Managing Backup Archives and other issues

[sgmoore]

I have been using TI Workstation 9.1 for some time, but mainly for ad-hoc backups (ie booting of a cd and performing a full disk image to an external USB hard-disk). I don't have any issue with this as it has always done what I needed.

But I have recently starting trying to use it on a more regular basis and also evaluating to see if it could be used to backup all computers at our office. I assumed the proper way to perform backups would be through scheduled backups to 'backup locations' etc.

So I created a backup location on my computer on Drive C and performed a full image of Drive C to this Backup Location. I wasn't quite sure whether this would work (ie effectively backing up Drive C to Drive C), but it appeared to do so.

So my first problem was when I went to verify the backup. I was assuming that I could mount the image, but this does not appear to work if you are backing up to a backup location.

I then created a few file backups to the backup location which proceeded ok.

The second problem was when I performed my second Full Backup of my Hard Disk. This was an incremental backup but it failed because it was now attempting to backup the backup location which containing my first backup. I thought that would be solved by excluding the backup folder, but it appears that you can not exclude any files. I have a few files such as a 50GB Virtual machine of my old computer which don't really need to be backed up.


The third problem was when I went in to manage by backup archives. It would appear that I can not do anything with them expect restore them. I can't delete them and I can not move them. I attempted to change the backup location to an external USB hard drive and it spent an awful long time (ie left running overnight) accessing the drive but ultimately did not work. Does not give an error message, but just appears to stop.

I looked inside the backup location folder expecting to see .tib files, but all I see is files with what looks like guids as file name with no indication of which backup they related to. So I am left with no option but to wipe this whole folder and start again. This is not a real problem in this case as none of the backups are important, but the fact that I do not seem to have control over my backups is a very large black mark against the product as regards me evaluating TI for wider use. Of course you don't have to use Backup locations and you can just backup to the network location and/or external hard drive. In fact if you do this you can
1) mount the images
2) delete images
3) copy the images (eg burn them to DVD or backup to tape)


It seems to be that backup locations are designed to be the 'proper' way of doing backups, but have these very strange limitations which IMHO make it unsuitable for its very purpose.

Or am I missing something ?

I am also aware that the version I have is not the latest version, so perhaps some of this limitations have been removed.

Stephen

[shieber]

I've never seen any of the problems. They certainly are inherent limitations. ATI backup files can be handled by any file manager that can handle files under NTFS or FAT -- such as windows Explorer.

All ATI backup files have the tib extension unless you manually specify something else, which is not advisable.

File-by-file backups can't be mounted but can still be explorered. Partition/disk tibs can be mounted.

I'd recommending using the latest build of whatever version you are using.

The backup files shouldn't be on the same drive you are backing up unless you create an ATI Secure Zone. Although I think it is much better and safer to do it on a diff drive. If something goes wonky onyour drive, which is when you're most likely to want to restore, you won't be able to if your backups are on the wonky drove.

Create the backup location on the other drive.

[sgmoore]

Hmm.

You say you have never seen the problems, but you don't actually say whether you use backup server locations or not.

The files ATI creates using this method don't have any extension and I don't get the option to specify a filename much less an extension.

Partition/disks files created on an external harddisk (where you do get the chance to specify the filename and which do have the tib extension) can be mounted, but file by file backups on the same location seem to be assocated with a restore wizard.

> ATI backup files can be handled by any file manager ...

Not sure whether you mean something special other than using explorer to copy and/or delete a file. I know I can do that, but I have a folder with 100+ file names, for example 22DBFC38-B563-4AEB-869B-30FBBAF84467 , which mean nothing to me, so I don't know which to copy or delete.

[Acronis Support]

Hello sgmoore,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Remote Workstation Disk Backup Software (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/).

We are sorry for delayed response.

Please be aware that Acronis Backup Server manages backups via database approach, so archives are split and named automatically to fit database structure. Archives stored to Acronis Backup Server cannot be mounted.

There is currently no option to exclude files from disk/partition images in corporate versions of Acronis True Image. Please notice that it's recommended to install Acronis Backup Server on a computer dedicated for the backup storage.

Please notice that, as described in the respective User's Guide (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/download/docs/), moving backup locations may take a lot of time and system resources.

It's possible to consolidate any archive (except for the oldest one in chain) with the previous one. This operation deletes the previous archive and puts the archive being consolidated dependant on the archive before the deleted one. Thus, the chain integrity will not be affected.

Acronis True Image Echo Workstation (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/), among other improvements, adds more options for archive management:
- You can export an archive from Acronis Backup Server to a local hard drive or network share;
- You can also import an archive from external location to a computer’s or user’s backup location on the backup server.
For detailed information on these and other functions of Acronis True Image Echo Workstation please see the respective User's Guide (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/download/docs/).

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

[sgmoore]

-{ Quote: "

... moving backup locations may take a lot of time and system resources.
" }-

Understood. But it is still supposed to work. I left it running overnight (with no powersaving options on) and it failed and had not copied one byte across. It had actually created a zero byte file.

Downloaded a Trial of Echo to see if it helped. Truth be told it was a frustrating experience trying to install it. It kept telling me it could not install and try again later. No logs or no helpful messages.
Tried rebooting cleanly (same thing) and retrying removing the old version and rebooting cleaning etc to no avail. Almost gave up, but then got it working by running the complete installation packages as Administrator (this is Vista btw) rather than letting the install prompt for elavated privileges when it required them (which it did prompt for).

But the conclusion is that Echo may have more features, but it does not work any better. (Except that you do sometimes get slightly better error messages)

Tried exporting a file backup and it failed with

E0004000D: Failed to clone backup. Either the backup is corrupted or
unable to write data.
The file is corrupted (0x4000D)
Tag = OX639CC48216FA4C25

Tried validating the backup and they all say they are fine. The destination drives (tried several) all seem to be ok. It does not appear to be a permissions issue as it was able to create a file of size 64000 bytes

Tried editing the backup location and it is not able to access my network folders. Clicking on one prompt up a username password (but keying the correct details did not work). (Network access works fine outside of the TrueImage Console)

Clicking on the Computer icon brought up the following.

E00040007: Error opening the file.

Error while executing DataWalker expression. (0xE0000)
path = "try item.RegisterHandler(TreeRefresher) except true end; set filePattern = FilePattern; set isFolderBrowsingMode = Parameter.IsFolderBrowsingMode; select * from try choose when IsFolder: Children otherwise CreateCollection end except User($ERROR.GetField('UserName')); Password(''); evaluate LoadScript('NewHandleAuthenticationError') with Folder := item, Code := $ERROR.SubError.Code, this := $context end end where $value.IsFolder or Match($value.Name, @filePattern) and not @isFolderBrowsingMode sort $left.IsFolder and $right.IsFile >>>end",
line = 1),
column = 21A)
Tag = 0x83D6A86BA3ABB678
Error opening the file. (0x40007)
Tag = 0xE7E1FEA81E263485
No such interface supported (0xFFF0)
code = 80004002)
Tag = 0xBD28FDBD64EDB8B4

Restarting again and finally got something to start. I started to export one of the disk backups from the Backup Service Archive onto my local hard Disk. I went to about 90-95% complete and then stopped. 'Operation has Completed with errors. Please, see log for more details'. At this stage I was not surprised to see that the log file that comes up when you press 'See Log' shows absolutely any details of this process. But in this case I know what happened. It ran out of space on my hard disk. The backup file (reported at 7Gb) needs more than 18GB when exported. It created one file of 10Gb and started to create another file and after it had used another 8GB it ran out of room.

All in all, not exactly what you could consider 'good user experience'.