Support Digest: August 2018

Hello dear colleagues,

I'm happy to present the latest issue of MSP Support digest. In August, we've published Update 2 for Acronis Data Cloud 7.7 platform. With this update, the Acronis flagship cloud product offers enhancements and addresses the issues found in the previous releases. Apart from that, plugins for several cloud integration systems (WHM, cPanel, ConnectWise Automate) have also been updated.

• Hot topics
• New KB articles
• Datacenter and agent updates
• Release notes and documentation

Hot topics

As usual, in August we've reviewed all questions coming from Partners and prepared answers for 3 most common ones. Let's go through the questions and answers for them:

#1 ► Acronis Data Cloud maintenance impact and notifications

Each maintenance event that concerns Acronis Data Cloud platform, is being preceded by notification sent by Data center Monitoring team. Partner administrators can subscribe to those distributions by marking the "Maintenance notifications" checkbox under their account's settings. If the option is not visible, it's necessary to contact your reseller to have the notifications forwarded. Depending on upcoming maintenance type notification is being sent proactively. The table below shows dependence between email dispatch time and maintenance type:

The possible impact of each maintenance is always specified under the notification text. Some specific components may be unavailable during the time while works are in progress. In general, backup and recovery operations stay intact regardless of event type.

#2 ► Application-aware backup

Acronis Backup Cloud provides 2 ways how Windows application (Exchange, SQL, Active Directory) can be protected:

1. database backup
2. using application-aware backup

Unlike simple entire machine or disk-level backup, application aware backup guarantees that applications are backed up in a consistent state and thus will be available immediately after the machine is recovered. This is achieved by backup of transaction log belonging to protected applications. Application aware backup allows to recover specific application items (SQL databases, Exchange databases, Exchange mailboxes) from entire machine backup.

Once application backup option is turned on, it's necessary to choose the applications that are needed to be protected and specify credentials for users who have required privileges for accessing the respective applications (see more).

In case some application is planned to be protected using application-aware backup, it's necessary to install the respective Acronis Backup Cloud agent inside the machine running application (Agent for AD/SQL/Exchange). If application is installed on a VMware virtual machine and application-aware backup is performed using Agent for VMware (agentless backup), it is not required to install Agent for AD/SQL/Exchange installed inside the VM.

Note: Application-aware disk-level backup is available for physical machines and for ESXi virtual machines.

  Interested in monitoring backup statuses for all your customers in a single place?  Click here to know more about dashboards. 

#3 ►Acronis Data Cloud API

Many Partners are interested in integrating Acronis Data Cloud into their own management and provisioning systems. Such operation can be achieved using API - application programming interface. Currently Acronis Data Cloud introduces 2 versions of API:

• Version 1: Legacy API for basic account management operations
• Version 2: New API for full functionality of Management portal

Detailed documentation for both versions is available under Acronis Data Cloud in Integrations tab under Settings menu. It can also be accessed directly after opening any of the links below:

• https://[dc]-cloud.acronis.com/api/1/doc
• https://[dc]-cloud.acronis.com/api/2/doc

where [DC] is the name of particular data center your organization belongs to. E.g. if your partner group belongs to EU2 data center, the URL will look like this: https://eu2-cloud.acronis.com/api/1/doc. Note that in order to access the page it's necessary to be logged in to Acronis Data Cloud (it is usually done in a separate tab of your web browser.)

Additional information regarding integration for certain business systems is available here.

We are happy to introduce new form for contacting Support Team.

     https://support.acronis.com/msp/submit-ticket

Please use the following form to submit your request to MSP Support Team. Providing the full issue description will help us assist you faster.

New KB articles

Acronis Backup Cloud

See all new KB articles here: https://kb.acronis.com/new

Did you know that in order to become Acronis certified service provider it's necessary to pass the respective certification exam? Find the list of exams for all MSP products at https://kb.acronis.com/MSPtraining

Datacenter and agent updates

Current agent versions:

• Backup Agent for Windows (v.12.5.10330)
• Backup Agent for Mac (v.12.5.10330)
• Backup Agent for Linux (v.12.5.10330)

Release notes and documentation

• Acronis Data Cloud 7.7 Update 2 release notes
• Acronis Data Cloud ConnectWise Automate integration Update 4 (Integration guide)
• Acronis Data Cloud WHM & cPanel integration Update 1 HF1 (Integration guide)