Need help choosing product(s) & setup

[BlueTorpeedo]

I was originally introduced to Acronis True Image back in November when a client sent us an image in your format. Using the trial version of Workstation 9, I was able to restore the image on one of our systems and the experiance was pretty good.

Now I'm tasked with setting up a special project where I think I will want to purchase some form of Acronis True Image, however, I am having trouble determining what I really need.

At my company we develop system drivers and filesystems for windows based PCs. We are starting a new project and I need to setup a group of PCs (more then 4, less then 10, not sure of exact # yet) for testing this software. The catch is that because of the way the software works, if something goes wrong (and it will) the system will be completely trashed. I expect 2-3 PCs to fail a day when this gets going and the projects will probably last at least a few months.

I need a way to recover test PCs very quickly. Things like differential backups , backups while you work, and other bells/whistles dont matter; I just need to create a single good image for each machine and restore it each time the system gets junked. I cannot use VMs in this project, so I definatly need some sort of image restore software.

For OS's, I need a product that supports Win2k Sp4, XP Sp2, XP x64, Win2k3 Sp1 standard, enterprise, etc... and probably Vista too.

I have been playing with another trial copy of workstation 9.1 and I like it alot. So far, I think my best option is to backup each test machine image onto an acronis securezone partition and restore a hosed PC at boot time.

My questions are as follows:
Do I need 1 copy of workstation for each test PC I want to back up? It seems that I can do remote backups of many systems with one copy of workstation running on a host using the remote agents and the console, but for doing local backups, do I need like 10 copies? $800 is pretty expensive.

Is there another version of acronis more suited to this kind of use?

How would some of you, more experianced with this product, setup acronis to to solve my backup needs?

[Tabvla]

Hi BlueTorpeedo, welcome to the Forum....

Are each of the PC's (somewhere between 4 and 10) configured the same or is each PC a different test environment (e.g. different OS, hardware, drivers ..etc) ?

T.

[BlueTorpeedo]

These PCs will each have different hardware and operating systems (all windows 2k or higher).

[Tabvla]

In that case I suggest that you approach Acronis Sales directly and ask them to make a deal with you.

Theoretically (and legally) you will need X-number of licenses, either individual licenses or a group license for X-number of instances. If you only need the licenses for a few months then Acronis may well be agreeable to some type of time-related license at a negotiated price.

For Acronis it is better that they make a deal with you rather than you use the competitor's product....

[BlueTorpeedo]

I'll try it.

[Acronis Support]

Hello BlueTorpeedo,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that Tabvla is right and according to Acronis software licensing policy, you should purchase one copy of Acronis program per every computer where it will be used.

Please also note that depending on the operating system you use on the local computer you might need to use deferent versions of Acronis True Image. Such as Acronis True Image 10.0 Home and Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation are compatible with Windows Vista, Windows XP Home and Professional operating systems including Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 Professional.

Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced server, Windows 2000 Server and Windows NT 4.0 Server are supported by server versions of Acronis True Image: Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows and Acronis True Image 9.1 Enterprise Server

Note that we have a flexible system of discounts and the amount of the discount varies depending on the number of copies you want to purchase. We would recommend that you contact our Sales Team by filling up the Volume License Request form available at the Purchase Acronis Corporate Solutions page of Acronis web site.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov