New admin for TI

I recently took over the task of making sure about 20 computers at my work are being backed up on a regular basis. The person I took this task over from moved away to continue his education and isn't available to ask how he had set the system up. Needless to say its been nothing but a head ache trying to figure TI out.

At first my problem was every time I tried do or schedule a backup I would get a "not enough privileges" error even though I have full admin rights to where the back ups are being created and within Acronis, and I couldn't install Universal Restore (UR) as it kept saying I didn't have 1 of the 3 things needed for it even though 2 of 3 where installed. After talking to tech support they told me I needed to update to the latest version and they email it to me. After about a week of not being able to update to the latest version I decided to uninstalled everything on my local computer and try to install the versions they had emailed me. Tech support never said I needed to uninstall and reinstall to update to the latest version, and to me having to uninstall and reinstall isn't an "update" its a re-install. After figuring out the re-install to update, it solved my problems with the "not enough privileges" error and I was able to install UR.


My current problem is I get the attached error message that says "Unable to open (initialize) computer" when ever I try to set either a scheduled backup or do a manual one. I submitted a tech support ticket about 5 days ago and still have had no response to it (Case 00156311). Now a week has gone by with out anything getting updated and I still can't get passed the error message.

At this point we can't make new back ups. We've got some backups that are over 6 months old on one of the servers that the last guy configured, and we've got a few back ups I've done manually before all this started that are on the external drive attached to my computer.

Should we just uninstall everything from all the computers here and start over? IS there a way to find out what the last guy did? We added a new HDD to the server and when it came up apparently TI had already been configured to run scheduled backups to that drive path, another thing we can't seam to find where it was set up at.

All of this could have been avoided had there been ANY documentation of what the last guy had set up and how he had set it up but there isn't any, at all. The network admin doesn't know and thats why I have to get this sorted out A.S.A.P. and start getting back ups made again before something goes poof.

I've got the following installed on my comp:
Acronis*True*Image Management*Console ver. 9.7.8206
Acronis True Agent ver. 9.7.8206
Acronis*True*Image*Echo Workstation ver. 9.7.8206
Acronis Universal Restore for Acronis True Image Workstation ver. 9.7.8206

It appears the server has:
Acronis Backup Server Management (build*8,206)


tl;dr

Getting error in picture can't make backups or schedule them

 

Just because someone moved away and went back to school doesn't mean he can't be contacted. Someone should have an address for him or his parents or some way to get in touch with him.

If he's a student, he might like to make a bit of money as a "consultant" helping you get this all straightened out.

A reasonable fee might be $150 per hour if it's possible for him to actually come in to help. If he can only help over the phone and by e-mailing some explanations, a bit less per hour would be reasonable. He might make $500-$600 to help with school expenses, but that would be a bargain if it speeds up getting the backups working.

Sure, he should have had this documented before he left to make your job easy, but that almost never happens. At least, I've never found that documentation when I've been called in to help in a situation like this.

 

Hey thanks for the reply I thought I'd mentioned that the guy before me was unreachable maybe I forgot to mention it. Sorry about that, didn't mean to waste your time reading my post.

Anyone have any insight into the error message that I get when trying to schedule tasks or run them manually? If I could get to where I can schedule the back-ups I think that would help the most as then I would have time to figure the rest out.

 

Hello KLStringer and jmk94903,

Thank you for using Acronis Corporate Products

KLStringer, according to our e-mail database, we sent three e-mail messages to you. Could you please confirm that you received them? If not, please check your trash folder. If you are still unable to find the messages, please provide me with another e-mail address, we will re-send the messages.

The issue you are experiencing is related to the fact that the snapapi.dll file was removed or replaced by another version of the file.

I am duplicating our last e-mail response:

--

To resolve an issue you reported, I advise you to install the following Acronis driver update.

Please download snapapi.dll and SnapAPISetup.msi from the following links...

--
I am sending the files to you via PM.
--

Browse to %WINDIR%\system32\ and copy the snapapi.dll file to different folder (so that you could put it back if necessary);

Copy the downloaded snapapi.dll file to %WINDIR%\system32\

Install the downloaded SnapAPISetup.msi file with the "Disable Logging" option, and see whether the problem persists. If it still remains, please install this driver update again with "Enable Logging" option, reproduce the issue and get the log file without closing the error window. The log file will be created on the C:\ partition and have the name in "snapapi[date-time].log" format;

Send this log to us.

Please let me know when you consider this issue as resolved.

--
Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee

 

The only emails that I have received is the one from Acronis Customer Central <corporate-support@acronis.com> when I first submitted the issue ticket. I have not received any other emails from Acronis and there's nothing in the junk filter. The last issue I had, had the same problem with not receiving the emails, after speaking with a tech and him sending me a test email I did received all further emails regarding that issue.

I will PM you my email address to double check that you have the right email address for me as well as a contact number that I can be reached at and the hours that I am available.

I have followed your instructions and it has somewhat solved the problem. All computers that where experiencing the issue are now accessible and I can schedule tasks or do them manually.

However I still get the error message on new computers that I just today, after applying fix, installed the Acronis True Agent ver. 9.7.8206 on when I try to set up a task or do them manually. If I select My Data instead of selecting My Computer I do not get the error message on these computers.

 

Hello KLStringer,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

To resolve the issue please do the following:

1) Uninstall Acronis True Image Agent and SnapAPI from Add-remove Programs;
2) - Download the Windows CleanUp utility from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301/en-us, install and run it:
- Select Acronis True Image Agent and hit Remove:
3) Reboot the machine;
4) Delete the following folders:

\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis
\Program Files\Acronis

5) Start->Run->regedit and delete the following branch

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->Software->Acronis

6) Reboot the computer and install the component again.

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee

 

Just to be sure am I doing this on the computers that I get the error message's from when trying to do a back up or am I doing this on the computer that I access them from?

On the 8th I only did those steps on the computer that I use to access the other computers that I'm backing up from.

 

Hello KLStringer,

Thank you for using Acronis Corporate Products

Please execute all operations on the computer where Acronis True Image Agent has been installed, i.e. on the remote computer.

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee

 

OK I will update this thread once i have had a chance to complete that on all of them. Probably by end of the week, unless something else comes up.

 

I've followed all the steps outlined above on all of the computers that we're backing up here and I'm rescheduling the backups as the tasks I had set up are now corrupt. I will reply here in the next few days as they start running with any new developments.

 

I'm now back to where Acronis sometimes will not ask me for my login and password to access the backup location where the backups are stored.

I have full rights to this location and I was able to set up 12/30 computers before it stopped asking for the authentication information when I select the back up to location.

 

I uninstalled and reinstalled TI Agent on the pc's that where giving me the "Not enough privileges" error in the post above. So far this seams to have fixed that problem. I'm slowly adding more and more of the pc's to be backed up into the schedule and so far haven't had any problems.

If anything changes I'll will post here with an update.

 

Not sure if this is related to the problems that we've been having, but I don't want to have multiple threads open so I'm adding it to this one.

This passed Wednesday I used a back up that I had made the same day to ghost a new PC. I've done this may times w/o any problems, now this new pc no matter what we do can't be accessed from across the network. We've set up admin shares and all the rights and privileges but we can't get to them. We've never had this problem when ghosting other pc's.

The other admins here think it may be something to do with WINS and the HAL from the pc I took the image from. The new PC has all the same hardware as the PC the image was taken from.

I know this may not be an issue with the image, I just thought I'd ask here first as we've never had this issue when ghosting a new pc from an existing image.

 

Seams the issue was with the firewall that was on the image, after disabling it we could access the admin share so we uninstalled/reinstalled the firewall software and still have access. Never had it do that before and the firewall never showed that it was blocking anything.

 

After attempting to change the location to where the back ups are located at we are once again experiencing the same issue where Acronis will not authenticate us for the new back up location. Nothing has changed except where we're storing the the back ups. I've attached a screen shot of the error message that we're receiving when we try to create new back up tasks to the new location. The times that we don't get an error message the authentication pop up will appear, we'll enter in our admin name and pass, it sits there for about a min the reappears blank.

We've also been trying to get the Acronis Backup Server and Acronis Group Server up and running at what will be the final backup location but we keep getting the error message in screen shot named Acronis Server Auth error.jpg.

At this point we've done clean reinstalls of the latest versions of Acronis Agent on all the PC's that we're backing up, Acronis TI Management Console on the admin PC that we work from, and of the Acronis Back Up Server and Acronis Group Server on the server. We're at a lose as to why Acronis continues to not authenticate us so we can switch the back up locations.

 

Got a log from one of the error messages its attached below

 

While trying to connect to the Group Server Management I received the attached error.

 

Hello KLStringer,

Thank you for using Acronis Corporate Products

What is the operating system you use with Acronis Group Server? Please note that Acronis Group Server installed on Windows 2000 Server crashes when trying to add an Agent. As a workaround, install Acronis Group Server on a Windows system, different from Windows 2000 Server.

If you use another operating system, please re-install Acronis Group Server. It is recommended to completely uninstall the current one first.

1. Uninstall the existing version of Acronis Group Server from Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs;
2. Remove the entire Group Server folder located by default at: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\GroupServer
3. Invoke Windows Registry Editor by clicking Start -> Run and typing regedit. Remove the registry subkey GroupServer at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\TrueImageEcho\Fomatik\Plugins\GroupServer
4. Open the downloaded .exe file of Acronis True Image Echo. Right-click on the Group Server module and extract it. Install the extracted .msi file.

About Acronis Backup Server. Do you create a new location on the computer with Acronis Backup Server installed?

Thank you.

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Oleg Lee

 

That would be the problem, we where re purposing an old Windows 2000 server to use exclusively for Acronis and our back ups.

I try to create the new location through the ATI Management Console from my PC in my office. Acronis Backup Server is on the same Windows 2000 server as Acronis Group Server is.

 

Hello KLStringer,

Thank you for using Acronis Corporate Products

We have recently released a new build # 8345, the encountered issue has been resolved in this build.

Download the latest build of the product and update all the components. You can learn more on how to download the latest build here

Please remember that you need to either reboot the machine where the components have been updated or simply restart Windows service of the Acronis Agent.

To restart the service:
- Hit Start -> Run and type services.msc
- Restart the Acronis Remote Agent service.

Also, please install Acronis Backup Server and Acronis Group Server onto different computers.

Thank you.

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Oleg Lee