Acronis True Image 9.0 with LINUX

I have a linux machine running Red Hat and am using the Acronis CD when I boot so that I can (hopefully) clone drives, make backups, etc. I have run into numerous problems and am hoping to get some help. First I tried to clone drives but found that GRUB had problems with me doing that directly, so instead I created a backup image and restored it. This worked fine, so I am able to "clone" drives. Now, however, I need to be able to make a full backup and NOT use the Acronis Secure Zone (unless someone can teach me how to access it) so that I can burn the images to DVD. I tried to do the full backup and burn to CD... it took 4 cd's and when I tried to restore them it kept erroring out saying that it could be poor media quality, etc.

So my overall goals are:
1) Clone identical SATA drives between each other
2) Make full backup images and write to DVD. It's ok if I have to save the image to a drive first then write to DVD - I just can't do it with the secure zone because I can't actually see the secure zone (for obvious reasons).

ETA: I realize I could (and would LOVE TO) save it to my hard drive IF I WERE RUNNING WINDOWS. When I do the create backup wizard it asks where i want to save and of course "My Computer" is displayed so i can't even see my linux drive...

HELP, please?!

 

Hello, MBritton:

I use TI to back up and restore Linux partitions all of the time. It has been very handy whenever rearranging the layout on my disk. I simply make an image of each Linux partition, use Disk Director to create the partition layout desired, then use TI to restore the contents of each partition.

To make a full backup image to be written to DVD most people here (myself included) will recommend that you first save your image to a hard disk. Either create a partition specifically for saving the image to, or temporarily add a second hard drive, or save to another PC on your home network. Do not use the Acronis Secure Zone for this purpose; put the image file somewhere that you can see it. Once created, use your favorite DVD writing software to burn the DVD.

There are several helpful posts from the regulars here that recommend strategies for creating image files that will be later burned to DVD, and a lot of posts from users who tried unsuccessfully to create DVDs directly within TI.

TI will only show you locations to save to that have filesystems that Windows understands. But it will show you all of the partitions on the drive when it asks you which ones to back up, including your Linux partitions. You can do this backup from Windows!

 

Thanks for your response - I still have a problem though - I will not be using Windows at ALL. Does this make sense? My machine is a stand alone Linux box. that's where my problem comes in...

 

That will work also. You will boot the Linux box from the stand-alone (recovery) TI disk and then do your backup. Your box will (I think) have to have a disk or a partition on it with a filesystem that Windows understands for you to be able to save the image to the box, for example, a FAT32 or NTFS partition. If your Linux box has a wired ethernet adapter connected to your home network you will also see any Samba shares or Windows PCs on your network in the "Computers Near Me" area when you run the recovery version of TI. You could then save your image to a Windows PC.

 

There apparently aren't any shares that are recognized by Windows because when I go to make a backup all I see is My Computer, Floppy A drive, CD drive, and Computers Around me. The only thing I have of those is a CD drive and i tried that (didn't work).

I'm thinking there is no way to accomplish my needs with Acronis - is there any hope? This machine is by itself with no Windows machines connected. I suppose I could make a partition that's recognized by Windows but that defeats the whole purpose of backing up my machine - change my machine to back it up? Not worth it...

Any ideas before I leave Acronis behind for something else?

 

Well, ATI was specifically designed to be a Windows application. The fact that it uses Linux for the rescue environment is just an extra bonus. It wasn't designed to be a Linux backup utility.

Connect a spare hard drive and format it as FAT32? Add an external USB drive? tar and dd can be your friend, although they are Linux command-line utilities and not nearly as nice as a graphical application. Perhaps there are other Linux backup utilities? I haven't looked extensively because my own machine is dual-boot Windows and Linux and I generally run ATI in the Windows environment and use it to back up both kinds of partitions.

 

I am not a Linux user, so this is admittedly a long shot. But I am always rooting for the little guy, and admire those of you competent enough to run Linux...

Here's a thread discussing Windows and Linux backup in which ee1 points out to always place a valid file system on each partition, for TI to play nice:

Here's an Acronis Support post titled: Cloning Linux partitions to be bootable which addresses how to re-activate GRUB, at least on some Linux systems.

Does Red Hat support have any clues?

If you have a WindowsXP installation CD available, another option would be to create a BartPE / ReatogoXPE Boot disc. That would allow you to place any drivers you need into a Bootable Windows memory-resident Pre-installation Environment. So you could, in a sense, get the benefits of running TI in Windows, without altering your Linux system.

Here's a post from Mustang about ReatogoXPE,

Mustang has contributed countless hours creating plugins for TI that work well with ReatogoXPE - be sure to use the correct version & build of TI with each of his TI Plugins.

Mustang's BartPE Plugins

In a May 4th post, Acronis Support said that they intend to support the Linux OS in a future build of TI, but could give no time frame. I wonder how that is going? Here's the link to that post: Re: Linux won't boot after restore

Please let us know what you come up with. There are very likely others who'll read this who would like to know how to image, clone and backup their Red Hat Linux Partitions without Windows present.

Regards

 

Great information, Chris. I can confirm that it is possible to back up a Linux-only box because I've done it using the rescue-mode Acronis TI boot CD. The only hitch, and the one that is preventing mbritton from succeeding, is that TI expects to be able to write its .tib file to a Windows filesystem like NTFS or FAT32, or to connect with a Windows PC on the network. When I backed up my little Linux home network server, I stored the backup on a Windows PC which TI saw and connected to over the network. The server contained only Linux partitions and files. I restored the same way. TI worked perfectly and saved my butt when I accidentally messed up an upgrade and was left with a hosed-up operating system.

It should be possible for Acronis to make TI talk to Linux file systems like ext2, ext3, ReiserFS, etc, because their partitioning software (Acronis Disk Director) already understands these filesystems. I always get a kick out of firing up Disk Director and using it to explore the contents of both my NTFS (Windows XP) partition and my ext3 (Linux) partition. I can see files, open them, read them and even write to them, all while in Disk Director.

So if Acronis decides to make TI Home into a Windows/Linux app, it would seem that all they need to do is to expand the supported filesystem types beyond FAT32 and NTFS when saving an image file, but perhaps I'm oversimplifying. Keep in mind that most Linux users are notorious for wanting all software to be free (as in no-cost), so it's understandable that software companies are reluctant to spend development money on something that might generate very little sales revenue.