secure Zone
You can create Acronis Secure Zone while the operating system is running or using bootable media.
To create Acronis Secure Zone, perform the following steps.
Disk (p. 144) Choose a hard disk (if several) on which to create the zone. Acronis Secure Zone is created using unallocated space, if available, or at the expense of the volume's free space. Size (p. 144) Specify the exact size of the zone. Moving or resizing of locked volumes, such as the volume containing the currently active operating system, requires a reboot.
Password (p. 145) [Optional] Protect the Acronis Secure Zone from unauthorized access with a password. The prompt for the password appear at any operation relating to the zone. After you configure the required settings, click OK. In the Result confirmation (p. 145) window, review the expected layout and click OK to start creating the zone.

6.8.1.1

Acronis Secure Zone Disk
The Acronis Secure Zone can be located on any fixed hard drive. Acronis Secure Zone is always created at the end of the hard disk. A machine can have only one Acronis Secure Zone. Acronis Secure Zone is created using unallocated space, if available, or at the expense of the volumes' free space.
The Acronis Secure Zone cannot be organized on a dynamic disk or a disk using the GPT partitioning style.
To allocate space for Acronis Secure Zone
1. Choose a hard disk (if several) on which to create the zone. The unallocated space is selected by default. The program displays the total space available for the Acronis Secure Zone. 2. If you need to allocate more space for the zone, you can select volumes from which free space can be taken. Again, the program displays the total space available for the Acronis Secure Zone depending on your selection. You will be able to set the exact zone size in the Acronis Secure Zone Size (p. 144) window. 3. Click OK.

6.8.1.2

Acronis Secure Zone Size

As is apparent from the above, setting the maximum possible 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.
Managing Acronis Secure Zone
Acronis Secure Zone is considered as a personal vault (p. 173). Once created on a managed machine, the zone is always present in the list of Personal vaults. Centralized backup plans can use Acronis Secure Zone as well as local plans. If you have used the Acronis Secure Zone before, please note a radical change in the zone functionality. The zone does not perform automatic cleanup, that is, deleting old archives, anymore.
Use backup schemes with automatic cleanup to back up to the zone, or delete outdated archives manually using the vault management functionality. With the new Acronis Secure Zone behavior, you obtain the ability to:
list archives located in the zone and backups included in each archive examine backup content mount a volume backup to copy files from the backup to a physical disk safely delete archives and backups from the archives.
To learn more about operations with vaults, see the Vaults (p. 70) section.

6.8.2.1

Increasing Acronis Secure Zone
To increase Acronis Secure Zone
1. On the Manage Acronis Secure Zone page, click Increase. 2. Select volumes from which free space will be used to increase the Acronis Secure Zone. 3. Specify the new size of the zone by:
dragging the slider and selecting any size between the current and maximum values. The maximum size is equal to the disks unallocated space plus the total free space of all selected partitions;
typing an exact value in the Acronis Secure Zone Size field. When increasing the size of the zone, the program will act as follows:
first, it will use the unallocated space. Volumes will be moved, if necessary, but not resized. Moving of locked volumes requires a reboot. If there is not enough unallocated space, the program will take free space from the selected volumes, proportionally reducing the volumes' size. Resizing of locked partitions requires a reboot.
Reducing a system volume to the minimum size might prevent the machine's operating system from booting.

4. Click OK.

6.8.2.2
Decreasing Acronis Secure Zone
To decrease Acronis Secure Zone

built-in group except for deleting the machine from the management server. Virtual machines are deleted as a result of their host server deletion. A backup policy (p. 162) can be applied to a built-in group.

Centralized backup plan

A backup plan (p. 162) that appears on the managed machine (p. 169) as a result of deploying a backup policy (p. 162) from the management server (p. 170). Such plan can be modified only by editing the backup policy.

Centralized management

Management of the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 infrastructure through a central management unit known as Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server (p. 170). The centralized management operations include:
creating, applying and managing backup policies (p. 162) creating and managing static (p. 171) and dynamic groups (p. 167) of machines (p. 169) managing the tasks (p. 172) existing on the machines creating and managing centralized vaults (p. 164) for storing archives managing storage nodes (p. 171) monitoring activities of the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 components, viewing the centralized log and more.

Centralized task

A task (p. 172) belonging to a centralized backup plan (p. 164). Such task appears on the managed machine (p. 169) as a result of deploying a backup policy (p. 162) from the management server (p. 170) and can be modified only by editing the backup policy.

Centralized vault

A networked location allotted by the management server (p. 170) administrator to serve as storage for the backup archives (p. 161). A centralized vault can be managed by a storage node (p. 171) or be unmanaged. The total number and size of archives stored in a centralized vault are limited by the storage size only. As soon as the management server administrator creates a centralized vault, the vault name and path to the vault are distributed to all machines registered (p. 171) on the server. The shortcut to the vault appears on the machines in the Centralized vaults list. Any backup plan (p. 162) existing on the machines, including local plans, can use the centralized vault. On a machine that is not registered on the management server, a user having the privilege to back up to the centralized vault can do so by specifying the full path to the vault. If the vault is managed, the user's archives will be managed by the storage node as well as other archives stored in the vault.

Cleanup

Deleting backups (p. 161) from a backup archive (p. 161) in order to get rid of outdated backups or prevent the archive from exceeding the desired size.

Any management operation that is performed on a managed machine (p. 169) using the direct console (p. 165)-agent (p. 160) connection (as opposed to centralized management (p. 164) when the
operations are configured on the management server (p. 170) and propagated by the server to the managed machines). The direct management operations include:
creating and managing local backup plans (p. 169) creating and managing local tasks (p. 169), such as recovery tasks creating and managing personal vaults (p. 170) and archives stored there viewing the state, progress and properties of the centralized tasks (p. 164) existing on the machine viewing and managing the log of the agent's operations disk management operations, such as clone a disk, create volume, convert volume.
A kind of direct management is performed when using bootable media (p. 163). Some of the direct management operations can also be performed via the management server GUI. This presumes, however, either an explicit or an implicit direct connection to the selected machine.

Disk backup (Image)

A backup (p. 161) that contains a sector-based copy of a disk or a volume in a packaged form. Normally, only sectors that contain data are copied. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides an option to take a raw image, that is, copy all the disk sectors, which enables imaging of unsupported file systems.

Disk group

A number of dynamic disks (p. 166) that store the common configuration data in their LDM databases and therefore can be managed as a whole. Normally, all dynamic disks created within the same machine (p. 169) are members of the same disk group. As soon as the first dynamic disk is created by the LDM or another disk management tool, the disk group name can be found in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\dmio\Boot Info\Primary Disk Group\Name. The next created or imported disks are added to the same disk group. The group exists until at least one of its members exists. Once the last dynamic disk is disconnected or converted to basic, the group is discontinued, though its name is kept in the above registry key. In case a dynamic disk is created or connected again, a disk group with an incremental name is created. When moved to another machine, a disk group is considered as foreign and cannot be used until imported into the existing disk group. The import updates the configuration data on both the local and the foreign disks so that they form a single entity. A foreign group is imported as is (will have the original name) if no disk group exists on the machine. For more information about disk groups please refer to the following Microsoft knowledge base article: 222189 Description of Disk Groups in Windows Disk Management http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222189/EN-US/

If there are multiple management servers on the network, they operate independently, manage different machines and use different centralized vaults for storing archives.

Media builder

A dedicated tool for creating bootable media (p. 163).

Personal vault

A local or networked vault (p. 173) created using direct management (p. 165). Once a personal vault is created, a shortcut to it appears under the Personal vaults item of the Navigation pane. Multiple machines can use the same physical location; for example, a network share; as a personal vault.

Physical machine

On Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server, a physical machine is the same as a registered machine (p. 171). A virtual machine is considered physical if an Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agent is installed on the machine and the machine is registered on the management server.
See Backup plan (p. 162).

Policy

See Backup policy (p. 162).

Recovery point

Date and time to which the backed up data can be reverted to.

Registered machine

A machine (p. 169) managed by a management server (p. 170). A machine can be registered on only one management server at a time. A machine becomes registered as a result of the registration (p. 171) procedure.

Registration

A procedure that adds a managed machine (p. 169) to a management server (p. 170). Registration sets up a trust relationship between the agent (p. 160) residing on the machine and the server. During registration, the console retrieves the management server's client certificate and passes it to the agent which uses it later to authenticate clients attempting to connect. This helps prevent any attempts by network attackers from establishing a fake connection on behalf of a trusted principal (the management server).

Selection rule

A part of the backup policy (p. 162). Enables the management server (p. 170) administrator to select the data to back up within a machine.

Static group

A group of machines which a management server (p. 170) administrator populates by manually adding machines to the group. A machine remains in a static group until the administrator removes it from the group or from the management server.

Storage node (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node)
A server aimed to optimize usage of various resources required for protection of enterprise data. This goal is achieved by organizing managed vaults (p. 169). Storage node enables the administrator to:
relieve managed machines (p. 169) of unnecessary CPU load by using the storage node-side cleanup (p. 171) and storage node-side validation (p. 172) drastically reduce backup traffic and storage space taken by the archives (p. 161) by using deduplication (p. 165) prevent access to the backup archives, even in case the storage medium is stolen or accessed by a malefactor, by using encrypted vaults (p. 168).
Storage node-side cleanup
Cleanup (p. 164) performed by a storage node (p. 171) according to the backup plans (p. 162) that produce the archives (p. 161) stored in a managed vault (p. 169). Being an alternative to the agentside cleanup (p. 161), the cleanup on the storage node side relieves the production servers of unnecessary CPU load.
Copyright Acronis, Inc., 2000-2010 171
Since the cleanup schedule exists on the machine (p. 169) the agent (p. 160) resides on, and therefore uses the machines time and events, the agent has to initiate the storage node-side cleanup every time the scheduled time or event comes. To do so, the agent must be online. The following table summarizes the cleanup types used in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.
Cleanup Agent-side Applied to: Initiated by: Performed by: Schedule set by: Retention rules set by: Archive Agent Agent Backup plan Backup plan Storage node-side Archive Agent Storage node Backup plan Backup plan
Storage node-side validation
Validation (p. 173) performed by a storage node (p. 171) according to the backup plans (p. 162) that produce the archives (p. 161) stored in a managed location (p. 169). Being an alternative to the agent-side validation (p. 161), the validation on the storage node side relieves the production servers of unnecessary CPU load.
In Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, a task is a set of sequential actions to be performed on a managed machine (p. 169) when a certain time comes or a certain event occurs. The actions are described in an xml script file. The start condition (schedule) exists in the protected registry keys.

Tower of Hanoi

A popular backup scheme (p. 163) aimed to maintain the optimal balance between a backup archive (p. 161) size and the number of recovery points (p. 170) available from the archive. Unlike the GFS (p. 168) scheme that has only three levels of recovery resolution (daily, weekly, monthly resolution), the Tower of Hanoi scheme continuously reduces the time interval between recovery points as the backup age increases. This allows for very efficient usage of the backup storage. For more information please refer to "Tower of Hanoi backup scheme (p. 28)".
Universal Restore (Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore)