Are 2008 R2 migrations using Universal Restore supported? How many licenses needed when using Acronis as "tool"?

Dear Michael!

Welcome to our Forum, we’re glad to greet you here! I understand your scenario, and will be glad to help you!

In case you’re not going to backup machines constantly, and the main goal is to move the system from one machine to another, than I would advise you to use Acronis Snap Deploy 3 for Servers. It’s designed for deploying the system to another machines, and allows to assign User name, Computer name, join to the Domain, etc, automatically. Also it would be a cheaper solution if compare with Acronis Backup and Recovery.

According to the Acronis License Policy you will need one license for one computer your are going to backup or restore, or - in case you’re using Acronis Snap Deploy 3 for Servers - one license per machine you’re going to deploy.

Thus in case you’re using ABR for migration, you will need one license for the machine you’re backing up, and one license for the machine you’re going to restore the image to.
In case you’re using the Snap Deploy for the same purpose, you will need a license for the deployment (restoration) only.

The deployment can be performed both from the bootable media or from the PXE server. You can find the instructions regarding the imaging and deployment in the Installation and User’s Guide, and test the software to see whether it suits you.

Acronis Snap Deploy also has the Acronis Universal Deploy, which allows you to move the system to another hardware. Please note that Acronis Universal Deploy is available from PXE only.

In order to create and image and perform a deployment via PXE, you need to do the following:

1. Install Acronis PXE Server, OS Deploy Server, Management Console and Acronis Universal Deploy onto any suitable machine (these are the components included into the installation file)
2. Configure PXE Server to contain the Agent and the Master Image Creator (User's Guide: Chapter 6. Configuring PXE Server p.42
   
3. Boot the target machine up, enter BIOS and set the NIC to be the first in the Boot Priority
4. Reboot the target machine: it will boot from the network card and will get straight to the PXE Server.
5. Choose the Master Image Creator and proceed with taking the image from the machine (User's Guide: Chapter 7. Taking an image p.43)
   
6. As soon as you have the image done, gather the drivers for the target machine (they should be in *inf and *oem format).
7. Go to the Management Console and create a template with the desired settings and folder with the drivers specified.(User's Guide: Chapter 9. Deployment templates p. 52
   
8. Set the target machine to boot from the NIC, and reboot it.
9. It will boot into the Agent. You will see that the progress bar starts, but then gets stalled at the very beginning. It’s absolutely normal: it means that machine is ready for the deployment.  (User's Guide: Chapters 10 - 14, All styles of Deployment)
   
10. As soon as the deployment is finished, boot up the machine to see whether it’s working properly

Both operations can be performed from the bootable CDs as well, but please note that deployment via CD will be successful in case you’re deploying the image to the identical hardware.

Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!

Thank you!

Dear Yana,

thanks for your reply. If I understand correctly, I can use Snap Deploy to create an image of a server, then boot a different server with the deployment CD and restore the image - even to different hardware when using Universal Deploy.

Yana wrote:

Both operations can be performed from the bootable CDs as well, but please note that deployment via CD will be successful in case you’re deploying the image to the identical hardware.

Sorry, what exactly do you mean with "note that deployment via CD will be successfull in case you are deploying the image to identical hardware"?

YanaThus wrote:

in case you’re using ABR for migration, you will need one license for the machine you’re backing up, and one license for the machine you’re going to restore the image to.

So we need to purchase a new license every time we would like to migrate a new server? Since migrations are only performed once per server this basically would mean that once the migration is done, we cannot use the license anymore. I mean, after the system has been migrated to the new hardware it usually stays there for quite a while and the license is no longer needed. This of course is different than using Acronis Backup & Restore for performing regular backups - in which case the license is used as long the backup is performed.

Is it possible and legitimate to remove the license that was used for the migration and then re-use it again for a different system/migration?

Thanks
Michael

Hello Michael!

Thank you for your questions!

Michael G. wrote:

Sorry, what exactly do you mean with "note that deployment via CD will be successfull in case you are deploying the image to identical hardware"?

I'm sorry for confusion caused. I meant that with the CD you can restore only to the similar hardware, sine Acronis Universal Restore option is available only via PXE option.

According to the Acronis License Policy, one can reuse the license only in case the previous machine is lost or no longer in use. For other cases we have volume licenses, which are provided by the Sales department.

I will be glad to provide you with the direct contacts of the Sales representative, responsible for your area, but for this I need to know you phone area code. Could you please specify it to me via Private message?

Should you have any further questions or concerns, please, share them with us, we will be glad to help you!

Thank you!

Dear Yana,

thanks for your help. I'm going to test both products first before making a decision. Do you know whether it is possible to create an image of Windows Server 2008 R2 servers using the bootable media included in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 for Windows Servers?

The KB article http://kb.acronis.com/content/2757 only states that 2008 is supported but doesn't mention R2.

If R2 is supported, does it work with Universal Restore as well?

/edit: I have just re-read the KB article and it seems that I have read over that "Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 are supported starting from Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 build 10.0.11105".

So I assume that 2008 R2 is supported and Universal Restore can be used with it as well?

Thanks
Michael

Dear Michael!

Thank you for sharing your concerns with me, I appreciate it.

I'm glad to inform you that Server 2008 R2 is absolutely supported both by Acronis Backup and Recovery and Snap Deploy 3.0 Server, and can be restored and deployed with the help of Acronis Universal Restore/Deploy.

Should you decide to choose Acronis Backup and Recovery product, I would advise you to take a look at the Acronis Universal Restore Guide with the step-by-step screenshots, you may find it useful. It also contains the information regaring the drivers you will need for moving the machine to another hardware.

Let us know in case there's anything else that confuses you, we will gladly clarify!

Thank you!