Which backup solution uses Acronis?

Yes

See

forum.acronis.com/forum/7679

among many other here.

which backup solution Acronis uses.

Will you believe if I tell you?

which type of problems and error codes do you have during backup?
@Peter, Acronis uses their self developed backup system.

Sporadically no backup on intermittent machines:
Only no backup. No backup, nothing!

Repeatedly chrashed meta files:
When I'll open the depot in B&R admin I get "Error on opening file" (or so, in German "Fehler beim Öffnen der Datei")

Hanging tasks.
Tasks stop working at 0% with no error message. When I try to stop the task it doesn't work. Each time I have to restart the concerned client.

Same here (English version).

1) Tasks hang at 0% (usually cleanup tasks). Cannot stop the Acronis services; have to restart the PC.

2) Previously Scheduled tasks do not show up in the scheduled tasks pane.

3) Scheduled Incremental backups do not start (or do not complete) with cryptic error messages. Support says: "Download the newest build, uninstall and reinstall" -- ON ALL MACHINES?!! I'm not going to do it *every* time there's a glitch.

Sorry Acronis; YOU NEED TO FIX THE PRODUCT! Please. I want to love your products again; but lately, there's more animosity than love for Acronis' products from nearly *EVERY* poster on this forum.

ARE YOU LISTENING ACRONIS?!

Hello all!

First of all please accept our apologies for the inconvenience you faced with the product. I completely share your concern and would like to help you with the case.

Dear Peter, I appreciate you found time to open the thread regarding this question, but unfortunately due to the lack of diagnostic information it is difficult to identify the exact reason of the problem. Usually such type of issues is met in case there was a glitch with the installation, so I would advise you to turn off any third party protection software (antiviruses, firewall, backup software, etc.) on the moment of installation in future. The reason is simple: almost every protection software uses low level drivers, assigning it to the hard drive. Should there be any of them running while we are installing ours - you may face several issues.

Dear Brian, I agree that sometimes it is difficult to reinstall the software on all the machines, but in case we have an update released it is strongly recommended to refresh the installation: every new build contains fixes for different issues and components updated.

Currently the latest build for Acronis Backup and Recovery software is 11345. You can find it here in your account.

Should you have the latest build installed than it is highly possible that we can resolve the issue without reinstallation. All we need is just to find out the cause of the problem.

Peter, I have searched our resources, and actually there are not reported issues of the backups failing to run. This behavior is non-typical, and probably was caused either by the mess in the drivers or glitch in the Scheduler. Hanging tasks also points on the Scheduler issue (Brian, yours as well!), so let's try at the first place update this component to see whether it resolves the issue: 

Please kindly follow the instructions listed in this article.

Should the issue persist, than we need to find out what exactly is preventing the tasks from running. I would appreciate if you could kindly provide us with the following information: 

1. Acronis Info from the machine in question.
   It will contain the information regarding Acronis Product configuration and will show us why the tasks failed to run. It will be needed  for investigation of task run failure (no backups created) and corrupted *meta folder as well.
2. Windows System Information File
3. Acronis Scheduler Report:
   Download either the EXE file or ZIP archive;
   Copy the schedmgr.exe file to the root of your C: drive
   Click Start -> Run, type in cmd, press OK and issue the following command:
   C:\schedmgr get report >  C:\schedreport.txt 

4. Get Acronis Scheduler Log:

   • Run the schedmgr.exe file by double-clicking it;
   • Enable logging by using the following command:

   set logflags support

   • Reproduce the issue;
   • Acronis Scheduler Log will be named schedul2.log and placed to \Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Schedule2 
     It is recommended to turn off logging after troubleshooting by running schedmgr.exe and issuing the following commands:
     set logflags 0
     set lf_registry on
5. Settings of the clean-up task: 
   - Where the target storage is located?
   - How much space is left in the storage?
   - Screenshot of the CleanUp settings in the backup plan

Peter, I would also appreciate if you could kindly let us assist you with the crashed *meta files issue. In order to have the full picture of the problem we need the following information :

1. The exact sequence of steps that lead to the issue
2. The screenshot of the error
3. Acronis info (as mentioned above)

I totally appreciate your cooperation and patience. The fact that you faced this issue is highly upsetting, though I still hope you will give us a chance to assist you with the problems you faced.

Please do not hesitate to let us know in case you have any additional questions, feedback or concerns - we appreciate every your comment and will be glad to provide you with further assistance.

We will be waiting for your reply!

Thank you.

We recently purchased a Seagate NAS400 box that came with a backup applet built by Acronis. We're experiencing nearly the same problem on several of our PC's where the scheduled task just does not show up at all. I can create, recreate and recreate the task, but it will not show up as scheduled.

The task does seem to run successfully, but does not always show up in the scheduled tasks pane (what a pain!).

The last time I recreated the task, it did show up in the scheduled tasks pane, along with the three other tasks I created that had not previously appeared. I tried to delete one of the "extra" tasks and now they're *all* gone again.

What gives?! This seems like it should be very easy and reliable to have these tasks appear in the GUI. This is exactly the kind of intermittentness expressed and lack of trust we have in the product. Had I known that the "BlackArmor Backup" was created by Acronis, I probably would have made another choice.

Oh, and while I'm venting, I've lost licenses (and therefore money!) from installing the BlackArmor Backup on a PC that we decided to replace because Acronis will not allow me to deactivate the license from the old machine and re-activate it on the new machine. THAT'S JUST NOT RIGHT!!! Nearly *every* other software vendor on the planet (with the exception of most OS's) will allow me to transfer the license from one PC to another provided it's been uninstalled or deactivated from the old machine first.

Acronis *really* needs to reconsider how they're punishing the very customers who provide their paychecks.

Hello Brian!

Thank you for finding time to leave a comment and for your sincere feedback - it is valuable for us.

I completely share your concern regarding the inability to move the license from one machine to another, but unfortunately that decision depends on our Marketing Team. I have forwarded your comments to them, so hopefully we will have some improvements regarding this question.

I would appreciate as well if you could kindly tell me whether you have tried the solution mentioned in my previous post. Should it fail to help, please gather the diagnostic information and contact me directly (or any other Forum Moderator) with the info attached - it will help us to identify the exact cause of the issue and provide with appropriate solution suitable for your case.

Also I would like to mention that Acronis Seagate edition is an OEM version, which differs a bit from the usual version, and normally should be supported by Seagate, but nevertheless I will be glad to provide you with any required assistance.

Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!

Thank you!

Hello Yana,

I've installed the new scheduler as described in the article and now I hope that it works well. I'll report.

Regards,
Peter

Dear Peter!

Thank you for your follow-up, I really appreciate you keep us updated.

Will wait for news from you!

Thank you!

Hello Yana,

now the machine on which I installed the new scheduler hangs again. In the B&R Administrator the validation task shows 0%.

What can I do?

Dear Peter,

Thank you for your reply and for keeping us updated regarding the case.

Since the new scheduler hangs as well, we will need to take a closer looks at the problem. For successful investigation we will need the information listed in this comment. Could you please kindly gather it, submit a support request and let me know the case number so that I could speed up the process of investigation? 

Thank you in advance for cooperation! I'll wait for news from you. Do not hesitate to contact us via PM if needed!

Let me know in case something seems confusing for you, I'll clarify!

Thank you!

Hello Yana,

I have gathered all needed information an tried to submit a support request but I get the following error message on the web site:
413 Request Entity Too Large

The attachment has 1.4 MB.

Hello Yana,

now I have the second machine which hangs in the validation task at 0%.

Kind regards,
Peter

Dear Peter!

Thank you for your reply and please accept my apologies for the procrastination with the response.

I have created a case for you and sent a follow up message from it - feel free to check your e-mail.

Since the file attachement is to big, please kindly upload the information to the FTP account specified in the e-mail.

We will wait for your reply! Thank you!

Hello Yana,

thank for this way to transfer the data. I've uploaded the files and hope they help to find the reason for hanging tasks.

Kind regards,
Peter

Dear Peter!

Thank you for cooperation and for the files uploaded!

I have carefully reviewed the information and have to show it to our Experts' team. I was promised to receive an answer within an hour, so will keep you posted!

Thank you for your patience and cooperation!

Peter!

Thank you for your patience.

We have reviewed the logs, and according to them everything should work fine. So our Expert team requested additional information. I have just sent you the e-mail with the instructions. Please kindly check it and let me know whether anything is confusing - I will be glad to explain.

Thank you in advance for cooperation!

Hello Yana,

I've uploaded the AcronisInfo_...zips.

The two machines with hanging validation are AcronisInfo_MedDb1.zip and AcronisInfo_Public.zip.
The machine with storage node on it is AcronisInfo_DaSi.zip.

Kind regards,
Peter

Dear Peter!

Thank you for your promt response and files uploaded!

All is forwarded to the Experts', so currently they are working on reproducing the issue. I'll keep tracking the case's state and will update you as soon as I have any news.

Should there be any procrastintation with the reply from the Experts' side - just PM to me, I will speed up the process.

Thank you once again for cooperation and patience, we really appreciate it!

Hello Yana,

thank you for your help.

Some minutes ago I got a message from your system, that the case is forwarded to Tier 2 Support Professional. At all support cases in the past which were forwarded to Tier 2 Support Professional I never got an answer from there.

I hope for the best.

Kind regards
Peter

Hi Peter!

You are more than welcome.

I completely share your concern regarding response time, but I'd like to assure you, that I'm tracking the case and will contact the responsible Expert in case I notice any procrastination! Thank you for being sincere in your feedback - it is valuable for us, so I just forwarded it to the Management team so that they could be aware of existing situation.

This issue and your opinion is very important for us, so please be sure we are working hard on finding the solution.

We have a description of you environment, and since the problem affects backup creation, we are trying to reproduce the problem here at the moment. It may take a while, but we will keep you posted!

I would like to apologise for the inconvenience met with the support responses you have faced. I'll do my best to prevent it from happening again.

Should you have any further concerns or suggestions - please do not hesitate to leave it here as a comment or contact me via PM - I will be glad to help with any question!

Thank you.

Peter,

Any response / resolution from Acronis? Just curious how that Tier 2 support worked out (or if they went AWOL as usual).

Brian

Hello Brian!

Thank you for your question!

As far as I can see from Herr Muller's case - the issue looks to be resolved, but they decided to leave the case open for several weeks to be sure that it went away.

I would appreciate if you could kindly let me know whether you have any issues with Experts' reply in the case - I will be glad to speed up the process.

Thank you!

Hi Brian,

yes, I've got a response from Acronis. It's the first time that 2 Tier support contacted me.

But, until today there is neither a solution nor a basic approach for a solution. The only what happend was, that the 2 Tier support requested a mass of log files. Now I'm waiting for a response and a solution.

Peter

>I'll slowly become crazy with B&R:

LOL - I know the feeling.

Cheers, Rob.

You know, I trawl through messages on this forum and the single thought that hits me when I see "Standard response #244" from Acronis is all they need to do is not add any new features for six months and concentrate the developers on fixing the multitude of quality issues in B&R. It's not that it's a bad product feature wise just that it's so flaky. It has all the signs of a rushed release.

Do yourself a favour Acronis - concentrate on quality over features for a while to get the positive reviews and recommendations we IT professionals used to give the product several years ago.

Cheers, Rob.

Yana wrote:

Hello Brian!

...

As far as I can see from Herr Muller's case - the issue looks to be resolved, but they decided to leave the case open for several weeks to be sure that it went away.

So.... either Herr Muller isn't the same person as Peter Muller.... or Acronis thinks the problem is fixed when Peter reports that it is not. Hmmm, which is more likely?

Rob,

Boy, you hit it on the head. I can't tell you how many times I've asked for Acronis to do just that. *Just fix the problems*. No more "features". Just make it work like it used to. I really want to love and recommend Acronis products to my clients again; but not until it works right.

Brian

Hello Peter, Rob and Brian!

Apologies, my answer was based on the latest comment left in the case, and I didn't notice the most recent e-mail conversation.

Peter, thank you for the information! I have sent a follow up to the Expert responsible for your case, so we should receive a reply soon.

Rob and Brian, thank you for your reasonable comment, we really appreciate you're willing to help us with making the product better.  I have sent your suggestions to the Development team for them to take it under consideration. Hopefully we will get the situation fixed.

Also please keep in mind you can alsways contact support directly in case of any technical difficulties or misunderstandings. We're also glad to offer you our technical documentation where you can find detailed information regarding every product's component and feature.

Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!

Thank you!

Hello Yana,

I can't describe who peeved I am!!!!!

I have downloaded the new update and installed it on the machine where the license server and the management server ist installed.
The installation of the license server worked well, but the installation of the rest stopped while installing Bootable Media Builder with error 2349.

The log file you can find on the ftp-server (AcronisBootableComponentsMediaBuilder.msi.log).

Peter

Hello Peter,

Thank you for your reply.

I would like to bring your attention to this thread, where we had a discussion going regarding our German build. We have already fixed this issue and you can check my reply with a solution here.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you.

Hello,

here the report what happened the last days:

I have spend many hours to create Log-Files, Screenshots and so on, because 2-Tier-Support wanted them. From support I got no helpful answer but next days an update will come.

My personal opinion:
They only wanted to put me off until the update is ready and so I have spend my time for nothing.

On thursday the update came out and I tried to install it immediatelly. But it didn't work. I got an error, when Bootable Components Media Builder was installing.
I mailed the installation log to the support and some hours later a new version was ready for donwload. This time installation worked. But on 1 machine it lasts more than 2 hours.

One bug is corrected ( Dashboard erroneously displayed that the management server wasn't backed up).

Wishes I told the support are not implemented.

Bugs are not corrected:
Info windows doesn't save it's height.
VALIDATION TASK HANGS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have payed for support and get nothing, but who pays my time for creating log files and screenshots, creating log files and screenshots, creating log files and screenshots, .....???????

I'll report the next days again.

Regards,
Peter

>They only wanted to put me off until the update is ready and so I have spend my time for nothing.

Did they give any indication when this was likely to be? The last release was nearly five months ago.

Rob.

Hello all,

Thank you very much for your messages.

Peter Müller,

I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience. I was wondering if you were able to run the Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 clean up utility, re-download the latest build (11639) and see how it works?

If it still causes issues, please let the Expert engineer who is working on your case know. You can also post the results here and I will relay them to our Expert professional.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you.

They announced the update on 2. April and it came out on 14. April.

Peter

Oh, not again. The installation of latest build (11639) took enough of my valuable time (about 4 hours). And now you wish, that I uninstall, clean and reinstall 7 machines, create new backup profiles, export and import depot. The next problem, not realized in the new build, I can't export the backup profiles and import them after reinstallation.

Peter

Ah yes... The same answer I always get too: Uninstall the current version on the workstations, uninstall the current license server, download the newest version, install new new license server, install the new version on all the workstations, recreate all the backup jobs...

Can't it just be patched?

I lose at least two hours (if I'm moving quickly) to do this process on our small network. When I have to do it on some of our larger client's networks, I have to bill them for multiple (sometimes 4+) hours to correct a problem with Acronis' product. I only wish I could send my invoice to Acronis instead of my clients (who trusted me when I told them to purchase Acronis' products). For what it's worth, I'm not recommending Acronis products anymore -- I can't take the reputation hit.

Brian

Today I will have an online support session with 2 Tier Support. I wonder if it helps.

Again no comment to the log files and AcronisInfo.zip. Either the support can't read the logs or the content of the logs is so poor that nothing exceptional to find.

In addition the suport advised me to switch from centralized managed vaults to unmanaged faults. After that my problems with hanging validations tasks should be solved. That can't be the solution.

Yesterday I had a discussion with one of my customers because he deliberates to launch a second level support. I proposed it but only when it's really good. When it's so poor as the 2 Tier Support of Acronis he should do it not.

Peter

2 month later I can only tell that it still doesn't work.

Today I have set a time limit to 16.06.2010 to solve the problems.

When the problems aren't solved until this time, I willuse my right as customer to cancel the sale because more than 3 rectifications of defects didn't help.

When I add the price of the Acronis product and my time to help the support finding the solutions I can by a more expensive backup solution and hope that it works better.

Has anybody an advice for a backup solution for 2 dedicated workstations and an ESXi-Server with 5 Windows XP Prof. and 1 SmallBusinessServer 2003?

Peter

Hello all,

Thank you very much for your feedback.

Brian,

I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience. At the moment there are no patches to update our software. However, I will create a Customer Listening ticket for your request and forward it to our Development team, so that they can implement this feature to make updating the software less time consuming.

Peter,

Please accept my apologies for the delay. I have forwarded all the relevant information to our Management team and we will take care of this issue as soon as possible.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to assist you.

Thank you.

Perhaps the title of this thread (maybe the entire forum) should be "Abandon hope all ye who enter here".

But seriously, I've abandoned all Acronis' products. They're just too flaky. I need my backup to work 100% of the time; and when it doesn't I want to be able to determine why. I too cannot count the number of hours I've given away to my clients (I'm a consultant) trying to repair Acronis' products for them. I'm done losing money because of Acronis. I still have two clients with Acronis deployed, but as soon as their current support contract expires -- they're gone too. Then I'll finally be free of this cancer called Acronis. A real shame too -- I used to *love* and recommend their products - but no more.

Peter, for what it's worth, I'm using a combination of products from Symantec and from ReBit. So far, I'm pretty happy with both. I still wish the Acronis version worked since it has a *few* features neither of the other guys have.

Good luck!
Brian

Sorry for the repost.

Hello Anton,

"...Please accept my apologies for the delay. I have forwarded all the relevant information to our Management team and we will take care of this issue as soon as possible...."

I hear this from Acronis since many months. But there is no solution. Online support by 2 Tier Support means that anybody clicks as wild on my screen, all very confusing, and ..... no help, only waste of my time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm software developer. When I would such a buggy software to my customer I could close my firm! I don't fancy the idea to spend my hard earned money for a software like Acronis.

".... as soon as possible...." is not! Time limit is 16.06.2010!

Peter

Hello,

one month later I'm happy that I can say: The problems are solved.

Thanks to Acronis 2 Tier Support.

The solution was a newer version of ESET Smart Security.

We found the reason because I noticed, that sometimes hanging tasks started to run on the workstation after a user logged on at windows. The support told me, that such a phenomenon they had in the past and the reason was the AV-scanner. So I updated ny AV-scanner and hoped that it helps und it did so.

Thanks again to Acronis for help.

Peter

Dear Peter!

Thank you so much for finding time to return to us and let us know that the issue got solved! I'm really very glad to hear about it!

Thank you for specifying the solution that worked for you as well, I'm sure it will be useful for other customers that may visit us on Forum.

We're always glad to help you. Never hesitate to contact us, and be sure we'll do our best to help you!

Thank you!