Replication ESXi to ESXi
Hi there,
until last week, I used Acronis Backup for VMware 9.2 to protect 3 VMs on a productive ESXi 6.0 server.
I had the following active tasks:
- Backup the ESXi configuration to a NAS
- Backup each VM to a NAS
- Replicate each VM to a standby ESXi 6.0 server
Then I made the mistake to update both VMware server to ESXi 6.5.
After the update, the backup of the configuration and the replication did not work anymore and I need to upgrade to Acronis Backup 12.5 Standard, Virtual Host.
Today, I started a 30 day test installation to verify that everything will work as expected.
With Acronis Backup for VMware I just installed one agent on the productive ESXi server, connected to it via webbrowser and could configure everything. No more agents needed, everything worked flawlessly ...
Now, with Acronis Backup 12.5 this seems to be a totally different story.
To do the same simple tasks I need to:
- Install an Acronis Management Server on a system
- Install an agent on the productive ESXi server with the 3 VMs
- Install an agent on the standby ESXi server to replicate the 3 VMs
Is this really the concept behind Acronis Backup 12.5 or have I misunderstood something?
Having one agent only on the productive ESXi server seemed to me sufficient for my needs, however, I did not find a way to accomplish this with Acronis for VMware 12.5
Can an expert here confirm that an easy backup like with Backup for VMware is not possible anymore.with Backup 12.5?
Thanks for your tipps and help ...

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Thank you Vasily, ABR-70213 sounds promising.
I'll order the upgrade from Backup for VMware to Backup 12.5 today and hope, I can setup it so that it works on it's own for a while :-)
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in the meantime, I bought Acronis Backup 12.5 Standard Virtual Host and have the following setup:
- Acronis Backup Manager on a Windows 10 PC
- Agent on the productive ESXi Server
- Agent on the ESXi Server where I want to store the replications
As with Backup for VMware, I'd like to backup 3 VM from the productive ESXi Server to a NAS and replicate these 3 VMs to the replication ESXi Server.
When I try to start a replication, I always get the error message "Backup failed", "Cannot check the license due to a connection issue with the management server"
Error code is "0x01350016+0x01350016+0x02980066" in module "309"
Seems to be a licensing issue.
Do I need an additional Backup license to do the same thing, I did with Backup for VMware?
Here the detailed error description:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zusätzliche Informationen:
------------------------
Fehlercode: 22
Modul: 309
Zeileninfo: 0x8D165E86FB81959B
Felder: {"CommandID":"D332948D-A7A9-4E07-B76C-253DCF6E17FB","$module":"mms_bundle_glxa64_7048"}
Nachricht: TOL: Failed to execute the command. Backup plan 'Replikation zu '192.168.1.12''
------------------------
Fehlercode: 22
Modul: 309
Zeileninfo: 0x8D165E86FB81959B
Felder: {"CommandID":"D332948D-A7A9-4E07-B76C-253DCF6E17FB","$module":"agent_protection_addon_glxa64_7048"}
Nachricht: TOL: Failed to execute the command. Backup plan 'Replikation zu '192.168.1.12''
------------------------
Fehlercode: 102
Modul: 664
Zeileninfo: 0xBFC205B2F53C24E8
Felder: {"FeatureID":"vmwareHostBackup","$module":"agent_protection_addon_glxa64_7048"}
Nachricht: Cannot check the license due to a connection issue with the management server.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit:
found the following kb and will try it out this morning
https://kb.acronis.com/content/59847
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Both workarounds are not working, I will check the networking again or reinstall the Management on one of the VM's I try to replicate ... it's suboptimal this way, but then it should be found ...
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Hi,
The "Cannot check the license due to a connection issue with the management server." error may appear if the Agent cannot resolve the Acronis Management Server (AMS) machine hostname, which causes failure to connect to License Server service (which is running along with AMS). If you use Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) then make sure you set up DNS server settings properly in its network configuration which can be checked by opening the console of the appliance from vSphere client. The main requirement here is to be able to "ping" AMS by its hostname. You can check it by switching to command prompt in appliance console (in vSphere client) via Ctrl+Shift+F2/F1 (switch back to UI can be done via Alt+F1) and pinging the AMS machine.
Thank you.
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Thank you, you are right, the problem lays there.
The Backup Management is on the 192.168.3.0/24 net, the ESXi server (and Acronis VM) on the 192.168.1.0/24 net.
Both networks are connected with a site to site IPSEC VPN, and normally, I can access all ressources on both networks.
But, I can't ping the Backup Management PC from the Acronis VM ...
Therefore, I will install the Backup Management on a PC in the 192.168.1.0 network, I don't want to change the network settings just because Acronis forces me to use a server an 2 clients to do something I could do with a webbrowser before ...
I regret badly, that I updated ESXi from 6.0 to 6.5 with all the trouble I got with Acronis Backup since then ...
Basically: never touch a running system - or don't fix something, that is not broken ...
So, I'll not going to make significant changes in the network ...
I'll delete Acronis True Image Home from one of the PCs on the 192.168.1.0 networks and install Acronis Backup 12.5 Management Server instead ...
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Hi,
An alternative to AMS/Agent re-installation would be to add a record to /etc/hosts (\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts for Windows agent) file on appliance to enforce the name resolution. It can be done by connecting to appliance via WinSCP utility and editing the /etc/hosts file directly as described in https://kb.acronis.com/content/57613 article - the instructions for connection are the same for Acronis Backup for VMware and Acronis Backup 12.5 appliances with the exception that in v12.5 to switch to CLI console of the appliance you'll need to press Ctrl+Shift+F2/F1 key combination (the console should be first opened via vSphere client->right-click on appliance->"Open Console").
Thank you.
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Bingo !
I could vi the hosts file directly in the console window and now it started the backup ...
Hope, it goes through this time
Thanks for your support, Vasily
Edit:
The replication went through without any issues ... thanks again!
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I'm almost there ...
one other issue I can't solve.
I'm not able to enter my password in the GUI of the VM client (special character @) ...
Is there a way to do it in the console?
Edit:
Did a new install after I changed the password, now it works.
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One other question:
The automatic recognition does not see all my virtual machines.
Two Windows 10 VMs and an Ubuntu VM are recognised and I can replicate them.
However, two debian VMs are not recognised.
How can I replicate them?
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Sorry, to pop this up again.
Does someone have an idea, how to replicate a VM, that is not recognised automatically?
I have 5 VMs on the productive ESXi Server but can replicate only three of them ...
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Hi,
The VMs are discovered using their "InstanceUUID" properties from vSphere. If there are duplicate InstanceUUID valules for 2 or more VMs then only 1 of these VMs will be shown in the console. Please check "Solution C" from https://kb.acronis.com/content/32243 article which instructs on how to change the InstanceUUID property for any VM via vSphere Object Browser. There could be other reasons for this behavior as well however, so if there are still problems, it makes sense to contact our support team for further assistance.
Thank you.
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