Multi-homing Acronis Access

Multi-homing the Acronis Access Gateway and Access servers is a simple task done through the Configuration Utility.

The only requirement is that you have 2 separate network interfaces and IP addresses.

Configuring multi-homing

1. Open the Acronis Access Configuration Utility.
2. Open the Access Server tab and enter the first IP address and the 443 port.
3. Open the Gateway Server tab and enter the second IP address and the 443 port.
4. Press OK.

Note: Microsoft completely changed how the TCP/IP stack behaves in Windows Server 2008. А single IP transport now supports multiple layers and there is no longer a ‘Primary’ IP address. So, when multiple IP addresses are assigned to a single interface, all of the addresses are treated evenly and are all registered into DNS. In other words, this behavior is not a bug, but by design. However, the behavior causes issues because unless you do something about it, the IP address used will be round-robin (DNS).

You can workaround this by disabling dynamic DNS registration on the NIC and then creating the host DNS entry manually. Another easier workaround is to install the HotFix referenced on KB975808: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=975808. Once you have installed the HotFix, you will be able to use the netsh skipassource flag. When using this flag while adding new addresses you tell the stack that the new address is not used for outgoing packets. Therefore, these IP addresses will not be registered on the DNS servers. For example:

netsh int ipv4 add address "Local Area Connection" 192.168.1.2 skipassource=true