Dissaster Recovery through a network

I am looking for a solution to automatically backup computers that are running equipment on a production floor. I have been testing out Acronis True Image Workstation. So far it looks good. The biggest concern that I have is that I havn't yet been able to recover a hard drive through the Image Management Console. I will boot up a remote computer with a bootable recovery media, and bring up the Acronis Bootable Agent. This gives me an IP address. When I change my server IP address so that I can can make a connection, the Image Management Console can't find the remote computer. To verify the connection, I pinged the remote computer, and had a good response back. So why can't the Image Management Console find the remote computer and connect to it?
Also, it really isn't very practical in my situation to change the server IP/subnet mask settings so that I can connect to the remote computer. Can I configure the remote computer's IP address after it boots up into the Bootable Agent, or atleast preset the desired IP address when it boots into the Bootable Agent?

Help on this issue would great!
Thanks

 

Hello blainedye,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Remote Workstation Disk Backup Software.

If the desired computer is not shown under 'Computers Near Me' in Acronis Management Console, please try connecting to it by entering the IP address you specified when booted the remote machine from the Bootable Rescue CD containing Acronis Bootable Agent.

If that does not help and you still cannot connect to the remote machine booted from Acronis Bootable Agent using Acronis Management Console then please create Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post for computer where Acronis Management Console is installed.

Please also do the following:

- Boot the remote machine you want to recover from Bootable Rescue CD containing Acronis Bootable Agent and press 'F11' key when the selection screen advising you to select either "Full", "Safe", "Bootable Agent" or "Boot into Windows" option appears;

- After you get the "Linux Kernel Settings" prompt, please remove the "quiet" word, click on the OK button, choose "Full Version" and wait for # prompt to appear;

- Issue the following commands:

asamba dhcp -n
asamba masters

- Write down the output after each of the commands or use a digital camera to make a shots of the output screens;

- Insert a diskette in a floppy disk drive and issue the following commands;

cd tmp
mkdir mntdir
mount /devfs/floppy/0 mntdir
cat /proc/net/dev > mntdir/net.txt
sysinfo > mntdir/sysinfo.txt
umount mntdir

- Collect the net.txt and sysinfo.txt files from the diskette.

Note that sometimes the sysinfo.txt and net.txt files are not readable from under Windows. In this case please try entering the file name using capital letters, i.e. SYSINFO.TXT, NET.TXT, or follow the instructions provided in this previous post of mine.

If you do not have a floppy drive then please take a look at this previous post of mine explaining how to save the sysinfo.txt file to USB flash drive (the same applies to the net.txt file).

Please also describe your network structure in more details.

Then please submit a request for technical support using Ask a question before you purchase Acronis software link. Provide the collected files and information in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the most suitable solution as soon as possible.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

QUOTE=
"If the desired computer is not shown under 'Computers Near Me' in Acronis Management Console, please try connecting to it by entering the IP address you specified when booted the remote machine from the Bootable Rescue CD containing Acronis Bootable Agent. "


How can I specify the IP address for the remote computer from the Acronis Bootable Agent?

Also, I noticed that when the Acronis Bootable Agent is running, it gives me a name as "(none)" with an IP address of 169.254.20.37. When I look for the remote computer from the console, "(none)" is listed (it is only listed when I have a remote computer running the Acronis Bootable Agent). It will not let me connect to it though, because it say it is an invalid name. So I am assuming from this, as well as from your quote, that there has to be a way to specify a name and an IP address for the remote computer when using the Acronis Bootable Agent. I havn't figure out how though, and there isn't much info that I could find on the Acronis Bootable Agent. If you could help me figure out how to change or specify a name and IP address on the remote machine, I should be fine with the rest. If I can't figure it out, I will submit a request for technical support.
Thank You

 

That IP Address means that the machine that is running the Acronis Bootable Agent is trying to get its IP address via DHCP but there is no DHCP server on its subnet, so it gets an AutoIP address instead. When this happens, it can't talk to anyone at all (unless you happen to have other machines on the network that got an AutoIP address, but that would be very strange).

One solution is to enable a DHCP server on its subnet so it will get a correct IP address. I've not used the Bootable Agent per se, but I know that the Acronis Rescue disk has a menu option in which you can change configure a static IP address for the ethernet interface, eth0. It may be the same.

 

Hello blainedye,

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

I'm really sorry for misleading you with my previous reply as I'm afraid there is no way to specify the network settings manually when booting the computer from Acronis Bootable Agent. You should have DHCP server running in your network in order to be able to use Acronis Bootable Agent. Otherwise, no IP address will be assigned to a remote machine. Taking into account the fact that that your machine received some IP address, I assume that there is a DHCP server running in your network. The ability to configure network setting manually when using Acronis Bootable Agent will certainly be implemented in the future versions\builds of a particular product, but exact time frame for this is not decided yet.

Please be aware that it is a normal situation and therefore should not affect your ability to connect to this machine remotely by entering the respective IP address in Acronis Management Console. The absence of computer name is usually caused by the fact that the computer has nothing on it's hard drive (so called bare-metal machine) or DNS server responsible for assigning names to computers is not running in your network.

Please do as I have suggested in my previous post and try entering the IP address assigned to a remote machine upon it's bootup from Acronis Bootable Agent (169.254.20.37 in your case) when trying to connect to this machine using Acronis Management Console (see the example below).

If that does not help then please submit a request for technical support containing the information I have requested in my previous post.

Please note that, as I have already mentioned above, currently there is no way to specify the network settings when you boot the computer from Acronis Bootable Agent. The IP address can be assigned by DHCP server only. There is also no way to preset the desired IP address or network settings upon Bootable Rescue CD creation. However, we do have plans to implement both these features in the future versions\builds of a particular product. I'm afraid that the exact time frame for this is not decided yet.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

I have not yet been able to connect to the remote computer from the console. I have submitted the requested info and a request for technical support. It wasn't very much help for me. What I did figure out though, was that I can connect to the network from the remote computer. I just have to change the IP address, and then the catch is this: you have to type in the computer's name or IP address you are trying to connect to; it won't be listed. Don't forget the double backslash to. ie \\(computer name)\. This should bring up a prompt for user name and password. So that is good to have at least. If anyone know how to get the console to connect to the remote computer (when under the OS), without using a DCHP server, I am up for hints and tips.
Thanks, Blaine