Instant Restore
Hi everyone,
I tried to restore VM with this option on Hyper-V Server, i restored my VM, i saw her with a special Icon on ABR V12, but i did not find how to finalize it. Userguide specify click on finlalize, but i saw no button for this.
Any help.
Regards,
Stéphane,
And the next major update is provided when ?
It's a very good function, in waiting, is it possible to finalize by another way ?
Stephane,
The major update is planned to be released by the end of this year. The manual finalization path does exist, though it involves severe manipulations with the virtual disks and short downtime of the VM. Here's the sequence (also see screen shot in attach with illustration):
1) Run a VM from backup on Hyper-V and note the path where the virtual disks are created (by default it's in default Hyper-V directory). There are 2 files for each guest VM disk which represent the base disk (emulated from backup and not changed in time) and the deltas where the changes are stored.
2) When you need to finalize the recovery use FAR file manager (default Windows copy/paste won't work) to copy the "base" disks to some other location. This can be done while VM is still running.
3) After the base disk copying is complete power off the mounted VM - this action will ensure that "deltas" are not changed in time
4) Kill mms.exe process (it's Acronis Managed Machine service) via Windows Task Manager - this will cause the base disks to disappear, while the deltas will remain the folder
5) Copy the deltas (using any method) to the same location where the base disks were copied before
6) Create a new empty VM in Hyper-V Manager with required parameters and attach the copied deltas to it as new virtual disks
7) Start Acronis Managed Machine service back
As the result you will get a new VM which has the same data as the mounted VM had, plus you will keep all the changes made while the VM was mounted.
Note: if you start Acronis Managed Machine service after killing while the base and delta disk are still in place then they will get automatically cleaned up, so it's crucial to perform the above sequence in exact same order.
Thank you.
ok, it's not very friendly, i will wait next update before to use this option
Any update on this? We're evaluating switching to Acronis and instant restore in Hyper-V is a must. It's not a complete solution without the ability to finalize. I tried the workaround above, but got an error trying to copy using FAR file manager, so I'd prefer to see the finalize feature in the software instead.
When will finalize instant restore in Hyper-V be available? If they're targeting by the end of this year, then there's just a few weeks left. I can't wait.
Hi Jeff,
The Finalization for Hyper-V functionality is currently planned only for the next 2018 year - this featured was not included into scope for 2017 year releases, and we had to postpone it. There is no ETA available yet, but most likely the functionality will be included by the end of 2018.
Thank you.
In reply to Hi Jeff,… by truwrikodrorow…
Is there any other way we can manually save the base file? I need this function to be able to save changes done to the backup VM while its running during a failure. If I cant whats really the point.
I've tried the FAR file manager along with a few shadow copy programs and cant seem to be able to save the base file. What is the MMS.exe actually doing? is it mounting the main backup file as an read only image? There has to be something we could do while we are waiting for an update.
Hi Simon,
The copying of base files should work from FAR manager since the base files are not changed in time. If this method doesn't work, then an alternative solution to preserve the changes would be to backup the mounted VM by installing Agent for Windows inside it and taking backup like regular physical machine (agent-less backup won't work for VMs mounted on Hyper-V). After that you can restore machine from this backup, thus effectively preserving the changes.
Thank you.
Simon, one more tip: since the base VHDX file is emulated through Acronis driver (which provides a direct channel to backup archive to represent this file to Hyper-V host), some system functions for it are affected which causes the file not to return "EndOfFile" property if you try to copy it and thus it returns general system error when copying via FAR. However the actual contents of the file are properly copied and if you kill the FAR.exe process after you get the error in it (in the very end of copying) then the copied file will remain in place and will be valid - I've just confirmed this in our QA lab.
P.S. Looks like my original instructions worked properly only until some changes in Acronis driver which were included in some of the updates - we will investigate why the EndOfFile is not sent properly by this driver with our developers internally.
Thank you.
i am not even getting the End of file error, it does not even start to copy. My VM is about 150 GB and right after i select copy it has the error shown in the included image. I would imagine it would take some time to copy and reach the end of file error.
Simon, which Hyper-V version you're using? I've tested the above instructions on Hyper-V 2012 R2 and the base file can be copied properly with failure only in the very end.
I am using Windows 2012 r2 Standard with the Hyper-V role installed. Did you download the latest version of FAR file manager? Do you have a plugin installed in the program? Is it maybe the version of Acronis agent? how can I verify the Agents version.
Right now I am trying on a computer that is getting replicate of the backup and has an agent in the same acronis account. I will try this on the main system where the backup is being performed to see if I get different results.
The problem could be in a FAR-specific option: F9->Options->System Settings->Use system copy routine . See attached screen shot. If it's enabled then the copying would fail, so you should leave it disabled.
So here's what I get:
1) Copying the base .vhdx file to another local folder. Fails in the very end and here's where I terminate the FAR process:
2) After terminating FAR process I get the file copied successfully:
Thank you.
Hello Vasily, after removing the check mark this worked perfectly. I walked away from the copy because it was going to take 40 minutes. When i returned I did not even have an error it had copied the file without problem, I will have to try again and sit by the system to see if error's or completes without problem. I then copied the delta file and created a new VM to test the results, it worked great.
Thank you for all the help on this manual fix.
I was wondering if there was any update on the finalize for Hyper-V?
Hi Simon,
This feature is in our scope for the next major update of Acronis Backup 12.5 - likely it would be Update 4, but there is no final committment yet (the chances are very high though, since it's a popular feature request). Update 4 is currently under active development, but I can't share ETA in public at the moment.
Thank you.
Vasily, I was wondering if the finalize for Hyper-V was added yet?
Hi Simon,
The feature has not been added yet and is planned for the next year currently (not in Update 4 which we plan to publish soon).
Thank you.
Is there anything within the Acronis softwares mounting of the storage for the base images that would cause data transfers around 18MB/s and no faster? We're attempting to move a 4TB, 2TB and 400GB file and I cannot get them to move any faster than that while using FAR.
Hi Aaron,
During "Run VM from backup" operation, the access to the backup storage is established through special file system driver installed on Hyper-V host which is responsible for direct access to backup storage from within emulated .vhd files (located on local file system of the host), so there is indeed an overhead which may impact the performance. We are planning to improve this file system driver performance in future updates for Acronis Backup (some of these enhancements will be added into the upcoming Update 4, but only slight improvements may be expected).
Thank you.
Is finalize for Hyper-V instant restore available yet? Any ETA? I'm looking to replace another backup solution for all of our customers with Acronis, but this is a requirement before we can do so.
Hi Boreas,
The "finalization for Hyper-V" feature will be included into the upcoming new version (v8.0) for Acronis Cyber Cloud platform, e.g. it will become part of Acronis Backup Cloud services offering. This is planned to happen within the next couple of months as we're on the final stage of preparing Beta campaign for this version.
After that this feature will be included into on-premise Acronis Backup 12.5 product in the next update (Update 5 or higher) which we plan to release until the end of this year, though there is no exact ETA for this update yet.
Thank you.
I have to say, as a new MSP Partner to the Acronis family and coming from extensive trial runs and 3+ years of experience with your competitors products (FalconStor, StorageCraft, Datto, Replibit, Veeam, and Vembu), I am extremely disappointed that these shenanigans are still going on from 3 years ago. Do you have any idea how long 3 years is in the technology field? Wake up Acronis.
Hello Jeremy.
We appreciate you sharing your honest opinion.
As I can see, the Finalize option for Hyper-V VMs (ABR-80469) feature is already done and we wait for it to be included in next updates.
Well, I am not sure how many of you have actually taken the time to fully test the instructions as outlined here from Vasily, but like some of the users, I had run into the issue with the FAR Manager and had to uncheck the option as noted by Vasily to get things to copy. However, when getting down to the point where you create the new VM in Hyper-V and go to assign the delta disks, it doesn't work for me. I've followed the steps 100% as outline by Vasily and have spent 4 hours troubleshooting this today (trying too many things to list), and each time the error/end result is the same.
Hello Jeremy.
As a new MSP Partner, you can open a case with Acronis Support Team , share a link to this forum thread and request a remote session so that support engineers could check whether anything has been missed.
I should also share more info on the Finalize mounted VM on persistent storage (Hyper-V) (RM-589) feature: it was implemented in Acronis Cyber Cloud since 8.0 (ABR-80469) but has not been included in on-premise releases. Unfortunately, we do not expect it to be included in the nearest update.
Hello, do you have any idea for the integration of this functionality, which seems important to our customers? Otherwise we will no longer sell Acronis.
Hello Benoit.
Your opinion is important to us. We have passed your comment to the respective Manager and added your vote to this feature request.
What's the status on Hyper-V finalize? Per Maria's 10/31 comment is it already released to the Acronis Cyber Cloud 8.0? How can I check if it's already available in my environment? How do I find the version?
Here's what I see in my cloud console under About, so it would appear I'm already on v12, way past v8:
Web console service: v.12.0.3842
Backup management server: v.12.4.6032
Backup management console: v.12.0.8033
Hello Boreas,
the latest released version is 8.0, here you can find the table with builds https://kb.acronis.com/content/56310