Recovery if destination's logical name changes
A short while back I had some networking issues, and so had to temporarily give my NAS a fixed IP instead of accessing it by its usual network ID. It already had Acronis backups on there. So with the fixed IP I could still see all the backup files fine from file explorer.
But Acronis could not see any of the backups it had put on there. Not even when looking to recover files (not for real, but just so see if that was also an issue, which it was). To me this is a serious issue. If the backups are on a drive, and that drive is visible in Windows (Win 10 in this case), then why would Acronis not be able to access those backups?
I don't understand why Acronis insists on the storage device's logical name remaining unchanged, when the backups are completely valid and intact. There are surely going to be use cases where a backup needs to be restored from a device where its logical name has had to change, such as in my fixed IP example.
Also, I have a USB drive connected to the NAS, which I also back up to, so it's logical name includes the NAS. What if my NAS dies, and I need to recover directly from the USB drive? Is Acronis going to refuse to backup from it because its logical name has changed? That would be a very valid use case.
Something feels wrong with this. Am I missing something?
Steve Smith wrote (italics):If the location for those files has changed and this is not just a temporary change, then you would need to take steps to correct this in the ATI GUI.
So from what I have seen I think this means any backup history gets discarded, even though it is all there in the 'new' location, and Acronis then starts again as if there was no backup history? Why does Acronis do it this way? Would it not be better to put some kind of GUID into the backup file, so no matter where it is it can be uniquely identified?
When considering any recovery actions, then if you do this using the Acronis Rescue Media to boot the computer where the recovery is to be actioned, then the internal database is never used or needed, so you can select the backup file(s) from where-ever they are stored.
OK, I'll experiment with that. Just got a new laptop anyway so need to do rescue media. Not quite understanding your advice. When you say "boot the computer where the recovery is to be actioned", are you saying you just have to cd to the directory where the backup is stored so it becomes the local dir? Or am I misunderstanding?
Barry, you said in the initial post that you had to "temporarily give my NAS a fixed IP instead of accessing it by its usual network ID" which implies that the NAS later got its original IP address again, in which case there should have been no need to worry about losing history / activity information.
If the change of IP address is permanent, then removing the task from the GUI while leaving behind the files on the NAS, then using the option to 'Add existing backup' from the new NAS IP location should bring back the history & activity (based on the files present in the location). You would need to just select the most recent file from the NAS, but would need to reconfigure the task and provide credentials for the NAS.
My reference to booting the computer where the recovery is to be actioned using the rescue media is simply about the process of recovery.
If computer A is to be recovered, then you boot computer A using the Acronis Rescue Media then recover the backup from your external backup drive or NAS to that computer's hard drive.
Many thanks Steve. I'd not discovered the 'Add existing backup' option; all is much clearer now!