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Acronis Backup Schedule works out of time zone

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I am running into a wierd problem. Summary of the Acronis Infra is as below.

Acronis Management Server: Windows Server 2012 (Physical Server)
Product version 12.0.3622

Acronis is used to backup the virtual servers. The virtualization technology that is used is VMware.

Two ESXi hosts runs on ESXi 6.0. The ESXi hosts are managed by vCenter Server Appliance which is on vSphere 6.5.

The two ESXi hosts are added as individual ESXi hosts in Acronis, instead of adding one vCenter and using Acronis to discover the ESXi hosts (Because adding the vCenter and deploying agent on each discovered ESXi host was also having the same problem. I changed to this approach to get rid of this scheduling problem and I think this gets into a more isolated situation in regards to the problem described below)

All the virtual machines running on the ESXi Servers are discovered in the Acronis Management Server and they can be viewed in the console. Backup plans has also been created. We have different Backup plans, scheduled at different times. Some backup plans consists of VMs running on one ESXi server alone while the VMs in some ESXi consists of VMs running on both Servers. Like the backup plan for domain controllers - We have one Domain controller running on each of the ESXi host for redundancy.

Problem:

The backups of the VMs running on Second ESXi is running at the correct time. Backup scheduled at 10 PM goes ON at 10 PM. But, for the VMs on the first ESXi, it goes ON at 10 AM instead. 

I checked both the agents. Both have the same Time, Both connected to the same Management Server. Both are on the same time zone and both have same time. Only difference is both are connected to different ESXi hosts.

I checked the time on the ESXi hosts as well and they are also in the same time zone and running same time.

 

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Posts: 22
Comments: 3800

Hi Tom,

It's hard to say what could be the cause of the problem without taking a look at the environment, especially since you mentioned that the time zone and time setup is identical on all appliances, so there are no obvious reasons for such weird behavior. It makes sense to start the troubleshooting by contacting our support team for assistance. Remember to collect the system report: open web console->go to Devices/Resources section -> select one VM from first ESXi host-> Go to Activities tab->Collect system report (in the right lower corner) -> repeat the same steps for the 2nd VM from another ESXi host, so that it is possible to compare the outputs from "good" and "bad" appliance.

Thank you.

I contacted the support and I was adviced to update Acronis since another versionw as released recently. At this point, I am going to build a new Server for Acronis. Is there any document or reference I can follow to migrate it? 

I can install AMS on another server and all. I am also changing the storage to a new Location. Will it be possible to start the Backup without needing to run full backup the first time?

 

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Posts: 22
Comments: 3800

Hi Tom,

There is no straightforward migration procedure for Acronis Management Server (AMS) component (which includes migration of its database) - we're going to work on description of it closer to the middle of this year (no specific dates commitment yet).

Though in your case there is no need to migrate - you can simply install the new build on top of your existing installation (for centralized component). After that remove the currently registered appliances from Settings->Agents and re-deploy new appliances (from new build). The existing backup plans will be automatically distributed among these new appliances, since all information about the backup plans is stored centrally on AMS, while appliances are only getting the backup plans for execution.

If you continue backing up to the same backup location as used before (even from new freshly installed AMS) then backups will be performed incrementally appending changes to existing backup archives - since the IDs of the VMs are not changed (since it's the same source for backup) and the mapping can be done automatically.

Thank you.

I figured this out finally.

I had been living with this issue for quite some time. Whenever I install the updates on the Management Server, then the backups will start playing up. It will not run as per the scheduled time, but it will run out of sync. 

The workaround that I found was, to follow the below order. (I still am not sure of the logic behind it)

1. I install the update on ManagementServer

2. Update the Agent (i.e, the virtual appliance on each ESXi host)

3. After all the agents are updated, go to Devices >All Devices
Look for the ESXi hosts and the Agent Assigned to them (See the attached pic, it says AcronisESXiAgent-2

4. Reboot AcronisESXiAgent-2, wait for the reboot to complete and this Agent to come back up and register with the AMS

5. Reboot all other Acronis Agents

tempsnip.png