Selecting a destination

Some of the features described in this section are only available for on-premises deployments.

Backups to cloud require a Backup to local storage quota.

To select a backup location

  1. Click Where to back up.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Select a previously used or predefined backup location
    • Click Add location, and then specify a new backup location.

Supported locations

  • Cloud storage

    Backups will be stored in the cloud data center.

  • Local folder

    If a single machine is selected, browse to a folder on the selected machine or type the folder path.

    If multiple machines are selected, type the folder path. Backups will be stored in this folder on each of the selected physical machines or on the machine where the agent for virtual machines is installed. If the folder does not exist, it will be created.

  • Network folder

    This is a folder shared via SMB/CIFS/DFS.

    Browse to the required shared folder or enter the path in the following format:

    • For SMB/CIFS shares: \\<host name>\<path>\ or smb://<host name>/<path>/

    • For DFS shares: \\<full DNS domain name>\<DFS root>\<path>

      For example, \\example.company.com\shared\files

    Then, click the arrow button. If prompted, specify the user name and password for the shared folder. You can change these credentials at any time by clicking the key icon next to the folder name.

    Backing up to a folder with anonymous access is not supported.

  • Acronis Cyber Infrastructure

    Acronis Cyber Infrastructure can be used as highly reliable software-defined storage with data redundancy and automatic self-healing. The storage can be configured as a gateway for storing backups in Microsoft Azure or in one of a variety of storage solutions compatible with S3 or Swift. The storage can also employ the NFS back-end. For more information, refer to "About Acronis Cyber Infrastructure".

    Backup to Acronis Cyber Infrastructure is not available for macOS machines.

  • NFS folder (available for machines running Linux or macOS)

    Verify that the nfs-utils package is installed on the Linux machine where Agent for Linux is installed.

    Browse to the required NFS folder or enter the path in the following format:

    nfs://<host name>/<exported folder>:/<subfolder>

    Then, click the arrow button.

    It is not possible to back up to an NFS folder protected with a password.

  • Secure Zone (available if it is present on each of the selected machines)

    Secure Zone is a secure partition on a disk of the backed-up machine. This partition has to be created manually prior to configuring a backup. For information about how to create Secure Zone, its advantages and limitations, refer to "About Secure Zone".

  • SFTP

    Type the SFTP server name or address. The following notations are supported:

    sftp://<server>
    sftp://<server>/<folder>

    After entering the user name and password, you can browse the server folders.

    In either notation, you can also specify the port, user name, and password:

    sftp://<server>:<port>/<folder>
    sftp://<user name>@<server>:<port>/<folder>
    sftp://<user name>:<password>@<server>:<port>/<folder>

    If the port number is not specified, port 22 is used.

    Users, for whom SFTP access with no password is configured, cannot back up to SFTP.

    Backing up to FTP servers is not supported.

Advanced storage options

  • Defined by a script (available for machines running Windows)

    You can store each machine's backups in a folder defined by a script. The software supports scripts written in JScript, VBScript, or Python 3.5. When deploying the protection plan, the software runs the script on each machine. The script output for each machine should be a local or network folder path. If a folder does not exist, it will be created (limitation: scripts written in Python cannot create folders on network shares). On the Backup storage tab, each folder is shown as a separate backup location.

    In Script type, select the script type (JScript, VBScript, or Python), and then import, or copy and paste the script. For network folders, specify the access credentials with the read/write permissions.

    Examples:

    • The following JScript script outputs the backup location for a machine in the format \\bkpsrv\<machine name>:

      WScript.Echo("\\\\bkpsrv\\" + WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network").ComputerName);

    • The following JScript script outputs the backup location in a folder on the machine where the script runs:

      WScript.Echo("C:\\Backup");

      The location path in these scripts is case-sensitive. Therefore, C:\Backup and C:\backup are displayed as different locations in the Cyber Protect web console. Also, use upper case for the drive letter.

    • The following VBScript script outputs the backup location for a machine in the format \\bkpsrv\<machine name>:

      WScript.Echo("\\bkpsrv\" + WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network").ComputerName)

    As a result, the backups of each machine will be saved in a folder of the same name on the server bkpsrv.

  • Storage node

    A storage node is a server designed to optimize the usage of various resources (such as the corporate storage capacity, the network bandwidth, and the production servers' CPU load) that are required to protect enterprise data. This goal is achieved by organizing and managing the locations that serve as dedicated storages of the enterprise backups (managed locations).

    You can select a previously created location or create a new one by clicking Add location > Storage node. For information about the settings, refer to "Adding a managed location".

    You may be prompted to specify the user name and password for the storage node. Members of the following Windows groups on the machine where a storage node is installed have access to all managed locations on the storage node:

    • Administrators

    • Acronis ASN Remote Users

      This group is created automatically when the storage node is installed. By default, this group is empty. You can add users to this group manually.

  • Tape

    If a tape device is attached to the backed-up machine or to a storage node, the location list shows the default tape pool. This pool is created automatically.

    You can select the default pool or create a new one by clicking Add location > Tape. For information about pool settings, refer to "Creating a pool".