How to tell if incremental chain is creating a full backup?
Acronis True Image 2013 build 6514
Windows 7 Home Edition x64
I configured ATI to run incremental backups. It is scheduled to run daily. The backup job is configured to "Create a new version after every 6 incremental versions". Backups go into the Acronis Secure Zone. So how do I know this is working?
When I look at the logs for the backup job, nothing tells me when it did a full backup. I don't want 1 full backup (only the first one) followed by dozens or hundreds of incrementals. The longer the chain the less reliable the restore. With backups ran daily and a full backup to occur on after 6 incrementals, I should get 1 weekly full backup with 6 daily incrementals but I cannot confirm that looking at the logs.
I'm really not interested in a backup program that operates in secret. I need to know it is doing what I expect it to do. I don't want to find out months later when I need to do a restore that it's been creating nothing but incremental backups.
Section 8.4.1 of the 2013 help file discusses the Secure Zone. This discussion appears identical with the 2014 discussion at this link.
http://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATIH2014/index.html#3976.h…
According to this help file discussion the user can view the contents of their Secure Zone (SZ).
One of my prior complaints posted here is that now the Acronis Secure Zone is exposed via this object shown in Windows Explorer. That means even malware can see it. Previously the ASZ was hidden and I prefer it that way. The only way to see it should be through functions directed through the Acronis True Image program itself.
Looking at the backups listed under that ASZ object shown in Windows Explorer still does not tell me which ones were full backups and which were incremental backups. There isn't a means for me to check on the size of each backup job under the assumption the big ones would be the full backups. It looks like each backup chain is shown as a root-level folder under the ASZ object. I noticed if I right-click on a folder that I can select Details. That will, for example, tell me it represents a Full backup (all root-level folders say that). So I expand that folder and see 7 backup jobs (which matches on the "full backup after ever 6 incrementals" option). These backup jobs are affixed with blank (no affix) and 1 to 7, and they are not listed in affix order (i.e., they're jumbled around). The blank-affixed backup job is the Full backup. The ones affixed 1-7 are the Incremental backups. I have no idea why the ordering is jumbled (the blank-affixed Full backup could be the 1st, 3rd, or other backup job shown in the set).
I had started the backup job on a Monday because I wanted Full backups on Mondays followed by a chain of Incremental backups on Tuesday to Sunday. Alas, ATI decided to do a Full backup followed by 2 Incrementals and then chose to change that schedule and did a Full backup on the next Thursday so thereafter the Full backups were on Thursday instead of Monday -- except the last backup again moved out by a day so its Full backup was on Friday. Apparently I cannot tell ATI just when I want the Full backups to run (Monday and Monday only). I want a Full+Incremental backup chain to always start on Monday. Even if the computer was off for several days, I want it to perform Incrementals until the next Monday on which the next Full should get ran.
This process of having to right-click on a backup chain and each backup job under it for the ASZ object shown in Windows Explorer is extremely tedious. Each time I want to look at details, ATI has to "analyze the partition" that takes awhile before I actually get the details. I can't even see when the backups were ran except through the slow process of retrieving details. The Time column shown in Windows Explorer is always blank. It is easier and faster to look at the logs to see when then were ran -- but the logs don't say which backup jobs in a chain of them was the Full and which were Incrementals. To see which are Full and Incremental requires the clumsy method of right-clicking on a backup job under a chain in the ASZ object -- details that should be in the logs.
So while I found a workaround to deficiencies in the logs to verify operation of the backups, I still have no means of assuring the Full backups occur on the day that I want. ATI doesn't just start the chain (Full followed by Incrementals) on the day on which the backup chain was started. I've seen it twice move the start day for the backup chain. I started the backup job on Monday. ATI only did the Full followed by 2 Incrementals, and then it decided to start the next chain on a Thursday, and later it moved it out further to start on Friday. I need to affix the start day for a backup chain to a particular day.
If the only backups you have are stored inside the Secure Zone, I would strongly urge you invest in additional storage possibilities other than the SZ.
My Acronis Secure Zone is on a separate hard disk.
If disk containing your backup fails, those recovery options are gone.
No matter where you store the backups, that disk failing means you lose your backups, even when it is a separate hard disk as I'm using. I don't see the relevance of your statement as it is self-evident no matter where the backups are stored.
I suspect you believe the Acronis Secure Zone must be in a partition on the same hard disk as for the OS partition. Not true. If the computer has more than one HDD then it is smarter to place the ASZ in a partition on a HDD that is different than the HDD in which the OS partition(s) exist.
As the use of the Secure Zone is optional, I have always chosen NOT to use the Secure Zone as its use removes almost all user controls. Also, should there be a disk failure of your system disk (which does happen), you have no recovery unless you have alternate backups stored on other locations.
The problem there is you have to hide the partition yourself if you don't want malware to corrupt it. Say you get ransomware that first sets the hidden file attribute on every file that it finds. Then it follows by encrypting the files. You must buy their bogus "antivirus" program to undo their changes to regain access to your files -- until the program does it to you again. I can use the command-line devcon.exe program to disable controllers to HDDs. I could use the diskpart.exe command line program to assign a drive letter before the backup job begins and then remove it after the backup job ends (i.e., there is no drive letter to the partition except when doing the backup). That still leaves open a window of opportunity to notice the backups by malware or other users. There is also a problem when using diskpart (to hide a partition by not having a drive letter assigned to it) in that on some boot configs the indexing of the devices might be different which means you would be removing and assigning a drive letter to the wrong partition. Diskpart relies on logical sequencing instead of physical identification. I could use a really super slow USB-attached HDD that I power off so no one (malware or user) could casually access the backups but then I would have to be at the computer to power up the USB-attached HDD so the backup could use it. Leaving a USB-attached HDD always powered up means it is just as accesible as using an internal HDD that is also always powered on.
I schedule daily backups. That means I don't want to be present when the backups run. They run off-hours so I won't be there. They run every day. Going into arguments of why or why not to use the Acronis Secure Zone does not address how to manage backup chains stored there. That's a tangential discussion that obfuscates the topic of my post. This is not a discussion about if one should or should not use the Acronis Secure Zone. The original question is why the logs don't provide the details, like if a backup was a Full or Incremental. I can use the ASZ object in Windows Explorer to give me the details missing from the logs. If I did not use ASZ but did as you do then I wouldn't even have that to tell me which were the Full and Incremental backups.
Without details in the backup logs as to whether an Incremental backup job performed a Full or Incremental backup, the workaround (a bad one) is to use the Details available by looking details for folders for backup chains and their backup jobs in the ASZ object showing in Windows Explorer. I'd really prefer just to look at the logs to tell me that detail.
VanguardLH,
Thank your for a very informative and informational posting. It is very obvious you know your way around the use of the SZ. You have knowledge most forum posters/users of the Secure Zone do not possess. In the past, Acronis always discourged the use of an extra disk. I am not sure of their current recommendations.
For the TI user what does not use the SZ, the logs provide some information about the files such as the names which will identify whether inc or dif or full.
For those, there is a folder named the DATABASE and stored inside tht folder is a file called
ARCHIVES.XML
This file is a recording of creating of the various types of backups. Check this file on your system but I don't know what it offers for the SZ user. It can be viewed and also viewed from inside NotePad.
I would encourge you to copy your posting into the Wish List where you will have a better chance of someone from Acroinis seeing and reading your posting.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/44509
The archives.xml provides even less information (then the clumsy method of right-clicking on backup chain root or backup job nodes in the Acronis Secure Zone object shown in Windows Explorer). Oh well, I can use the ASZ object to show me that a full backup was performed (by seeing which backup jobs within a chain has the blank/missing affix) and look at its details (slow and clumsy) by right-clicking on it to select Details.
Personally I'd like to get away from Acronis' use of backup chains defined by a single backup job. Rather I'd prefer to have one backup job defined to run only on Mondays to do the Full backup and another backup job defined to run Tuesday to Sunday, inclusive, to run the Incremental backups which would base themselves on whatever was the last (most recent) Full or Differential. That is:
- Full backup was independent.
- Differentials would be based on last (most recent) Full backup.
- Incrementals would be base on last (most recent) of either Differential or Full backup.
Rather than create chains within a backup job definition, I would prefer chains that were based on the backups themselves. Then I could truly create a Grandfather-Father-Son backup scheme where Full backups were done monthly, Differentials were performed weekly, and Incrementals were performed daily, plus the Full and Differential backups would always occur on the specified day rather than have the start of the chain keep moving around. This is the backup schedule employed at most companies that perform regular backups. There are good reasons to use this schedule. Too bad ATI doesn't let me define *my* schedule based on hierarchy of backup types.