ABR11 does not recognize ABR10 licenses as valid
I performed a clean install of ABR11 management server, Storage Node, and License server. Everything went okay until I attempted to install the new ABR11 client on some test machines on the floor.
The license server shows all licenses that I own but ABR11 does not recognize them as valid licenses for install.
Colin,
Thanks for the reply, I have 600 ABR10 licenses stilll under contract, I talked to tech support several months ago and verified that I was eligible for a free upgrade to ABR11. I also asked two different "chat" operators if I needed to upgrade my licenses to ABR11, both of which said no. (this makes sense to me though and I think will be my ultimate solution).
The other bugs that I had run into with the ABR11 Beta are fixed as far as I can tell, but I cannot deploy my agents, so it's hard to tell.
Anyone know for sure if ABR10 licenses need to be upgraded to ABR11 licenses and redeployed?
Thanks.
Paul
Like magic, the floodgates opened up and all of my "upgraded" serial numbers were emailed to me.
Ask and Ye may recieve.
I'll give this a shot tomorrow and see how far I get.
Paul.
Well, the new licenses are imported into the license server and the license manager "sees" them, but I am unable to deploy a client. For some reason, the license allocation is not making sense and the deploy tool does not see the ABR11 licenses as available.
Paul,
As yet I don't have the release version, so can't try to duplicate your problem. I think raising a support ticket might be in order.
Well, as has been the case ever since the initial release of ABR10 (and Echo before it) the tech support is not much help beyond "is your computer plugged in". I have always had to hammer through the problems myself.
After many reinstalls, reboots, attempts on separate machines, and headaches, I have finally installed ABR11, Management console, License server, created a functional vault, and deployed ONE client.
The "automatic install" does not work, it will not recognize the licenses as valid. I have to install the Agent Core manually from the local machine which takes 5 to 10 minutes, reboot, and then reinstall the remaining components manually (locally) another 10 minutes.... (all of my systems are Windows XP, SP3 Intel core2 duo or better, so it's not a resource issue). I tried installing just the core Agent and then "pushing" the agents, but that failed as well. All license selections are nulled out and unselectable.
When installing locally, the licenses are recognized as valid and, even though it takes a while, the install succeeds.
I created a "policy" and noticed that we no longer have the ability to "apply" them as desired. nor is there a Task manager where you can kick off an initial backup, you have to create a separate backup job and run it. This is not difficult, but it was nice to be able to select the "full backup" from the task list and simply say "run now".
I love the archive browser, this was sorely missed in the previous versions.
I hammered the clients into three machines and added them to the system to get a feel for how things are going to run.
I can't wait to manually install ABR11 on the remaining 300 machines on my newtork for the nth time, I should be done deploying this just before the world ends in 2012.
I also noticed that all of my licenses for ABR11 are "uprgades" so if I ever have to wipe my license server as I have done numerous times in the past, I get to add all of my licenses twice. That's nice.
I had thought the new agent shouldn't require rebooting, though if Acronis Disk Director Server 11 is installed it does.
I'm wondering if something in registry prevented the upgrade going as planned. I wonder if uninstalling ABR10 and then performing an 11 install would have a different result to installing over the top.
Something I might try when i can get my hands on the release build.
I'm sure that this new "Core" client is what is requiring the reboot and I am sincerely hoping that it will solve some of our upgrade issues. The inability to "push" to machines in a completely standard domain is ridiculous.
Okay...so my three systems got backed up last night. Six times each. and my log file generated 4372 blank items labeled "Todo: Fix Activity Description" half of which succeeded and half of which failed.
I have one policy that should create a full every 120 days and an incremental every three days, none of which were yesterday or today.
Guess we'll just have to keep an eye on it and see what happens.
Paul,
Despite the code stub reports in the log, does ABR11 appear to have imaged the disks correctly?
The VSS fails, I'm going to have to look into that, but the ultimate status of the task is "Completed Successfully" I'll need to do a restore, and an export and .tib image restore to validate, but all the files are there in the vault.
I rolled out about ten systems today and had a couple machines where the agent install did not require a reboot, but the install still takes about a half an hour total. I have only had one machine successfully install agents from the management server. (but I'll keep trying..)
On a positive note, ABR11 does not seem to suffer from the maddening permissions issues that ABR10 was constantly stricken with.
So far a little bumpy, but very positive considering the way they cut the beta program short and did not pre-release an RC version. I'm sure there are going to be thousands of bug fixes, but if updates are easier, things just might smooth out.
Well it's been a year now and I stumbled across this thread so figured I'd jot down how progress went with ABR11.
I have been able to get ABR installed on roughly 40 or so systems on my network out of te several hundred that I am responsible for. The bugs and problems are too numerous and too random to list.
I have systems that when I attempt to install, the license server tells me that I am out of licenses. I have systems that flat out refuse to install the product at all. (That previously had ABR 10 on them).
I have systems that things seem to install just fine, but refuse to be added to the Management Server.
And once again, my machines are standard Windows XP SP2 or 3 in a completely standard Domain with permissions that are more open than they should be.
I have cleaned registries, uninstalled, reinstalled, everything short of wiping my production system and doing a clean install of it, which is ridiculous and I can't have machines down for several days while I reinstall the known universe.
My management server stopped emailing me about two months ago and I really didn't care as I have pretty much given up on any acronis product.
All of a sudden a couple days ago, it started emailing me again. I did nothing, I have not touched the server in months.
I received an email from the Acronis rep asking if I was going to continue to pay Acronis for the privilege of being a beta tester on their product. I have declined.
My company has paid something to the tune of 45k for a non functional product and I am tired of fighting it.
My company expects that if they keep writing checks to Acronis, that they will have a functional backup system. This is not, nor has it ever been the case with the ABR product. It has NEVER worked more than "marginally".
There were a few glimmers of hope, but they all turned out to be swamp gas.
I downloaded the newest release on 7.17.2012, but don't know if I'm interested enough to ever attempt to install it.
I think the expectation of a functional backup system is far more dangerous than the reality of the situation.
If it's any consolation, Acronis True Image Home 12 was every bit as bad as ABR11. I have several friends that purchased ATI12 as well as myself and have since uninstalled it and have gone back to 11. (after it destroyed my home PC once)
What happened to Acronis? Did the one good programmer leave?
Paul,
Have you contacted Acronis Support with your problems and were they unable to resolve them?
I did the tech support thing so many times I lost count. they're no help. All the log files in the world don't seem to add up to anything.
Their tech support has never helped me solve a problem. It's always been experimenting on my own and eventually getting the product to sort of work.
The real problem is that you have to install/uninstall Acronis so many times, I have a feeling all of my production systems have an unbelievable mess of old/bad Acronis installs in them that need to be cleaned up now.
I'm really fed up with it. I have a few systems that it runs on , so I'll leave those in place until Acronis either fixes their product or until Symantec comes out with a coherent product.
Until then, it's the old standby of making static images or scheduling backups using True Image 11 in local installs.
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for posting and thank you for your help Colin.
Paul, I checked your account in our system and was able to find cases related to Acronis Backup and Recovery 11 upgrade requests. In case I missed anything I would like to contact you via a private message and ask you for additional information.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Thank you.