Acronis BR11 extremly buggy? Is it still a beta test?
Hi,
I have big Problems here with BR11.
6 Customers:
Esxi Vsphere
Physical Backup Server or Virtual Backup Server
RDX or LTO5
Windows 2008R2 for Backup Server with 2008R2 SQL
Esxi Appliance or Esxi Agent (both tested)
Since 16 days the Backups always fail at all customers no matter how i create the backup job!
Premium Support?? No ... "We will call you back!" But They don't.... "We report to second level" And nothing happend
1. The Hotfix
Very Funny. There are 3 Versions out with same Build Number...
Digital Signatures (21. June, 22. June, 24. June)
Can you Update? No - Same Build -> No Update
Can you Repair? No -> Error: Another Version is installed
So what can you do? Clean Up (deinstall, registry, programdata, programfiles....) - Reinstall
Is this really serious? i know it could be enough to reinstall license server but there is still no reason for this
2. License
Virtual Edition License is extremly buggy even with 1727 (24.June).
You cant install Agents on Virtual Machines with Virtual Edition License (whereismyvirtuallicense.jpg).
You cant revert nor remove any License (reverting_license.jpg)
You cant see if the Virtual Edition License is used by a machine or not (esxi_without_license.jpg, license1.jpg)
If you use Virtual Edition License by installing the Agent manually on a vm - all backups will fail by using esxi appliance (error: license not needed... funny isnt it?). seems the Virtual Edition license will be removed from appliance....
3. Acronis VSS
Acronis VSS doesn't work. If you use it the backup will fail always.
You have to use Software-Systemprovider instead. Known Bug if you ask the support.
4. Stability
The Backup will run sometimes... but in most cases the backup will fail!
(mms_errors.jpg, mms_appliance_crash.jpg)
After 1000 Select SQL Bugs you can see
"Connection Lost from Agent",
"Esxi Appliance Crashed please contat Acronis Support",
"Lost Connection from Agent"
5. Management Console
The Support asked me to collect the Logs by clicking "help -> collect system informations"
Now the funny part (error_by_collection_informations.jpg). Even this will fail. And it is not enough if you are lucky it will crash the "Acronis Management Server Service" Service.
But it will get much more worse. You cant start this Service anymore.
1h Remote Session with Acronis Support proved this. So the only thing you can do is reinstall Acronis Management Server. But thats not all because after reinstalling you will loose all options and storage nodes. And things will get more worse.
After reconnecting the Storage Node you can't add the non-managed vaults anymore. If you try to recreate the Vault (there is already a vault...) and if you try to readd the vault (there are no deleted backups in this vault....)
The managed vaults are no problem.
So what can you do? Yes cleanup - reinstall! After collectiong Error Logs....
Is that all? No:
- you can't see why a backup failed (whydoesitfail.jpg) - log display error
- the informations about backup task are incorrect or missing (managementconsole_displayerror.jpg, managementconsole_displayerror2.jpg, managementconsole_displayerror3.jpg)
6. D2D
A simple Task:
- Machines to Backup
- Backup Storage
- LTO/RDX Library
You cant backup to storage and export with a second task to Tape (why?). You can start export task just manually.
So you are forced to use D2D Backups (Backup with 2 Locations).
The Problem:
The Machines will be backed up to Storage and after that ALL ARCHIVES in the Storage from this Machine will be replicated to Second Location.
You cant avoid this. If you have 5 fullbackups from srv01 at the storage all backups will be replicated to Tape (second location) because the Tape is empty (will take just some days - but don't worry the backup will fail before finishing the task)
Remember:
There are 6 different Servers and 6 different Esxi Environments.
Even Backup tasks at one location will fail.
The Servers are fresh installed with 2008R2. There is no other Software at these servers.
The Backup can complete without erros but in most cases it will fail (if you change backup priority to high the chances to fail are higher too)
acronis dropped the ball on this release.
the biggest problem is if you have to rely on the german support you are lost.
- nearly 4 weeks and i still don't know why my backups are crashing
- they promised me many times to call me back but they don't
and if i call them i feel being fooled
2 examples of german support:
.....
me: just one question. if i want to backup virtual machines from a vsphere ESXI server i have two options - i can use the ESXI Windows Agent or the ESXI Appliance to backup the machines - which agent should i prefer?
support: you want to install agents on the machines?
me: no. i can install a windows agent for esxi on my physical backup server to backup my virtual machines - this agent will connect to the ESXI server. so which agent is more stable or faster? which one should i use? or should i use booth (e.g. backup 4 vm with appliance and 4 vm's with ESXI windows agent).
support: what do you mean?
me: in the management machine options you can choose the agent for the virtual machines?
support: yes you can install the agent on the virtual machines
me: ... no i mean the agent for esxi... you don't need an appliance if you use it
support: i will try to get this information and will write a mail for you
mail: .. it doesn't make a difference if you install the agent on the virtual machines or not. both is ok.
????????
second example (another supporter):
me: maybe i have a very simple question.
support: ok
me: i want to backup to a LTO5 tape drive but i cant find any informations in the manuals
support: so what do you want to know?
me: just very simple. i need 3 steps: delete the tape - backup to tape - eject the tape.
support: why do you want to delete the tape?
me: because i will roate the tapes. after x tapes i will use the tape again but if the tape is already full i need place for my backup
support: hmm im not sure how to do this.
me: but i cant use every day a new tape?
support: yes you are right. my teammate will call you back he has experience for years with tape support.
me: but its a simple question isn't it?
support: yes but before i say sth wrong its better
....
to make it short. the second supporter used the acronis chat to contact another acronis expert how to delete a tape before starting a backup job to it. he had no success ("im waiting still for his answer.... he seems to be busy... hmm seems he dont know it... i will send you a link to online manual"
is this realy serious? do i really have to explain an acronis supporter how a backup rotation with tapes is working? if i speak to the support i have the feeling to speak to my 4 years old daugther who never heard sth about backup....
Hi Michael
I will need to do some testing with this but the following section in the manual might be able to help for now:
http://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ABR11/index.html#12788.html
I’m sure you can setup some rules to move the tapes once full or after x amount of backups back to a free pool perhaps?
I have not done allot with tape rotation but I will try and get some testing done when I have some spare time, hope that might help for now.
Hi Michael,
I second that about german support , also have some serious problems with ABR11 ( but the Linux standalone edition).
Several errors , mms service crashes, no emails got sent, backup isn't working or backup is going nuts with backups after backups the whole day. Got a case opened for 11 days , no help till now. Yesterday I uninstalled the ABR11 and went back to last ABR10 build. Now it seems to work again - fingers crossed. But it seems you can't rely on german support , NOTHING happens at all :-(
last message from support:
they still testing the crash of the acronis appliance.... maybe i can expect an answer in 2 weeks. we expect that Update0 should be ready in the end of august.
so 2 months without a stable backup solution? seriously? is this really common with acronis support? and still 4 weeks left for update0...
Oh very, very common. It took them a year and a half to get BR10 "stable" and please notice I put that in quotes. But rather then getting it truely stable they bagged it and out comes BR11. Also very, very common.
after restoring the thread (BR11 Bug Report Thread were deleted by a mistake) they forgot the screenshots. i cannot edit any longer the first post so i have to attach them again in this reply:
Did you get a fix for your issues in the end? we just spent over 10k on this and 5 weeks in have still not had a "successful" backup with what seems to be different errors every time, so far 3 support calls and not fixed.
I totally agree with everything in Michael Keller's original post at the top of this page.
What is it with the Virtual Edition Licenses.
I'm just glad I didn't spend £10K on this software!
I have one backup that's been "running" for over 4 days now!
This one is actually working for me. Just want to share. 