Enterprise and multiple servers to tape

I'm trying to demo Windows Enterprise, and I can't seem to figure out how to put several servers to one tape.

Under management console, I create a new group task, select my 2 servers, add all hard drives, and then it asks me for a local, network, or secure path.

Where is my tape drive option?

I'm running the IMC from my storage server, and my storage server is also one of the servers I'm trying to backup.

What am I missing?

 

Common.. you expect me to pay a couple thousand dollars for a product that I can't get support on?

 

Hello EnterpriseUser,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Remote Server Backup Software.

If you have a SCSI tape drive connected to your server, the list of devices available for image storage and restoration should be extended with a name corresponding to the drive type.

Please clarify me the following:

- Where is your tape drive connected to?
- Where did you install Acronis Storage Server?

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova

 

I have a SCSI tape drive in 'Server A'

Acronis Storage server, enterprise manager and console are all installed on 'Server A'.

I have the client installed on 'Server B'.

I'm trying to image Server A and B to a tape drive ( a single tape ) in Server A with the above steps.

 

Alright, I figured out by typing in the UNC path to the 'network' drive (even though it's local) It seems that I'm able to put the image on tape.

However....

The server that I pushed the client to is having an issue. The media/enterprise/management server pops up an error, telling me that the agent on the remote machine is corrupt or old, and that it can't be accessed.

Yes, it's been rebooted, and the services ARE running.

When asked for a username and password on the storage server, I used the domain admin account.

Help?

 

Interesting note..

The error message is complaining about the storage server 'server' itself.

Tells me that the version is corrupt or outdated.

This shouldn't be that difficult.

 

For anyone using the search feature in this forum this final answer is this:

Acronis does not allow you to backup multiple servers to one tape.

What is that you ask? Why waste a 100GB or more Ultrium tape thats less than 20% full?

You got me!

Acronis people... I know my opinion means absolutely nothing to a company like this, but, if you want to get into the enterprise market with your product, you have to allow us to backup multiple images/servers to one tape.. even at that, to allow a tape robot to span multiple tapes.

 

I agree fully. Acronis has lost my business as a corporate solution. For a home machine or a laptop, I recommend Acronis. For a corporate solution, it lacks severely.... No library support. Remote agent installs fail on majority of workstations (yes, I have checked simply file sharing and firewall exceptions). We'll be sticking with Backup Exec for now. Maybe when version 10 comes out Acronis will have woken up and seen the 400+ tape libraries, etc and fix their remote agent installers.

 

Hello Enterprise User and Kristin,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Remote Server Backup Software.

Please be aware that according to the section 4.5 of Acronis True Image 8.0 Enterprise Server for Windows User's Guide,
"a new full image can be stored on an empty tape only. If you use tapes that already contain data, their contents will be cleared and overwritten".

However, we have already received similar requests from other Acronis customers and they have already been forwarded to our Development Team. Thus the ability to create more than one full image on a single tape will probably be implemented in the future versions of a particular product, but exact time frame is not decided yet.

Please also note that if you want us to change the behaviour of Acronis True Image in any way or add some new features to this product, please feel free to post any of your suggestions in Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov