Keeping multiple image files

[babakanoosh]

Is there a way to specify keeping some number of consecutive image files? Of course they would have to automatically be given different names. I am saving images on hard disk not in Secure Zone.

[Acronis Support]

Hello babakanoosh,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

The only way to do what you want is to schedule several full backups, the number of them being equal to the number of image files you wish to have permanently. In this case the old file will be replaced with the new one with the same name.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software please feel free to ask them.

Thank you.
--
Best regards,
Ilya Toytman

Acronis, Inc.
395 Oyster Point Blvd., Suite 213
South San Francisco, CA 94080 USA
http://www.acronis.com/

Acronis support department
e-mail: support@acronis.com

Acronis... compute with confidence

Please visit Acronis at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany!
March 10 - 16, 2005 - Hall 1 Booth 5i7

[TonioRoffo]

What if you want to schedule incremental backups for these multiple fulls?

For example,

Week one: monday: full-1
Week two: monday: full-2

How do you schedule:

Week one: tuesday-friday, increment full-1
Week two: tuesday-friday, increment full-2

I know you can schedule daily, every x weeks, but you can't set a start date....

I'm having headaches with scheduling Acronis - I love the product, I want to use it with all our clients, but it's just not good enough scheduling wise.

Secure Zone can do what I want, but then I'd love to be able to copy this secure zone to another disk... or have multiple secure zones?

[MiniMax]

Eh? Looking at the TI 8.0 guide, p. 53, weekly schedules, it looks like you can create a weekly schedule that includes daily schedules on Tue, Wed, Thu and Fri only.

* confused *

[Acronis Support]

Hello TonioRoffo,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

If you schedule the full-1 image creation, then full-2 image creation you will be able to schedule daily incremental image creation for both full images. To do that you will need to indicate the name of the full-1 image (you will need to type it because you do not have it created yet) for the first set of incrementals and the name for the full-2 image forthe second set. After that you will have two full images created on weekly basis, and incrementals to both of them. Is that what you wanted to do?

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

[TonioRoffo]

That's indeed what I wanted to do. But of course I only need incrementals for full-1 in weeks 1, 3, 5... and only incrementals for full-2 in week 2,4,6,... How do I do this?

[Marmara]

I wonder, why cant´t the splendit Acronis-Product add an increasing number-adding at the end off the identical named image-file? I have this with an old V2i-Protector from former Powerquest. We found this solution was elegant.

[TonioRoffo]

Marmara,

Yes it was, and you could also choose to delete sets of backups after a certain number of base backups.

Unfortunatly, V2I was memory heavy, slow, buggy, ... but it was all we had at the time concerning hot-imaging backups - we're running it for all our clients, but now want to replace it by Acronis.

However, the high-end acronis products are getting more expensive - they are very reliable but the scheduling is troublesome, almost impossible for what we would like to do.

Paragon Drive Backup is something worth checking, at a very low price for the server version...

[Marmara]

TonioRoffo,

you are right to use V2i still with your clients until Acronis improves its scheduler.
The Acronis TIS or TIES is very good, if you start it manualy, but as long as this overwritting of archive-files goes on, we use our V2i for 3 Server-Imaging, which in version 2 runs now over 1 year without any fault.

But on special machines we are testing TIES8 and we find it a very reliable product .....if there wouldn´t be this scheduler problem and its overwriting samenamed archivesfiles.

Maybe we get an answer of Acronis, if and when this feature will be fixed.

[MiniMax]

@echo off
if not exist "full-1.tib" goto :EOF

if exist "full-1.tib.99" delete "full-1.tib.99"
for /L %%I in (99,-1,1) do call :shuffle %%I
ren "full-1.tib" "full-1.tib.1"
goto :EOF

:shuffle
set /a n=%1 + 1
if exist "full-1.tib.%1" ren "full-1.tib.%1" "full-1.tib.%n%"
goto :EOF

[TonioRoffo]

MiniMax,

Doesn't work for me, I can't do renames, as I'm using sync software to sync my main backup disk to an external one (which gets swapped by another regulary) for off-site backups. Renaming files would mean that a lot more data needs to be copied from my master BU to my external disks. (The XXcopy command only copies changed files and deletes missing files found on destination but missing on source - essentially syncing dirs)

This scheme might work however - not batch yet, but it illustrates what I want to do:

Disk C is disk to be backupped
Disk X is master backup
Disk O and P are external USB disks (swapped weekly on friday)

Backup will be monthly full, daily incremental, 3 month rotation

* Make 4 directories on drive X, named alpha, beta, gamma

* Subst Y: X:\Alpha (or equivalent method for windows using "net use") - Y: points to X:\Alpha

* Acronis: Single scheduling daily mon-fri incremental from C: to Y: filename backup.tib (base BU will be made automatically when needed)

* Schedule monthly batch file: depending on month, subst Y: to alpha, beta or gamma and del Y:*.tib - freeing the directory for new backups.

* Schedule weekly friday batch file: XXcopy Y: O: /clone and xxcopy Y: P: /clone (clone master backup disk to available external disk)

This might work but it's very complex, and needs to be tested. (for example, susbt doesn't survive reboots)

PS. Instead of subst it would be possible to let acronis BU to \\127.0.0.1\backupshare and changing this share using some commands, however then you are relying on network routines which might impact speed. I'll test this.

[TonioRoffo]

Update to above:

It's all possible with Robocopy instead of XXcopy (freeware cloning of drives)

and

RMTshare.exe can be found in the MS Server resource kit. It can be used to create or delete shares (with setting permissions) in batch files. Shares *do* persist after reboots.

[TonioRoffo]

Using localhost shares slows down backups - 35 mins instead of 12 minutes on my test partition.

subst is the way to do, as it doesn't slow down the BU *at all*

Now I just need to find a way to make subst survive computer resets.

[MiniMax]

This should minimize the amount of renames. It keeps track of 3 generations: full-1.tib.1 => full-1.tib.2 => full-1.tib.3 => full-1.tib.1.
@echo on

if not exist "rotate123.txt" (
echo 1 > "rotate123.txt"
)

if not exist "full-1.tib" goto :EOF

set n=
for /f %%I in (rotate123.txt) do set n=%%I

if not defined n (
echo.
echo *ERROR* Failed to read from "rotate123.txt"
echo.
goto :EOF
)

if exist "full-1.tib.%n%" del "full-1.tib.%n%"
ren "full-1.tib" "full-1.tib.%n%"
if errorlevel 1 goto NoRotate

set /a n=n + 1
if %n% == 4 set n=1
echo %n% > "rotate123.txt"
goto :EOF

:NoRotate
echo.
echo *ERROR* Failed to "full-1.tib" to "full-1.tib.%n%"
echo.
goto :EOF

[TonioRoffo]

Thanks for the input,

I'm doing a FBSL (Link (http://gedd123.free.fr/fbsl.htm)) script right now that will point trueimage to a certain directory using subst. No renaming whatsoever.

I'll post it here when ready.