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Dissapointing experience with VMWare VMS

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Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

So I've had the chance to test Acronis in an real world scenario.... and it's failed misserably... I've been a user since version 10 (Windows XP) and I still am. I've recovered a whole system from rescue media several times, and I've even used Acronis to restore my work machine to a known good status just because I messed things off... UNTIL NOW. I've been using Acronis for Mac just for a while. I make daily incremental backups, I already complained about how few 10-generation incremental copy is, but I've managed to create two set of disks that allow me to have 20 days... not much, but good enough. One of the reasons i prefer Acronis incremental backup is because there is no other solution allowing me to create incremental copies of a virtual machine, and Acronis does.... or at least it seems to. Yesterday I restored my machine from an Acronis backup. Everything was fine EXCEPT the VM restore. The file is useless, VMWare does not recognize the structure, the host system crashes and everything is a mess. I've been always careful when making backup copies of my machine: VMWare is not running, so the VMs are not in an invalid state... BUT... still, the restore is a failure. SO, the ONLY reason I paid for Acronis was the incremental copy of my VMs, and it doesn't work. I regret buying this product and I advise others to stay away from it in case they use VMWare. Otherwise, it's shortcomings can ignored. Choosing to name a product with a reputed known name like Acronis (Windows Versions) to make PC users buying it for their Macs is not ethical, unless you deliver the same features... otherwise, you should give it a different name... besides, the only reason I buyer this product for is now a no-no for me... I'm very displeased. Fortunately it was not too expensive, unless you consider the fact that it does not deliver what it promises... and in THAT case, it was REALLY expensive. I'll wait for any really incremental backup solution arises, and in the mean time, I'll clone (by the way, I cloned my machine before trying Acronis restore... THANK GOD) Best wishes, and so long. An EX-customer :-(

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Hello jlsardinas@xone.es,

thank you for your feedback.

Unfortunately the recommended scenario for backing up a drive with running vmWare virtual machines is to stop the VMs before backup.
Acronis True Image for Mac supports backup of Parallels Desktop virtual machines running on the drive.
We understand you are disappointed.
Thus a change request based on your feedback has been registered and will be reported to the UX and product managers in order to make our application better as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

Sergey Britvin wrote:

Hello jlsardinas@xone.es,

thank you for your feedback.

Unfortunately the recommended scenario for backing up a drive with running vmWare virtual machines is to stop the VMs before backup.
Acronis True Image for Mac supports backup of Parallels Desktop virtual machines running on the drive.
We understand you are disappointed.
Thus a change request based on your feedback has been registered and will be reported to the UX and product managers in order to make our application better as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Thank you for your reply... BUT as I mentioned in my original post I've always ensured that ALL my VMs are NOT running... I know and understand it would've been too complicated to create a valid incremental copy of a file that's being used by other process, and I've never asked Acronis to do such a thing for me. I've used Acronis to backup the VM file while it's not in use.... ALWAYS. So the problem is not with an open VM but with the incremental algorithm when applied to the VMWare file. I'm glad to know you're working on this issue, since it's not a small one, being VMWare a tool that's used by so many people.

Thanks again for your time... I hope you find a solution for this problem in order to start using Acronis again... I cannot rely on it in the meantime.

Kind regards.

Thank you for the information and for the explanation.
We will investigate the issue concerning backup/incremental restore of stopped vmWare VMs.

Kind regards,

Hello jlsardinas@xone.es,

the described issue has not reproduced on OS X 10.10.3 with vmWare Fusion 7.1.1 in all main scenarios of full and incremental backup and consequent incremental system restore under Media:
1) system drive with shutted down vmWare VMs
2) system drive with suspended vmWare VMs (with and without snapshots present in VMs)
3) with data changes in VM and without changes (changes done both before incremental backup and before incremental restore).
We checked also file restore of VM from such system backups.

As result: VMs are working fine every time; in some cases Windows OS reported probable problems by shutdown, but booted successfully ('start Windows normally').

We will keep looking for the case and issue you faced.
But if you would specify the steps and environment, it would be just great!

Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,

Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

Hello, thanks for the prompt reply...

My environment and conditions are as follows:

MBP 8.2 i7 16GB RAM

1- OSX 10.9.5 (Mavericks)
2- VMWare Fusion 7.1.1
3- Virtual Machine is Windows 8.1 (2 processor cores, 6 GB RAM) Total VM size is about 130GB
4- 10 incremental backup generations. I made a full backup, then consumed the 10 generations, switched HD, started a new full backup, consumed the 10 generations, and then got back to the first disk, made two more incremental backups (discarding two old generations) still keeping 10.
5- Boot from an Acronis rescue media, select recover from Acronis Backup.
6- Make a full system restore using the most recent generation.
7- Everything worked nicely, except the VMs (VMWare complained about virtual disk integrity)

Before backing up I shut down the VM, wait until the black window with the big "play" button appears, then I close that window, then exit VMWare (my VMs are encrypted, and I'm not sure if VMWare keeps then decrypted while it's running, so I always exit VMWare before using ANY backup program)

Once VMWare is not running, I run Acronis, select the Backup set and start the backup operation. Except for the first full backup, the process tends to be fast (less than an hour, which is good for me)

I use an external FW800 dock with a WD Purple 2TB drive (in both cases) Disks are new, in good conditions, and I've tested them physically to discard hardware problems.

I hope the information helps, since this could be a problem for others... thanks for your time, and best regards.

Hello,

the information helped by localization.
The issue reproduces when backing up an encrypted VMware VM and if cleanup performed for the archive (after 10th version pro archive):
after incremental restore from the archive the VM do not start with error
"The disk Your_VM_disk.vmdk has internal consistency errors that might be caused by partial corruption of the disk file.
It is recommended that you restore a backup of this virtual machine. If you do not have a backup, VMware Fusion can repair the disk, but there is a possibility that the data on the disk may be corrupt and affect the stability of the guest. Do you wish to repair the disk and continue?"
But repair does not help - "Windows failed to start. The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."

Thank you for your help!

Kind regards,

Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

Sergey Britvin wrote:

Hello,

the information helped by localization.
The issue reproduces when backing up an encrypted VMware VM and if cleanup performed for the archive (after 10th version pro archive):
after incremental restore from the archive the VM do not start with error
"The disk Your_VM_disk.vmdk has internal consistency errors that might be caused by partial corruption of the disk file.
It is recommended that you restore a backup of this virtual machine. If you do not have a backup, VMware Fusion can repair the disk, but there is a possibility that the data on the disk may be corrupt and affect the stability of the guest. Do you wish to repair the disk and continue?"
But repair does not help - "Windows failed to start. The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."

Thank you for your help!

Kind regards,

Hello... I'm pretty impressed by your work and prompt responses to this issue. Since I develop software for a living I know it's very important to have all the information you can in order to reproduce a problem. I also understand the fact that developing an incremental backup algorithm is very complicated, so I'm glad you could reproduce it. The errors you described in your message are exactly the ones I experimented, so the fact is definitely reproduced... I hope you find a way to solve it.

BTW... allowing more than 10 generations in this case could have been the real solution for me, since I don't usually use the "clear old generations" in my Acronis for Windows. I just create as many generations as the disk would allow and then I switch disks. When I fill up the second disk and have to use an old one, I just start with a new fresh full backup. I cannot do such a thing with Acronis for Mac because in that case I would find myself with just the 10 last generations. If you were able to double the generation count, I would not need to "recycle" the old backup set, and this issue would have never occurred. Anyway, since it's shown, I hope it can be solved...

Best wishes and God Speed ;-)

Thank you for your feedback and help!

Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

Is there any news on this issue in the newest version? :-(

Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

I've installed Acronis2016, but I don't know if the VMWare issue has been solved in this new version... Is there any news on that? I can't find anything in the release notes...

Hello,
unfortunately the issue has not been solved yet.
We plan to solve it in the upcoming hotfix or update.

Kind regards,

Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

Thank you very much... please... keep us updated... I would like to start using Acronis again..

Kind Rgds..

Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

I'm sorry to insist... There is a new version of Acronis (2.0.5673) Are there any news about VMWare VMs problem?

Thanks, and best regards...

Hello jlsardinas@xone.es

The issue investigation is still in progress.
The only thing I can propose as a temporary workaround in your case is decrypting VMs and backing up decrypted VMs.

Thank you.

Beginner
Posts: 4
Comments: 16

My temporary workaround is to NOT use Acronis while the issue is not solved... that's why I keep asking here, even when it could look annoying... I'm sorry to insist in the issue, but if it's still being investigated it's fine for me... as long as the fix would be available for the 2015 version of Acronis.

Thanks a lot and best regards...