Working with Acronis True Image Echo and Tape Drives

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Last update: October 24, 2008

Detailed description of how Acronis True Image Echo works with tape libraries, autoloaders and separate tape drives

Description
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This article applies to:

Description

Acronis True Image Echo supports tape libraries, autoloaders and separate tape drives as storage devices.

In Acronis True Image Echo Workstation and Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server tape libraries, autoloaders and tape drives are accessible through Acronis Backup Server or using Acronis True Image Echo local version.

In Acronis True Image Echo Server for Windows tape libraries, autoloaders and tape drives are accessible through the local version.

The devices must be locally attached to the servers and work through Windows Removable Storage Management (RSM). When working in Windows, Acronis True Image Echo supports only RSM-managed tape devices.

When booted from standalone version of Acronis True Image Echo, one can work with all tape drives supported by the current Linux kernel of the product (see Standalone Version of Acronis True Image Products).

Operations supported by tape devices
Operations not supported by tape devices

Validation

Data recovery

Converting to virtual disk

Consolidation

Mounting or exploring backups

Understanding how Acronis True Image Echo works with tapes

Acronis True Image Echo creates a dedicated database for archives and tapes cataloguing (\Program files\Common Files\Acronis\Fomatic\tape_archives.fdb).

Each tape of an RSM-managed device has its own GUID stored in the Windows registry. Acronis True Image Echo creates its own ID for each tape, sets up the correspondence between this ID and the RSM GUID and stores this information along with the information about the archive in its own database. Additionally, the program stores metadata on tape, so that identification information can be obtained when feeding a tape in that is not registered in the database in the device.

If the database is lost or not available (e.g., the tape device is moved to a different computer or Windows is reinstalled), the necessary information is derived from the metadata saved on the tape and the database will be recreated on the new host using the new RSM. This operation is performed at first access to the tape device while setting up a backup, recovery or validation task. Therefore, under Windows the program detects which tape should be fed in even if the backup archive of one machine is recovered to a different one.

When backing up to the tape device for the first time, Acronis True Image Echo picks a tape from the free pool. The program creates the Acronis pool and puts the first tape in this pool. The tape stays in the device after the writing of backup is completed. Further backups, regardless of their contents, will be written to the same tape, unless the tape free space runs out.

When the first tape is full, the program will look for another cartridge in the free pool and use it without user intervention. If the free pool is empty, a cartridge from the imported media pool will be used and a confirmation window with a warning will show up on the screen. To let this process run unattended, you will need to enable the Overwrite data on a tape without user confirmation option in the settings. (See Chapter 6.3.14 Additional settings of Acronis True Image Echo Workstation User Guide or Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server User Guide, or Chapter 5.3.13 Additional settings of Acronis True Image Echo Server for Windows User Guide).

Thus, to fully automate changing tapes during backup, one should always have at least one tape in the free pool (or a tape in the imported media pool with the warning disabled).

A tape that already has backups can be fed in a tape device. When the tape device is selected in the recovery or validation wizard, the newly added tape is scanned by RSM and then by Acronis True Image Echo. After this the tape is added to the Acronis database and the Acronis pool. The access to the archives on the tape becomes available.

However, Acronis True Image Echo will not scan the added tape for changes if the tape is already in the Acronis database. This means that if you take the same tape to a different machine and save a new backup to it, then feed the tape in the original device, Acronis True Image Echo will not detect the new backup archive and, consequently, will not restore it. Please be aware of this limitation when using tapes with multiple computers.

Overwriting old archives

You can move tapes with outdated archives from the Acronis pool to the free pool using the Removable storage snap-in:

Select Control panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer management -> Removable storage -> Media pools -> Acronis;
Right-click on the tape in the Acronis pool, deallocate the tape if it is mounted and select Free from the pop-up menu. The tape will be moved to the free pool. After putting a tape in the free pool, first RSM and then Acronis True Image Echo will rescan it and record it to the database with a new GUID.

A deleted archive is not necessarily deleted from the tape, it can be just marked as deleted in the catalogue. When used, all data marked as deleted will be overwritten without a warning.

Saving full backup to a new tape

You can enable saving a full backup to a new tape even if the current tape is not full:

Select Control panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer management -> Removable storage -> Media pools -> Acronis;
Deallocate the current tape and eject it;
Feed in a new tape and move the tape to the free pool using RSM.

(!) Incremental or differential backups cannot be performed in this way because access to the previous backups is required.

Backing up to a tape device through Acronis Backup Server

Archives created on tape devices through Acronis Backup Server can be accessed by Acronis True Image Echo local or standalone version or by Acronis True Image Echo Agent for validation, data recovery and converting images to virtual disks.

Acronis Backup Server does not allow creating manageable backup locations on tape devices. This means that you cannot limit the number of backups or the period while the archives are stored on tape devices. This functionality is supported only in Acronis Backup Server on internal hard drives.

For additional information please refer to Chapter 3.8.2 Backing up to tape drives of Acronis True Image Echo Workstation User Guide or Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server User Guide.

Backing up� to a tape device on a local computer

Filenames for backups cannot be set when backing up to tape.

Standalone version of Acronis True Image Echo cannot access backup archives created in Windows. The reason is that in Windows it uses RSM, whereas in standalone version there is a different mechanism.

To be able to access archives from standalone version, you should back up to the tape from standalone version. You can also use Acronis Backup Server to access tapes on a remote machine from standalone version. For additional information please see Chapter 3.5 Acronis Backup Server of Acronis True Image Echo Workstation User Guide or Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server User Guide.