Where can I locate backup log files on 2016 True Image
I really miss my older TI versions that has a nice feature to allow me to view a calendar to check for successful/unsuccessful backups. I've observed the newest TI version has failed to back up based on a schedule. Without backup log viewer, I find it difficult to determine backup creation is successful or not. I have to look at my network NAS to check for backup files.
Where can I locate the log reports?
David
I don't like this. Give me back the calander! The calendar with the logs were much superior to having to look through all the cryptic log files! This is a downgrade.
AGREE 100%..... very useful to handily access these from within TI....
AGREE 100%..... very useful to handily access these from within TI....
I also agree- the entire UI should go back to the pre W10 look.
Joe
Personally, I like the new UI versus TIH 2011. The TIH 2011 UI wasn't bad, but I think 2016 is cleaner and more minimalist. But I'm always against the loss of functionality with nothing better to replace it. Having to manually resort to digging up log files which are in cryptic time format is a step backwards when they used to be right at your fingertips in usable format.
I just installed ATI 2016, and agree with all comments regarding log viewing. Is there no way to view the log from the task itself, after it completes? All I see in the log is techno-babble...nothing useful to me.
ATI 2013 made it easy to view logs. Let's roll back the calendar!
Robert,
Unfortunately not. Logging is a big push we're making in the MVP forum as well - no idea why that was removed - doesn't make sense to most of us and is something we pretty much all want brought back. However, it does sound like Acronis has taken the logging feedback seriously and will be bringing it back, but we'll have to see as we have no idea when though. I'm hoping maybe even the next release update, but expect it will definitely be back in 2017 - I can only speculate though. For now, we're stuck having to manually view the logs in notepad at C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Logs
Other than that, email notifications are about as good as it gets with the current version.
I've recently begun experimenting with an alternative program- Macrium Reflect. It's a much better program, in my opinion. Anyone who is tired of ATI should give it a try. They have a free version with some features removed and a full trial version good for a month.
Joe
Folks, I have been playing / learning a little about XML and XSLT to find a way to better read the ATIH log files and have been able to do this by creating an XSL stylesheet which then allows the log file to be dragged & dropped on any XML compliant web browser. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari all work well with XML files, whereas Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Opera don't!
To use the XSL stylesheet a couple of quick changes are needed:
- The log file needs to be renamed from .LOG to .XML
- An extra line needs to be added to the top line of the log file.
Each log file starts with the following XML statement:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
The following additional line needs to be added as the second line of the log file, this points to the XSL stylesheet.
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="ServiceLogFile.xsl"?>
The final action needed is to save the attached servicelogfile.xsl.txt file to the same folder as the XML log file and rename it to remove the extra .txt extension (required to allow it to be uploaded!).
Dragging a service_ log file on to Internet Explorer gives the results shown in the screen capture attached.
The same approach can be used for the console_ and monitor log files with just a name change on the second line to point to the relevant xsl stylesheet file (consolelogfile.xsl or monitorlogfile.xsl).
Note: For these log files you may need to add a missing </log> statement at the very end of the file to close it correctly.
Joseph, a lot of people do like Macrium Reflect but I'm still not sold on it for the following reasons.
- I find it more difficult to use than ATI. To me it is like the Apple & Adobe products where you have to get into the mindset of the developer and understand what he was thinking. This is not to say that Acronis has earned a gold star here. The UI is far from perfect and in 2016 they have removed some features that users really like.
- Basically you only get one year for the release and Macrium stops supporting it and closes the forum for that release. At which point you are totally on your own. They expect you to purchase the newest release. I for one have a limited budget and cannot afford to be buying a new release of everything I used every year. Heck, my laptop is almost 8 years old and I'd really like to get a new one but the budget restrics me from doing so.
- They do seem to be quick on fixing issues but when you request a better UI function they ignore you.
For now I will stick with ATI
Steve Smith, thank you for the stylesheets and instructions for editing log files in order to make them readable in the browser.
I'd like to share what I'm doing as another option for Windows users. I downloaded and installed XML Notepad on my machine (https://xmlnotepad.codeplex.com/). This is an open source application that provides a simple, intuitive user interface for browsing and editing XML documents. I'm able to open any of the log files without first editing the contents or the file name. An option under the View menu in XML Notepad ("Expand All") opens all elements in the file. The result is fairly readable, although not as nice as your tables. Timestamps remain cryptic. I use an online converter (http://www.epochconverter.com/) to make those readable.
Czeslaw...
Check out FTRPilot's Acronis log viewer app as well - this one is really nice and is now a sticky in the main 2016 forum:
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/115626
Agree with bringing it back. My major gripe is providing SMTP settings and passwords to get the email notification. I'll wait for it to come back within the GUI, hopefully by 2017.
I just installed TI 2017 and I can not find any GUI for logs. I guess they decided not to change it back.
The intiial 2017 release was primarily focused on stability. No idea when we'll see it in 2017, but we should see the embedded log viewer return this year (I hope). FTRPilot's logviewer is working really well in the interim - give it a try if you haven't. He's also working on a really nice MVP utility that is pretty awesome - it basically takes all of the Acronis tools and puts them in one place, plus gives the option to turn off services, report if the system is UEFI or Legacy, etc. I think it's ready for primetime, but he wants to make sure everything is working across all of the different OS versions and variations of True Image before releasing it. Hopefully, he'll be comfortable releasing it in the not too distant future either.
I just found FTRPilot's logviewer at
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/115626
This makes viewing the logs super easy and would be a very nice enhancement to TI.
I see he also has "tib_mounter_setup_2637.msi". I installed it but I cannot determine how to run it.
There is nothing to run for the "tib_mounter_setup_2637.msi" once you have installed it. This is simply a patch to fix a problem where some users were unable to double-click or Mount TIB files from Windows Explorer. If this is working then the patch has done its job.
Steve, much thanks for the reply. Mounting a TIB file is broken for me and I have installed the tib_mounter_setup_2637.msi. I don't know if I had a problem prior to the installation. Do you know if it is possible to uninstall the fix so I can test without it? I did not see anything in the tread I was reading to support the installation thus I don't know if I had a problem with the TIB files and the installation broke it or did not resolve the issue. I do know that before I installed Windows 10 (this was a clean install for me) that sometime prior to Windows 10 installation (I don't know if this was with Win8, Win7 or WinXP) I had mounted and used TIB files. Too much time has lasped between then and now thus I need to restart at the zero point and work forward. Currently I'm using TI 2016. I'm open for suggestions.
Steve, much thanks for the reply. Mounting a TIB file is broken for me and I have installed the tib_mounter_setup_2637.msi. I don't know if I had a problem prior to the installation. Do you know if it is possible to uninstall the fix so I can test without it? I did not see anything in the tread I was reading to support the installation thus I don't know if I had a problem with the TIB files and the installation broke it or did not resolve the issue. I do know that before I installed Windows 10 (this was a clean install for me) that sometime prior to Windows 10 installation (I don't know if this was with Win8, Win7 or WinXP) I had mounted and used TIB files. Too much time has lasped between then and now thus I need to restart at the zero point and work forward. Currently I'm using TI 2016. I'm open for suggestions.
The tib mounter patch can be uninstalled via the Control Panel, Programs and Features function.
Much thanks Steve, I've been performing additional testing and discovered that my Windows Explorer replacement (Explorer2) is at fault. If I use Windows Explorer I can view the contents of a TIB file (both Full and Incremental). I'll report this issue to the Explorer2 support.
Thanks for the feedback, I doubt that Acronis would integrate into third-party File Explorer programs as it does with Windows Explorer unless their is some method provided by Explorer2 to import such settings.
I agree with everyone’s comments that Acronis needs to include a log file viewer/report that normal users can understand. I ran the Log File Viewer and do see a red Error_Code line followed by what looks to be an encoded/encrypted/obfuscated message.
Log text: Error_Code=ARoAFwCmAmNqgNBqYUZhaWxlZCB0byBjcmVhdGUgc25hcHNob3QgZm9yIGJhY2t1cC4AJG1vZHVsZQBBdGlfZGVtb25fdnNfNjU3MQAkZmlsZQBBazpcNjU3MVxhcmNoaXZlXHNlbF9kaXIuY3BwACRmdW5jAEFTZWxkaXI6OlNlbGVjdGVkRGlyOjpNYWtlU25hcHNob3QAJGxpbmUATpsFAAAAAAAAAA==
The last lines before the Start, Finish, Total Time are:
id=8; level=3; module=316; code=1; date/time=2016-09-01 08:31:35
message=Terminated by user.
How can I get an explanation about the Error_Code. I am getting the “The last backup has been stopped by user” status for the backup. I am running the backup manually because the scheduled backup failed last night. I receive no messages requesting a response from the user.
Using ATI 2016 on DELL Vostro desktop 32GB RAM i7 quad core 3.4GHz Win 7 64bit. Incremental Backup of Source WD DL4100 NAS (total modified data 99MB) over 1Gbps Ethernet to target external USB 2.0 Toshiba 1TB drive (239GB free). 32 successful incremental backups. Full backup every 7 days (11GB).
I am use to getting reports readable by humans/normal users. I am very thankful that there are people in the forum offering good tips and answers.
Correction to previous post Full backup is 135GB not 11GB
Acronis should have a nice log file- like that of Macrium Reflect, which is now my main backup program, though i still use ATI for some purposes.
Macrium offers in their very nicely designed UI, a log file for everything you do with the program- which includes in plain English everthing the program did including the precise time it took.
I still like Acronis for file/folder backups- much faster than Macrium and I still use Try&Decide on my older Dell, with ATI 2013. I also like Acronis to do full backups of my 2nd internal drive- since, that drive has several backups of my boot drive done with Macrium- and with Acronis, I can have it NOT backup THOSE backup files- with Macrium, you can't have a disk backup NOT backup certain files. I asked in the Macrium forum about this and people there said it's a bad idea for a disk backup to not backup certain files- but I wouldn't know about that- sounds like a subject for a computer scientist to address the merits of.
But, when I got back to Acronis for a file/folder backup- I find it very irritating- the UI and the lack of a readily accessible log file.
Joe
I agree with everyone’s comments that Acronis needs to include a log file viewer/report that normal users can understand. I ran the Log File Viewer and do see a red Error_Code line followed by what looks to be an encoded/encrypted/obfuscated message.
Log text: Error_Code=ARoAFwCmAmNqgNBqYUZhaWxl....
The last lines before the Start, Finish, Total Time are:
id=8; level=3; module=316; code=1; date/time=2016-09-01 08:31:35
message=Terminated by user.How can I get an explanation about the Error_Code. I am getting the “The last backup has been stopped by user” status for the backup. I am running the backup manually because the scheduled backup failed last night. I receive no messages requesting a response from the user.
As far as I am aware, there is no place to get any explanation for these Error_Codes shown in the log files, this is something that is used by either the Acronis developers or engineers for their internal use.
Please post some copies of your log files to the forum and let us take a look at the log in full to see if we see something other than what you have posted.
Here are log files from the various stages of my journey. They include the following backup jobs (all incremental):
Last Good Scheduled, First Failed Scheduled, First Failed Manual, First Good Manual
I made some changes before the first good manual backup; the schedule backup will not run until tonight. I'll follow up in the morning. When trouble shooting, I usually only make one change at a time, but I made two this time. The changes were all in the Options for the backup. The first change was to the Operational Priority (Normal to High) in the File backup options > Advanced > Performance. The second was in Backup scheme > Backup method > Old version cleanup rules. Switched from Keep size of the backup no more 900 GB to Delete version chains older than 24 days (since changed to 32 days).
Looking at the log file indicates that the performance change may have solved the problem; the old backups were not deleted until after the backup had finished successfully. Or, it could just be a coincidence.
Thanks for the log files.
The last good scheduled log shows an error: Failed to create snapshot for backup.;
The same error is shown for the other log files too.
This would suggest that you may be having Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) problems as this service is used under the covers by Acronis to create snapshots of otherwise locked system files etc.
You can disable VSS for an individual task to test this and revert to using the built in Acronis snapshot program that was used in older versions of the product. See post: https://forum.acronis.com/forum/45832#comment-346558 for details of how to do this.
Note: Please be aware that making changes to the backup task configuration (performance / cleanup criteria) has the side effect of resetting the version chain for backups, so that Acronis treats this as if a new version chain has been started.
The scheduled backuup failed again last night even with VSS off. This setting should be part of the backup options, especially if it causes so many backup failures; it is in BackupExec That being said, I ran accross this in some Acronis articles on trouble shooting backup from NAS to other devices:
"File-level backup means that snapshot is not created during backup. A snapshot is a technology that allows user to make changes to the system while it is being backed up, e.g. open files and add new information or delete files. Acronis software uses snapshot while backing up disks. In case of a file-level backup snapshot is not created, which means that files in use will not be backed up. We recommend scheduling NAS backup for the time when files on the NAS are not in use."
My backup is running when no one is here and there are no other backups taking place on the NAS. So VSS should not be an issue. Another suggestion was to change from a mapped network drive (z:\\ZPS-cloud\ServerData) to URL path within ATI 2016 (//ZPS-cloud/ServerData). I made this change (changed VSS to false/off just in case) and am running the backup manually. I will follow up with results.
I think some of this thread should really be moved to a backup failures and vss issue thread rather than "Where can I find the log files".
The manual backup with the changes made in the last post was successful. The next test will be if the scheduled backups run tonight and over the 3-day Labor Day weekend. The email notifications are basically the log file, but showing the steps and results. Some files were skipped because they were in use. The scheduled back should not encounter any open files.
Email Notification:
|
1 True Image 9/2/2016 12:12:07 PM Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false; End of Email: |
Weimsguy, The skipped files appear to be open excel files. MS Office, does not always close out the ession if terminated unexpetedly. You might also see these temp files if the file is on a network share and currently open by another account. If you turn on hidden files and folders and protected operating system files in Windows File Explorer, you might see that there is an old version of the "open file" with the ~$ in front of it. Typically, you can delete those if the file is not actually in use by anyone, but the leftover temporary version of it was left behind by MS Office.
~$Detention Pond Calculations (East Pond).xlsx
Apololgize if you already provided this info before, but what is your OS and do you have fastboot/fast start enabled or use hibernation? If so, and the system is sleeping or hibernating when the scheduled backup is set to run (or, if the NAS is sleeping/hibernating) fastboot will prevent the backup from automatically running when the machine is turned on or wakes from sleep or hibernation. This behavior was modified in Acronis 2017, but the only way to get around it in 2016 is to either disable fast start (if you have a fast SSD, you probably wont' notice much). Or, you have to have the machine awak during the scheduled time, or if you miss the scheduled backup, if you reboot/restart, that forces a full shutdwon and startup and then triggers the missed backup to run.
Do you have power savings features on the NAS? If so, you may want to disable those too.
There are a few other places that Windows holds power details as well. Not only in control panel >>> power options >>> click on your plan >>>> change plan settings >>> change advandced power settings >>> change settings that are currently unavailable:
1) Hard disk - turn off hard disk after... (change to never or make longer so the disk is active during the scheduled backup time)
2) sleep - sleep after (disable sleep if need be - should wake up if settings in Acronis tell it to wakeup to run the backup)
3) sleep - allow wake timers - (ensure it is set to enable - Acronis will need this to wake up the system if sleeping during the scheduled time)
4) USB Settings - USB selective supsend setting - disable if your backup is using a USB hard drive for source or backup
If you really want to test if the system can be woken up automatically, you can also create a scheduled task and test it. IF it works, then you can schedule it to wake the system a minute before the scheduled backup, if for some reason, ACronis can't wake up the system. http://www.howtogeek.com/119028/how-to-make-your-pc-wake-from-sleep-automatically/
In addition to the power settings in control panel, there are additional power settings in control panel>>> administrative tools >>> computer management >>> device manager:
1) network adapters >>> locate your NIC and right click and select properties >>> power management tab . Ensure the option to "Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power" is DISABLED. Ensure the opton to "Allow this device to wake the computer" is ENABLED.
2) universal serial bus controllers >>> check all of them with right click and select properties >>> power management tab.... DISABLE the option to "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. If your source or destination uses a USB hard drive.
I was expecting open files during the manual test because there were other users here when I ran it. The main thing was that the backup was not halted with the ending status of “The last backup has been stopped by user”. Since I changed from using a mapped network drive (i.e. Z:\share_name) to access the source folders to the format \\NAS_name\share_name, all the backups have run to completion without any problems. All three scheduled backups ran over the holiday weekend without any problems.
As I stated in a previous reply that original scheduled backups ran without any problems or changes for over a month. Once the backups started getting "stopped by user" error, nothing fixed it. Now that I changed the source folder designation, things are working like they did before. Only time will tell if it was a real solution, or merely a coincidence.
The computer I run the True Image 2016 backups from is set to never sleep. The NAS is set to stay awake to the extent the settings allow. It wakes on any I/O access. True Image is used to handle only the local on-site backup; file based NAS to USB via my desktop. I do a nightly differential backup for 7 days followed by a full backup and the cycle starts over after 42 days. For the off-site backup, I use a native NAS backup job to an external USB connected directly to the NAS. This backup takes place after the other users leave but before the scheduled True Image backup.
Here is my setup:
NAS: Western Digital DL4100, Firmware 2.21.111, 12TB RAID 5 - 4 x 4TB Western Digital RED NAS drives, dual NIC’s one set as failover for the other, dual power supplies one set as failover for the other Product: True Image 2016 build 6571 (up to date) System: DELL Vostro 460, i7 2600 @ 3.4GHz, 32GB DDR3 RAM, Motherboard Dell Inc. 0Y2MRG, 750GB Seagate ST3750528AS HD OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit SP1 External USB drive: Toshiba 1TB (to be expanded as needed), one for on-site and one for off-site (storage on NAS is small at this point)
Sorry about the formating in the previous reply (paste with no preview)
NAS: Western Digital DL4100, Firmware 2.21.111, 12TB RAID 5 - 4 x 4TB Western Digital RED NAS drives dual NIC’s one set as failover for the other, dual power supplies one set as failover for the other Product: True Image 2016 build 6571 (up to date) System: DELL Vostro 460, i7 2600 @ 3.4GHz, 32GB DDR3 RAM, Motherboard Dell Inc. 0Y2MRG, 750GB Seagate ST3750528AS HD OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit SP1 External USB drive: 2 Toshiba 1TB (to be expanded as needed), one for on-site and one for off-site (storage on NAS is small at this point)