Restoring to dissimilar hardware

Hi

I am currently evaluating the Enterprise version of this product to protect our servers, and I'm pretty much happy with the software as it is, although there is one thing that is nagging me and would be a "great to have" if I can get it working, that being the restore to dissimilar hardware. I have tried restoring a "basic" image taken from one Dell server to another type with a different backplane/HAL and I get the familiar result as with previous imaging products of a BSOD.

I've looked everywhere for any help on this inc the manual, online help, etc but have turned up nothing. The ideal scenario would be if one of our key servers died completely we could restore the latest image of it to a warm standby and hey presto back up and running.

Is there anything that I am missing?

thanks in anticipation

 

Try Universal Restore. It is a optional module for Acronis True Image.

 

Ah right I see, thanks. That answers alot. Is there any way that I can trial it? Can't seem to download it - or should it be included with a "standard" install and then unlocked via license?

 

Right - found out how to use it, but next question is that I cannot browse the directories that the image is located on when I boot to recovery media. I had this issue last week with TI Enterprise and recovery media created via that. Oddly enough, with both versions I can "see" only one server on my (Win2003) domain. With the enterprise RM I can browse this server after suppling a password) and then onto the directory that the image file is in, so far so good.

With the "standard" TI recovery media I can still only see the single server, can browse the list of shares (after again supplying a PW) but cannot go to any lower levels than this (security permissions are fine, it's reachable under windows).

I have altered both the default domain and domain controllers GPO to disable the digital signing as has been mentioned elsewhere, and this fixed the problem when it initally occured on the enterprise versin of RM.

So, why can I browse folders on the enterprise but not the standard versions, and why is only one file server presented in the domain list

 

Hello Cambridge User,

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

Please try to specify the full UNC path to the desired computer in "file name" edit box, e.g. \\server\share if the desired computer is not visible in rescue mode.
Please take a look at this FAQ article.

If an image archive resides on a network share on a Windows 2000/2003 Domain Controller and is inaccessible from Acronis Bootable CD or Acronis Startup Recovery Manager, then the following needs to be done to resolve the situation:

-Go to Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\
-Find the following line in the Security Options of the machine where the image archive resides and change it to Disabled: Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always).

After this you should be able to access the image when booted from Acronis Bootable CD or Acronis Startup Recovery Manager.

You can also view a Microsoft Knowledge Base article for additional information on the subject:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/c9dfa127-8e28-46de-81d0-6d0742c284201033.mspx

If the problem still persists, please boot the computer from Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue CD and press F11 key when the selection screen advising you to select either "Full", "Safe" 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.

Please also note that sometimes the sysinfo.txt and net.txt files are not readable from under Windows. In this case please try entering the file names using capital letters (SYSINFO.TXT, NET.TXT) or follow the instructions provided in this previous post.

If you do not have a floppy drive then please take a look at this previous post explaining how to save the sysinfo.txt file to USB flash drive.

Please describe your network structure in more detail.

Please submit a request for technical support using Ask a question before you purchase Acronis software link. Attach all the collected files and information to 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 solution as soon as possible.

Thank you.
--
Tatyana Tsyngaeva