The following are the parameters of Acronis Backup Management Server that can be set by using Acronis Administrative Template.
Collecting Logs
Specifies when to collect log entries from machines managed by Acronis Backup Management Server.
This parameter contains two settings:
Trace State
Description: Specifies whether to collect the log entries about the components' events from the registered machines.
Possible values: Enabled or Disabled
Default value: Enabled
Trace Level
Description: Specifies the minimum level of severity of collected entries. Only entries of levels greater than or equal to the value in Trace Level will be collected.
Possible values: 0 (Internal event), 1 (Debugging information), 2 (Information), 3 (Warning), 4 (Error), or 5 (Critical error)
Default value: 0 (all entries will be collected)
Log Cleanup Rules
Specifies how to clean up the centralized event log stored in the management server's reporting database.
This parameter has the following settings:
Max Size
Description: Specifies the maximum size of the centralized event log, in kilobytes.
Possible values: Any integer number between 0 and 2147483647
Default value: 1048576 (that is, 1 GB)
Percentage to Keep
Description: Specifies the percentage of the maximum log size to keep on cleanup
Possible values: Any integer number between 0 and 100
Default value: 95
For details on how the centralized event log is cleaned up, see Log cleanup rules.
Windows Event Log
Specifies when to record Acronis Backup Management Server's events into the Application Event Log in Windows.
This parameter has two settings:
Trace State
Description: Specifies whether to record Acronis Backup Management Server's events into the event log.
Possible values: Enabled or Disabled
Default value: Enabled
Trace Level
Description: Specifies the minimum level of severity of events to be recorded into the event log. Only events of levels greater than or equal to the value in Trace Level will be recorded.
Possible values: 0 (Internal event), 1 (Debugging information), 2 (Information), 3 (Warning), 4 (Error), or 5 (Critical error)
Default value: 4 (only errors and critical errors will be sent—if Trace State is set to Enabled)
SNMP
Specifies the types of the management server's events to send notifications about by means of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
This parameter contains the following settings:
Trace State
Description: Specifies whether to send the SNMP notifications.
Possible values: Enabled or Disabled
Default value: Enabled
Trace Level
Description: Specifies the minimum level of severity of events for sending SNMP notifications about them. Only notifications about events of levels greater than or equal to Trace Level will be sent.
Possible values: 0 (Internal event), 1 (Debugging information), 2 (Information), 3 (Warning), 4 (Error), or 5 (Critical error)
Default value: 4 (only errors and critical errors will be sent—if Trace State is set to Enabled)
SNMP Address
Description: Specifies the network name or IP address of the SNMP server.
Possible values: Any string 0 to 32765 characters long
Default value: Empty string
SNMP Community
Description: Specifies the community name for the SNMP notifications.
Possible values: Any string 0 to 32765 characters long
Default value: public
Synchronization
Specifies how Acronis Backup Management Server connects to registered machines for deployment of centralized backup plans, retrieval of logs and backup plan states, and similar actions—collectively called synchronization.
This parameter has the following settings:
Maximum Connections
Description: Specifies the maximum number of simultaneous synchronization connections to keep.
Possible values: Any integer number between 1 and 500
Default value: 200
If the total number of online registered machines does not exceed the value in Maximum Connections, connections to those machines are always kept, and the management server periodically performs synchronization with each machine.
Otherwise, it connects to a number of registered machines depending on the allotted number of simultaneous connections. After synchronization for a machine is complete, the management server may disconnect from that machine and use the free connection for synchronization with another machine, and so on.
(Note: Connections to machines with high synchronization priority—see Period-High Priority later in this topic—are likely to be always kept.)
Synchronization connections are unrelated to connections such as those between Acronis Backup Management Server and Acronis Backup Management Console.
Maximum Workers
Description: Specifies the maximum number of threads to use for synchronization.
Possible values: Any integer number between 1 and 100
Default value: 30
The management server's process uses special threads—called worker threads or workers—to perform synchronization for a registered machine which is connected for synchronization.
Each worker performs synchronization for exactly one machine at a time.
A connected machine to be synchronized waits for an available worker. For this reason, the actual number of workers will never exceed the maximum number of connections (see Maximum Connections described previously).
Period (in seconds)
Description: Specifies how often, in seconds, to perform synchronization for machines that have a normal synchronization priority—typically, the machines without currently running centralized backup tasks.
Possible values: Any integer number between 120 and 2147483647
Default value: 120
Acronis Backup Management Server tries to perform synchronization for each normal-priority machine once in the number of seconds given by Period, by using an available worker thread (see Maximum Workers described previously).
If there are fewer worker threads than normal-priority machines, the actual interval between synchronizations may be longer than the value of this parameter.
Period-High Priority (in seconds)
Description: Specifies how often, in seconds, to perform synchronization for machines that have a high synchronization priority—typically, the machines with currently running centralized backup tasks.
Possible values: Any integer number between 15 and 2147483647
Default value: 15
This parameter is analogous to the Period parameter described previously.
Real-Time Monitoring
Description: Specifies whether to perform real-time monitoring of registered machines instead of using a polling mechanism.
Possible values: Enabled or Disabled
Default value: Disabled
By default, Acronis Backup Management Server connects to registered machines to perform synchronization—in particular, to retrieve data such as backup logs. This approach is known as a polling mechanism.
If Real Time Monitoring is set to Enabled, the management server instead sends requests to machines to provide new data whenever it will appear, and then enters a listening mode. This approach is called real-time monitoring.
Real-time monitoring may reduce network traffic—for example, when centralized backup tasks run infrequently. However, it is effective only when there are relatively few registered machines.
Avoid enabling real-time monitoring if the number of registered machines exceeds the maximum number of simultaneous connections (see Maximum Connections earlier in this topic).
Second Connection Attempt
Description: Specifies whether to try to connect to a registered machine by using its last-known IP address after an attempt to connect to it by using its host name has failed.
Possible values: Enabled or Disabled
Default value: Disabled
When connecting to a registered machine, Acronis Backup Management Server first uses the machine's network name—provided that the machine was added to the management server by name.
If Second Connection Attempt is set to Enabled and a connection to the machine by using its network name has failed, the management server performs a second connection attempt, this time using the latest IP address which was associated with that network name.
We recommend setting Second Connection Attempt to Enabled only in networks which often experience problems with their DNS servers, and provided that the machines' IP addresses change infrequently—as in cases of fixed IP addresses or long DHCP lease times.
This setting has no effect on machines that were added to the management server by IP address.
Offline Period Threshold (in seconds)
Description: Specifies the maximum interval, in seconds, between attempts to connect to a registered machine which appears to be offline.
Possible values: Any integer number between 1800 and 2147483647
Default value: 1800
Normally, the management server connects to each registered machine with a certain time interval (see Period and Period-High Priority earlier in this section). When the management server discovers that the machine is offline, it doubles this interval; it keeps doubling this interval on each further attempt until reaching the value specified in Offline Period Threshold. If the machine comes back online, the time interval becomes normal again.
This approach aims at efficient use of the management server resources and reducing the network load.
Snapshot Storage
Specifies the location and initial size of the snapshot storage—a temporary file that is used when backing up data by taking a snapshot. This file is deleted as soon as the backup is complete.
With the default settings, the snapshot storage is created in the temporary files folder of the corresponding agent and initially occupies 20 percent of the space available on the volume containing that folder. This size may then grow if more space is needed for the snapshot.
You may want to increase the initial size of the snapshot storage—or to place it on a different volume—when experiencing problems with backing up data that changes extensively during backup.
This parameter is used when creating a centralized backup plan. Changes to this parameter do not affect already existing centralized backup plans.
This parameter has the following settings:
Path to the snapshot folder
Description: Specifies the folder in which to place the snapshot storage.
Possible values: Any string 0 to 32765 characters long
Default value: Empty string
An empty string means the folder %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\Temp (in Windows XP and Server 2003) or %PROGRAMDATA%\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\Temp (in Windows Vista and later versions of Windows).
You can specify a local folder on any volume, including a volume you are backing up.
Pre-allocated storage size (in Megabytes)
Description: Specifies the initial size of the snapshot storage, in megabytes.
Possible values: Any integer number between 0 and 2147483647
Default value: 0
If this setting is 0, the management server uses the Pre-allocated storage size (in percent) setting.
The initial size will not exceed the available space minus 50 MB.
Pre-allocated storage size (in percent)
This setting is effective only when the Pre-allocated storage size (in Megabytes) setting is 0.
Description: Specifies the initial size of the snapshot storage as a percentage of the disk space that is available at the time of starting the backup.
Possible values: Any integer number between 0 and 100
Default value: 50
If this setting is 0, the snapshot storage will not be created.
The initial size will not exceed the available space minus 50 MB.
Without the snapshot storage, taking snapshots is still possible.
The size of the snapshot storage does not affect the size of the backup.
Online Backup Proxy
Specifies proxy server settings for connection to Acronis Cloud Storage over the Internet.
This parameter has the following settings:
Proxy
Description: Specifies whether to use a proxy server
Possible values: Enabled or Disabled
Default value: Enabled
If the value of this parameter is Disabled, all of the following parameters are ignored.
Proxy server address
Description: Specifies the name or IP address of the proxy server
Possible values: Any string 0 to 32765 characters long
Default value: Empty string
Proxy server port
Description: Specifies the port number of the proxy server
Possible values: Any integer number between 0 and 65535
Default value: 0
Online Backup Proxy Credentials
Use the following two parameters if the proxy server for connection to Acronis Cloud Storage requires authentication.
User name
Description: Specifies the user name for authentication with the proxy server
Possible values: Any string 0 to 32765 characters long
Default value: Empty string
Password
Description: Specifies the password for authentication with the proxy server
Possible values: Any string 0 to 32765 characters long
Default value: Empty string
Important. The password can be viewed by any user who has access to the administrative template, such as to an administrator of the machine.
Customer Experience Program
Description: Specifies whether the management server participates in the Customer Experience Program.
Possible values: Enabled (participate) or Disabled (do not participate)
Default value: Enabled